More revelations about the secret life of Lady Charlotte.
Lotte was struggling to comprehend how a telephone could be jangling in the middle of a forest. The elf standing before her was holding the device up to her. Gradually, Lotte began to grasp the fact that the forest and the elf existed only in Dreamland but the wretched telephone kept ringing. Her taxi from the club had delivered her back home at around 3am and she had no idea what time it was now.
She reached out a slender, bare arm and mumbled something into the receiver. The voice on the other end of the line was chirpy and wide awake.
“Hello, Old Girl, hope it’s not a bad time. Just letting you know that we will be arresting your old chum, Daffers, at the weekend along with her Red pals. Thought you might like to be out of London so you aren’t caught in the net.”
The British upper classes are a very small club and Lotte could think of at least three places where she could wangle an invitation for the weekend. She decided to lunch at a place she knew just off Pall Mall.
Lotte was only just inside the door when a shrill voice rang out.
“Lotte, Dahling. Haven’t seen you for simply ages. Do come and join us.”
Over a simple but scrumptious chicken salad with some excellent wine, Lady Radford said that Lotte simply must be a part of the shooting weekend which was happening that very weekend in the New Forest based at the Radford family seat.
Radford Hall was built for a courtier of Elizabeth I and most of its bedrooms were full for that weekend with the “in” crowd. Lotte homed in on Tommy Stratford who would be an idiot even if he didn’t snort cocaine but he was perfect for what Lotte had in mind.
The pair of them played tennis on the Saturday morning and Lotte made sure that Tommy won although she could have beaten him easily. When they came together at the net at the end of the game he embraced her in a bear hug and his questing fingers slid up her skirt and groped her behind. Lotte gasped in mock ecstasy.
“Not now, silly. Come to my room after lunch.”
Lunch was a delicious cold collation and Lotte noticed that poor Tommy was practically drooling for the whole time. After lunch, everyone took tea on the terrace but Lotte slipped away and very soon there came a tap tap tapping upon her chamber door.
Lotte had discreetly asked the butler to bring a bottle of champers to her room along with two flutes and Tommy had soon popped the cork in anticipation of popping his cork. Lotte poured the wine as she said that she had the steadiest hands. She was very proud of the little ring which she wore and its secret compartment under the stone. It had been made for her by a little man in Seven Dials who did not know her true name. The white sleeping powder tipped into Tommy’s glass and was lost amid the bubbles. They sat on the bed side by side and she stroked his face and whispered sweet nothings into his ear. Tommy said that he was feeling a bit muzzy and he pulled her down onto the pillow beside him. As soon as he was sleeping soundly it was time for Lotte to go to work.
She slipped out of the room and along the landing to the room of Lady Philomena Carshalton who had been at school with Lotte. Lady Carshalton belonged to one of the richest families in England and had bullied Lotte mercilessly about her lack of a huge mansion in the Home Counties. After gently tapping upon the door, Lotte tried the handle and found it locked. She silently tutted at the distrust shown by some people but it would be a very dim girl who had attended St Kats and come away unable to pick a simple lock.
Once in the room, Lotte leaned with her back against the door and looked around. The Carshalton family gems were laid out on the dressing table ready to be worn at dinner that night and they were swiftly scooped into Lotte’s pocket. They would very soon make their way into the false bottom of her suitcase and it would be a very brave flatfoot who would dare to conduct a search of a lady’s case without a very good reason. Before leaving the room, Lotte left the bedroom window open to suggest an intruder who had escaped over the rooftops. In her case was a black dress and white pinafore as might be worn by a servant. The ensuing police search would find the garments hidden in a blanket box on the landing where, obviously, the thief had stashed them after entering the house disguised as a maid.
All the guests were questioned and Lotte naturally asserted that she had been alone in her room having a lie down like the good girl that she was. Under pressure, she broke down and admitted that Tommy had been with her and Tommy supported her story which also gave him an alibi. The other guests could confirm that the pair of them had gone missing after lunch. Upon returning to her room after her little excursion, Lotte had given Tommy good reason to remember their time together.
It was the following week that Lotte took a cab to Hackney and made her way down a narrow alley after walking around to ensure that she was not followed. A shabby door in the alleyway led her upstairs to a room which she unlocked with her own key. Lotte had taken this room some twelve months earlier under her guise as Sally Biles as it gave her a useful bolt hole and a base for some of her more nefarious activities. She had enjoyed Drama at school and was quite pleased with her Cockney accent. The landlord assumed that Sally was on the game but then so were most of his tenants and Sally always paid her rent on time.
Sally’s wardrobe contained three rather worn and faded dresses and some unfashionable bonnets bought in the local street markets and Lotte changed swiftly before walking to a second hand shop not far from Sally’s lodgings. She knew that her fence would pay her a fraction of what the gems were worth but it was still a good cash income. The fence would on sell the jewels to someone up the chain who would pay enough to give him a profit and soon there would be no trace of where the sparklers had entered the market.
The arrests of a ring of wealthy people acting against the National Interest never made the newspapers; the Official Secrets Act is a wonderful thing. But, as Daffers languished at Holloway she must have cursed that she had not had the luck to be invited down to the New Forest on exactly the right weekend. Although she would have taken comfort in the knowledge that her good friend, Lotte remained free and was still in touch with Moscow.