Page 38 of A Family Of His Own
After a moment, she flicked a glance his way, saw him looking at her, hesitated, then admitted, “I’ve never been to Italy.”
“Ah.”
She tipped her head, openly studying him. “I assume you have?”
“Many times—too many to count.” He, too, straightened from his lounging slouch. “At one point, I spent half a year in Venice, and I’ve been to Rome and elsewhere in the north on numerous occasions.”
“So you speak Italian?”
“Well enough to pass as a Veneto local.”
Diana found she wasn’t the least surprised. Given he’d spoken flawless Austrian, she was, in fact, a tiny bit impressed. Yet instead of giving in to the impulse to learn how many languages he’d mastered, she asked, “So what’s our plan?”
“In crossing into Italy, we’ve passed our first milestone, so to speak. Once we reach Udine and get on the train, we’ll start the next leg of our journey.” He glanced out of the window. “These days, I don’t know the train schedule, but Udine is the eastern terminus for all the lines that run across northern Italy, so with luck, by tomorrow at the latest, we should be able to get on a train that will take us west.”
She thought, then asked, “How likely is it that we’ve been followed—meaning closely enough for us to be caught before we get on the train?” She met his eyes, shadowed within the confines of the coach. “And who do you fear might catch up with us?”
He hesitated, then glanced at the children. On seeing that they were still asleep, he shifted to speak more directly to her. “To answer your last question, it’s the Prussians I definitely don’t want to find on our heels.” He met her eyes. “As you witnessed in Vienna, that pair—Jager and Koch are their names—are ruthless and care little whom they harm in pursuit of their mission.”
He tipped his head. “That said, I’m banking on them leaping to conclusions. From experience, I know they tend to. With any luck, they’ll assume you’ll have taken the fastest route to England and set out accordingly to hunt you down. Jager is known as a hunter—that’s his specialty—and he prides himself on running his quarry to ground. There’s a good chance they won’t have realized that I was in Vienna, and consequently, they’ll be searching for a single English lady, not a couple, much less a whole family. I’m hoping they will have raced off on the obvious route westward from Vienna, and that should leave them far enough behind us that we won’t see them again.”
She frowned. “Can’t they simply get ahead of us and be there to stop us farther along? For instance, at Rotterdam?”
“Indeed, they can. When they find no sign of you anywhere to Vienna’s west, they might well think so and head to the usual coast. I fervently hope they do, because they’ll be watching the docks there long after we reach England.”
“Because we’re going via Genoa?” When he nodded, she asked, “What if they guess and head there instead?”
“Given we’re ahead of them now, we should get to Genoa with time to organize passage and be on our way before they can reach us.” He paused, then grimaced. “That’s the plan, but while I hope we’ve lost them and they won’t stumble back onto our trail, I won’t consider us safe until we’re on board some British vessel sailing direct to a British port.”
“Hmm.”
He glanced at the still-sleeping children, then admitted, “As I mentioned before, the Prussians are only one of the potential threats. By now, the Austrians will most likely have heard about the missing packet as well, and despite any political alliance, they’ll also be keen to lay their hands on the dispatches. We should assume they’ve sent someone—possibly Heinrik Maier—after us as well. The last I heard, he was in St. Petersburg, but he could have returned to Vienna by now.”
“So the Austrians might be a possible danger, too.” Her gaze went to the sleeping children. “And from your remarks, they—or at least this Heinrik—might not be as easy to deflect as the Prussians.”
He shifted, one of those fluid movements that were oddly graceful; how a man with such long limbs could be so effortlessly elegant, she didn’t know. His voice even lower, he said, “Heinrik and I have crossed paths countless times. He’s more likely to have heard that I was in Vienna, so is more likely to realize I’m involved and, thus, ask the right questions. More, he knows how I tend to operate and will stop and think before deciding that I must be going by the fastest route.” He paused, then added, “He’s also much wilier.”
“And knows you’re wily, too?”
A brief smile flashed, and he nodded. “That said, if I had to choose, I would rather we encountered the Austrians—Heinrik or any others—than the Prussians. The Austrians’ target will be the dispatches, and they’re not the sort to threaten lives over pieces of paper.” He tipped his head. “Incarceration, interrogation, hostage taking, diplomatic crises—all those are well within the Austrians’ repertoire. But they will not resort to lethal force, especially not against women and children.”
“I see. So the Austrians are not so much a danger to us personally but constitute a greater danger to the mission.”
He inclined his head.
She sat back and thought over all he’d revealed. All he’d shared.
After several moments of consideration, she murmured, “Given all that’s transpired, I know Papa would have wanted me to help get those documents to Winchelsea.”
After further cogitation, she concluded, “So we have to be on guard until we’re aboard a British ship.”
Through the deepening shadows, Toby studied her. When she arched a brow at him, he replied, “Yes. Exactly.”
He wondered if she realized that she’d been speaking of “us” and “we” for quite some time. Regardless, he was grateful for her declaration of support. It was, indeed, comforting to know that she’d consciously and definitively resolved to throw in her lot with his.
CHAPTER6
Several hours later, in his role as papa, Toby ushered his little family—all except Bruno, who they’d left with Gunter and the carriage—into the railway station at Udine.
