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He yelped, “Are you daft, girl…that hurt!” he returned but he was as usual grinning

“Oh…oh, row one of those, and it is a dark mustache…it doesn’tonce more

“Are ye two finished with yer prattle and giggles?” Chauncey asked on a long and weary sigh “Because if ye are, mayhap we can tell the duke what Ned and I have discovered”

All eyes turned to Chauncey while Ned rubbed the red raw spot thehad left over his upper lip

“As it happens, e the duke a ratitude, we do, coz if we hadn’t piked over to Teeside, ouldn’t a learnt about Hawkins!”

Mandy and the duke said as one voice, “Hawkins?” And Mandy added, “Who the deuce is Hawkins?”

“If you would but be quiet ly

Mandy sat on a large flat rock and folded her arms across her middle She was surrounded byit over her Her question was reasonable What rong with her question?

“As you were saying,” encouraged the duke “You discovered so about Hawkins?”

“Aye, and a thousand pities we couldn’t a stayed a ed this ‘ere Hawkins’ direction, Yer Grace But had this need to shake our shambles out of the Red Hart Inn…real sudden-like”

“Soed, one brow arched

Ned laughed out loud and slapped Chauncey on the back “Lord, no, duke, don’t let Chauncey bamboozle you He enjoyed every minute of it Certes…” he turned to his sister, “Mandy, wait till you hear”

“Oh, aetherness, then?” she asked still miffed with them

He ignored her and said, “We hobnobbed with a redbreast,” Ned declared, grinning broadly “A Bow Street Runner…from London…a runner, Mandy!”

Mandy was not amused “What?” she shrieked