The author settled for fitting a Gauloises into a slender cigarette holder. “I’ve information about a young woman that I know to be an American living in Paris under an assumed name and pretending to be French. She goes by the name Veronique Colbert, but her name is really Victoria Grayson, and she is employed as a fencing instructor at L’Ecole d’Escrime Français here in Paris. I believe you fence there?”

Derrick felt his shoulder muscles tighten. Casually, he drew on the Montecristo. “That is so. How do you know her?”

“I met her in New York. She was working as a French translator at the publishing house that acquired the rights to my international best seller, Cathédrale de Silence. Perhaps you’ve read it?” Beaumont held a lighter to the tip of his cigarette.

The colonel inclined his head. “I have.” With all due haste, he thought. “Do you fence?”

“Not at all.”

“Then how did you come across Mademoiselle Colbert?”

The author blew out a stream of smoke and chuckled. “Oh, come now, Your Grace. You can’t pretend you don’t know her. Your association with her, whatever it is, is safe with me. I know the importance of discretion. I saw Victoria Grayson dining with you at the Ritz one Sunday not a month ago. It did not take much checking to learn of her employment and your association at the fencing school. That’s why I am here. I wanted to warn you to be careful of what you say around her. I believe she could have been sent here to spy. I can’t imagine any other reason for her to be in Paris in a time of war with her country, can you?”

“For the moment I can’t think of any, no.”

Beaumont turned his head to one side to expel another casual stream of smoke. “I hope the colonel can appreciate that I am sensitive to his embarrassment should the Gestapo learn that the head of its brother organization was unaware of the danger Mademoiselle Colbert poses to the security service of the Reichsführer.”

The colonel’s brow rose a fraction. “You plan to take this information to the Gestapo?”

“That is my plan, yes. Again, my reason is plain. I wish to spare the duke the…unpleasantness of interrogating a beautiful woman in whom it would be understandable if he had more than a casual interest. She has a distinctive regal manner. I wouldn’t doubt but that there is royal blood from somewhere back in her lineage. It takes a European to see it.”

“It does indeed. You seem to know a lot about…this young woman. Did you spend time with her in New York?”

“Only a brief few hours. There wasn’t much time to…get to know her. My visa was soon to expire.”