“And Mister Skovgaard’s daughter was helping these Englishmen?” Lavisser asked.
“Not willingly, not willingly,” Bang insisted. “She must have been deceived.”
“Of course.”
“But her father, now, he was always on the English side,” Bang said vengefully, “and he made Astrid help him. She didn’t want to, of course, but he made her.” ;
Lavisser sipped his tea. “So Astrid knows as much as her father?”
“Oh yes,” Bang said.
“She knows the names of her father’s correspondents?” Lavisser asked.
“What he knows,” Bang said, “she knows.”
“Does she now,” Lavisser said to himself. He lit a candle, for dusk was darkening the room. “You did well, Lieutenant,” he said, careful to flatter Bang by using his militia rank, “when you handed Skovgaard to the police.”
A small doubt nagged Bang. “Lieutenant Sharpe said that it was you who had taken Skovgaard, sir.”
“He said what?” Lavisser looked astonished, then unleashed his charming smile. “Of course not! I have no authority in that area. No, Mister Skovgaard was taken for questioning by the police, but, alas, he escaped. The confusion of the bombing, you understand? And our problem is that Lieutenant Sharpe and his English helpers are somewhere in the city. They may already have rescued Mister Skovgaard. General Peymann thought we would find them here, but alas.” He shrugged. “I suspect they are hiding, but you, Lieutenant, know Mister Skovgaard better than anyone.”
“True,” Bang said.
“And who knows how they are deceiving Astrid?” Lavisser asked in a worried tone.
“They are deceiving her!” Bang said angrily, and spilled out his resentment of Sharpe. The Englishman, he said, had promised Astrid he would stay in Denmark. “And she believes him!” Bang said. “She believes him! He has turned her head.”
And a pretty head it was too, Lavisser thought, and filled with knowledge that he needed. “I fear for her, Lieutenant,” he said gravely, “I truly do.” He stood and stared out of the window so that Bang would not see his amusement. So Sharpe was in love? Lavisser smiled at that realization. The darkening sky was banded in black cloud and soon, he thought, the first bombs would start falling unless the British had exhausted their stocks, in which case the city would be spared until more could be fetched from England. “They are doubtless holding poor Astrid as a hostage”-he turned back to Bang-“and we must find them.”
“They could be anywhere,” Bang said helplessly.
“Mister Skovgaard was injured by a bomb when he escaped,” Lavisser lied smoothly. “He needs a doctor, we think, but he’s not in any of the hospitals.”
Bang shook his head. “His doctor lives in Vester Faelled.”
“And he certainly can’t have gone there,” Lavisser said, “so where would he hide? What is it?” He had been alarmed by a sudden wide-eyed look on Bang’s face.
But Bang was smiling. “Mister Skovgaard needs medical help?” he asked. “Then I know where they are.”
“You do?”
“You will give me a gun?” Bang asked eagerly. “I can help you?”
“I should expect nothing less from a loyal Dane,” Lavisser said unctuously.
“Then I shall take you to them,” Bang said.
For he knew exactly where they were.
To the west a red flash lit the sky and the first bomb climbed into the dark.
Then the other guns hammered, their discharge ringing the city with flame-shot smoke.
And the bombs were falling again.
CHAPTER 11
Sharpe spent much of the day in a cramped storeroom above the arch of the orphanage gateway. He told Hopper and Clouter he was watching for Lavisser, but he did not really expect to see the renegade. He was thinking instead. Thinking about leaving Britain, thinking about Grace and about Astrid. Thinking about the army and about Wapping, and while he brooded, Hopper and Clouter took turns standing guard near Ole Skovgaard’s bed, which had been placed under the inside stairs because the orphanage was so crowded with folk made homeless by the bombardment. A Danish flag hung across the small space to make it private and the two seamen were there, not to protect the patient against Lavisser, but rather from the intrusion of children excited by the bombardment and its upheavals. Astrid tended her father, or else helped calm the children.