The doors slammed open. A squad of men in vaguely military uniforms came barrelling through, rifles shouldered. They were led by a dark-skinned man with turban and moustache, his uniform differentiated by a wide green sash. They pointed their guns at the alligators, and began to riddle them with bullets, ignoring the fact that the poor reptiles were now barely moving.
‘Ah,’ Silver said from behind Irene’s shoulder, ‘the police at last. Inspector Singh is as vigorous as ever.’ He took Irene’s hand between his. ‘My dearest girl, you are wounded.’
Irene was conscious of both Kai and Vale staring at Silver in a distinctly freezing way. She wished that she could just have had even five minutes to get some answers out of them and Bradamant before Silver had turned up. ‘A scratch,’ she said quickly, gingerly trying to slide her hand out of his grasp. ‘Sir, no doubt Inspector Singh will want to speak to you . . .’
‘And you must introduce me to your beautiful friend,’ Silver said, his eyes on Bradamant, his grip on Irene’s hand painfully firm.
Irene glanced at Bradamant. Bradamant gave a small nod of agreement, her lips curling in a sweet smile.
‘Lord Silver,’ Irene said formally, ‘this is my friend Bradamant; I had no idea that she would be at this party, but of course I am delighted to see her.’ And I hope she falls over and plants her face in a dish of salmon roe. ‘Bradamant, this is Lord Silver, one of the Liechtenstein Fae, who is visiting England—’
‘ – and who would have come much sooner,’ Silver cut in smoothly, dropping Irene’s hand and stepping forward to take Bradamant’s elegant fingers in his, ‘had I known that such beauty was to be found. How could I have missed a gem like you? Sweet lady, do me the favour to say that I may have the honour of your closer acquaintance?’
Irene could recognize an opportunity when it sat up and begged in front of her. She began to quietly edge away, as Silver raised Bradamant’s hand to his lips.
Silver’s nostrils flared. He sniffed at Bradamant’s hand, eyes brightening to an utterly inhuman shade of yellow. ‘I know that smell!’ he spat. ‘Belphegor! I have you at last!’
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘What?’ Bradamant said, but her attitude was wrong. It was one of denial, not blank incomprehension.
‘What?’ Vale said, in a very different tone of voice, taking a step forward.
‘Impossible!’ Irene said, without too much hope of being believed.
‘I’d be accusing you too, little mouse,’ Silver said, ‘but you were there when we opened the safe, and I know you were as surprised as I was. You should be glad that I’ve identified one of our enemies. This woman is Belphegor. She is responsible for stealing a highly valuable book from Lord Wyndham, and maybe for his death. I recognized her scent from the card she left in his safe. Johnson! My horsewhip!’
A thin, pale-faced man in grey stepped up, and offered a coiled horsewhip to Silver.
‘This is all a terrible mistake,’ Bradamant said firmly. ‘I demand that you release me.’
Silver looked at her with dangerous sharpness, lips curling to show unnaturally white teeth. ‘Belphegor, you have no idea what you have blundered into. Give me your word to restore the book to me, and I will consider letting you go. For the moment, at least.’
‘Hst!’ Irene said loudly. ‘The police are approaching. We don’t want them to hear about this –’
Everyone twitched and turned to see the inspector in the green sash marching towards them. His demeanour fairly shouted determination, and there was something worryingly satisfied about his smile.
‘Inspector Singh,’ Vale murmured in Irene’s ear. ‘Over from the Indian Empire for the last two months, on a formal officer exchange between police forces. He didn’t like the Fae there and he doesn’t like them here. He’ll take any opportunity to pry.’
‘Do we object to that?’ Irene murmured back, just as quietly. Bradamant was trying to wrench her wrist loose from Silver, clearly not quite willing to use the Language in front of him, but he was effortlessly maintaining his grip.
‘That might depend on what we have to offer him,’ Vale said. His eyes were on Bradamant.
While Irene could think of several ways for her, Kai and Bradamant to get out of the current situation, very few of them involved keeping Vale as a reliable contact, much less Silver. Having the law hunt them as criminals would only make things more complicated. And she needed to know what Silver knew about the book, and why he wanted it. ‘If Singh doesn’t like Fae,’ she pointed out, ‘then he won’t accept Lord Silver’s identification of her as Belphegor. We may be able to get more information out of her later if we help her now.’
‘She is your friend, you said,’ Vale murmured. His gaze was cold.
‘She wasn’t supposed to be here!’ Irene nearly spat in frustration. ‘And I knew nothing about her being this criminal.’