However she was horrified when they assembled for dinner at Tsarskoye Selo for she found that he too had been invited by the Czar as a guest.
The fact that he was there would have been more of a shock if Zelina had not learnt with an inexpressible feeling of joy that Lord Charnock was to arrive the following morning.
She naturally had no idea that in fact the party had been arranged because the Czar was already impatient at the lack of information from the Countess Natasha and the other Agents who he had ordered to investigate Lord Charnock.
The Secret Police had even, on their Master’s strict orders, managed in Lord Charnock’s absence to pick the locks of two of his despatch boxes.
Although it was done skilfully and no ordinary Courier or King’s Messenger would have been aware that th
