Joel took a split second to weigh up the alternatives. “Pretty good, yes.”

“Let’s see, then.” He waved again, and a lean youth brought over a letter. “Why don’t you tell me about this?”

Joel took the paper with trepidation. He couldn’t get anything off the barely literate since the hand had to be second nature for the personality to express itself, and he feared that wouldn’t be the case given his surroundings. He also had panic lapping at his ankles, fogging his brain. He took a couple of deep breaths before he dared look.

It wasn’t wonderful. The hand wasn’t fluent, but maybe practised enough to let character come through. Hopefully. If Joel could just relax and let it happen. He was very aware of his thundering heartbeat, and the numerous eyes on him.

If you fuck this up, he won’t believe anything you say. Get it right. Get it right.

He wasn’t helping himself. He tried to think of Aaron saying something calm and soothing in his deep voice. Aaron probably faced down characters like Darby Sabini all the time. Imagine going back to him and saying, Sorry, but after all that big talk I broke down and couldn’t get a word out.

He’d been in a fucking war; he was not going to collapse in a Clerkenwell pub. He inhaled so hard his nostrils stung a little, and looked at the paper, taking his time, turning it over and back, thinking.

“Determination,” he said after a moment. “That’s the strongest thing I get: this is a very determined person. I think it would be pretty hard to make him do anything he didn’t want to do, there’s a lot of willpower here. That’s impressive, but maybe, sometimes, a bit too much of a good thing? I wonder if he might stand in his own way now and again, by digging his heels in when he could afford to give a little.” There was a rustle from the silent watchers; Darby gestured and they shut up. Joel tensed his toes in his shoes, steeling himself. “That’s the main thing, but there’s also...there’s a real expansiveness here, you can see it in the broadening of the vowels. I think he’s likely to be a very generous man, there’s nothing small about him. A man you could turn to. Or at least, if he decides to help, he’ll do it properly. That’s part and parcel of the determination, of course: he decides what he thinks is best, or right, and he does it. He’ll make a judgement and then carry it out, whether that’s to help people or, you know, the opposite. That’s really what I’d say here: this is a good friend and a bad enemy. I wouldn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with him, myself.”