you.”
I nodded.
“You guessed as much?”
Nodded again.
He regarded me for a long moment. “I don’t lie easily to any man. It’s almost impossible when that man is a close friend.”
Please, Richard, I thought, how close can we be? We barely know each other. I wanted to say it but didn’t.
“The fact is, I had to be away from you for a day. So I waited until you left the hotel. Then I left and called on some people.”
“Am I allowed to ask why?”
“Because you would not have approved of what I did. And it had become necessary for me to play a role.”
I looked up, met his eyes, and suddenly I found my voice, surprising myself at the strength of it. “You must know how this seems to me. You must know I can’t sit still for it. I think under the circumstances—”
“At least hear me out. Then do what you must.”
He spent no time gathering himself. He knew what he had to say, and at his first words I felt my anger melting away. Suspicion remained: it would take years for that bitter pill to completely dissolve. But what I thought I now heard in his voice was truth.
“I have been up to Mr. Rhett’s plantation. I went at the request of Lord Palmerston, who had paved my way in a secret communication.”
He looked at me directly. “There were many ultrasecessionists on hand, and a number of state officials, with lots of heated balderdash thrown about. Charlie, these fools are having the time of their lives. Strutting like cocks in a barnyard. So much self-aggrandizement, so much egotism, no regard at all for the tragedy they are about to rain down on their country. They have no idea how quickly the world is turning against state-sponsored slavery, and how difficult it will soon be for them to function with that as their calling card. They can’t imagine how many of their boys will die for their foolish pride.”
He took a deep breath. “Your presence would have been impossible.”
Softly, I said, “What did they all think, having Richard Burton among them?”
“I didn’t go as Richard Burton. To them I was a friend of a friend of the prime minister whose name they will quickly forget.”
“Richard…”
“My only lie was the manner of my escape yesterday, and I intended to set that straight between us, whether you had guessed it or not.”
“There’s more to it than that. I asked you specifically whether you are on a spying mission.”
“And I told you I’m not.”
“I asked you specifically if you are under any instructions from Palmerston.”
“Lord Palmerston asked me to make this call only as a courtesy and I’ve done that. When I return to England he will want my impression of the overall situation here and I shall give it to him. That’s hardly what anyone would call grand intrigue.”
He gestured impatiently. “I can’t tell you what England will do when your war comes. I’m not the prime minister. All I can do is tell him what I think.”
“Which is?”
“That we would be ill-advised to get involved in this conflict in any way. That the American spirit will not be defeated. That even if the South should somehow prevail—it won’t—but even then there would be resistance groups at work to restore the Union, and that intervention or tampering by any foreign power, especially one based thousands of miles away, would be insane. That such a foreign power can expect fierce guerrilla warfare, perhaps for years, with many casualties. The day is coming when no power, not even England, will be able to sustain such a war. If Palmerston brings us into it, it will be a quagmire and history will remember his name for that above all else. That’s what I’ll tell him.”
He cleared his throat. “I apologize for the small deception.”
“Richard…”
I think he knew then what I had to ask but he waited politely.
“Why did you bring me into it?” I said. “Why involve me in something that could only turn out badly for both of us?”
He smiled dolefully. “Charlie, don’t you know that?”
