“So I hear.” King knew Joshua was older than his brother, but he was again at a loss as to what age this person might be. “And how old must one be before he runs away to join the circus?”
“Sixteen, I figure. That means we only need to wait three years.”
“Who is we? Certainly, you don’t mean to take your siblings.”
The boy looked as though he’d been caught with his hand in a rich man’s pocket. “I didn’t saywe.I said I only need to wait three years.”
King raised his brows. “My mistake. Did you deliver my letters?”
“I did. I went to the back door of all the fancy houses and handed the letters to a footman.”
“I told you to give them to the butler.”
Joshua rolled his eyes. “No butler will give someone like me the time of day. But the footman will give them to the butler. If he can read your writing. It’s all but illegible.”
“That’s not my fault. The ink—Never mind. What about my solicitor? Did he send a reply?”
“I have it here somewhere.” The boy reached into one side of his coat and then the other. King had to refrain from grabbing the child and turning him upside down to shake loose the contents of his pockets. He needed that letter. He’d instructed the solicitor to send him an advance on his allowance. By now his stomach was growling rather impatiently, and he needed that blunt, lest Miss Sunshine starve him.
“Here it is.” Joshua handed him the letter. King took it and turned it over, dismayed to see it bore no wax seal. The solicitor couldn’t be very worried about the contents if he hadn’t even sealed it. King opened it and read the missive quickly. The words blurred together after he saw the phraseaccounts frozen.
“This can’t be right,” he said. “Did he give you a bank draft or a tenner?”
“A tenner? In my dreams!”
“Did he say anything to you?”
“Not really. But I heard him speaking to his clerk, and he mentioned a trial and…something else.” Joshua scratched his head.
“Attainder by verdict?”
“That was it.”
“Bloody hell.”
“Don’t let Vi hear you talk like that. She once washed my mouth out with soap when I said blo—” He glanced around. “When I said that word.”
“She may have a few choice words of her own when I tell her this news. It means I don’t have the money I owe her. Not yet, at any rate.”
“Make sure I’m somewhere else when you deliver that news,” Joshua said. “Say, what are you doing out here? I thought you were supposed to be helping to clean.”
King snorted. “I’m a marquess. I don’t clean taverns.”
Joshua shook his head.
“I don’t know what the solicitor told you, but for a few more hours, Iama marquess. And there’s nothing that little termagant can say or do to make me get on my knees and scrub floors.”
“Is that so?” came a feminine voice from behind him.
King glared at Joshua. “You might have warned me,” he muttered.
“I tried.”
“I wondered where you’d disappeared,” Miss Baker said as King turned around. “If you aren’t working, I assume you can pay your debt?”
He scratched his head. “Not yet.”
Her blue eyes slid to Joshua. “You delivered the correspondence?”
