Blotto, Twinks and the Heir to the Tsar by Simon Brett

Author:Simon Brett [Brett, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472118325
Publisher: Constable & Robinson
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

13

Unwelcome Guests

While these dramatic events were unfolding inside the Zammer Kabaret, outside Corky Froggett waited miserably in the Lagonda, still feeling the pain of being prevented from doing what he had been so carefully trained to do. To add to his troubles, it was by then extremely cold and, though he would never had admitted to such weakness, he wished he had a coat to put on over his thin chauffeur’s uniform.

Not far away from Corky, his fellow driver Dmitri Raselov was still in the bierkeller. He had been drinking since he arrived – vodka not beer in his case – but the alcohol appeared to have no effect on him.

He felt cheerful and secure. For, just as the Zammer Kabaret was a safe house for White Russians, so Uli’s Bierkeller was a refuge for the Reds. Though Dmitri had not previously met all of the other customers he knew that everyone present shared the same ambitions. They wanted to further the cause of communism by liquidating everyone with any connection to the Romanov regime. It was comforting for him to be among like-minded people.

Finally the man Dmitri Raselov had been waiting for arrived in Uli’s Bierkeller. Small in stature, he wore the regulation dark peasant smock and Lenin cap. His beard and moustache were also modelled on those of the deceased Bolshevik leader. When Raselov was pointed out to him, the man came straight across with hand outstretched. ‘Good evening, Comrade,’ he said. ‘I am Fyodor Vlachko.’

When, at about three o’clock in the morning, Twinks announced that she and Blotto should return to the Adlon, Count Kasimir Petrovsky was desolated. ‘I cannot be parted from you so soon after we have met! The flame of my love cannot so soon be exposed to buffeting by the winds of loneliness! My soul will shrivel and die like a plant in the desert without water!’

‘Oh, don’t talk such toffee,’ said Twinks. ‘We can meet up again tomorrow.’

‘Actually, Twinks me old candle-snuffer,’ said Blotto, ‘I’m not sure that we can. Corky Froggett and I were thinking that an early start back to Tawcester Towers might fit the pigeon-hole.’

‘No,’ said his sister in a voice which made her sound very much like her mother. And had exactly the same effect on Blotto as a prohibition from the Dowager Duchess would have done.

He didn’t argue. He just muttered, ‘Oh, rodents!’

And turned his eyes to the performance onstage. There two real German Shepherd dogs and two men dressed as German Shepherd dogs were doing things to German fräuleins dressed in very little. Blotto, whose knowledge encompassed the training of hounds for hunting, wondered how on earth the German shepherds had been trained to do what they were doing on that stage.

‘Right,’ said Twinks. ‘Time we pongled off.’

When they were seen to be rising from the table, the waitress Jutta swept across to them. Ignoring Twinks and Petrovsky, she turned the full beam of her attention on Blotto.

‘So you are leaving, big boy? If you wait half an hour, I will have finished my shift.

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