“Jem" I have an assignmation in Soho this evening with a certain attractive someone.Tessa: Goodness. If you keep seeing Six-Fingered Nigel like this, he'll expect you to declare your intentions.Jem choked on his tea.”

“Goodness," Tessa said to the back of his head. "If you keep seeing Six-Fingered Nigel like this, he'll expect you to declare your intentions.”

“Should we leave now?” “I need to finish my tea first,” Jem said. “Anyway, I don’t see what you’re so fired up about. You said the place hadn’t been used as a brothel in ages?” “I want to be back before dark,” Will said. He was leaning nearly across Tessa’s lap, and she could smell that faint boy-smell of leather and metal that seemed to cling to his hair and skin. “I have an assignation in Soho this evening with a certain attractive someone.” “Goodness,” Tessa said to the back of his head. “If you keep seeing Six-Fingered Nigel like this, he’ll expect you to declare your intentions.” Jem choked on his tea.”

“A little girl robbed you?" Tessa said."Actually, she wasn’t a little girl at all, as it turns out, but a midget in a dress with a penchant for violence, who goes by the name of Six-Fingered Nigel.""Easy mistake to make," Jem said.”

“You were never really drunk.""On the contrary - in order to learn how to pretend to be inebriated, one must become inebriated at least once, as a reference point. Six-Fingered Nigel had been at the mulled cider-""You can't mean there's truly a Six-Fingered Nigel?”

“You may be right. I think it was round about Christmas when I got my Welsh dragon tattoo.”At that, Tessa had to try very hard not to blush. “How did that happen?”Will made an airy gesture with his hand. “I was drunk…”“Nonsense. You were never really drunk.”“On the contrary—in order to learn how to pretend to be inebriated, once must become inebriated at least once, as a reference point. Six-Fingered Nigel had been at the mulled cider—“ “You can’t mean there’s truly a Six-Fingered Nigel?”