Dagger Magic

"U-boat?" Peregrine was thoroughly baffled now.

"I thought you'd appreciate that one," the inspector said with a dour grin. "Wait till you hear the whole story."

Chapter Eighteen

BY the time they had left the M8, heading north to cross the Erskine Bridge, McLeod had filled Peregrine in on the background regarding the Kriegsmarine flag found on Mick Scanlan's body and the submarine it ostensibly had come from. As they linked up with the A82 and began working their way westward toward Dumbarton, Peregrine was shaking his head.

"And I told Julia this was probably going to be uneventful," he murmured. "I'd better tell you about that, too," he went on. "I had to tell her a little bit about us, Adam."

As they drove, Peregrine related the substance of his parting conversation with Julia. Only in the retelling did he fully realize how effectively he had been outguessed and outma-neuvered by his young wife.

"I tried to be discreet, Adam, but I guess those photos had me more rattled than I realized," he concluded. "And she'd deduced so much already, there didn't seem to be any point to trying to sweep everything under the mat. She knows me too well. If there was some better way to handle the situation that escaped me, I'm heartily sorry."

"No, you did exactly right," Adam assured him. "Lies are no proper foundation for a marriage. Quite frankly, I'm surprised the two of you haven't had this conversation long before now - though I've been grateful for the temporary respite. Still, Julia's a very observant and perceptive young woman - as is fitting, if she's to be your life partner. She couldn't help but notice what she did."

"Yes - well, she reacted well enough this time, but what about the next?" Peregrine wanted to know. "Clearly, she can't be privy to the details of our work, but there will be times when I'm in danger. I accept that danger - and I suppose I accepted it for her, unbeknownst to either of us, when I asked her to marry me - but it's hardly fair to keep her totally in the dark."

"No, but it isn't fair to frighten her needlessly, either," Adam replied. "There are dangers to our work, but I might even go so far as to say it's more 'difficult' than 'dangerous,' in the vast majority of cases - rather like more conventional police work, wouldn't you agree, Noel?"

McLeod gave a nod, catching Peregrine's glance in the rearview mirror. "He's right, son. Certainly, a conventional police officer faces danger - there are occasional fatalities - but a lot more of the work is about solving problems, finding out answers, helping people. How did I hear someone put it? 'Stretches of routine punctuated by instants of sheer terror.' The work of the Hunting Lodge is little different in that respect, except that the work is rarely routine."

"I'd have to agree with that" Peregrine said. "Still - Noel, do you and Jane ever talk about your work as a member of the Hunting Lodge?''

"Not in so many words," McLeod said with a tiny smile. "We worked that one out while you were still in short trousers."

"But she does know all about your special abilities, and how you use them?"

"I wouldn't say she knows all about them," McLeod said. "She knows the breadth of my - shall we say, 'hospitality'? And she knows that my writ as an officer of the law extends beyond the limits of the conventional legal system. If we decline to discuss the details, it's by common consent."

Peregrine contemplated this disclosure in silence. After staring out the window for several minutes, he asked, "How did it come about? - that she became aware of your gifts, I mean. Did you just decide one day to tell her?"

"Hardly as simple as that," McLeod said with a snort. "No, as it happened, it came as a revelation to us both."

Peregrine had never before ventured to ask how McLeod had originally become involved in the Hunting Lodge, so he listened avidly as the older man continued speaking of his own accord.

"It was a good twenty years ago. I'd just recently been promoted to detective sergeant, and was called out early one morning to investigate a burglary at a small country house museum, just this side of Dunbar. In fact, it was a lot like that place that had the Hepburn Sword stolen from it, just before you met Adam." Peregrine shifted to lean slightly forward between the two front seats as McLeod went on.

"Among the items reported stolen was a silver cross set with cairngorms, which had been handed over as part of the museum grant when old Sir Andrew Cockburn died, back in the early sixties. When I arrived at the crime scene, one of the curators told me the cross had been gifted to one of Sir Andrew's ancestors by Mary Queen of Scots herself - which made it a family heirloom beyond price.