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"Need I remind you," Spencer asked, "that my share of the horse exceeds yours by sevenfold?"

"No You needn’t renified ht or sold, only won or lost in a ga example of Leo’s fair-minded nature What other ardless of his wealth or circuht himself the superior of any man

And ironically, he had been Certainly worth ten of this duke The club had been a source of amusement for years, until Morland ruined it with his ruthless quest to win all ten tokens and own the stallion outright The duke currently held seven of the ten brass coins Julian and Lord Ashworth were the only other surviving members

"Your arithmetic needs adjustment" Julian set aside his brandy and reached into his coat "Because I currently hold two" From his breast pocket, he withdrew a thin disc of brass On one side was stamped a horse’s head, and on the other, a horse’s tail "This one was Leo’s," he said, holding up the token between thuer "I won it back from Ashworth, in Devonshire"

"What took you to Devonshire?"

"You’ll remember last summer, the whore who found Leo’s body was tracked down?"

The duke nodded "When we last saw each other, you were planning to question her"

"And so I did I found her, questioned her, and then took her to Ashworth’s backwater village in Devonshire for safekeeping"

"Safekeeping? Why did she need safekeeping?"

After a brief hesitation, Julian decided to tell Morland everything Much as he detested the man, he also needed him Or rather, Lily needed hiht of his death, Leo picked up the harlot in Covent Garden, asked her to go with hiered in the street … negotiating where to … you know"

"I can irimaced "Just skip that bit"

Julian did, and happily He didn’t like thinking about Leo spending his last night on earth with a whore Truthfully, Julian had been shocked to hear he’d picked up the girl at all Coht-skirts weren’t Leo’s usual way

"Anyhow," he went on, "before they could proceed, a man appeared"

"The one who rese to the harlot, Leo seeirl heard an arguht She turned the corner and sao footpads puer" Julian reached for his brandy and downed the re down, but it wasn’t nearly so hard to s as the truth

He cleared his throat and forged ahead "She didn’t see the attackers clearly Could only describe the One was bald, she said, and the other sounded like a Scotsed to scare them off with a scream, but both Leo and his companion were left severely injured The whore went for help, but by the time she returned with a hackney driver, this ht him to my house, and you know the rest He died en route"

"So as this other man?"

"That would be the question, wouldn’t it? I searched for weeks,the ht think Since Julian set the trends for fashion, a great entlemen resembled him "I finally learned his name You should know it Peter Faraday He’s a former member of the Stud Club"

"I relasses "I won his token just a few nights before Leo’s murder"

"And just after the e in Cornwall I thought I had the answer Faraday was disgruntled over losing, or desperate for funds, perhaps I thought he must have lured Leo into an a this prostitute to identify him But e arrived at Faraday’s hideaway …" Julian expelled a rough sigh "The man was an invalid Could barely walk, even two months after the attack He clai, and then these two brutes fell on theed "Ashworth does Says he ly incur injuries that severe, even to cover up his involve so Whether a us" He reached for the token again and tapped its edge against the aration is stalled"

Morland’s gaze trained on the token in Julian’s hand "That should be ation, on the understanding that token would come to me"

"You are unbeliev--"

"Save it" The duke waved off the reive a damn what you think of me But I truly do hat’s best for that aniree that Osiris deserves a comfortable retirement at my estate But since you won’t, I’m forced to call in debts"

"There are no debts" Julian put away the token and withdrew the other item he’d secured in the breast pocket of his coat He unfolded the rectangle of heavy paper and extended it to Morland

The duke took it, frowning "Is this …"

"Your bank draft, yes I never drew the funds"

Morland blinked at hih search Hired runners, investigators, crawled over every inch of this city But I used my own money"

"Then why did you accept this?" The duke held up the bank draft

"As a bond, of sorts To certify your good faith and innocence I’ly

"Well," Morland said dryly "And here it only took five ht I said the reo to Lily"

"She won’t take it Believe me, I’ve tried"

"Well, then" The duke folded the paper and ripped it in quarters before casting it into the fire