We compiled a thorough report from our joint recollections, Lady Hardcastle’s sketches and my copious notes and sealed them in the usual way for dispatch to London in the diplomatic bag. A brief précis was encrypted and sent by telegram and our work in Tsingtao was done.
Two days later, we set off once more for Shanghai and we were soon back in our regular routine. Things in China were becoming increasingly unsettled and the Boxer Rebellion was bringing danger from the countryside into the cities on the coast, but we were safe for the time being and we tried to continue as normal.
We had been back for two weeks and Sir Roderick was at the office as usual while Lady Hardcastle lunched with a friend. The friend in question always took her own lady’s maid and so we were able to sit and gossip together while our mistresses sat at a separate table.
With luncheon over, we made our way back to the house. I didn’t know at first why I felt so sure that something was amiss, but as we approached the front door, I knew that it was. Lady Hardcastle clearly felt it, too, and as she went to unlatch the door, we both saw at once that it had been forced.
With a finger to her lips, Lady Hardcastle gently pushed the door open and stepped silently into the hall. The Chinese maid was lying on the floor, a trickle of blood from her temple forming a tiny, shocking pool of crimson on the otherwise pristine tiles. I knelt close and found that she was still breathing, but clearly deeply unconscious.
Lady Hardcastle crossed stealthily to the hall table and slid open the well-waxed drawer. She drew out the revolver that was stored there “just in case” and motioned for me to follow her.
Now that the initial shock had passed, I became more aware of things beyond the hall and I could hear voices coming from Sir Roderick’s study. We approached as quietly as we were able and listened at the door.
‘…tolerate your spying any longer, Hardcastle,’ said a voice with a heavy German accent.
‘I’m sure I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, Herr Ehrlichmann. I am a representative of Her Majesty’s government here in China. The very suggestion that I have been involved in “spying” is impertinent in the extreme. I should go so far as to say that it is slanderous.’
‘I would find your indignant denials much more convincing and much less amusing had we not intercepted your report. We know you were in our naval dockyard, “Diamond Rook”. Not the most impenetrable of code-names.’
‘And where was this supposed “report”, Herr Ehrlichmann?’
‘In the diplomatic bag, exactly where you put it.’
‘You expect me to believe that you intercept and search diplomatic bags now?’
‘To be honest with you, Hardcastle, I don’t care what you believe. Nor what you’re currently planning to report to your masters. I’m here to kill you. You’ve been a… what is the expression you use…? A “thorn in our side”? Yes, you’ve been a thorn in our side for far too long. It is time we plucked you out.’
‘Now, look here…’
Somehow, the quietness of the gunshot made it all the more shocking. It was followed by the sound of a body slumping to the floor, knocking something off the desk as it fell.
The door was pulled open sharply and Ehrlichmann burst out, stopping almost comically in his tracks as he was confronted by Lady Hardcastle who was levelling a revolver at his chest. His own weapon, a small, easily concealed, single-shot pistol, hung uselessly at his side.
Ehrlichmann smirked. ‘Ah, the lady wife. And with a gun. How charming. Get out of the way, you stupid woman.’
Calmly, and without taking her eyes from his, Lady Hardcastle pulled back the revolver’s hammer with her thumb. Unnecessary on a gun of that sort, but surprisingly threatening for such a tiny movement.
‘I think,’ she said, coldly, ‘that you might have made one or two mistakes.’
He laughed. ‘I don’t think so, your ladyship. I am not the sort to make mistakes. Now get out of my way and I might forget how foolish you are being. You do not, I think, wish to join your husband.’
He took a rapid step towards her, reaching for the revolver, but without flinching, she pulled the trigger and shot him in the shoulder. The shock of the bullet’s impact made him flinch away and he fell backwards against the doorframe.
‘Go and check on Roddy, please, Florence,’ she said, still covering Ehrlichmann with the revolver.
I did as I was asked and returned quickly, shaking my head. He had been shot through the eye.
‘At least two mistakes, you Teutonic nitwit,’ she said. ‘In the first place, Roddy was not a spy. I am Diamond Rook, you dunderhead. Second, you came armed only for a single shot. What kind of inept assassin are you?’
Almost too fast to see, a knife appeared in his uninjured hand and he threw it at her with a force I would scarcely have believed possible from such a position. Somehow, though, Lady Hardcastle had anticipated this move and was already stepping aside, even as the knife left his hand.
‘Third, you allowed yourself to be goaded into disarming yourself. If you’re the best weapon Imperial Germany has at its disposal, the world is safe. Fourth, you killed my darling husband.’
Ehrlichmann was still defiant. ‘And why was that kartoffelkopf’s death a mistake?’
‘Because of mistake number five. For reasons I can’t fathom, you still don’t actually believe that I’m about to kill you.’
He did, indeed, look genuinely shocked as she pulled the trigger again and ended his life.
‘See to Mrs Lee, would you, dear,’ she said as calmly as though nothing had happened. ‘It looks as though she’s taken a knock to the head.’
I did as I was bidden and slowly brought the terrified Mrs Lee round. I bandaged her head and offered her brandy while Lady Hardcastle called the consulate. Or tried to.
She returned as Mrs Lee was trying to apologize for letting Ehrlichmann in. We both told her not to be so silly and that no blame could possibly attach to her. Lady Hardcastle had more pressing concerns.
‘I managed to speak to the duty officer,’ she said. ‘But not for long. The consulate is under attack and he said we should get out of the city as fast as we can. “Take a boat to anywhere,” were his exact words. Then we were cut off.’
‘Under attack, my lady?’ I said.
‘It seems a local group of Boxer rebels has taken it upon itself to attack European targets in Shanghai. No Westerner is safe and we are to flee as fast as possible.’
Our first concern was that Mrs Lee be able to get home from the British Settlement unmolested. We had no idea whether there would be consequences for locals who were working for Europeans, but it seemed a possibility. Lady Hardcastle gave her a month’s wages and sent her on her way. Mrs Lee protested, but the look in Lady Hardcastle’s eye convinced her that things were serious and she eventually left with promises to return to work as soon as things were calm again.