Page 54 of Inconvenient Honor
“Volkov is an animal. We will find him,” Richard said. He had ordered the casket sealed before being sent to the widow for burial.
The two of them walked downhill in sunshine so bright it glinted off the Royal Observatory like a beacon, shone off the trees in beams of green, and shimmered on the Thames where it lapped restlessly in its banks.
“About that, sir. I came here this morning to tell you. A man matching his description sailed for Alexandria yesterday. Our man in Falmouth is certain it is him.”
“Alexandria?” Or any port in the Mediterranean. If they stop in Gibraltar or Lisbon, he can change ships to anywhere in the world.
“Yes, my lord. And sir, there is something else.”
The marquess turned his head to raise an impatient eyebrow but kept walking.
“Lily Thornton,” Stewart said.
Richard could feel his cheeks stiffen from the force of his clenched teeth.
“You didn’t forbid me to follow up, so I thought?—”
“What did you find, Stewart?”
“In London, nothing. We’ve kept watch, and she never came back. I thought that since we’re scouring the ports for Volkov—” he gave a dramatic shrug.
Volkov and Lily.
“She left with him.” Richard’s heart stuttered, and he skipped a step.
“No, no! At least I don’t think so,” the man walking beside him went on. “We’re fairly certain Volkov left on the Oceana for Alexandria. But I had people scour recent passenger lists. A woman about Miss Thornton’s description left five days ago for Malta on the Captain James.”
“Her description?”
“Single woman traveling alone with just the one servant. I took the liberty of interviewing some laborers at the dock. They remembered because she came all swathed in shawls. Tiny thing, like Miss Thornton, and the servant was big. Memorably tall.”
“‘Just the one servant,’” Richard mused. “Too tall to be Volkov?”
“That’s the thing, my lord. The laborers thought he was a Muslim, or some exotic from the East.”
Richard stopped short. “Are you sure?”
Walter Stewart looked back at him without answering.
“Of course you are or you wouldn’t have told me.” They resumed their walk.
“Can’t be one of Sahin Pasha’s people,” Stewart said. “The lot of them embarked from the navy docks in Portsmouth for Constantinople the same day.”
Volkov had contacts in the East. He could hire a thug to—what? Guard? Kidnap? Imprison?
“Sorry I couldn’t find more, my lord.”
She wouldn’t go with Volkov voluntarily. I saw her face at Chadbourn Park. The man terrifies her.
“She might have gone off on her own, you know, my lord,” Stewart continued.
“Yes. She would do that,” Richard answered.Why can’t she just stay put where she belongs? Where I can see to her protection.
They reached the quay. Richard put one foot on the steps to a waiting river taxi and turned to Stewart who waited expectantly above him.
“I’m going back to London,” Richard said. “There’s nothing left to uncover here. Return to Falmouth and see if you can find someone who can place Volkov on the Oceana for certain.” He stepped into the small boat.
“And Lily Thornton, my lord?”
