the state of the finances left to him.
From across the room, Chance bent slightly over a globe, spinning the sphere, not unlike the way Dare had as a boy when he’d been waiting for his father to arrive and lecture him on his many failings.
“Did you ever think of going to these places?” Chance murmured.
Dare blinked; it took a moment to realize that the younger man was speaking to him.
“I . . .” He had. All the time. He’d wanted to see not only every corner of London and how the people lived there, but the whole of the world. To discover other people and other places. To explore. It was why, when he’d wandered off with Topher McSally, the street thug who’d taken Dare under his wing and promised to show him the thrill of that world, Dare had believed himself on the grandest adventure. And for a bit of time, he had been. Before his exploration of East London had ended and he’d been passed over to Mac Diggory . . .
“We had a book,” Chance said, not pressing Dare for an answer, and bringing him back to the moment. “Just one: Coryat’s Crudities: Hastily gobled up in Five Moneth’s Travels.” A wistful smile pulled at Chance’s lips as he stopped the globe from spinning with his finger and then restarted it with the same digit. “Temperance always said Mum had sneaked it free when she eloped with our da, and when he went and sold everything off, she hid it under a loose floorboard . . . And whenever Da was gone, she would just sit there and read it, over and over.” Chance stopped the globe with his finger once more and peered down at the location he’d landed on. “Temperance would read to me from that book every night, telling me the world was mine for the taking and that I could be like that traveler . . . honorable. Good. Seeing the world outside of ours, but through respectable means.”
Dare smiled. That was . . . very much Temperance. Building up her brother and refusing to imagine a life of crime and sin for him. Just as she’d hoped—expected—Dare would follow.
Closeted away in his office nearly two hours later, waiting with a restless Chance, Dare registered the echo of footsteps in the hall.
And they looked up as Spencer entered . . . with Avery Bryant beside him.
“I found him, my lord,” his butler said, faintly breathless, but his voice brimming with pride.
Chance blanched like he’d seen a bogeyman and jumped back.
Avery Bryant grinned wryly. “Still got a problem with me, do you, Swift?” He waggled his eyebrows. “Or was that your sister with the problem?”
The young man frowned and dusted his palms over his lapels. “I’m my own man, capable of making my own judgments,” he said tightly.
Dare’s butler made no hint of concealing his interest in the exchange, watching the two men as they debated.
“If you’ll excuse us, Spencer?”
The servant nodded and then backed from the room, all the while keeping a careful eye on Avery Bryant until he’d gone.
Avery snorted. “Funny to get a request from you, Grey. You got this one who never trusted me”—he jabbed a thumb in Chance’s direction—“and your servants don’t trust me. But then, mayhap they’re the wise ones, and you’re the one who never knew what was good for you.” He chortled like he’d told the cleverest of jests.
The tight lines at the corners of Chance’s mouth dipped. “I don’t think it’s a good idea he be here.”
Temperance certainly wouldn’t approve . . . She never had where Avery Bryant was concerned. But sometimes, the end did justify the means. “And what of Joseph?” Dare asked quietly. “Mr. Buxton isn’t answering you, and Joseph is set to swing.” Chance’s cheeks blanched. “Should we not do whatever we need to, to help?”
As they talked, Avery gave no indication he cared either way about the discussion taking place about him and over him. Rather, he continued to assess the same bust he had at his last visit, sizing it up with an expression Dare recognized all too well.
Chance closed his eyes briefly, and then gave a short, tight nod.
Dare motioned to his former partner.
“I have it on authority that you paid a visit to a certain baron,” Avery said as he sauntered over.
Dare stiffened.
The other man had known.
“I know. I know everything about the available households. Well”—he nudged his chin—“what did you manage?”
Dare resisted the urge to squirm.