The Eternal Empire (34 page)

They were saved from any more verbal
clashes by the announcement of dinner. Frederick led the way to the table, and
both brothers waited until Katherine had sat down before taking their seat.
Frederick pronounced the grace and they started on the soup course. During the
meal Frederick exercised his diplomatic skill by keeping the conversation away
from controversial subjects. Katherine found herself describing her research at
the university in great detail to a seemingly enthralled Frederick and a
politely bored Franz. She was grateful to have something to say to keep her
mind off Cornelius waiting outside.

After dinner, they sat in the lounge
and talked, although Franz said very little. He was drinking quite heavily but
whereas it made some people belligerent, it just made Franz sullen. Katherine
hoped it would make him sleep soundly tonight.

About twenty minutes past eleven,
Katherine excused herself, saying that she was tired and went up to her room.
As she climbed the stairs she hoped that her brothers would follow her to their
own beds, but she could still hear them talking as she made her way along the
corridor to her bedroom.

In her room Katherine went to the
drawer of her dressing table and took out her jewellery box. She opened it. The
box had belonged to her mother and it contained all her jewellery. Frederick
had given it to her many years before, unopened since their mothers’ death. She
removed the trays of gold and silver ornaments and glittering stones. In the
bottom was a heavy key with a faded label tied to it and marked 'study safe'.

When her mother had been managing the estates
after the last war she would often come to the Lodge during the summer months
and work. Important financial and legal document would have been stored in the
study safe and she had her own key. Katherine had never had any reason to make
use of it and had forgotten all about it until she had overheard Franz and his
friends. She took the key and carefully placed it in the pocket of her dress.
She then sat down on the bed to wait.

She began to shake but willed herself
to relax. Her dinner lay heavy on her stomach and a wave of nausea swept over
her, but she fought it off. She looked at the clock. Twenty minutes to twelve.
Another fifteen minutes before she had to make her way downstairs to meet
Cornelius. It seemed like an eternity.

About fifty yards from the lodge
Cornelius lay under some bushes. According to the map that Katherine had given
him the study was in the corner of the lodge, directly opposite him. He could
see the light on in Katherine's room above it and waited for it to go out. That
would be his signal to move over to the study windows. He was still worried
about Katherine being caught and labelled a traitor. He had even eaten her map
bit by bit like in a cheap spy novel. He took out his pocket watch and held it
so that he could read it in the moonlight. Ten minutes to twelve. Soon, he told
himself, soon.

As the clock hand moved towards the
five to twelve mark, Katherine turned out her light and slowly opened her
bedroom door. She looked down the corridor and listened for a few moments. Nothing.
She moved quietly to the door which opened onto the servants’ staircase, turned
the handle and checked both up and down the stair well. All was clear and she
carefully descended the stairs. The old wood creaked with each step that she
took and she paused to listen for the sound of someone coming to investigate.
Only when she was certain that she had not been heard did she take another
step. It took her longer than expected and she began to fear that she would be
late.

Outside the glass doors from the garden
into the study, Cornelius crouched in the shadows. Throughout his wait he had
not seen any sign of guards, but he was still worried that he would be seen and
the alarm raised. There was a metallic click which, even though he was
expecting it, caused his heart to miss a beat. The glass door opened slightly
and Cornelius slipped into the house.

Once inside they held each other
tightly, neither of them speaking, both of them tense. Cornelius could smell
Katherine's distinctive perfume. He felt very self conscious about the way he
looked and smelt after hours of walking in the woods and lying in the
undergrowth.

Katherine closed the window door and
drew the heavy curtains before switching on a table lamp on the desk. The large
study looked crowded with the huge, but barren table in the middle. There was
still the lingering smell of tobacco and stale beer, but otherwise there was
nothing to suggest that a war had been planned in this room.

"My brothers are still up,"
whispered Katherine. "We must be as quiet as possible."

"Brothers?" said Cornelius.
"You mean Frederick's here as well?"

Katherine nodded and moved over to the
safe. It was an old, solid looking cast iron model, and sat in one corner of
the study next to the drinks cabinet. Taking the key from her pocket she knelt
down, inserted the key, and turned it. The mechanism was well oiled but still
gave a dull 'clunk' that seemed deafening in the stillness of the room, and
they froze momentarily to listen for the sound of footsteps coming to
investigate.

Katherine stood up and stepped back
from the safe. She looked at Cornelius and without a word he took her place,
lifting the lever and swinging the heavy door open. Ever since they had left
Minden, Cornelius had feared that the safe would be empty, that the plans had
been taken away. Part of him had hoped that the plans were gone, then Katherine
would not be in any danger, but the safe was full of papers, maps and folders.
Carefully he lifted them all out and took them over to the table with the light
where he laid out each group of documents. He began to skim through them,
identifying those that were important and those that were not.

"Are they what you need?"
asked Katherine anxiously.

Still working his way through the
papers Cornelius nodded. "Yes. Deployments, mobilisation schedules, even a
signed authorisation from Godisger himself. This will be enough to make
Dikouros sit up and take notice!"

Katherine picked up the sense of relief
and excitement in his voice and relaxed a little herself. "Take them
all," she said, "and get out of here. Take my motor carriage and get
back to Minden. No. Better still get to the Rhine and over the frontier."

Cornelius thought quickly. Originally
he had thought that he could take just one or two papers that might not be
missed, but he feared that anything short of a complete set of plans would not
convince the sceptical Dikouros. Katherine was right, he must take them all,
but with the safe open, the plans stolen and her motor carriage missing would
they believe that Katherine had been upstairs asleep in her room when an
'unknown' enemy agent broke in?

While he had been waiting outside he
had had plenty of time to think about what he could do to protect her. He moved
over to the curtains and pulled them aside.

"Where's your motor carriage,
Katherine?" he asked, looking into the night.

She came over and stood in front of
him. She looked and pointed to the end of the covered parking. Whilst she was
doing this Cornelius removed one of the rope sashes used to tie back the
curtains during the day and quickly fashioned a loop.

As he stood behind her he put his hands
gently on her arms and spoke softly to her.

"Your brothers mustn't realise
that you have helped me," he said as his hands slowly slid down her arms
to her wrists.

"Don't worry about them," she
said, unaware of what he was doing, "I'll tell them I was asleep all the
time."

"I don't think that will be
enough," he said and firmly crossed her wrists behind her back, deftly slipping
the rope over them. He pulled the loop tight, securing her hands behind her.

"What do you think you are doing
Cornelius!" she hissed angrily, trying to keep her voice down and pulling
at the cord around her wrists.

Cornelius turned her round as she
struggled to free herself. "I'm sorry Katherine, but this is the only
solution I can think of. They must believe that I duped you, that I used our
relationship to come here and steal the plans."

"No Cornelius! They'll hunt you
down and kill you. They'll know it was you!"

He led her over to the couch facing the
fireplace. "I can look after myself, besides my diplomatic status may
still protect me," he told her. "But you're a Saxon and have no
protection."

He sat her down and she did not resist
as he lifted her legs onto the couch and tied her ankles with another rope
sash.

"This way you can be cast as the
victim." he said ignoring the dirty look she gave him. "At least you
can argue that you were coerced."

"But what will happen to
you?" she said, her anger replaced by concern.

Cornelius sat close to her on the
couch. "I won't be able to return to Saxony," he said as he undid the
sliver brooch that pinned her scarf together.

"Then when will I see you
again?"

"When this is all over," he
said as he removed her scarf, "I'll contact you somehow and we'll find
somewhere to meet." He twisted the scarf, noticing for the first time that
it was the one he had bought her as a gift in Constantinople. This wasn't the
use he had envisaged for it he thought as he slipped it between her lips and
knotted it firmly behind her neck.

He stroked some hair out of her face as
he spoke to her. "I told you that I loved you Katherine and I meant it. I
will be back for you. That's a promise."

She mumbled from behind the scarf and
he leant over and kissed her forehead. He made her as comfortable as he could
and then he got up and went over to the table where he quickly packed all the
documents into his rucksack. He removed the key from the safe and put it in his
pocket, switched off the light and left through the glass door, leaving it
slightly open.

Once outside Cornelius checked that it
was all clear before moving swiftly over to Katherine's motor carriage. He got
in and using the spare key that she had given him earlier started the engine
and drove off.

Back inside, Frederick and Franz were
still up. In an attempt to build a better relationship with his younger
brother, Frederick had challenged Franz to a game of chess. They were sitting
in the lounge where Katherine had left them after dinner, huddled over the
chess board when they heard the motor carriage drive away from the lodge.

"Who could that be?" said
Frederick looking up from the board.

"Katherine's the only other person
here with a motor carriage," replied Franz. "It must be her. Strange
time for a drive. Perhaps she has a secret liaison with her pet Roman."

Frederick gave his younger brother a
warning look but Franz left it at that. After a few moments Frederick got up.
"I'll think that I'll just go and check that it was Katherine who left.
The gamekeepers have reported an increase in poaching recently and whereas I
don't mind them taking the odd deer or two for the pot, I would object to
losing a motor carriage!"

"I'll come with you," Franz
rose as well. "I could do with some fresh air."

They walked out of the main entrance
and around to the garage area.

"Well our vehicles are still
here," said Frederick pointing to the two motor carriages parked at one
end. "And the light in Katherine's room is out, so she has either gone for
a drive, or she is asleep in her room and her motor carriage has been
stolen."

"She wouldn't like that" said
Franz with amusement, "she really loves the freedom that..."

The smile disappeared abruptly from
Franz lips as he noticed the slightly open glass door beneath Katherine's room.
If it had not been so dark, Frederick would have seen his young brother turn a
deathly shade of white.

"What is it?" asked
Frederick.

Franz said nothing as he began to run
towards the study.

Lying on the couch Katherine heard the
running feet approaching and the window door being flung open. At first she
thought that Cornelius had come back but then a light was switched on and she
heard Franz cry out.

"NO!" It was an animal like
scream in its intensity. A cry of anger and disbelief.

Remembering the role in which Cornelius
had cast her, Katherine began to wriggle on the couch and to struggle against
the rope sashes that bound her. She started to produce muffled noises from
behind the scarf that gagged her but Franz seemed to be mesmerised by the sight
of the empty safe. It was Frederick, who had followed Franz in who noticed
Katherine.

He went straight over to her, ignoring
Franz who was feeling the inside of the safe in a futile attempt to disprove
what his eyes told him. Sitting beside her just as Cornelius had a few minutes
before, Frederick gently removed the scarf from her mouth.

"What's happened? What's going on
here?" he demanded, as he untied Katherine's hands.

"The plans are gone!"
screamed Franz. He turned away from the empty safe and turned on Katherine.