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‘What?’ Will asked

‘Don’t ju, but can you afford such aout will last a while, but rather than haring off to the Continent, don’t you need to look for soh and—?’

Will waved Alastair to silence ‘No, the earl did not You didn’t really expect our uncle to settle an allowance on me, did you?’

‘Well, he did proether the funds to buy your own coood in the ar a Ransleigh’

Will laughed ‘I iine he expected me to either be killed or cashiered out And, no, I’ve no intention of going to hie, so save your breath’

‘Then ill you do?’

‘There are soh, I’ll see Max reinstated to his forot sufficient blunt for the journey with enough extra to gild the right hands, if necessary’

‘I’ll coues for ever”, after all’

‘No, you won’t Wait, hearAlastair’s protest ‘If I needed a sabre-wielding Hussar to ride beside ht, there’s no man I’d rather have But for this journey …’

Looking his cousin up and down, he grinned ‘In your voice, yourthat you’re Alastair Ransleigh of Barton Abbey, nephew of an earl, wealthy owner of vast property I’ll need to travel as a man nobody notices and the alley rats would sniff you out in an instant’

‘You’re the nephew of an earl yourself,’ Alastair pointed out

‘Perhaps, but thanks to , in the back streets of London, I had the benefit of six years’ education in survival I kno thieves, Captain Sharps and cutthroats operate’

‘But these will be Austrian thieves, Captain Sharps and cutthroats And you don’t speak German’

Will shrugged ‘Thievery is thievery and you’d be surprised at my many talents The arover Dom’s recovery’

‘He’s healed now, hasn’t he?’ Alastair asked, diverted by Will’s allery ‘Has he … recovered?’

Will recalled the desolate look in Do eye ‘Dandy Doi—and char the ladies

His face scarred, one arone, his physical prowess diminished, Dom would have to come to terms with ot hi enough and kicked o to Vienna’

Alastair frowned ‘I still don’t like you going there alone Max said the authorities in Vienna strongly discouraged hiet no help froerous’

‘Dangerous?’ Will rose and made a circuit of the rooether at Swynford Court?’ he asked abruptly, looking back at Alastair ‘The laho found me in Seven Dials had just turned me over to the earl, who, assured I was truly his brother’s child, du you, Max and Do of me, or else I was … rather unlikeable’

Alastair laughed ‘An understate everyone you encountered in barely comprehensible cant!’

‘After teeks, you and Doive up One night he caught me alone in the stables I tried every dirty trick I knew, but he still beat the stuffing out of me Then, cool as you please, he told e That I was his cousin and a Ransleigh, and he was counting on me to learn to act like one I didn’tonon stone, until he finally convincedmore than the leader of thieves in a rookery Max knew that if I didn’t change, when the earl returned at the end of the summer, blood kin or not, he would toss me back into the streets’