A Truth to Lie For by Anne Perry

Author:Anne Perry [Perry, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Headline Publisher
Published: 2022-02-21T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Elena was dreaming of darkness, chaos, loud shouts. Someone screamed. Only it was not a dream. She found herself sitting bolt upright in bed. Beside her, Jacob was awake and he, too, sat up.

They had been warned of noise, but not like this. It was not celebration, even a drunken one. It was more like rage, or fright.

There was more shouting, voices, high and harsh-sounding, like terror. No, more than terror, hysteria.

On the floor near the bed, Hartwig sat up slowly, looking at the door, and then at Jacob and Elena. He was blinking, newly awake, but Elena also detected fear in the stiffness of his body.

Outside, there were heavy footsteps, as of men in army boots. It was daylight, but the light was sharp, blue-edged, not long after dawn.

Jacob threw the bedclothes off and stood up. ‘Get dressed,’ he ordered in a low voice, struggling to remain steady. ‘We may need to get out of here in a hurry. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but it isn’t good. And it’s not a celebration of anything!’

Hartwig obeyed, moving swiftly, picking up the eiderdown and pillows and throwing them on to the bed. ‘I don’t think they’re looking for me. They would want to do it more discreetly than this. But if they are, and they find me, don’t make a fuss. It will make no difference, and they’ll shoot you. Don’t die without a purpose, please.’

Elena drew in her breath to argue, but she met the professor’s gaze, and in the broadening daylight of the room, she could see his features clearly.

There was no time to fumble with her clothing, but she must be careful not to put the garments on inside out. ‘I don’t intend to die at all, on purpose or not!’ she said sharply. ‘And certainly not with no clothes on. They’ll take me for a tart. Two men at a time!’ She did not care if either of them was embarrassed. Anything was better than the kind of fear that paralysed.

‘How very English of you,’ Hartwig said with a bleak smile.

Jacob froze, staring at him.

‘I spent some time in Cambridge, years ago,’ Hartwig explained. ‘I like the English sense of humour. Dry, abrasive, and really very funny.’

Jacob’s expression eased for a moment, as if he were being reminded of another time, an older time more civilised than this. No one had known then that they were heading into the most lethal and violent war in a thousand years of history.

‘We laugh.’ Again, Jacob said it tersely. ‘But now—’ He stopped and reached for his shirt.

There was another scream, this time a man’s voice high-pitched with terror, somewhere near the hotel, then a volley of shots.

Elena froze, her throat so tight she could barely breathe. It sounded so close! And within the hotel. She swung round to look at Jacob

He was looking at Hartwig.

‘You’d better leave,’ Hartwig said, peering out of the window. ‘Quietly.’ He looked at Elena. ‘Are you up to

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