The library was on the west side of the house, its old windows facing a line of oaks. Wells opened the door and stood aside. The room beyond was cool and dark-paneled. Louis stepped inside with his cane and heard the door close behind him.
Theodore Hargrove stood by the far windows with one hand in his pocket and the other on the back of a leather chair. An uncapped decanter and two untouched glasses stood on the side table behind him.
Theodore spoke without turning.
“Well,” he said softly. “You’ve been a busy man this morning, Mr. Collins.”
Then Louis saw his locket on the desk. It lay open on a dark leather tray near the edge. Someone had cleaned the blackened silver, revealing what remained of the engraving without removing the damage. An open black laptop sat farther back. Beside it lay his empty M1911 with the slide locked open and Angelique’s knife, the Damascus steel gleaming under the sunlight.
Theodore moved away from the window and crossed toward the desk. “Sit, if you like. Or stand. Pain is often clarifying.”
Louis remained standing, one hand closed tightly around the head of the cane. He forced his eyes off the desk. “What can I do for you, Secretary?”
Theodore acknowledged the title with a nod. “You used my telephone,” he said.
Louis said nothing. He stared at Theodore and felt his mouth go dry.
Theodore poured himself a finger of bourbon, took a sip, and set the glass down. “That is unusual for a captive. Not unprecedented, but rare.” He studied Louis. “You called the Council Office. Do you know what that means?”
“I know what it is,” Louis said. His voice was steadier than he expected.
“Do you?” Theodore inclined his head. “It is the private line of the highest authority in this country. It is meant to convey matters that cannot be trusted to the common exchanges.” Theodore took another sip. “Most men who find it by accident do not know what they have found until after they’ve lost it.”
Louis said nothing. Theodore lifted the glass again and studied the bourbon before speaking. His voice remained mild.
“So tell me,” he said. “Was it by accident or by intention?”
Louis looked at him steadily. “Does it matter?”
“It matters very much.” Theodore set the glass down. “A frightened boy fumbling at a line he doesn’t understand is one category of problem. A captive who knows which number sits above the rest is another. I prefer to know which sort I’m addressing.”
Louis kept his hand on the cane and said, “You’re addressing me.”
Theodore smiled at that. “Yes. So I am.”
He walked around the desk and stopped beside the laptop.
“What did you say to the Council Office?” he asked.
Louis waited before answering. “You tell me. You seem to know everything.”
Theodore’s eyes rested on him. “No, Mr. Collins. This is where you will speak, not I.”
Louis met his gaze. “Enough to know you’re asking because you don’t know.”
For the first time since he had entered the library, Theodore Hargrove went still. It lasted less than a second. Then he gave a small nod.
“Good,” Theodore said. “You are not so simple after all.”
He moved no closer.
“You gained access to a private line,” Theodore said. “You made use of it before you were interrupted. The only useful questions left are how much use you made of it, in what language, and how clearly the other end understood you.” He rested one hand lightly on the desk. “Let us begin with the simplest point. Did you ask for a specific man?”
Louis glanced at the laptop, then back at Theodore. “I asked for the Council Office.”
“And not a name.”
“No.”
Theodore moved past the answer faster than Louis expected.
“Why?”
Louis shrugged. “Because I don’t know anyone here.”
“No. But you are not stupid either. A boy with your upbringing does not reach for the highest line in an enemy house unless he understands what rank is meant to do once it hears him.”
“I understood enough.”
“And what was enough?”
Louis said, “That somebody above your household might care more than your household does.”
Theodore laughed quietly. “You speak as if the state and I are rivals. I am not the enemy of the Holy States, Mr. Collins. I am its caretaker.”
Louis did not answer.
Theodore continued, “Which means you did not call for comfort. You called for intervention. That is not the instinct of a frightened child. It is the instinct of someone beginning, at last, to think structurally.”
Louis hated how close that came to sounding like praise. He remained silent.
“What did you give them first?” Theodore asked.
“My name.”
“Your full name?”
“My nickname.” Louis’s mouth twitched.
“Very funny.” Theodore did not smile. “And after your name?”
Louis tightened his grip on the cane and made himself keep his voice flat. “That I was being held.”
“By whom?”
“By Dixies.”
Theodore laughed again. “Yes. You would think of us that way.” He paused. “Did you mention me?”
Louis hesitated before answering. “No.”
Theodore’s eyes narrowed. “You said the Council Office. You gave your name. You claimed captivity. And you did not say that you were in my house.”
Louis said nothing. Theodore turned the empty glass beneath his fingertips. His tone remained mild.
“You see, this is where young men make mistakes. They imagine that withholding the final phrase preserves the structure of the secret. It rarely does. The Council already knows where you are, Mr. Collins. They know who took you. They do not need you to finish the sentence for them.”
Louis watched his expression closely. Under the calm surface there was a thread of tension now, thin but real. If Theodore had been certain, he would not have needed to explain so much.
Theodore walked back toward the windows. For a moment Louis thought he had chosen to leave the matter there. Then Theodore stopped with his back partly turned.
“Did you mention the girls?”
“Why would I?” Louis asked.
Theodore faced him fully again. “Because they are with you. Because they are material to any negotiation. Because their families have the same stake in this as yours does.”
Louis kept one hand on the cane and did not answer. The head of the cane was slick from sweat beneath his palm.
Theodore waited, then waved one hand dismissively. “No, I suppose not. You are still thinking like a boy. You believe your name alone will summon a response. It may. But if it does, you will discover that it summons the wrong response.”
“I’m not a boy,” Louis said.
“Good. Then do not answer like one.” Theodore stepped closer and stopped in front of him. “You took the line. You left a message. Now tell me the rest.”
Louis stared at him. “I told you everything. I said I was taken by the Dixies.”
Theodore sighed and turned away. “Do you think I am an idiot?”
“No, sir.” Louis spoke the last word with deliberate weight. “I think you’re trying to get me to say more than you already know.”
Theodore turned back. “And if I am?”
Louis held his eyes. “Then you don’t have it.”
For a moment they stood in silence across the desk, like two players over a chessboard with neither willing to move. Then someone knocked twice.
Neither man moved at first. Then Theodore said, “Enter.”
The door opened. Wells stepped inside and closed it behind him. He looked at Theodore.
“Sir.”
Theodore waited. Wells glanced at Louis once, then back at his master. “The Council Secretariat has entered closed session. Your office was not included in the first notification.” He paused. “That is unusual.”
Louis felt the pulse jump in his throat.
Theodore’s eyes flickered.
“Time?” Theodore asked.
“Less than ten minutes ago.”
Theodore crossed to the windows, turned, and came back to the desk.
Wells added, “I have men standing by for orders.”
Theodore did not answer immediately. Louis took the silence for calculation. Perhaps he was deciding what he still controlled and what the call had already set in motion. When Theodore spoke, his voice was as calm as it had been at breakfast.
“Activate communications jamming,” he said. “No inbound or outbound lines from this property. Secure the gate and all egress points. Increase guards on the perimeter. No one leaves.”
Wells nodded once. “Yes, sir.”
“And Wells,” Theodore said, “the wedding will be tonight.”
Louis’s palm slipped against the head of the cane. He wiped it once against his trousers.
Wells hesitated. “Sir, the arrangements were made for tomorrow afternoon. To move them up—”
“Is within my authority,” Theodore finished. He turned slightly toward Louis. “Seven. No later. South lawn if weather holds. Chapel hall if it turns.”
Wells nodded again. “Yes, sir.” He left the room without another word.
Theodore faced Louis across the desk. “You see the consequences of initiative, Mr. Collins? You have forced me to adjust my schedule.”
Louis shifted his weight onto his good leg and straightened as far as the brace allowed.
“Good,” he said. “I’m glad it’s inconvenient.”
Theodore smiled. “You are still trying to be clever. But you are missing the next step. You have not only inconvenienced me. You have accelerated the very thing you hoped to prevent. I am sure Miss Bourbon will appreciate your efforts.”
The sentence made Louis want to hit him with the cane. Theodore picked up the locket and turned it once between finger and thumb.
“You keep interesting souvenirs, Mr. Collins.”
Louis said nothing. Theodore set it down again in the same place.
“Take Mr. Collins upstairs,” he called toward the door. “Dress him properly. He has given us enough trouble this morning. He may as well look the part tonight.”
The door opened. Wells was waiting outside. He stepped toward Louis. Louis did not move until the man was close enough to touch him. Then he took up the cane and turned toward the door.
At the door, Theodore spoke again.
“Mr. Collins.”
Louis stopped.
“Smile more,” Theodore said. “The girl deserves it.”
Louis left the room without answering. By the time the door shut behind him, servants were already moving quickly through the corridor. A maid hurried past with folded white linen in both arms. A man called orders from downstairs, and someone answered him. At the turn of the landing, Louis looked through the tall stair window and saw the first white chairs being carried onto the south lawn.
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