But why, if Neil wanted him out of the way, hadn't he simply condemned him at the court-martial? It would have been so easy when Sylvester had nothing to say on his own behalf. Gerard could have said that Gilbraith had surrendered prematurely. That he himself had arrived exactly on time. And the verdict would have been cowardice in the face of the enemy and a firing squad.

But he hadn't said that. He'd taken the risk that Gilbraith would go free. And therefore that his secret, whatever it was, might somehow come out. And now he was trying somewhat clumsily to get rid of him. Presumably because he'd reappeared on the public scene. Licking his wounds and buried in shame in the wilderness, Sylvester would have seemed a minimal threat. But he'd come back to life, and the old scandal inevitably reared its head.

Even as a boy, Neil had reacted in blind panic to threatening situations. And it seemed he was doing it again. But was there more to this panic than the fear that Sylvester would come upon his secret? Why hadn't he condemned him at the court-martial? There'd been another witness, his sergeant. What had he said?

Sylvester shook his head impatiently. He could see the man's face; he was an ugly specimen of mankind. But he couldn't remember what he'd said. His testimony was pure formality, anyway.

"What are you doing?"

Theo's drowsy voice shattered his intense reverie. He swung round to the bed. She was sitting up, blinking sleepily, the sheet tangled around her waist, her breasts lifting gently on the narrow rib cage with each breath.

"Watching the dawn," he said. "Go back to sleep."

Theo continued to sit there, however, regarding him gravely. What had he been thinking as he stood there gazing into the gray darkness? He did know the man's identity, she was certain of it. There had been something forbidding, chilling in his face as he turned to answer her. It had disappeared now, but she'd seen it. She wouldn't want to be in the shoes of whoever inspired that look.

She threw aside the covers and padded across the carpet toward him, black hair swirling around her creamy nakedness. "Is it dawn, already?"

"Almost." The bare skin of her arm brushed his own, making him startlingly aware of his own nakedness. Tense, he waited for more questions, but she merely leaned against him, her hair flowing over his shoulder, one hand lightly tracing the scar running down his rib cage and round the narrow waist.

"When did you get this?"

"Oh, some skirmish about ten years ago."

Theo nodded and looked up at him, into his face, where she saw the lingering pain behind the cool gray eyes. Her husband bore more scars than those visible on his body, and if she was ever going to understand him, she had to understand those scars too.

"Come on, back to bed," Sylvester said with sudden briskness. Catching her up, he carried her back to bed and dropped her on the feather mattress. He leaned over and smoothed her hair from her brow, smiling slightly. "What an intrepid, ramshackle gypsy I have for a wife."

"And you'd prefer another kind?" She couldn't prevent the flicker of anxiety in her eyes, but Sylvester shook his head.

"No, I've told you before we suit very well, you and I." He climbed in beside her, slipping an arm beneath her, rolling her into his embrace. "But there'd better be no more of these impetuous excursions, my love, however gratifying the reason for them."

Theo made no answer but lay quietly against him, relaxing into the warmth of his body. There was no point in further discussion. Prohibition or not, she'd have to conduct her own investigation. Maybe Edward would go with her to the Fisherman's Rest, and they could ask their own questions.

As the October sun rose over the Thames, Neil Gerard paced the small bare room in his anonymous lodgings, wondering what had gone wrong the previous afternoon. His men hadn't appeared for payment at the Fisherman's Rest, but Sylvester Gilbraith had come in their stead.

How he'd managed to overpower three armed thugs was a mystery when his only companions were a gaggle of young women, a child, and a one-armed cripple. Neil had only seen them from a distance, but it looked as if Gilbraith were escorting a schoolroom party. That notwithstanding, he'd overpowered his assailants and managed to learn about the rendezvous.

Neil's only comfort was the certainty that Gilbraith hadn't seen him, huddled in his shadowy corner behind a rickety wooden pillar. Gilbraith had been in the place just long enough to order a drink before the girl had arrived, and in the excitement and disturbance of that arrival, he certainly hadn't had a chance either to look around the room or to ask questions.

What a startling creature she was with that scarlet cloak and midnight-dark hair. Young, though. Very young for Sylvester Gilbraith. But her arrival had certainly annoyed and surprised the earl. Despite her confident smiles and the proprietary hand on his sleeve, he'd removed her in very short order.

She was presumably the earl's mistress. A woman not too unfamiliar with taverns like the Fisherman's Rest. Of course, Stoneridge had just married the Belmont chit. Probably he needed a little meat in his diet. A marriage of interest could make a thin meal, and there must have been an ulterior motive for that connection. Something to do with the entail. It was a common enough arrangement.

However, speculating about Gilbraith's marriage and extramarital connections wasn't throwing any light onto what had gone wrong at Astley's. Whatever it was had brought Gilbraith a dangerously close step toward Neil Gerard. It was time to change his tactics.

He glanced round the bare room with its few sticks of furniture and thin curtains. Wind gusted through the ill-fitting panes of the grimy window, and the small fire in the grate spurted.

He'd hoped to leave this miserable lodging with his problem solved and return to his elegant house on Half Moon Street and the life of the carefree bachelor, no longer obliged to pay his weekly visits to Spitalfields to hand over his blackmail.

A scrupulously cautious man, Neil Gerard had ensured that no one knew he was in London while he plotted the downfall of the Earl of Stoneridge. At these rooms on Ludgate Hill he was an anonymous lodger who paid his rent without fuss, and at the Fisherman's Rest he was an anonymous customer who had business other than drinking. As long as he conducted his business in these places, there was little chance he would accidentally run up against someone from his real life. But now his cover had been destroyed, and there was no point suffering this wretched discomfort any longer.

There was a scratch at the door, and a scrawny maidservant came in, her nose pink from the cold, a scuttle of coals in her hand.

"Make up the fire, sir?"

He nodded and stood watching her as she bent to the task, her skinny hips pressing against the rough linen of her skirt. The image of the girl in the Fisherman's Rest flashed through his mind. There was no comparison between that vibrant image and this work-roughened, scrawny creature, but he hadn't had a woman in several weeks, and his present failure-induced annoyance required soothing.

He moved to the dresser, selected a small coin from a pile, and tossed it to the floor beside the kneeling girl.

She looked up, her eyes widening. "Fer me, sir?"

"Are you clean?" He unfastened the tie of his dressing gown.

A flash of fright crossed her eyes, but she nodded dumbly, picking up the coin as she rose to her feet, wiping her hands on her apron.

"If you please, sir -"

"Well?" he said when she seemed unable to go on.

"I ain't never done it before." She dropped her eyes to the floor, twisting her hands in her apron.

Neil raised his eyes heavenward. It was an old trick. Virgins had a higher price, and he knew of several in the houses in Covent Garden who'd had their virginity restored at least half a dozen times. This girl was just trying to improve her own price.