Lord Arthur Secretan, the younger brother of Lord Chingford, is said to have been expelled from the Symposium in 1917 for his extreme political views and refusal to fight. The Symposium would not confirm or deny this. Lord Arthur recently became notorious for the killing of man-about-town Johnnie Cheveley in shocking events at Lord Waring’s ancestral home. No blame was attached to Lord Arthur by the Coroner’s jury.

“They commended him, you shits,” Will growled at the paper.

Of course the jackals had dragged that up. They couldn’t yet say Chingford was a murderer but by God they could prepare the ground, and when he was arrested... Will didn’t even want to imagine the editors salivating over the Secretan family dirt.

“Bastards,” he said a bit too loudly, causing an affronted customer to scuttle from the shop.

The telephone rang about three o’clock. He snatched it up. “Darling’s Used and Antiquarian, who is it?”

“Me.”

Will felt a slight sag of relief in his shoulders that made him realise how much he’d feared Kim not calling, not communicating, not coming back. “Are you all right?”

“I’ve had better days. Would you come to the Symposium with me?”

“Yes. What? When? Why?”

“Good God, Will, it’s not a grammar lesson. What: you, me, the Symposium to ask some questions. When: now. Why: because I want my questions answered, and because I could use your presence. I’ve had as much hostility as I want to experience for one day.”

He sounded a bit ragged. “Of course I’ll come,” Will said. “They’ll let us in, right?”

“For now. Look smart, if you would, and I’ll see you there in half an hour.”

***

WILL TURNED UP A FEW minutes early, shaved and respectable. He didn’t even try knocking but lurked across the street, very aware that Pall Mall was not a good place to lurk. It was a great deal too clean and classical for that.

Kim arrived before anyone had started giving Will funny looks. He was perfectly dressed down to the arrangement of the lilac handkerchief in his breast pocket, but he was extremely weary around the eyes.

“Hello,” Will said. “Do you need a drink?”

“Yes. Not yet, though.”

“Anything I need to know before we go in?”