From Fitzroy's Private Diary (Extract 24)

There are those who work in my department who spend most of their time behind an office desk. They either shunt papers or handle field agents and assets from a distance. Both seem to me to be the most awful bore.

Before my education was interrupted, and this time I’m not referring to the Dean’s daughter, I had planned a global expedition, travelling to a list of culturally and linguistically remarkable places. When my life changed, somewhat abruptly, and I entered His Majesty’s Service, I was assured there was no need to give up my desire to travel, and that I would be sent hither and thither.

Despite that, a few things in particular thwarted my plans. One of those was the damage to my right hand, which kept me out of the field, at least as far as overseas work was concerned, until I learned to shoot with my other hand. Which, incidentally, is a bloody hard thing to do. Thankfully, the level of skill required in using a firearm is not yet that high a bar. Fists and canes remain the current preference – or, better still, using one’s intellect.

Anyway, having reacquired the skill to effectively use a pistol, should I happen to be challenged by any malevolent barn doors, I was cleared for foreign affairs work. There is nothing quite like it. Unless I’m with Alice, I generally work alone. I go where I please. I do what I think is in the best interest of the mission. I am answerable to the Crown, should I ever be caught doing something unfitting of a service agent, and I am answerable to my superiors, for the overall success of my mission. But, as long as I don’t litter the place with bodies, or seduce senior royal figures, I pretty much get to do as I please. It is an utterly blissful existence, without estates to manage, families to deal with or even co-workers to endure. I don’t count Alice, of course. The reason we work together so well is, I believe, that we are both footloose adventurers at heart. Alice, being a woman, only gets to enter my world part time - and to be honest I don’t think I would like to see her, or any woman for that matter, hardened by the work we do. By returning to her husband and family, she regains a sense of normality. She manages to walk between our two worlds with an ease I can only admire and envy.

And now we have the damn war. War is always unconscionable in my opinion. As soon as the violence starts, all sides have lost. All sides suffer. And, what’s more, it always makes foreign travel so damned difficult.