Chapter 75

Why did Giles get mixed up with Soviets? ” Mab wondered, changing gears. The Bentley was speeding past Blackpool now, well south of York, even further from Clockwell. “We had more than a few at BP who flirted pink on the political side, but Giles didn’t seem to have an ideological bone in his body. ”

“He thought BP wasn’t doing enough to help our allies. ” Beth was sitting up in the backseat now, wearing a print dress from Mab’s traveling case; it sagged off her gaunt frame. Osla had pressed a comb on her too, and some scent: Not to put too fine of a point on it, darling, but you look like a dog’s dinner. “He saw an opportunity to help the Soviets win their war, so he did. In his eyes”—she spat the words—“he was a patriot. ”

“The PM was stingy about sharing our findings with the Soviets, ” Osla pointed out. “I used to get in a wax about that, too. ”

“Yes, but you didn’t betray your country, ” Beth said.

Would I feel quite so defensive of my country if it had locked me up in a madhouse? Mab wondered. Because Giles might have planted the seeds, but it was BP’s obsession with secrecy that made Beth’s imprisonment possible. . . then again, Beth had always had that peculiar rigid streak. It didn’t matter that her country had betrayed her; she’d taken an oath to it, and she would uphold that oath until she died. Maybe that streak of unbending iron in her soul was what had kept her from crumbling, surrounded by lunatics.

“We could contact Commander Travis first, ” Osla began. “He’s living in Surrey now. He knows us, and with his connections, contact with MI-5 would—”

“No. ” Beth cut her off. “No Travis, no MI-5. Not yet. ”

Mab took her eyes off the road long enough to stare. “We need to regularize your position as soon as possible. We’ve already risked charges, breaking you out—”

“You put me there to begin with, ” Beth flared.

The undercurrent that had been running through the Bentley snapped taut.

“Beth. ” Osla reached to touch Beth’s hand where it rested on the backseat partition, then apparently thought better of it. “We didn’t know they were thinking of sending you to a sanitarium. If we’d known that when we were questioned—”

“I lost three and a half years of my life because you two were angry at me. ” Beth’s fingers flexed and opened, flexed and opened. “Have I been punished enough to suit you? Do you have any idea what it was like in Clockwell? ”

“Of course I don’t. ” Mab stamped on the brakes as they came to a four-way stop, harder than necessary so they all jolted in their seats. “And I’d never have wished it on you in a thousand years, no matter how much bad blood we had between us. All I’m saying is that if you want to sling blame, that goes both ways—so I suggest we don’t, because it doesn’t matter. The person guilty of a crime here, a real crime, is Giles Talbot, and Osla and I are here to help you deal with him. So why can’t we go to the authorities immediately? ”

Beth drew something from her pocket and swung it between two fingers: a small brass key. “Because I still need to break the Rose Code. ”

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