Page 31 of The Amsterdam Enigma (The Continental Capers of Melody Chesterton #3)

W hen Rat returned to the hotel several hours later, he felt he had never been happier in his life.

As much as he had worried about spending precious hours he could ill afford at the museum, once he had left the hotel with Jemima, he completely forgot all his concerns.

Instead, he walked beside the captivating woman, shyly answering questions but mostly happily listening to her lyrical voice as she flitted from one topic to another.

Rat couldn’t have described what he saw in the museum; he had been too absorbed in Jemima Edwards.

She truly was the most charming girl. Although she was petite in stature, Jemima’s presence seemed to fill any room she entered.

If Rat was charmed by her at lunchtime, by later that afternoon, he was completely infatuated.

In fact, if he had been challenged, he might have even gone so far as to say he was in love.

After escorting Jemima to her door, Rat gently took her hand. “Miss Edwards, Jemima, thank you for a lovely afternoon. I know we’ve only known each other a few days, but I feel I must tell you how much I admire you.”

Another young woman might have blushed or batted her eyelashes. Jemima smiled coquettishly. “Well, perhaps you ought to kiss me then,” she challenged .

Rat had felt daring merely taking her hand.

The thought of a kiss had never crossed his mind.

Well, perhaps that wasn’t true; it had crossed his mind a few times during their outing, but each time he had dismissed the idea.

To steal a kiss would be the behaviour of the worst sort of rake and scoundrel.

Still, this didn’t stop him from sneaking furtive glances at her perfect bow lips.

Now that Jemima spoke of kisses, Rat wondered in horror if he’d been less discreet than he believed.

“I would not want to take advantage of you,” Rat stammered in reply.

Jemima laughed. “You are hardly taking advantage of me if I invite you to kiss me. Are you?”

Her logic was unassailable, yet Rat felt rooted to the spot, unable to close the few inches needed to hold Jemima Edwards in his arms and press his lips to hers. He stood there, her hand still in his, trapped and motionless.

Finally, with a giggle, Jemima took a step toward Rat, raised her head, and kissed him. It was a fleeting, gossamer brush of her lips, but it sent a shock through Rat, and it took all his willpower not to recoil from the sensation.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, the kiss was over. Jemima stepped back, reclaimed her hand, and said, “Thank you for a lovely afternoon, Mr Sandworth. I hope we can repeat it soon.”

Rat mumbled something, though he later couldn’t recall what he had said.

Then, Jemima opened her door and slipped inside, leaving Rat standing in the hallway, uncertain of what had just transpired.

He lingered for a few moments before turning around and heading back to the lift.

Rat was so dazed that he forgot where he was going and nearly returned to the lobby.

At the last moment, he snapped out of his daze and took the lift back to his floor.

As he opened the door to his hotel room, Rat felt he had never been happier. That thought lasted only a brief moment until he saw his sister sitting in the armchair, a look of fury on her face, tapping her fingers impatiently.

“Finally!” Melody exclaimed. “I was starting to wonder if you’d eloped with the lovely Miss Edwards.” This was said in a tone of such nastiness that it took Rat aback.

“I’m sorry, Melly, but did we have an appointment that I’ve forgotten?” Rat wasn’t being sarcastic; he genuinely couldn’t imagine any other reason for his sister’s attitude.

Even as she was biting Rat’s head off, Melody knew she was being unreasonable; he had done nothing wrong.

Far from it, in fact. If Rat hadn’t accepted Jemima’s suggestion of an afternoon excursion, Melody would never have been able to break into the woman’s hotel room.

Even though she knew this intellectually, the lovestruck look on her brother’s face told Melody all she needed to know.

Mostly, her irritation was masking concern at how Rat’s heart was going to be broken at what she had to tell him about Jemima Edwards.

Melody couldn’t imagine any scenario in which she and Fatima would have become true friends.

Even so, at the very heart of Melody’s dislike of the other woman was how she flirted mercilessly with Rat with no regard for how seriously he might take her coquettishness.

The thought that her brother might have finally moved on from that infatuation, only to have his heart stamped on yet again, saddened and infuriated Melody.

The easiest person to take that out on was standing in front of her, looking confused.

“An appointment? What about an investigation that we seem to be getting nowhere with?” Melody spat. She’d had some time to consider whether what she’d discovered in Jemima’s room altered her calculation on what to reveal to Rat about her conversation with William.

She had concluded that she couldn’t act alone. In a calmer voice, Melody continued, “I’ve discovered some things today and we need to decide what to do about them.”

For his part, Rat had been too absorbed with his delightful companion to further consider what he should tell Melody.

Now that it seemed she was about to make a revelation of her own, Rat realised he had to confide in his sister what he and Alessandro had discovered.

He knew this meant admitting to leaving her out intentionally that morning and braced himself for her inevitable accusations.

“Actually, I need to tell you something as well, Melly,” Rat admitted.

He considered whether there was a way to tell Melody what he and Alessandro had surmised without confessing that they had met without her.

He quickly realised Melody was far too perceptive, and more importantly, too attuned to the risk of being excluded to miss what had happened.

Instead of dissembling, Rat sat in the other armchair, ready to admit everything and be properly berated for it.

“Alessandro and I met this morning and discovered that Germany plans to bomb the Stadsschouwburg theatre tomorrow evening when Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Hendrik will be present.” He didn’t pause long enough for Melody to jump in and berate him.

“I am sorry we didn’t include you, but we had our reasons, and I need you to accept that if you can. ”

This was the moment he expected her to explode, so when Melody simply sat looking at him in silence, Rat wasn’t sure whether to feel grateful or worried.

For her part, Melody was unsure what attitude to take.

She was genuinely furious that Rat and Alessandro had met without her.

However, she hadn’t told them about her late-night encounter with William, let alone her morning meeting with him.

Also, she realised that her brother’s guilt at excluding her might go a long way to offsetting his anger at her own behaviour.

As Melody contemplated how she wanted to handle this conversation, she sat in silence, which only threw Rat further off-balance. The only way he could interpret her silence was that Melody was too furious to trust herself to speak.

“Melly. I really am sorry. You’re right; I said that you should be included in the investigation and then agreed to leave you out of a key discussion as soon as things became complicated. You have every right to be angry.”

Still, Melody said nothing. Just as Rat was beginning to despair of his apology being accepted, she finally said, “I was contacted by Captain Somerset.” Melody chose to be vague about when and how that contact occurred, confident that Rat was far too contrite at that moment to question her.

“Somerset is in Amsterdam? I thought he was supposed to have gone back to London with his tail between his legs,” Rat blurted out.

Now, that was an interesting way to phrase things, Melody thought.

After William said farewell to her in Fes that day, his name was never mentioned again.

Indeed, Rat had shown no sign of knowing what had happened to the captain or where he was.

Yet, it seemed he did know something, or thought he did.

Melody filed this fact away for another time.

They had far too many matters to discuss to waste time and frustration pulling that thread for now.

“Apparently, he didn’t return to London but instead followed us here. Do you know why he was sent to Morocco and removed from what he was investigating in Amsterdam?”

Rat hesitated just a moment too long and was unable to control his facial expression sufficiently. Without waiting for him to lie to her, Melody continued, “So, you do know that he expressed concerns about the reliability of Vermeer’s information.”

“I heard something,” Rat admitted with a shrug.

“It is one of the reasons the operation moved from the Foreign Office to the Secret Service Bureau. It was felt that Somerset was insufficiently skilled to make such an assessment and that he would be better utilised in Morocco. Of course, when that went sideways as well, the second strike against him was seen as evidence that the man should be taken out of field operations altogether.”

“And you and Alessandro said nothing to defend him?” Melody asked, appalled.

“You knew what happened, and that William was nothing but the hero of the hour, saving your life and helping to liberate Alessandro. Yet you let him receive a black mark for his involvement.” Even though William had implied as much about Alessandro, the thought that Rat had also been in the know, even if he hadn’t explicitly spoken out against William, was appalling.

Rat spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness.

“It is hardly as if we weren’t also reprimanded, even though all we did was to fulfil the mission to which we were assigned.

The politics of the situation were fraught, and neither Foscari nor I would have been the best apologists for Somerset.

” Even though Rat knew this was true, Melody’s accusation touched a raw nerve for Rat; he did feel guilty about what had happened to Captain Somerset.

Again, this was a thread better left unpulled for the moment, Melody decided. Instead, she focused on what was most important at that time. “Have you not considered how relatively easy it has been to find out about these false-flag plots?”

“Vermeer is dead. I would hardly call this operation ‘relatively easy’,” Rat pointed out.

Melody couldn’t dispute that point. Instead, she pivoted and showed him the notepaper she had written on in Jemima’s room. “Do you recognise this wording?”

Rat took the papers and looked over what Melody had transcribed. “These look like copies of the classified advertisements Vermeer placed to communicate with Somerset and then with me. How did you get these?”

Taking a deep breath, Melody prepared herself for the hardest part of this conversation. “I found the newspaper clippings in Miss Edwards’ room.”

“You broke into her room and snooped around?” Rat exclaimed, outraged at his sister’s impertinence.

“I think you’re missing the point. Why did she have these cut out and stored in a folder?

Who is she, Rat? Because the one thing I am quite sure of is that she is not who she claims to be, that there is no aunt staying in that room with her, and that bumping into you the other day was not an accident. ”

Rat’s first instinct was to argue with Melody and defend Jemima.

He could still feel her kiss on his lips, and just the thought of it made him want to smile.

However, if Melody had truly found the newspaper clippings in Jemima’s room – and why on earth would she lie about such a thing?

– then, he had to question everything he believed about the young woman.