The Queer Principles of Kit Webb - Cat Sebastian Page 0,80

held it up to Percy’s lips. “I’d even say you seek it out. So you ought to be perfectly fine letting on that you need me.”

Percy stared at him, and for a minute Kit thought he’d protest. But he leaned forward and ate the cake from Kit’s fingers.

Chapter 37

The next morning at breakfast, the duke announced his plan to visit Cheveril Castle in two days’ time.

“Indeed,” Percy said, managing a bored air as he cut his ham into ever smaller pieces. “Will Marian be joining you?”

“The duchess,” his father said severely, “must call on her mantua maker, and therefore must remain in town.”

Throughout this, Marian remained very still, and Percy inferred that it had not been easy for her to negotiate her unsupervised stay in London. If everything went as planned, Marian would only need to endure two more days of silent cold meals and the ever-watchful eye of the duke. Two more days. Percy hadn’t known it was possible to feel terror and relief at the same time.

Percy excused himself from the table and went directly to Kit’s. When he arrived, Kit was at his usual station by the hearth, but he looked up when he heard the door. He didn’t quite smile, but an expression of pleased surprise crossed his face, followed by a slow and careful appraisal of Percy’s fine attire.

Sitting on a stool nearby was Rob, and he was staring at Percy in a way that left no room for Percy to hope that he had not been recognized as the man Kit had been with several nights ago. Feeling that it would be more awkward to feign ignorance of the man’s presence, and also possessed by the lamentable urge to be on his best behavior around Kit’s friends, he bowed his head at the man.

Rob did not return the nod. Instead, he looked shrewdly, but not quite unkindly, at Percy, then flicked his gaze to Kit, and then back again. Percy wasn’t sure if it was his imagination or if he detected a somewhat mad glint in the fellow’s eye. One had to be a bit mad, he supposed, to let one’s friends think one was dead for an entire year. But no matter; Kit cared for the man. Kit also seemed to care for Percy, which not only gave him and Rob something in common, but proved that Kit was a terrible judge of character.

Rob was somewhere between Kit’s and Percy’s ages, which was to say about twenty-five, with hair that could only be described as carroty and a build even leaner than Percy’s. Even sitting, he seemed strung tight with a dangerous tension, like a whip pulled back and about to strike. He looked familiar in a way that Percy could not quite put his finger on, but before he could think further on this, Rob spoke.

“I can’t decide whether I’m more surprised by his being rich or his being a man,” Rob said, his eyes still on Percy but his words plainly directed at Kit. It was an impertinence, to talk about him as if he weren’t there, and Percy was shocked to find that he didn’t care. Perhaps it was that with so much else to worry about, the petty trappings of rank and courtesy did not even merit a second thought. Perhaps it was that he was willing to be generous with Kit’s friends. Neither explanation pleased him.

“I need to speak to you. In private,” Percy said, remembering the purpose of his errand and trying to ignore the flames of fear and anxiousness that licked at the edges of his mind.

Kit gestured at the door to the back room, and then, apparently thinking better of it, made toward the stairs. The office, Percy supposed, was a much more suitable place for a meeting with Lord Holland.

When the door shut behind them, Percy cleared his throat. “This will probably be too short notice to arrange the robbery, but my father will be traveling to Cheveril in two days.”

Kit frowned. “Two days is plenty of time. You already know your part. The main difficulty was always going to be knowing your father’s route beforehand, and then separating him from his outriders and the other carriages in his party. Now we have the first part settled, and with Rob around, the second part will be child’s play.”

“You’ve told him?” Percy didn’t know why he felt betrayed. Of course Kit would have told Rob who Percy was and what Percy planned. Of course Kit’s