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to face Sebastian directly. “Actually, you didn’t ask anything.”
    “Very well,” Sebastian said with exaggerated concession. “Why did you beat the young thing to a pulp?”
    “It wasn’t like that,” Harry said irritably.
    “I heard you knocked him unconscious.”
    “That he managed for himself.” Harry shook his head with disgust. “He was completely sotted. I punched him once, in the face. At most, I hastened his blackout by ten minutes.”
    “It’s not like you to strike another man unprovoked,” Sebastian said quietly, “even if he has had too much to drink.”
    Harry’s jaw clenched. He was not proud of the episode, but at the same time, he could not bring himself to regret it. “He was bothering someone,” he said tightly. And that was all he was going to say. Sebastian knew him well enough to know what that meant.
    Sebastian nodded thoughtfully, then let out a long sigh. Harry took that to mean that he would drop the subject, and he walked back over to his desk, surreptitiously glancing over at the window on his way.
    “Is she there?” Sebastian asked suddenly.
    Harry did not pretend to misunderstand. “No.” He sat back down, finding his spot in the Russian document.
    “Is she there now ?”
    It was remarkable how quickly this was growing tedious. “Seb—”
    “Now?
    “Why are you here?”
    Sebastian sat up a bit. “I need you to go to the Smythe-Smith musicale on Thursday.”
    “Why?”
    “I promised someone I’d go, and—”
    “Whom did you promise?”
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    “It does to me, if I’m forced to attend.”
    Sebastian colored slightly, always an entertaining, if unusual, event. “Very well, it’s my grandmother. She cornered me last week.”
    Harry groaned. Any other female, and he’d have been able to get out of it. But a promise to a grandmother—that had to be upheld.
    “Then you’ll go?” Sebastian asked.
    “Yes,” Harry said with a sigh. He hated these things, but at least at a musicale one didn’t have to make polite conversation all evening. He could sit in his seat, say nothing, and if he looked bored, well, so would everyone else.
    “Excellent. Shall I—”
    “Wait a moment.” Harry turned to him suspiciously. “Why do you need me ?” Because really, Sebastian hardly lacked social confidence.
    Sebastian shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I suspect my uncle will be there.”
    “Since when has that scared you?”
    “It doesn’t.” Seb shot him a look of pure disgust. “But Grandmama is likely to try to mend the riftand—Oh, for God’s sake, does it matter? Will you go or won’t you?”
    “Of course.” Because really, it hadn’t been in any doubt. If Sebastian needed him, Harry would be there.
    Sebastian stood, and whatever distress he’d been feeling was gone, replaced by his customary nonchalance. “I owe you.”
    “I’ve stopped counting.”
    Seb laughed at that. “I’ll go wake the whelp for you. Even I think it’s an unseemly hour to still be abed.”
    “Be my guest. You’re the only thing about me Edward respects.”
    “Respects?”
    “Admires,” Harry amended. Edward had more than once expressed his disbelief that his brother—whom he found dull beyond measure—should be so close to Sebastian, whom he wished to emulate in every way.
    Sebastian paused at the door. “Is breakfast still laid?”
    “Get out of here,” Harry said. “And shut the door, will you?”
    Sebastian did so, but his chortling rang through the house nonetheless. Harry flexed his fingers and looked back at his desk, where the Russian documents still sat untouched. He had only two days to complete this assignment. Thank God the girl—Lady Olivia—had left her room.
    At the thought of her, he looked up, but without his usual care, since he knew she was gone.
    Except she wasn’t.
    And this time, she had to know that he’d seen her.

Chapter Two
    O livia dropped to all fours, her heart pounding. He’d seen her. He had definitely