She straightened and held up the packet so all of them could see it. A sheaf of folded papers lay inside a cylinder constructed of the finest oilcloth bound with a leather thong.
Toby nodded. “That’s a courier’s packet.”
Diana held it out to him, and he took it.
After a brief examination, he undid the thong anchoring the flap at one end of the cylinder and slid the documents out.
He set the oilcloth envelope aside and unrolled the papers. He ran his eyes down the first sheet, then flicked through the other documents, eight in all, rapidly scanning their contents.
He looked at Diana, then at Fellows. “These are the dispatches I was sent to collect.”
Diana stared at the documents. Toby wondered if she was seeing them as the cause of her father’s death.
Then she raised her gaze to his face. “Where will you keep them now?”
That was an excellent question. He rerolled the sheaf and returned the papers to their oilcloth wrapping while he considered the possibilities.
In the chair alongside him, Fellows shifted and clasped his hands on the table. “As you’ve agreed to take the children with you, I suggest you put the papers back where they were.” Fellows’s gaze rested on the stuffed toy. “The dispatches have been safe from discovery there, and without your father’s hint, not even you would have thought to look inside Rupert the Bear.” He raised his gaze to Diana’s face and faintly smiled. “Your father was a past master at finding hiding places no one else ever thought of. And truly, who would ever think of looking for something like that inside a child’s toy?”
Diana looked horrified.
Before she could protest—a protest Toby fully understood but, given the realities of the situation, accepted was pointless—he calmly stated, “Returning the papers to Rupert the Bear won’t put Evelyn in any greater danger than she will be in simply by being with us as we journey to England. The dispatches, whether inside the bear or elsewhere, will be with us regardless. And Fellows is correct—your father’s choice was inspired. In the present situation, it could be argued that inside Rupert is the perfect hiding place.”
Exasperation lit Diana’s eyes. “That’s just it—surely we need to rethink.” She gripped the back of a chair and looked at Fellows. “We agreed to take the children before we understood what the Prussians were capable of.”
Quietly, Toby pointed out, “I knew. And knowing what our enemy is capable of doesn’t change the situation we face. It only serves to put us more fully on guard.”
Fellows, Toby saw, was nodding.
Seeing that his words had given Diana pause, he continued, “There’s also the fact that while the Prussians haven’t yet tracked you or me here, nothing is more certain than that they will ask around, as I did, and learn that in recent days, you’ve been staying here. While as I said before, the household itself should not be at risk, if the Prussians focus on you—on ways to make you amenable to doing what they wish—then I would rather the children, of whom you are, I would guess, widely known to be fond, weren’t around to be used as potential hostages.”
Fellows’s eyes flew wide. “I hadn’t thought of that.” He swiveled to look up at Toby. “I would rather entrust my three darlings to you than court any risk whatsoever of them being used as pawns by these Prussians.”
Toby met Fellows’s eyes. The man was drawing on reserves to keep functioning, to overcome his weakness and see his children safe. Toby inclined his head in understanding. “The more we learn, the more inclined I am to stand by our earlier agreement and take the children with us.”
He and Fellows looked at Diana.
She met their gazes, her expression one of unhappy resignation. “Papa shouldn’t have?—”
“Put the papers in the bear?” Toby arched his brows, and when, her lips tight, she curtly nodded, he went on, “Your father had no way of knowing you would give the bear to Evelyn. He didn’t know you had. Instead, he would have felt certain that you would take the bear your mother made for you when you left.”
Almost certainly, he imagined that, in your grief after his death, you would hold the bear tight and realize the papers were inside.Toby thought the words, but didn’t say them. Instead, he watched as the same understanding flowed through Diana’s mind, softening her features and clouding her eyes.
He glanced at Fellows and saw that he was watching Diana. Toby followed Fellows’s gaze and sensed that her resistance to them taking the children had faded.
After a further second’s silence, Toby stated, “No one’s to blame for the situation in which we find ourselves. Regardless of how it came to be, our duty is to find the best and safest way forward for all involved—all in this house—and the only viable path I can see is for Diana and me to take the children and leave Vienna as soon as possible, as early in the morning as we can manage it.”
As he uttered the words, a vision of what he was proposing rose in his mind. He’d complained to Drake that this mission was one in which he, Toby, would be playing nursemaid. Evidently, Fate had heard him and was now laughing hysterically.
Diana tightened her fingers around the chair’s top rail. She felt torn and even more helplessly swept along by the surging tide of the day and night’s events. She hadn’t had time to catch her mental breath, to step back, assess, and think.
She met Adrian’s eyes. She had no idea what he saw in her face, but he reached across the table for her hand, and she gave it to him. He gripped her fingers with what strength he could muster and fixed his eyes on hers. “Please, Diana.” He gave her hand a small shake. “Take the children and go. It’s what Alicia would have wanted. Don’t worry about us here. You know the staff are loyal to the bone, and they’ll protect and care for me for however long I have. I have absolutely no doubt of that, and neither do you.”
He was right, yet still she hesitated, truly uncertain of her wisest path. There was so much going on, so many different aspects that ought to be considered and weighed.
As if sensing her turmoil, Adrian tightened his hold on her fingers. “I know you swore to Alicia that you would watch over us—over me as well as the children. You’ve been our rock over the past three years, unwavering, always there for us.” Searching her eyes, he smiled weakly. “Now, for her sake and mine, we need you to take our children to safety. I have no one left I can entrust them to here—not if there’s any sort of threat. You know that as well as I. I was always going to have to rely on you—on you and your father—to see the three safely to England. Now, with him gone and danger threatening…” He pressed her fingers and held her gaze. “Please do as we agreed earlier. Take the children with you and go with Cynster. It’s the safest and most sensible thing to do.”
She read his conviction in his eyes. A second passed, and no one moved, and she realized he—and when she flicked a glance at Toby, saw that he, too—was waiting for her decision.
