The Serpent's Shadow

'There aren't many who would understand the significance of what you had to tell us,' Peter Scott said somberly.

Jenner looked from one Peter to the other, and his mouth tightened. 'There's more to this, isn't there?' he asked. 'You know something—No! I don't want to know what it is! It's enough that somebody does! Can you act on it?'

'We can,' Peter Scott told him, as Almsley nodded in confirmation. Then Scott smiled, and added, 'Think of us as a sort of police agency; rely on it, the information you've given us is going to have some results.'

'And meanwhile, let me change the subject for a moment and ask if you're free to take a position outside of London as soon as you're well enough to move and work a little?' Almsley asked. 'As it happens, I could use a private secretary of the sort who . . . now how shall I put this?'

'Of the sort you can trust to handle some rather odd correspondence, who won't be disturbed by it, or get the wind up about it,' Scott supplied, and Almsley grinned broadly.

'Exactly! And one who won't lose his nerve if I happen to need some very odd jobs done.' Almsley waggled a finger at Jenner. 'Think of your experiences this way; before you'd had them, you'd have been useless to me, but now that you've seen some of the things that are 'not dreamt of in your philosophy' and know them for verifiable truth, you're invaluable to me! So, would you care for a position? Same conditions as your previous employer, but without the nastiness. That much I can assure you. Also that I am not a sadistic bully; I drive myself quite as hard as I drive my employees.'

'Ah—' For a moment, Jenner was quite speechless, and it was Amelia who spoke up a bit sharply.

'Just where would this be, my lord?' she asked.

'The Almsley estate for now; Heartwood House. Between here and Oxford—just past Hatfield,' Almsley replied, looking not at all surprised that it was Amelia who had posed the question. 'Newport Pagnell, to be precise. A journey, but not a very long one, as rail journeys go; it wouldn't be a bad thing, I think, to get Master Jenner out of physical reach of Simon Parkening for a bit. In fact, when the time comes, if you would be willing to accompany him there as a sort of private physician and see him settled, I'd be obliged to you.'

'Would you be wanting me to personally deal with some of the more outre matters that might involve you, my lord?' Jenner said at last, looking distinctly uneasy again. 'Because—well, I'd really rather not. I'm not certain I've got the stomach for it.'

'Nor do I blame you!' Almsley responded, as a trick of the light and the way he held his head made his hair shine, creating a kind of halo about it for a moment. 'Jenner, I can't promise you that you wouldn't ever be called in to help me with such things, because that would be a lie. I'm not much good at foretelling the future, don't you know. I'd as soon tell you that sort of thing didn't happen, I really would, but it's a kind of nasty little war that Scott and I are engaged in, and war is no respecter of persons or promises.'

Jenner nodded solemnly.

'So I shan't make a promise that I might have.to break,' Almsley continued, 'But I can promise that if such a need should arise, I wouldn't spring it on you as a surprise, and you'd have at least one chance to tell me to take myself and my interests somewhere a great deal hotter than here!'

Jenner actually laughed weakly at that, much to Maya's relief. 'In that case, Lord Peter, I would be honored to serve you,' he said, holding out his hand, which Almsley shook firmly.

Maya let out the breath she had been holding in; two problems off her hands at once—three, if you counted Lord Peter's promise of support for the clinic. The whole atmosphere seemed to lighten, even though nothing had outwardly changed. Then Paul Jenner sagged a little, and Amelia moved into the circle of light cast by the shaded lamp.

'Lord Peter, Mr. Scott, if you are finished, P—my patient needs his rest,' she said firmly. And neither Maya nor the other two missed how she'd almost called Jenner by his Christian name, nor how her fingers had reached for his, and his for hers, for just a moment.

'I quite agree,' Lord Peter said, standing. 'I'm sure we've fatigued him no end, and he could probably do with something to help him rest. We'll take our leave, Jenner—but I'll be checking on your progress, and the moment you're fit to take a rail journey, we'll get that organized and you can take up your position.'

'Thank you again, Lord Peter,' the injured man replied feelingly, before Amelia shooed them all out of the alcove. She busied herself with 'her patient' as Maya beckoned them aside into the clinic's tiny office.

'Protections?' she whispered, in order not to wake sleeping patients or excite the curiosity of the night staff.

The two Peters nodded, oddly in unison, as if they were twins. 'That was next,' Peter Scott said. 'Maya, could you help us with this? There isn't a great deal of water around here for us to draw on—would you be willing to supply us with the energy?'

She made a face; the Fleet was hardly a 'cleansed' place, but she nodded anyway.