Ladbroke Black

Cross Currents

Warsaw 2022

Contents

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 26

CHAPTER 27

CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 29

CHAPTER 30

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 32

CHAPTER 33

CHAPTER 34

CHAPTER 35

CHAPTER 36

CHAPTER 1

The Brisbane Courier, Saturday, 23 June 1917

“MABEL, you are an angel.”

Sir Clifford Maxwell, Bart., waved his hand round the gloomy room with its oak panelling and heavy furniture. “You are an angel of light in the darkness of–not the customary abode of angels.”

He handed his visitor to a faded chair that once had been richly upholstered. “I reserve this for visitors because it is comparatively safe,” said the baronet, with it mirthless laugh. “And now let me make some tea.”

Opening, a big cupboard, he displayed a few cracked pieces of old china, two or three tins of potted jam, and a spirit lamp.

“No, let me make the tea,” said Mabel Neville. “Give me the kettle. Where do you keep the bread and butter? Thanks; now sit down and don’t interfere; you must consent to be waited on by a woman sometimes.”

He was a well set up man with square shoulders, a deep chest, and handsome features on which care was carving its tell-tale lines. As he watched the neat little figure flitting about the room his face lost some of its bitterness. The girl sang to herself as she prepared tea and spread the things on the table.

“Now,” she said, seating herself opposite Sir Clifford, “just one little word about business. I have come to ask whether you would be so good as to do some translations for Mr Shepherd. He has just arrived home after one of his journeys abroad, and he wishes these Spanish manuscripts compared with documents that he thinks may be in the British Museum. As he does not know at present, until you see how much research it demands, what would be a reasonable remuneration, he has asked me to hand you five guineas as a preliminary fee.”

Miss Neville opened her satchel and laid live sovereigns and five shillings on the oak table.

Sir Clifford Maxwell tried hard to say with dignified reserve that he would rather not accept any money until he was sure that he could perform the task, but the sight of solid gold and silver, the price of food and tobacco, was too much for the dignity of a man who had just smoked his last pipe, with no prospect of obtaining another.

“It’s very good of you, you are really very kind,” he said.

“Kind! Of course, we are nothing of the sort. Mr Shepherd wants the work. He sends it to, you because you can do it so much better than the ordinary professional translators, so it’s kind of you to oblige him, and that’s quite enough for the present about work. You had a card from Mrs. Wynter-Smith for that dance to-night?”

“Yes, it is there with the rest of the invitations sent to me by people who read their Baronetage,” said Maxwell in a cynical tone as he pointed to a rusty old coal scuttle.

“So you are not coming?”

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