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“Oh yes,” Peregrine said mildly. “There’s information in the Home Office both my mother and Goldbourne would find… pr ofitable. Secrets to sell, pressure points to exploit. Evidence that might conveniently vanish or reappear in altered form. And then there’s the matter of embezzlement.”

He gave the paper a flick. “A few obliging clerks, a forged signature or two, and suddenly funds are flowing uphill. Loyalty, as ever, is a question of price. Or pressure.”

“Your point is made,” she sighed. “But finding his work, just the two of us, sounds like a needle in a haystack.”

He inclined his head. “It isn’t quite as dire as all that. I am wearing the proof that what we are doing is causing annoyance. Enough that he has hired a rather expensive paid blade,” he said dryly, tracing a fingertip lightly over one of the darkening bruises on his neck.

“If we keep up the pressure on Goldbourne, we will either find what we are looking for or cause him to stumble. But we are short on hands. That’s part of why I have been leaning on Ravenscroft to help recover Selina.

She knows the game, its rules, and how to cheat them.

More importantly, she has a personal interest in seeing Goldbourne brought to heel,” he added.

Charity glanced over. “And what about Ravenscroft?”

Peregrine’s mouth twitched. “Don’t tell the magpie I said so, but I suspect he might just be able to hold his own against the marchioness.

God help him. We will see him later this afternoon and we can ask him how he feels about joining this misbegotten effort then, before we use him to twist Prinny’s arm. ”

“Later? What else are we doing before?” Was it his imagination that her coolly curious voice sounded a trifle hopeful?

“No rest for the wicked, Sparkles. How would you feel about a trip to the Seven Dials?”

Blinking at him, she tried to follow this non sequitur. “Your townhouse?” she guessed, and he nodded. “What does that have to do with the chancellor? Or Goldbourne. ”

“Just last week, an acquaintance of mine at White’s begged a favour, since he knew I was not staying in my townhouse. He asked if I might be willing to rent it to a nameless guest. I am now half possessed of the notion that it just might be our missing Mr V?—.”

When Charity and Peregrine arrived at his townhouse, they did indeed find that Tremayne’s favour had bought Mr Vesey refuge in Peregrine’s property.

He was the youngest brother of a viscount who sat in the cabinet.

Despite counting fewer years than Peregrine, his hair was already thinning, and his face was already beginning to show the signs of a dissipated lifestyle.

He had occasionally mingled at ton events, but more often, he could be found spending a great deal of his time ingratiating himself with Prinny’s usual circle of gamblers.

Gambling was how Vesey had first gotten himself into trouble.

“I lost almost five hundred quid to Lord Shedford playing cards. I was late, but I paid the debt.” Mr Vesey bit the tips of his fingers and paced the floor. It was difficult to watch him since he was rather twitchy, and Peregrine wondered whether the man’s vices also ran to things like opium.

Peregrine waved Charity backwards, to stand nearer her guards, and used his body to physically herd Vesey farther away.

“What happened after you paid your gambling debt?” Peregrine asked him in a low voice.

“Shedford accused me of paying with counterfeit funds. I thought he was being a weasel—trying to get me to pay more—and I told him so.”

“ Were they counterfeit? ”

“No!” he exclaimed, offended. But then his face fell. “At least, I don’t think so. They shouldn’t have been. I had some of it, and my brother went to the bank himself to get me what I lacked. Hartwell & Goldbourne, I think. The one my father used to use. They’re reputable enough.”

Peregrine kept his face expressionless. “So, you told him you thought he was trying to extort you for more money. Then what happened?”

The man’s face went through a sea change of emotions. “We… fought. He threatened to tell everyone about me being a cheat. It would ruin my brother. I… challenged him to a duel. I meant to miss. But…”

“But you didn’t. You aimed his way instead of into the air. And now he’s dead, and your brother cut you off, and you have no means of escaping the law. That’s why you’re hiding here in my house. Is that about the size of it?”

Vesey pressed both hands to his mouth and nodded. Glancing over his shoulder to see what Charity seemed to think, Peregrine saw her lips pressed together into a line. A furrow was forming between her brows.

“And Eldon? What does he have to do with the mess?” she asked.

Cringing into himself, Vesey uttered his words in a whisper.

“He did pay off the runners to stop the news. I told him everything that had happened. I know it looks bad. But I was being set up, I’m sure of it.

I would never do something so despicable.

If any of what I paid was counterfeit, it was an accident.

I would never do such a thing on purpose. ”

But a banker interested in causing scandals for a lord sitting in the cabinet might—a thought which clearly hadn’t crossed Vesey’s mind.

“I assume you will be remaining here for the near future,” Peregrine said dryly.

“I have another appointment to keep, but I may think of more things I want to ask you later. ”

The man nodded, hanging his head.

Offering his arm to Charity, Perry swept her back out the door, handing her into the carriage quickly before anybody could get too close a look at her. “To St James’s, Hodges,” he told his driver as the guards hopped onto the rail.

“What are you thinking?” Charity asked him.

“That Lord Vesey was the intended target, and not his useless brother. Eldon, Vesey, Sidmouth, Cavendish,” he murmured. “All politicians, all scandals.”

“Political enemies?” she guessed.

Peregrine shrugged a shoulder, frustrated. “Perhaps. Every time we find a new piece of information, this becomes wider and deeper. I need Selina’s insights. Some of these are her people. She might also have some sense of the larger plan afoot.”

“We will figure out the pattern,” Charity told him firmly. “We also need Selina’s help at the very least to determine whether Goldbourne is a willing participant in your mother’s schemes or someone she has had to blackmail into taking part.”