The Circle of Sappho (18 page)

In the time it took everyone to walk from Harriet's dining table to the nearby room where several card tables had been set up, Swann had become engaged in two furtive conversations. The first was with his sister. ‘Are you happy for me, Jack?' Swann thought for a moment before he answered.

‘I do not believe he is the right man for you, Mary,' he had replied honestly, ‘but if it is your desire to marry him and you are truly happy, then I am happy for you.'

Mary went through to the other room, content at her brother's answer. As Swann moved forward, he felt an arm grab him and hold him back. It was Huntley.

‘Jack,' he whispered. ‘I cannot tell you how I know, but the man with the scar you seek will be in Bath sometime on Saturday night and will be in the city for no more than a day. I implore you not to seek him though, as your life will be in great danger. If you do, however, you must know that you are, at present, being played as that of a pawn in a game of chess. That is all I can say for now.' He put a finger to his lips in a ‘silence' gesture. And with that he was gone.

After numerous games of cards, the party of guests at Harriet's residence had started to go their separate ways. A drunken Colonel Braithwaite had retired with his ‘daughter' to his host's guest bedroom, replete with the four-poster bed that awaited them, while Huntley had made his farewells and left the estate completely.

Swann had been walking up and down the corridors, looking for Harriet and determined to confront her over the matter of the wedding. He had left Mary and Lockhart in the card room conversing with Mrs Forsyth, who had been in the process of giving them advice on what constituted a successful marriage.

The door to the library was ajar and there was a light inside. He knocked on the door and entered.

‘Forgive me, Lady Harriet, I did not realise you were with company.'

‘Do not worry Swann,' replied Harriet. ‘Catherine was about to retire for the evening.'

‘Yes, Harriet has kindly offered me a guest room for the night. The hour has become later than I would wish to return to the school.'

‘I was just updating Catherine on your progress into the deaths at her school.'

‘I am afraid I have not made much,' replied Swann, addressing Miss Jennings. ‘I wonder though whether you will be at the school sometime tomorrow?'

‘My carriage will be returning Catherine in the morning,' replied Lady Harriet.

‘Good,' said Swann. ‘I would be grateful if you could arrange it so I can talk to Anne again. She was one of the girls that shared a dormitory with Grace and I have a couple more questions for her.'

Swann had not mentioned to Lady Harriet or Miss Jennings about the Circle of Sappho yet, as he was not certain whether either of the two women in his presence now were involved in it.

‘Will ten o'clock be agreeable, Mr Swann? I shall be at the school by then.'

‘That will be most agreeable, Miss Jennings,' replied Swann.

Miss Jennings said her goodnights to Harriet and Swann and made her way out of the library.

‘I thought we had an agreement to make certain the marriage did not happen,' said Swann to Harriet, as soon as Miss Jennings was out of sight.

‘And so we did,' replied Lady Harriet.

‘Then why have you arranged a date for the wedding behind my back?'

‘I have my reasons,' said Harriet quietly, as she crossed to the library door to close it. ‘Our agreement has not changed. It is just that certain developments have occurred which necessitated me being seen to be arranging the wedding.'

‘I do not understand. All I know is that something I thought we were both supposedly against is now taking place with seemingly your full agreement and co-operation.'

‘Swann, listen to me. There are things you do not understand; there are powers at work which are greater than us. I cannot divulge details; I only ask that you trust me in this matter. Believe me, I do not want this marriage any more than you do and I have no intention of allowing it to proceed.'

‘What about Mary?'

‘That is where I need you, Swann. You will have to be there for her when the time comes to terminate the engagement.'

‘Terminate?'

Lady Harriet was silent.

‘Is Mary in danger?'

‘Swann, this is not the time or place to —'

‘Damn it Lady Harriet! I believe it is. I will never willingly let any harm come to Mary and if it does, I can assure you that I will not stop in my pursuit to bring anyone remotely responsible to justice.'

‘Are you threatening me, Swann?'

‘No, and I apologise for my outburst, but you talk about country, service, government. What are these things compared to family?'

‘You are not the only one who has lost someone dear and seek justice for them.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘As you know, I was widowed far too soon.'

‘Yes, I know, your husband died in an accident, he fell from a mountain path.'

‘It was no accident,' whispered Harriet. ‘He was murdered.'

‘I am sorry, Lady Harriet,' replied Swann, his voice quiet. ‘I had no idea. What happened?'

‘He was betrayed by those he worked for and I have made it my life's work, just like you with your father, to avenge his death.'

Harriet gestured for Swann to sit down in one of the armchairs near the fire, reminiscent of his meeting with Moorhouse only the night before at Fitzpatrick's club.

‘What I am about to tell you I have never told anyone else,' said Harriet, sitting down opposite Swann, ‘and you must swear to keep it to yourself.'

‘Why are you telling
me
?'

‘I want you to know you can trust me and that in many ways we are alike in what we seek. My husband, as you may be aware, was financially independent but worked for the government, in the same capacity as I do at the moment. We had not long arrived in Constantinople when my husband announced he had to go to the island of Crete on an urgent matter. He had been there several times before, while we were living in Athens, but always on his own. This time I told him I wanted to go with him. He was reluctant at first, but I convinced him to take me and so we went. No sooner had we arrived at our hotel than he left for a meeting from which he never returned. I was told that on the way there, he had accidentally fallen from a goat path somewhere in the mountains and broken his neck. The two British Government officials who told me the news advised that I should leave for England. Once I agreed, they made arrangements for my departure the following day.

‘Early the next morning, however, an envelope was pushed under my door. I picked it up and went outside to see who had delivered it, but the hallway was empty. Inside the envelope I found a note. It said that my husband had been murdered and if I wished to know more, I should go to the address written below. I was obviously shocked by this news, as well as being grief-stricken by Henry's death, but I kept my wits about me. Was it true? Had my husband been murdered, or was it a plot to lure me somewhere so I could be killed as well. I decided that I owed it to my husband to go. The address turned out to be a building in a narrow alleyway, a little way from the main market square. I did as the note had instructed and made sure I was not followed. I was scared, but found an inner strength. All I cared about at that moment was being true to my husband's memory.

‘I knocked on the large wooden door, in the manner I had been instructed. A small flap in the entrance was lifted and I saw a pair of eyes peer out. It was then closed and after a few seconds the door opened and I was ushered in. It was a type of estaminet, with an uneven stone floor and chairs and tables haphazardly placed around the dimly lit room. There was no one around except for the man who had let me in and another man who now appeared from behind a curtain. They were both foreign, although when the second man spoke it was in relatively good English. “Please do follow me,” he said. I did as he had instructed and ducked under the curtain after him. This led out into the rear alleyway, where the man now stood, holding the reins of a donkey. He gestured for me to climb up on its back and I did so. Once I was upright on the beast, he slapped its backside and we headed off through the backstreets of the city until we came to a small doorway halfway along a particularly long passageway. He stopped, knocked several times in the way I had done earlier at the estaminet and then, without a word, helped me off the donkey, tapped its backside again and away he went. By the time I looked back at the door it was ajar, and a fierce-looking, dark-skinned man gestured me in. Inside, the room was dimly lit and sparse. There were boxes stacked here and there and I had the feeling it was a type of small warehouse or office; a table and two chairs – one of which was occupied – were the only furniture in the room. As I stood there, the man in the chair rose and came towards me. As he neared me, I saw he had a kind face but it was troubled. His accent was foreign but when he spoke it was in perfect English.

‘“My name is Yorgos. I am sorry for your loss; your husband was a good man. He was also a friend to me. I cannot believe he is gone.”

‘He gestured for me to sit down and once I had done so resumed his own chair. He then offered me a drink but I declined. I was thirsty but I wanted more to hear what he had to say.

‘“Your husband was murdered,” Yorgos stated. “He was carrying a message the people who killed him did not want delivered. It was no accident he fell from the mountain path. He was deliberately pushed by one of the men who were meant to be guiding him.”

‘“How do you know?” I whispered.

‘“One of the men in an organisation I belong to saw what happened. He was trailing them in case they ran into the Pasha's troops. The Pasha is the man who rules Crete. So what will you do now, return to England?”

‘“Eventually, I am sure, but I owe it to my husband to find answers. Do you know who the man was that pushed my husband?”

‘“I would strongly advise you do not stay,” he said, in a firm but gentle manner. “These are dangerous times for anyone on the island who is not Turkish, but especially for an English woman alone. Do not waste your time searching. The man who pushed your husband is already dead, as are the other two men with him.”

‘“But how? Why? Who would do that?”

‘“The ‘how' is that their throats were slit. Their bodies were discovered at the bottom of a ravine. The ‘why' is because the person who ordered your husband's murder did not want any witnesses to the crime; and as for the ‘who', that we do not know, although I would suggest you look to your own government for an answer.”

‘He looked across at me.

‘“I can see in your eyes what it is you intend to do, but if you start out on the road of revenge your life will be over.”

‘“Without my husband it feels as if my life is over anyway. What I want to do is return to Constantinople, to continue his work.”

‘Yorgos thought for a few moments, shook his head, and then looked across the table at me.

‘“I can see you are a strong-willed lady and although I strongly advise you to go back to England, if you are that determined to stay, I shall help you in any way I can. For now, though, return to your hotel and await my instructions.'”

‘I did as I was told and made my way back to the hotel. The two government officials were not happy when they found out I was staying, but there was nothing they could do about it. I was a financially independent woman who had no ties to the embassy or government. I stayed in Crete for about a week prior to my passage back to Constantinople. Before I left, Yorgos gave me several names and addresses of contacts, many of which my husband had known.

‘In time I learnt more about the circumstances surrounding my husband's death and put the pieces of the jigsaw together. It seemed he was given information regarding a rebellion that was to take place on Crete. He had gone to the island to relay this information to the leader of the uprising and was on his way to meet him at his mountain base when he was murdered.

‘This was in 1770, of course, and by then the Cretans had been under Ottoman rule for more than a century. By this time most of the population had become Muslim. It was not that they believed in that particular religion, but more to escape the restrictions Christianity brought on them. Although the Christian faith was more or less tolerated by the Turks, the island's Christian traders had an immense tax burden placed upon them. As well as taxes on their businesses they also had them on their houses, although the most hated of all these taxes was the
kharatch
. This was a type of tax that was, in effect, a protection racket. By 1770 discontent had become, perhaps unsurprisingly, rife among Christians in Crete, as on other Greek islands and parts of the mainland, and so when the opportunity to rise up against their oppressors was offered, it was taken with both hands, especially as their ally would be one of the Great Powers: Russia.

‘The rebellion on Crete was to be led by a wealthy merchant and ship owner called Ioannis Vlahos. He had been educated abroad – in Italy – and while there was given the nickname Daskaloyiannis, meaning ‘teacher'. On his return he had become a successful businessman and accumulated a lot of money. In the course of conducting his business he often travelled to the Black Sea. On one occasion, while there, he met the Orlov brothers: Aleksey and Grigory. Both were Russian agents working for Catherine the Great's network of spies. They were thought to have been key conspirators in bringing her to the Russian throne by overthrowing her husband, Peter III, eight years earlier. The Emperor had then died shortly after the palace coup, in mysterious circumstances, and it was believed that Aleksey murdered him.

‘By the time Daskaloyiannis met Aleksey and his brother he was commander of the Russian naval forces. The brothers' remit was to stir up as much trouble in the Ottoman Empire as they could. The Russians were the Turks' sworn enemy and had been fighting them for the past two years. As well as Daskaloyiannis on Crete, the Orlov brothers also contacted leaders in the Peloponnese, on the Greek mainland (this area being chosen by the brothers as they believed it had the strongest military force at the time). Their plan was simple. There would be uprisings on the mainland and Crete, supported by the Russian navy, and this would lead to a nationwide revolt and rebellion against the Turks. The initial uprising on the mainland went ahead and when the Russian fleet appeared in nearby waters, it seemed success was at hand. Daskaloyiannis brought his forces down from the mountains into the cities on Crete, but unfortunately for him the Russians had never had any intention of sending reinforcements to help, merely to use his rebellion as a distraction from their main focus of the Peloponnese. Although Daskaloyiannis was initially victorious, without the promised Russian fleet to support them, his forces were quickly and brutally suppressed by the Turks and Daskaloyiannis himself was flayed to death in a square in Heraklion.