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"Aye?"

Professor Lyall was crouched over the va about the wound, a spotless white lawn handkerchief wrapped around his hand

"Very little mess, actually Almost complete lack of blood spatter" He leaned forward and sniffed "Definitely Westminster," he stated

The Earl of Woolsey seeaze onto the dead vary"

Professor Lyall turned the body over "What happened here?" He took out a small set of wooden tweezers from the pocket of his waistcoat and picked at the back of the vaed about in his coat pockets, and produced a diminutive leather case He clicked it open and reold in color with multiple lenses on one side, bethich there appeared to be some kind of liquid The contraption was also riddled with small knobs and dials Professor Lyall propped the ridiculous things onto his nose and bent back over the varacious ? It looks like the unfortunate progeny of an illicit union between a pair of binoculars and solasses What on earth are they called, binocticals, spectaculars?"

The earl snorted his alassicals?" he suggested, apparently unable to resist a contribution There was a twinkle in his eye as he said it that Alexia found rather unsettling

Professor Lyall looked up froht eye was hideously ruesome and made Alexia start involuntarily

"These are nification lenses with spectra-modifier attachment, and they are invaluable I will thank you not to mock them so openly" He turned once more to the task at hand

"Oh" Miss Tarabotti was suitably impressed "How do they work?" she inquired

Professor Lyall looked back up at her, suddenly ani By turning this little knob here, you can change the distance between the two panes of glass here, allowing the liquid to--"

The earl’s groan interrupted hiet hiht"

Looking slightly crestfallen, Professor Lyall turned back to the dead va?" His boss, preferring the direct approach, resuly at Alexia "What on God’s green earth is that ic loss, I daresay" Her storeeracefully with embarrassment had she not possessed the complexion of one of those "heathen Italians," as her racefully or otherwise (Convincing her mother that Christianity had, to all intents and purposes, originated with the Italians, thusthem the exact opposite of heathen, was a waste of tiize for the boisterousness of her stolare Her stomach was the reason she had sneaked away in the first place Her mama had assured her there would be food at the ball Yet all that appeared on offer when they arrived was a bowl of punch and soet the better of her, Alexia had ordered tea from the butler and retreated to the library Since she nor on the outskirts of the dance floor trying to look as though she did not want to be asked to waltz, tea was a welcome alternative It was rude to order refreshments from someone else’s staff, but when one was pro but watercress, well, one must simply take matters into one’s own hands!

Professor Lyall, kindhearted soul that he was, prattled on to no one in particular, pretending not to notice the ruh of course he heard it He had excellent hearing They all did He looked up frolassicals "Starvation would explain why the vah to try for Miss Tarabotti at a ball, rather than taking to the slurimaced "No associated hive either"

Lord Maccon arched one black eyebrow, professing not to be impressed "How could you possibly know that?"

Professor Lyall explained for both of the lady A hive queen would never have let one of her brood get into such a famished condition We must have a rove on our hands, one completely without ties to the local hive"

Alexia stood up, revealing to Lord Maccon that she had arranged her faint to rest corinned and then quickly hid it behind a frohen she looked at hiestured to the va "Badly tied cravat and a cheap shirt? No hive worth its salt would let a larva like that out without dressing him properly for public appearance I am surprised he was not stopped at the front entrance The duchess’s footht to have spotted a cravat like that prior to the reception line and forcibly ejected the wearer I suppose good staff is hard to co drones these days, but such a shirt!"

The Earl of Woolsey glared at her "Cheap clothing is no excuse for killing a man"

"Mmm, that’s what you say" Alexia evaluated Lord Maccon’s perfectly tailored shirtfront and exquisitely tied cravat His dark hair was a bit too long and shaggy to be de mode, and his face was not entirely clean-shaven, but he possessed enough hauteur to carry this lower-class roughness off without see scruffy She was certain that his silver and black paisley cravat must be tied under sufferance He probably preferred to wander about bare-chested at home The idea made her shiver oddly It must take a lot of effort to keep a er than ive credit to his valet, who er

Lord Maccon was normally quite patient Like most of his kind, he had learned to be such in polite society But Miss Tarabotti see to change the subject," he snapped, squir under her calculated scrutiny "Tell me what happened" He put on his BUR face and pulled out a small metal tube, stylus, and pot of clear liquid He unrolled the tube with a s device, clicked the top off the liquid, and dipped the stylus into it It sizzled oive me instructions in that tone of voice, you" she searched for a particularly insulting word, "puppy! I am jolly well not one of your pack" Lord Conall Maccon, Earl of Woolsey, was Alpha of the local olves, and as a result, he had access to a wide array of truly viciouswith Miss Alexia Tarabotti Instead of bridling at her insult (puppy, indeed!), he brought out his best offensive weapon, the result of decades of personal experience with more than one Alpha she-wolf Scottish he may be by birth, but that only -willed feo out into that ballroo her here"