At the Table of Wolves by Kay Kenyon

Author:Kay Kenyon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saga Press

KENSINGTON HIGH STREET, LONDON

In the recesses of the department store, someone was playing the piano. Standing in the perfumery section of Derry & Toms, Kim kept watch on the escalator. So far, her contact had not appeared.

Pendant lights hung from the ceiling in the spacious ground floor, shedding an elegant glow on perfume bottles and glass counters. The department store dazzled within and without. When one was standing in Kensington High Street and viewing the imposing art deco building, trees of the new roof garden could just be seen peeking over the edge.

Kim’s mother had loved Derry & Toms, and so had Kim as a child. Once, they’d had lunch in the fifth-story dining room with a string quartet playing behind a bamboo screen. Although she had been only nine, it was the one time in Kim’s life when she had felt elegant. Now here she was, about to step into a nest of spies. Last night, she had been bolstered by a fatalistic determination. Perhaps it was patriotism, or the sense that one must stop what was happening to England. Not only the physical threat, but the slow creep of bigotry that was just as evil. Now, by the light of day, on the threshold of meeting von Ritter, her stomach had begun to shred. What was she doing?

The floor was crowded with people, many still wearing their dark winter coats, and a few in mufflers, those who had just come in from the street. Cold swept in with them. A few well-turned-out shoppers, women in tailored black coats trimmed in lamb’s wool, men in derby hats and camel-hair coats, meandered among the wares or engaged the salesgirls, and even the less well-dressed felt permitted to trail hands over scarves and leather gloves, leaving them behind as though they did not suit.

Derry & Toms had not been her first stop in what was turning out to be a highly orchestrated approach to Erich von Ritter. Georgi had said that he would meet her at Charing Cross Station under the flag at eleven thirty in the morning. Georgi had predicted that von Ritter would be too busy and she was clearly irritated to be arranging the assignation, as she put it. Kim didn’t know what Georgi made of her request to meet von Ritter, or if the woman had warned him of her investigation. It was a possible flaw in her plan. Which was why Kim had made clear to Georgi that she was suspected of collusion in her brother’s conspiracy. If Georgi had any inclination to warn von Ritter, Kim felt that her fervent self-interest would prevent it. England might be half asleep, but it still hung traitors.

At the train station, she found her contact. Not von Ritter himself but someone who worked for him, a stunning brunette in a fox-trimmed suit. The woman, pretending to watch for her ride, had set down her suitcase next to Kim. As she peered left and right, she told Kim to go to Derry & Toms at one o’clock and take the escalator to the top floor.

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