Free Death on the Sapphire by R. J. Koreto Page B

its nickname? I’m curious about mottos and look forward to surprising the colonel.”
    Raleigh looked hard at her, and Frances wondered if she had pushed her luck too far, showing more curiosity than she should.
    “I couldn’t say, Lady Frances. It’s not an especially well-known unit.”
    “No matter. Thank you again, and I hope to see you at some future house party.” She stood, and Raleigh followed suit, opening the door for her.
    “Lady Frances, you say you collect regimental mottos. Do you know the motto of your brother’s regiment, the Life Guards?”
    “Of course. ‘ Honi soit qui mal y pense . Evil be to him who evil thinks.’ Good day, Major.”
    Raleigh, alone in his office, composed himself again. He reconsidered a possible alliance with Lady Frances. She asked too many questions, he realized. Lady Frances Ffolkes might be a little too clever to be the wife of an ambitious army officer, he sadly concluded.
    Frances was meanwhile feeling rather pleased with herself. She had a name and that was interesting. Something was clearly wrong: well-born gentlemen who managed to get themselves into the distinguished Military Club did not work for obscure map-making units.
    One person could help her with the next step, but it was going to cost something.

    Angus McDonald had been with her brother Charles through one posting or another and was now his chief clerk in the Foreign Office. He gave Frances a warm welcome.
    “Lady Frances, his lordship didn’t tell me you were visiting today, but you’re most welcome. May I get you some tea?”
    “Thank you, Mr. McDonald, but I’m just making a flying visit to my brother if he’s available. Also, if there are any openings, I’d like to apply—yet again—for the job of clerk in the Foreign Office.”
    McDonald was not a man given to humor. He actually nodded, as if he were considering it. “With your university degree, I daresay you’d do as well as any of the lads,” he said.
    A darn sight better, thought Frances.
    “But you take a seat here, Lady Frances. His lordship doesn’t have a meeting for another hour, so I’ll see if he can see you now.” And a few minutes later, she was ushered into her brother’s office, large and elegantly appointed, as befitted an undersecretary in an important department.
    “Franny, what a pleasant surprise. Nothing wrong, I hope?”
    She sat down on one of the comfortable visitors’ chairs.
    “Not at all. I was making calls and thought I’d stop to visit.”
    That was a mistake. Charles’s eyes narrowed. “What calls are you making in this neighborhood?” Among these blocks were government offices and other businesses—not fashionable residences.
    “Oh, just helping a friend organize a dinner party—looking up some people for her in the War Office.”
    “Liar. This is about your radical politics, isn’t it?” he said, referring to her women’s suffrage work. “Although I can’t figure out why you’d be calling in at the War Office. Angling for a commission in the Blues? Come to think of it, you’d look awfully fetching in one of those uniforms.”
    “Very funny, dear brother. You can take your act on the music hall stage. But we’re off subject. I heard a phrase that seemed rather odd to me, and you know how I don’t like not knowing something. When you were in the army, did you come across a unit called the Reconnaissance Battalion?”
    The smile vanished quickly, and he leaned over his desk.
    “Frances,” he spoke slowly and deliberately, as their father had done when she was up to something she shouldn’t be, “what are you up to? I can’t think of any reason for you to meet someone from that unit.”
    “Oh, it was casually mentioned in the hall in the War Office suites.” Frances was a much better liar than Major Raleigh, but Charles had known her too long and too well to be taken in. However, no point in challenging her now.
    “Very well, don’t tell me. You have a name. But don’t