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"Nohere are you going,back

The earl yel ed over his shoulder without breaking stride "I have a boat to catch and a wife to find You can carry on from here"

Lyal would have rubbed his face with his hands, except his arms were ful"Oh, yes, certainly, feel free to depart And ed into a olf and a dead potentate I am certain I have had Alphas leave me orse messes to tidy up, but I cannot recal them at the moment"

"I am sure you wil do very well "

"Wonderful, my lord Thank you for your confidence"

"Toodles" And with that, Lord Maccon wiggled his fingers in the air in theway and disappeared around the side of a building Presuht stand a better chance of hailing a hackney posthaste for Dover

Professor Lyal decided not to remind him that he was co with Te Floote into a secluded corner

"We e to the queen on this relic business Or at least to BUR I cannot believe you knew about it and never told anyone Then again, I suppose, you never tel anyone anything, do you, Floote? Even overn preternatural body parts as weapons Just think what they could do if they kne to er muhjah, madam The supernatural security of the eed "What can I say? I cannot help rand scale"

"Wel , my e a scale as possible Of course, she was referring to shopping at the time, but I have always felt it was the only sensible sentence she ever uttered in her life"

"Madaed to keep the , we cannot let anyone know that mummies are useful as a weapon

There would be a terrible run on Egypt If the Teure out the ht now it is only natural decomposition, and the fact that they have to preserve tissue in formaldehyde, that keeps preternatural-as-weapon limited to special use" Alexia wrinkled her nose "This is a matter of supernatural security Italy and the other conservative countries ypt at al costs We cannot risk theue"

"I see your reasoning, madam"

"You wil need to develop a suddenthis picnic the preceptor is dragging raphic transe to Professor LyalHe wil knohat to do with the infored about in the ruffle of her parasol until she located the secret pocket and extracted the crystal ine valve, which she handed to Floote

"But,about Italy without me"

"Oh, fiddlesticks Madame Lefoux has entirely refitted my parasol with the necessary armaments I shal have the preceptor and a cadre of Templars with me, and they’re bound to protect me even if they cannot look at arlic dangling fro ribbon about her neck "I shal be perfectly fine"

Floote did not look convinced

"If it wil help al ay your fears, give uns and some of the spare bul ets you purchased yesterday"

Floote did not seem at al mol ified "Madam, you do not kno to shoot"

"How difficult can it be?"

Floote ought to have known after a quarter century of association with Alexia that he could not hope to win any arguentleman of feords and even less inclination to use theh of disapproval, he accepted the responsibility of sending the transuns

Professor Lyal spent the last hour before dawn coping with the consequences of Biffy’s sudden change into a olf and the potentate’s sudden change into a corpse He began by seeking out the closest safe house, where no one else would think to look for hi Cross Station was just south of Soho, he headed north toward the Tunstel s’ apartht was considered quite an acceptable hour for cal ing aer,mortal crowd

--drivers of phaetons and the like--daas not In fact, dawn ht be considered the rudest time for anyone to cal upon anyone else, with the possible exception of groups of hardy fishermen in the backwaters of Portsmouth

But Lyal felt he had no choice As it was, he had to bang on the door a good fivemaid opened it cautiously

"Yes?"

Beyond the maid, Lyal saw a head stick out of a bedroo cap that rese so much as a frothy lace-covered mushroom "What has happened? Are we on fire? Has so Biffy in wolf form, muscled his way past the astonished ht put it like that, Mrs Tunstel "

"My goodness, Professor Lyal ! What do you have there?" The head disappeared

"Tunny! Tunny! Wake up Professor Lyal is here with a dead dog Arise at once Tunny!"

She ca down the hal rapped in a volu pink satin "Oh, the poor laive me for the presumption, Mrs Tunstel , but yours was the nearest house" He lay Biffy down on the smal lavender couch and quickly reached behind it to draw the curtains over the , just as the sun’s first rays peeked above the horizon

Biffy’s previously stil for al decoruot one arm firmly about her waist, and hustled her to the door "Best you not be here for this, Mrs Tunstel

Send in your husband, would you, once he awakens?"