I am to assume he agrees with this assessment.
Herr Luytens has been back to Emden and returned at considerable personal risk. He says all ports are now controlled by the army, but that Emden remains open because it is through this port that all goods are channeled, and thus provides valuable income for the country, not least the Margrave’s war effort. And so it is at Emden you are to disembark, and with the ransom, the details of which our consul is to send by separate cover. Whatever the amount—bring it!
To be frank, dear fellow, I hold grave fears Emily and I won’t leave this place alive if you do not agree to Margrave Ernst’s demand to present yourself at Castle Herzfeld to negotiate our release. No one and no other method is acceptable to him.
As a show of his resolve, and so that you know this letter is indeed genuine, I enclose a curl of Emily’s hair given to me. It will be familiar to you, as it was at Christmastime.
Also enclosed is a safe conduct pass in the name of a Baron Aurich, signed by the Margrave, and with his seal. The pass allows you and members of your party to pass through all checkpoints unharmed, and to receive assistance from the Margrave’s troops should you require it. He takes every precaution to ensure the safe arrival of this Baron Aurich, who I must assume is your good self, though why he addresses you as such and to what purpose, only you and he know.
My dear fellow, I am so very sorry to put your life in such danger, too. Forgive me, I have smudged the ink with my blubbering like a girl. God! To what levels have I descended in this hell!
Luytens will take this, my letter, the authorization and the ransom demand in the diplomatic portefuille as far as Emden and then send it on through Holland. Our consul will remain in Emden pending your arrival. You have forty days to comply and then Luytens, too, will be arrested. As he is a native of this country and not ours, he will not be accorded the same courtesy I have received, but find himself flung in the castle dungeon. He tells me only one man has escaped Herzfeld dungeon—your esteemed self. Even the official who dictates this letter to me speaks of that escapade with awe.
For God’s sake, Alec, get here with all speed.
Cosmo Mahon
F IVE
A LEC FOLDED the letter and slowly removed his eyeglasses. He did not immediately rejoin the others by the fireplace. He turned on the window seat cushion to look out on the expanse of the Green Park, but was oblivious to the view. He did not notice his greyhounds dashing about between the leafless trees, his valet in vain pursuit. His thoughts were miles away, across the North Sea with Cosmo and Emily, and their dire predicament. Then, in an instant, he suppressed his morbidity. He needed to be strong and optimistic, for them and for Olivia, and because he needed to get through the next several weeks of not knowing, until he was back at Herzfeld Castle, and could see them for himself.
There was so much to organize before he could even set sail. The journey from Harwich to Emden was a crossing of some four days, and that on calm seas, before he set a booted foot in Midanich again. Landing at the port of Emden was only the beginning, for then there was the journey overland to Herzfeld, with the chill winds blowing in off the North Sea, and the dragging slowness of travel over a swampy wasteland, first by canal boat and then astride a horse.
He had been given forty days. He had even less time now, because Cosmo’s letter had arrived a sennight ago. There was not a day to waste. Which was just as well. The lack of time and the logistics of travel would now preoccupy his thoughts, and stop them wandering to futile probabilities until he was on his way. So he returned to the fireplace and poured out a second cup of coffee to give himself a few moments to clear his mind, while the others in the room made polite conversation awaiting his response to Cosmo’s letter.
“I wish to keep this for
Herr Luytens has been back to Emden and returned at considerable personal risk. He says all ports are now controlled by the army, but that Emden remains open because it is through this port that all goods are channeled, and thus provides valuable income for the country, not least the Margrave’s war effort. And so it is at Emden you are to disembark, and with the ransom, the details of which our consul is to send by separate cover. Whatever the amount—bring it!
To be frank, dear fellow, I hold grave fears Emily and I won’t leave this place alive if you do not agree to Margrave Ernst’s demand to present yourself at Castle Herzfeld to negotiate our release. No one and no other method is acceptable to him.
As a show of his resolve, and so that you know this letter is indeed genuine, I enclose a curl of Emily’s hair given to me. It will be familiar to you, as it was at Christmastime.
Also enclosed is a safe conduct pass in the name of a Baron Aurich, signed by the Margrave, and with his seal. The pass allows you and members of your party to pass through all checkpoints unharmed, and to receive assistance from the Margrave’s troops should you require it. He takes every precaution to ensure the safe arrival of this Baron Aurich, who I must assume is your good self, though why he addresses you as such and to what purpose, only you and he know.
My dear fellow, I am so very sorry to put your life in such danger, too. Forgive me, I have smudged the ink with my blubbering like a girl. God! To what levels have I descended in this hell!
Luytens will take this, my letter, the authorization and the ransom demand in the diplomatic portefuille as far as Emden and then send it on through Holland. Our consul will remain in Emden pending your arrival. You have forty days to comply and then Luytens, too, will be arrested. As he is a native of this country and not ours, he will not be accorded the same courtesy I have received, but find himself flung in the castle dungeon. He tells me only one man has escaped Herzfeld dungeon—your esteemed self. Even the official who dictates this letter to me speaks of that escapade with awe.
For God’s sake, Alec, get here with all speed.
Cosmo Mahon
F IVE
A LEC FOLDED the letter and slowly removed his eyeglasses. He did not immediately rejoin the others by the fireplace. He turned on the window seat cushion to look out on the expanse of the Green Park, but was oblivious to the view. He did not notice his greyhounds dashing about between the leafless trees, his valet in vain pursuit. His thoughts were miles away, across the North Sea with Cosmo and Emily, and their dire predicament. Then, in an instant, he suppressed his morbidity. He needed to be strong and optimistic, for them and for Olivia, and because he needed to get through the next several weeks of not knowing, until he was back at Herzfeld Castle, and could see them for himself.
There was so much to organize before he could even set sail. The journey from Harwich to Emden was a crossing of some four days, and that on calm seas, before he set a booted foot in Midanich again. Landing at the port of Emden was only the beginning, for then there was the journey overland to Herzfeld, with the chill winds blowing in off the North Sea, and the dragging slowness of travel over a swampy wasteland, first by canal boat and then astride a horse.
He had been given forty days. He had even less time now, because Cosmo’s letter had arrived a sennight ago. There was not a day to waste. Which was just as well. The lack of time and the logistics of travel would now preoccupy his thoughts, and stop them wandering to futile probabilities until he was on his way. So he returned to the fireplace and poured out a second cup of coffee to give himself a few moments to clear his mind, while the others in the room made polite conversation awaiting his response to Cosmo’s letter.
“I wish to keep this for
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