After the cliffhangers of previous chapters, I thought I ought to post this sooner rather than later, before people start to throw tomatoes at me...
Thank you all again for reading and reviewing. The journey's so much nicer with you.
...
After Charles had told Edith what the army captain had found, he and Elsie had let her cry herself out. Then, on Elsie's insistence, she agreed to go to her bedroom again to try to rest. Through pure exhaustion she dozed, to her surprise. She came down a few hours later feeling merely numb. Charles met her on the stairs and introduced her to the Ambassador who had arrived back halfway through the afternoon.
"Lady Edith, may I present His Excellency Dr Richard Clarkson."
The Ambassador, a fair-haired man with a moustache and a Scots accent much like Elsie's, took Edith's hand.
"I'm very pleased to see you unharmed, Lady Edith."
"Thank you, Sir. But if I'm alive, it is only because of the skill and bravery of Sir Anthony Strallan. If you have any influence with the army or the local militia at all I would be forever grateful to you if you could sway them to find him as soon as possible."
Clarkson looked at Charles, silently requesting a further briefing, before replying to Edith "I give you my word that no opportunity will be passed over. If we can find him, we will."
...
"This was not the kind of day I was expecting when I woke up this morning" said Mrs Carson to her husband as they prepared to serve dinner.
"That's the diplomatic life for you" he replied, stoic as ever, decanting the wine into a chipped glass carafe.
"I suppose so. I do feel for that wee lassie. She's so brave and has suffered so much already without losing her young man."
"Do you mean Mr. Gregson or Sir Anthony?"
"Sir Anthony of course!"
"By all accounts he wasn't young."
Elsie scowled with real annoyance. "As if that ever mattered to anyone in love."
Charles put his head on one side allowing her point.
"Certainly, from what we've learned about him, Sir Anthony was worth a hundred Gregsons."
"Have you told her yet?" asked Elsie quietly.
"I haven't had a chance to do so in private. Richard's been pulling out all the stops trying to discover what happened to Sir Anthony and I thought Lady Edith would want that to be our priority just now."
Elsie gently kissed her husband's cheek.
"You got that right, my lad."
...
Edith didn't want to eat with the Ambassador. She didn't really want to eat at all. She just wanted the pain to go away. She wanted Anthony to be found unharmed. But if there was any news, good or bad, she did want to hear it, she just had to know, so she joined Dr Clarkson, the Carsons, and two attachés in what passed for the Embassy's dining room.
"What have the Foreign Office said about it all, Carson?" asked the Ambassador between bites.
Charlie took a deep breath and flicked his eyes in Edith's direction.
"I haven't informed them yet, Sir."
"What?!"
"I have, however, been in touch with GCHQ…"
"What the devil have they got to do with it?!" Clarkson wasn't even raising his voice but he managed to express his displeasure in a very direct way.
"We have reason to believe that…"
"I don't care! You have ignored due procedure."
"Only because I asked him to!" Edith said in a loud whisper. A tense silence stilled the table.
"I'm sorry, your Excellency. I asked Mr Carson to delay informing anyone back in Britain that I had been released, because I have it on good authority that my Editor, Michael Gregson, was the person who informed the insurgents of my whereabouts."
"Good God" Richard breathed.
"He was the only person to know exactly where I was being sheltered, and…"
She paused unsure how to proceed. Charles filled in the gap, looking between Richard and Edith. "…and GCHQ have confirmed that there were three calls from The Sketch offices to monitored numbers, that is, phones belonging to known terrorists, all made between one and three o'clock in the morning London time in the days immediately prior to Lady Edith's abduction. I had one of our men check their records. Only Mr Gregson was present at the offices for all three occasions."
Edith just looked down shaking her head gently. "I knew it" she whispered.
"Why would he do such a thing? I thought you were engaged" asked Richard.
"I've been told that Mr Gregson is already married, to an American catholic who will not grant him a divorce. It seems he regarded our relationship as merely a casual one. He never intended to marry me, and once I had...fulfilled my purpose for him, he found a way of getting me out from under his feet."
Clarkson registered horror at this revelation, then turned to Charles with a new determination.
"I apologise for my earlier hastiness, Charles. You did exactly the right thing."
"Thank you, Sir."
"Have you been in touch with Scotland Yard?"
"Yes, Sir. They said they would inform us as soon as they have taken Mr Gregson into custody. Then I will immediately contact the FO."
"Good. Good. I am appalled by this, Lady Edith. I am so glad that we were here to help you. And Sir Anthony, of course."
"Do you know any more about him yet, Sir?" she asked in a voice that didn't sound like hers.
"I'm afraid not. My colleagues here will tell you that we pulled in each and every favour we could, but I'm afraid there isn't a single lead. No one seems to have seen him, or know where he might have been taken. The particular cell of insurgents who captured you, who we believe were the same group who attacked you at the mountain pass...they seem to have been completely wiped out. Sir Anthony did an excellent job, and followed it through to the end despite the cost to himself. Lady Edith, I want you to know that I will be recommending him for a George Cross and I wish it could have been more, but as it was he was a civilian at the time of his actions."
Edith tried to say 'thank you', but words would not come. The Ambassador had spoken of Anthony in the past tense. The thought struck home that she might never see him again. Her eyes filled with the tears she'd been holding back, and she murmured her apologies as she left the table. After a moment Elsie followed her into the hall.
"He's dead, isn't he?" Edith whimpered almost to herself.
"That isn't certain yet, hen. It's not looking hopeful, but we just don't know. I'm sorry you had to hear all that around a dinner table. Charlie wanted to get you alone to tell you, but he's been too busy trying to find out what happened and if we could help in any way before it was too late. Don't lose hope yet, love."
"Thank you, Elsie."
"This is what we are here for. Why don't you wait here and I'll bring you a mug of cocoa to take up to bed? No one will think the worse of you for not going back in."
Edith nodded and she sat on one of the hall chairs while she waited. If she hadn't been there all by herself she wouldn't have heard…no one would have heard the sound from the door, as if someone had thrown a bundle of clothes at it, followed by an odd scratching that was almost a tapping. Edith went back to the gathering in the dining room and went to Charlie's side.
"I think there's someone at the front door, Mr Carson."
Charlie took out his phone and checked the feed from the security camera outside. There was someone there all right, sitting with his back against the door, trying feebly to knock. Carson showed it to Clarkson. "A trap, do you think?"
"A suicide bomber? Here? Surely not."
Edith caught a glimpse and despite the blurred image, she just knew.
"He's too tall to be local. It's Anthony."
She ran to the door and pulled back the bolt. Charles ran after her and quickly had it unlocked too and opened it.
Anthony fell backwards into the hall, he was a ghastly pale colour, alive but unconscious, and covered in blood.