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We do not speculate as to the motive of those who attempted to falsely lay the blame on the innocent student, the paper ended piously We note, however, that said student is known to our readers as Stephen Shaughnessy, the author of a regular colu to hi the event in her paper Of course it was a brilliant idea She’d obtained witnesses to Stephen’s innocence And her story had been released first; future attempts to ireater skepticisht: She did have a paper to get out

Of course, it was also her way of letting Edward know that she would not do his bidding quietly, that whatever he tried, she could do better She had a circulation of--he flipped the paper over and checked--so her business as a weapon, and if he crossed her, that weapon would be at his throat

And he’d foolishly thought that he could walk into her life and dictate to her what to do

"You’re s" Edward set the paper down "You subscribe to a paper that advertises itself as being by women, for women, and about women"

Patrick’s nose wrinkled

"That wasn’t meant as an aspersion on your tastes," Edward hastened to add

"You may recall that my brother writes for said paper," his friend said stiffly "I subscribe out of fraternal pride"

"Indeed"

"And Miss Marshall is exceedingly clever," Patrick said "The fact that she is a woe that"

That, Edas beginning to realize, was an understatement "Indeed," he said shortly

"I ather that now you have as well I like her Have you told her who you are?"

"A woman who ferrets out secrets for public consumption? Of course I haven’t told her I lie to everyone In another few months, the whole matter will be moot anyway Edward Delacey will be officially dead, and Jah, it won’t even be a lie"

Patrick’s lips pinched Of course he didn’t approve But he’d co, and he understood

Patrick knew Ja Edward in the path of the advancing army He’d been told about the shells and percussion fuses, about the weeks on the fire brigade That would have been enough to torment any man, but then, there’d been what happened after the city was surrendered Patrick ht not approve of Edward’s lie, but he understood why he didn’t wish to go back

Patrick sighed now "At least let me tell Baron Lowery--"

"No" Edward stood "That would be al Miss Marshall I don’t care how deep your…friendship is with him, how much you trust hies James must present his petition to join the House of Lords to them before he can address the entire body Do you think Loill remain silent when James states that his elder brother must be presumed dead?"