Here Be Monsters

and we hold the sky suspended above him - and for his peace-loving pupils, so that they can enjoy the same luxury - do you see?' He smiled hideously at her. 'I should have remembered that. I should have got a letter from somewhere.'

This would never do: they would tear themselves to pieces arguing old disagreements, to no possible purpose! So they had to be separated.

She drained her hock-and-Seltzer. 'Get me another drink, David.'

'A capital notion!' Mr Willis drained his glass, and offered it up for replenishment. 'And your own glass, dear boy. And leave us to exchange great lies, and forget our course - eh, Miss Loftus?'

She waited until Audley had gone. ''Elizabeth' will do, Mr Willis.'

He studied her again, and she knew that she was being re-measured, just as she had re-measured him. So she must allow for that.

'Let me guess, Mr Willis: your Dr Thomas was driven from the Government service back to teaching by security persecution, although he was pure as virgin snow - would that be close?' She had to hit him hard, he would expect nothing less.

He still measured her, playing for time. 'And if it was?'

'It would be partly true, I think. But do you know who vetted him?'

That was news to him, her unspoken name. And it hurt him too, enough to dry up his reply.

'David did as he was told.' The tactics of the hockey-field in a fast break-through applied now. 'And he cleared him. And then something else came up. So he was ordered to vet him again. And he obeyed his orders again - he didn't like it, but he did it.' She prayed that Audley would take his time, with the hock and the Seltzer and the beer. 'And he cleared him again.' In other circumstances she would have given him a chance to react, but not now. 'And that was in 1958. But now something else has come up - ' Time hammered at her back, forcing her to play her highest cards by instinct, against her better judgment ' - a man died recently, we think, because of it - ' Once played, the cards made their own logic ' - and do you know why we came here early - shall I tell you?'

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Suddenly he looked older, and much more frail, so that for a moment she had scruples.

Then she remembered Major Turnbull's false teeth, and her heart hardened because of that.

'Now there's another man dead, Mr Willis. Someone I knew.' She didn't know Major Turnbull at all. But Major Turnbull was nonetheless someone she knew - ' Grime has nothing whatsoever to do with coal-mining, Miss Loftus' , he had said. So she knew him. 'Do you know what I am, Mr Willis?'

He stared at her, still struck dumb against his nature. And she knew in that instant that Audley wasn't coming - that he wasn't stupid, so he trusted her just enough to take his time.

'I'm David's letter, Mr Willis, is what I am.'

'His… letter?' That sparked him, out of his ancient memory of whatever Sir Frederick Clinton's letter-of-power had contained.

'In a way, yes.' She mustn't blow it now. 'I don't suppose you could tell me what Sir Frederick wrote, that made you change your mind all those years ago?'

He raised his eyebrows again. 'Good gracious, no!' He opened his mouth to continue, then closed it tightly on unsaid words.

'No, of course.' That must have been strong medicine of Sir Frederick's, she thought - to open his mouth, and then to close it like that. She smiled a hard little unsmiling smile at him deliberately. 'He must have had something pretty good on you, though.'

'My dear young lady - ' He weakened almost comically ' - we all have our little secrets, which we would fain remain secret. Mine is safe, I'm glad to say, since I alone guard it now.'

Elizabeth kept her nasty smile in place, and waited patiently.

He looked over his shoulder, shifting himself gingerly. But there was still no sign of Audley. 'You said… you are David's letter?' He was putting two and two together nicely.

'Then - I'm afraid it must be my old eyes, but I can't read what's written on you, my dear.'

'No?' When he called her 'Elizabeth' she would have won. 'You're quite wrong about David, you know, Mr Willis. You shouldn't be worried about what he may do to your good Dr Thomas - he still believes that he made no mistake there.' She nodded. 'You should be worried for David. Because he's a softie, like you.'

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'He is?' He still wasn't quite convinced. 'But you're not?'

Smile. 'Since you like stories, Mr Willis - do you remember the one about young Prince Edward at the Battle of Crecy?'

He goggled slightly. 'He was the one who became the bloodthirsty Black Prince, was he?'

He rubbed his chin with an audible rasp, reminding her unbearably of Father, who also hadn't shaved too closely in his old age. But then he pointed at her. ' Schoolmistress - the car's wrong, and the clothes are wrong - but that's what I would have said, before I knew you better.' Then he shook his head apologetically. 'I'm sorry - Prince Edward of Crecy, you were saying - ?'

Damn the man! 'I'm here to win my spurs, Mr Willis. And my designed job is to get both of them - Dr Thomas and David. Because someone thinks Dr Thomas may be a traitor. And David… because he may have made a mistake, but he won't admit it.' She would have liked to have spun it out, but there was a limit to the time Audley could give her. 'But I'll settle for Thomas if you give me the chance.'

He took only half-a-second to digest that. 'How will my giving you Haddock Thomas help David? Always supposing that I can?'