Toby seized the opening. “Exactly. So we’d thought to stick with the train—so much easier when traveling with children, you know—to Milan, possibly staying to view the local sights, and then perhaps head north to Como and spend some time on the lake.”
Diana smiled brightly at Heinrik. “I’ve always wanted to see the Italian lakes. It’s one of those iconic holidays one should manage at least once in one’s life, don’t you think?”
“That, of course,” Toby went on, “is provided the weather holds, given we’re nearing the end of the season. If after Milan, visiting the lakes doesn’t look promising, we might go on via Novara to Alessandria, then change to the Bologna line and stop off in Modena. From there, we’ll have to take to a coach to drop down to Firenze, and after that, we thought to head for Pisa and Livorno.”
All limpid innocence, Toby met Heinrik’s faintly exasperated gaze. “We haven’t contemplated anything beyond that.”
“Of course,” Diana said, “there’s much to see in those towns, and such a trip should see us into winter. We’ll have to decide where to spend the colder months.”
Although Diana looked believably thoughtful, Toby knew Heinrik wouldn’t believe them. He also wouldn’t know whether they’d slipped any of the truth into their recitation, thus leaving him facing the conundrum of whether to disregard all they’d said and feel sure they wouldn’t go to any of those places or pay attention to those routes because Toby had been wily enough to include their true destination in amidst the blather.
Most especially, Heinrik couldn’t be sure that Diana hadn’t spoken the literal truth as far as she knew it.
Diana had been observing Heinrik more closely than she felt sure he’d realized. After dealing with her father’s patients for so many years, she felt confident in her assessment that Heinrik was like Toby in instinctively feeling protective toward women, but unlike Toby, who seemed to have a healthy regard for female abilities, Heinrik unconsciously dismissed women.
Considering that, she shifted her gaze to Eva. Thus far, the other woman had merely listened, albeit avidly, to the exchange. “Tell me, Fraulein Graf, are you traveling to take in the sights? If so, what prospect most excites you?”
Before Heinrik could intervene, Eva smiled and replied, “We are on our way to Milan. I am very much looking forward to spending a few days there. It is a wonderful city for fashion, you know, and there are several houses I hope to visit.”
“Oh?” Diana looked encouraging. “Which houses interest you?”
Toby watched with mounting amusement as the two ladies engaged in a detailed exchange of each other’s tastes and knowledge of fashions. While Diana was clear about her tastes, the knowledge was mostly contributed by Eva, which revealed quite a bit about the lady mysteriously and certainly unprecedentedly traveling with Heinrik.
From the information Diana elicited, Eva was, like Heinrik, a scion of an aristocratic Austrian family. Unlike Heinrik, she was not a seasoned agent but, Toby judged, an agent nonetheless, presumably one of recent vintage.
Why Heinrik was traveling with a junior agent was another intriguing question, but what most amused Toby about the exchange was Heinrik’s evident wish to halt it after the first few comments. More than Eva’s words themselves, that convinced Toby that Milan was, in fact, a destination Eva expected to reach, possibly remaining for a few days.
Indeed, Heinrik’s discomfort only grew the more Eva, urged on by Diana’s artful questions, dwelled on her putative stay in Milan.
In the end, Heinrik did the only thing he could to bring the discussion to a close. He cleared his plate and used that as an excuse to return to their compartment and take Eva with him.
Toby responded politely through their leave-taking. Once the pair had quit the dining car, he caught Diana’s gaze. “Well done!” He allowed his very real admiration to color his expression. “Aside from all else, I seriously doubt Heinrik will allow Eva anywhere near either of us again.”
Diana smiled brilliantly back. “I quite enjoyed that. And I got the distinct impression that Heinrik has been saddled with Eva in the sense he has to keep her with him.”
Toby nodded. “I agree. That means that where Eva hoped to go, Heinrik expected to lead her there.”
* * *
The train stoppedat Verona station to allow passengers to disembark or board and also to take on supplies. That meant an extended halt. Having known that would happen, Toby left the others in their adjoining compartments with strict instructions to remain inside and took up a position on the platform at the base of the steps at the rear of their carriage—just another gentleman passenger stretching his legs and looking around while waiting for the train to depart.
Aside from keeping an eye on those joining the train, he used the minutes to consider Heinrik’s plans and evaluate options for thrusting a spoke in Heinrik’s wheels, preferably losing him and Eva altogether.
When they’d pulled into the station, Toby had been worried that the children—the boys especially—might want to investigate the train and the place, but on noting his concern, Diana had suggested a card game that, apparently, all three children loved. Once they were absorbed, Toby had been able to slip from the carriage without any of the three taking the slightest notice.
Occasionally, through the closed door of the last compartment, a peal of childish laughter reached him.
He was leaning his shoulders against the carriage’s side when Heinrik wandered up, apparently equally idle. Toby cast him a jaundiced look and arched a laconic eyebrow.
Heinrik settled beside him. Surveying the concourse, Heinrik said, “I can’t decide if your mission is merely to get the lovely lady, who I assume is Fraulein Locke, to England or if you have the dispatches as well.”
Reining in the impulse to assure Heinrik that his former assumption was correct—why else the children—Toby made a mental note to mention such a twist to Drake. Sending two agents—one to escort Diana and the other to take the dispatches—would have thrown rather more dust in their pursuers’ eyes.
As it was, however… He manufactured a confused frown. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What dispatches?”
Heinrik sighed a you’re-wasting-my-time sort of sigh, then observed, “The children are a complicating factor. Where do they come in?”
Toby looked at him uncomprehendingly. “You mean the Caldwell children?”
