Page 111 of Affair

“Baxter is making plans to search the top floor of The Green Table tonight,” Charlotte said.

Hamilton glanced at her and then looked directly at Baxter. “Perhaps I can help. I know my way around the premises, at least as far as the floor where the club members gather.”

“I do not require your assistance,” Baxter said swiftly.

Hamilton’s expression tightened.

“Baxter, pray consider his offer,” Charlotte said. “Your brother’s knowledge of the club premises would be extremely useful.”

Baxter flexed his hands. “You don’t understand.”

“Of course I do,” she said crisply. “You feel bound by your oath to your father. You promised to look after Hamilton, not put him in harm’s way.”

“Hell’s teeth, I’m not a child,” Hamilton snapped. “I don’t need a nanny.”

“Quite right,” Charlotte said. She turned to Baxter. “I’m certain that your father did not intend for you to protect Hamilton all of his life. He wanted his heir to mature into manhood.”

Hamilton threw her a grateful look. Then he glared at Baxter. “For God’s sake, I’m two-and-twenty. When is someone going to notice that I am already a man?”

Baxter gazed at him for a long moment. His father’s dying words rang in his head.I know I can trust you to look after Hamilton.

“Your knowledge of the club might prove useful,” he conceded reluctantly. “But the situation is not free of risk.”

“That bloody magician very nearly got my best friend killed this morning,” Hamilton said fiercely. “Who knows what he will do next? I have a right to help expose him.”

Baxter glanced at Charlotte. To his surprise, she had nothing to say. She inclined her head a fraction of an inch in silent encouragement.

When did a boy become a man? Baxter wondered. He did not know the answer because he could not recall ever having been a child. It seemed to him that he had been obliged to uphold the responsibilities of an adult all of his life.

“Very well,” he said quietly. “We shall make our plans. For God’s sake, don’t tell your mother.”

Hamilton’s tense features relaxed into the fabled Esherton grin. “Never. You have my oath on it.”

Ihope I do not regret this,” Baxter said later that night.

He stood beside Charlotte at the edge of the dance floor. The Hawkmore affair was a crush. It would be the talk of the ton tomorrow. Tonight, it offered perfect cover.

If Morgan Judd employed spies, they would find it difficult to keep track of anyone in this throng. With luck, no one would even notice when he and Hamilton slipped away to depart for The Green Table.

“I know it was not easy for you to accept Hamilton’s offer of assistance,” Charlotte said. “But this is a perfect opportunity for you to show him that you have faith in him.”

“He still seems so damnably young in so many ways. The very fact that he got involved in The Green Table club is proof that he’s hardly mature.”

“I suspect that Hamilton has learned much from this experience. It’s obvious that Norris’s brush with death had a very sobering effect on him.”

“I cannot deny that. Nevertheless—”

“Look at the bright side, Baxter. Taking Hamilton with you tonight gives you the ideal excuse for refusing my assistance in the venture.”

Baxter smiled in spite of his uneasy mood. “You have a succinct way of summing up a situation, my dear. I wondered why you dropped your demands to accompany me. Now I see that you simply could not pass up the opportunity to help forge a brotherly bond between Hamilton and myself.”

“The bond already exists. You have honored it even as you have denied it.” She fixed him with very serious eyes. “Have a care tonight, Baxter.”

“I’ve told you often enough, it’s not my nature to take foolish risks.”

“No, indeed, you prefer to take calculated risks. To my mind, they are far more dangerous.” She touched the sleeve of his coat. “I shall wait up for you.”

“There is no need. I’ll call upon you in the morning to tell you what we discovered, if anything.”

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