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his point in wanting to ensure England backed the right horse, or in this case, the right brother. Who won the civil war was unimportant. But he wondered how he was to discover the identity of the traitor without he himself being discovered and getting himself expelled, and for a second time. Now, that would be a first!
    “Not one bloody word of this to Halsey.”
    “Yes, my lord. You have my confidence.”
    “I’ll be the first to pat you on the back with hearty congratulations when you’ve managed to kill two birds with one stone.”
    “Two birds, my lord? A stone?”
    “Ernst and Viktor! Do use your brain, Parsons,” Lord Cobham complained. “By kill I mean give both the hope that His Majesty supports them for the post of Margrave. But if you can’t manage it, it will be cold suppers for you from here on in. Leave Halsey to sort out the mucky business of getting the hostages released. With any luck, he’ll get himself locked up again, and for the greater good—that greater good being my reputation and your position.”
    And Selina’s good name , he thought to himself, knowing his headstrong sister was on the cusp of accepting a marriage proposal from Alec Halsey. Despite being her elder brother and head of the family, he was excruciatingly aware that his position and his opinion held no sway over her. She would do as she pleased; which didn’t please him.
    “If, by some fortuitous happenstance, Halsey manages to secure a release,” he continued, shaking his thoughts free of his recalcitrant sibling. “Then it will be a success for the department, and for me. And that’s how it will be written up in your report, Parsons—Parsons?”
    “Yes, my lord. I will write up a report.”
    “So you bloody-well will! And it’ll be over my bloodied carcass before I allow m’sister to marry the likes of Halsey. She’s a Vesey,” he added, momentarily forgetting he was talking to an inferior in an open street, and not confiding in a member of his club. “The man murdered his brother—regardless of what a coroner has to say to it! Egad. I’ll not have such blood polluting the Vesey line. Regardless of my aunt wanting him to rise to the dizzying heights of ambassador one day. Ha! That’s not bloody likely either! But one can’t say that to elderly aunts, Parsons. Mere females don’t understand these things.”
    “Very true, my lord,” Sir Gilbert said in the silence that dragged after his superior’s diatribe. “I may not have seen Halsey in over a decade, but papers have crossed my desk in that time from his superiors in The Hague and at Paris about his unfortunate practice of being ruled by conscience. And then there is his predilection for engaging in bedroom politics. Pardon, my lord, but if Halsey had spent more time in his breeches than out of ’em we’d not have ended up in deep water—literally; the dungeon is below sea level. That’s what got me expelled from Midanich.”
    “What got you expelled, Parsons, was your own stupidity. Demanding Halsey keep his breeches on when he was in the midst of a torrid affair with the Margrave’s daughter was signing your own warrant for banishment. Halsey’s salacious brand of diplomacy won out. See that house?” Lord Cobham asked, jabbing his walking stick in the direction of a free-standing double-fronted townhouse, the first in a well-appointed secluded row that all backed on to the Green Park. “That’s where he lives now. Shares it with that obstinate uncle. Silly old windbag who pontificates in Parliament about ending slavery and universal education for brats. Ravings of a lunatic! The man’s another loose cannon, and an explosive one. But no one can touch him because he’s an MP. Yes. You may very well stare, Parsons. It’s the sorry truth. And I’m afraid I have more startling news…” He shuddered and closed his eyes as if steeling himself for the announcement he knew would shock Sir Gilbert to the core. “His Majesty has seen fit to