“Will he fuck as like,” Silas snarled, uncaring if he soiled this fop’s ornamented ears.
“My dear sir, don’t punish the messenger. You must understand, Dominic, this is intended for your own good, since it is apparent you have run mad.”
“I am not the lunatic here,” Dominic said savagely. “Who the devil does he think he is?”
“A Vane, of course,” Harry said. “They’re all like that, my whole family. Why do you think my cousin had to elope? Or my father, come to that?”
“I will have words with Richard. I have tolerated his interference long enough. I will not have this.”
“Don’t let me stand in your way,” Norreys said. “In fact, I shall take steps to be as far out of the way as possible. As will you, dear Harry.”
“I think I’d quite like to talk to Richard too, actually,” Harry said. “He got rid of my valet, the one who killed George, you know. He’ll never face trial, because the Vanes didn’t want him telling the world that my grandfather tried to kill me. He’s just been removed.”
Silas shook his head, unbelieving, looked at Dominic. “See? And you say there’s the same law for all?”
“One law for the lion and ox is oppression,” Dominic said.
“Don’t you fucking quote Blake at me!”
“I intend to quote it to Richard. It is, after all, precisely what the Vane family believes.” Dominic’s nostrils were flared, a little betrayal of the anger gripping him. “Have you any intimation that this is in motion, Julius?”
“No. I had the letter this afternoon. It’s possible that he wrote in anger and may reconsider. You do know that Absalom was at Millay’s at the same time as you?”
“The devil.” Dominic looked shocked. “I don’t know anything. We were in the room for hours after.”
“It seems a serving maid appeared at a run and summarily ejected his partner just at the moment of crisis. He felt, naturally, rather hard done by. So he was not arrested, but you will understand Richard’s feelings. He is of the opinion that Mr. Mason’s association with the pair of you could bring every one of us down.”
There was a nasty silence. “That’s not fair,” Harry said at last. “It’s come about because of me.”
“It’s all of us,” Dominic said.
“All three of you?”
“No, all of us. You, Ash, Francis, Absalom, everyone. We’re all breaking the law. If anything, Richard has made us overconfident. Molly houses are raided, Julius, and men like us go to the pillory or to the gallows, and we don’t need the help of radicals for that to happen.”
“Radicals say, change the law,” Silas said. “You don’t want reform; you like things to stay the way they are? Well, this is how they are.”
“It is, and I for one have no desire to face the consequences,” Norreys said. “Be extremely careful, Dominic, please. I shall tell Richard that Harry and I will have no part of any press-ganging. I don’t know what Cyprian may have put in motion now, but that is up to you to deal with. Harry, let us leave this, ah, seditious pair to their evening. Good fortune, Mr. Mason, and a very merry Christmas.”
They made their goodbyes. Dominic showed Harry and Julius out and returned to the study where Silas sat by the fire.
“Are you all right?” Dominic asked.
“Can’t say I’m pleased.”
“Nor I. Blast Julius. I wanted this evening to be a pleasure for you.”
“It has.” Silas reached for his hand. “God damn you, Tory, you don’t give a cove a chance. Listen. If your Richard fellow still loves you—”
“He doesn’t.”
“He must. Talking about having me put on a ship and taken off to America or what have you? To keep you safe, when that’s not what you want? Sounds like love to me.”
There was a long pause.
“Did you ever have someone, like that?” Dominic asked.
“No. Well. Got married, but—”
“Married?”
Silas shrugged. “I was not much over twenty; she had a brat on the way. Annie, her name was. She wanted me to leave off the politics, though, soon as we wed, and I wouldn’t. Then the child was stillborn. She left not long after.”
“What happened to her?” Dominic asked.
“No idea. Not seen her in years.”
“You’re still married?”
“For aught I know. That a problem?”
Dominic opened his mouth, shut it again, and finally said, “I suppose not. You don’t sound…affected.”
“I think about my boy sometimes.” He didn’t even know where that had come from. It was true, but a truth for nobody’s hearing. “He never had a chance. Little white scrap of a thing. I’d have liked him to have a chance. But as for Annie, it was twenty years ago. Most people don’t care that long.” He took a breath, made himself say it, because it was only fair, after this. “You do, for your Richard. He does for you.”