The carriage made no stops. It proceeded through the gate, over the roads, and straight toward the Parin’s house. A normal man might presume this whole gesture of sending Lucas home for fresh clothes and kidnapping him in a well-padded carriage were all signs of weakness, or at least kindness.

Lucas knew the truth. ‘We know exactly where you live,’ is what it was telling him. ‘We know exactly who you work with and more than a little about how your operation works. Fail or betray me, and it will all end up in ruins.’ It was exactly what they did in mobster movies when they told the businessman or the juror just how much they had to lose.

That’s a nice house you got there, he thought to himself as Parin Manor came into view. It would be a real shame if something were to happen to it.

While at this moment he’d be happy to burn down the whole damn building if Adin was inside, he definitely didn’t want to hurt Danaria, and really, there was no reason that the servants had to die just because of one asshole. Even Jeeves was a decent sort these days; he always had a little too much sarcasm for Lucas, but that was fine. He preferred that sense of judgment and superiority to the alternatives of stiff formality or obsequiousness.

Still, that was exactly what he received when his carriage pulled into the gravel of the front drive. Despite the fact that the visitor was unexpected, there were two well-dressed guards and two footmen, along with both old man Gerwin and Adin. It was clear that neither of them had the first idea why a carriage with royal livery would be showing up at such an hour, but they tried to be as ready as they could be.

Whatever they prepared for or expected, no one was ready for was for Lucas to step out of the thing, especially not in a half-ruined outfit.

“Is everything okay, sir?” Gerwin asked, “You’re a bit late in joining us for supper.”

Terribly sorry about that, old boy,” Lucas said, walking past him and patting him on the back, “I was having tea with the Prince, but if there’s anything warm, you can have the cook make me a plate. For now, I need your help. It’s time to do some packing.”

“The Prince,” Adin gasped. “Did you—”

“I had a good time,” Lucas said, nodding at the two guards that were trailing behind him, “and for now, we’ll leave it at that.”

Adin got the hint and said nothing more on the subject, which was good because Lucas wanted nothing more than to punch him in his lying mouth. Instead, he walked trailing Gerwin and then everyone else behind him as the footmen opened the large double doors before him, and he entered the house.

There, he saw Danaria standing at the top of the stairs. She was a vision of beauty, even in the simple lilac dress she wore, and he would have very happily stared at her all day under other circumstances.

Her face lit up as soon as she saw him, but before she could start talking he said, “Run along, Miss Parin, the men of the house have some official business to discuss, nothing to worry your pretty little head over.”

A storm passed across her features for a moment, but she got the message and walked off as soon as she saw the guards trailing behind him. It was kind of hard to miss the burnished armor of the city watch, after all.

After that, Lucas beckoned to the two footmen. He told the first one to start hauling cold water upstairs to get the bath started and the second to go to the kitchen and start boiling some in a cauldron and add just enough hot water to make it bearable. He needed to make a little time, and the elaborate ritual of drawing a bath before the invention of hot and cold running water was the perfect excuse.

Lucas continued as if everything was normal until the two guards tried to follow him up the stairs. That was where he drew the line. “Gentlemen, please,” Lucas said, acting offended. “I have accepted his majesty’s command and did not bring you here simply to try to escape. I need to wash, change, and pack for this adventure. So please kindly wait here, or better yet, wait in the dining room. I’m sure one of the kitchen boys can get you some pie or something.”

As an afterthought, he followed that up with, “Adin, please entertain our guests until I’m quite finished.” The Viscount looked more than displeased to be excluded from whatever was happening, but he was smart enough not to make a fuss since his tax debts had not been officially cleared yet.

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Lucas had no idea if the offer of pastries sealed the deal, but the two men stopped following him, and he and Gerwin went upstairs alone. Once they were there, Lucas stole Adin’s largest steamer trunk, dumped out the contents on his bed, then went to his own room to start packing.

“Alright, man, we gotta make this fast,” he said, speaking quietly as he moved to the closet and started to pull out shirts and jackets, folding them haphazardly and stuffing them in the trunk.

“Sir, please, you’re wrinkling everything,” Gerwin said, distressed to see how poorly he was treating his fine wardrobe. Lucas ignored that, too.

“Talk less and listen more,” Lucas said. “You can chastise me when I get back, I promise. If I get back, I mean, if not, well, take care of Danaria for me. Find her a nice man far from that brother of hers because—”

“A nice man?!” Danaria said, bursting from the door to the washroom, where she’d obviously been eavesdropping. “Lucas Sharpe, if you think that I—”

“All of you, stop, just stop,” he sighed. “Look, any minute, those assholes are going to come upstairs and drag me off to who knows where, so I don't have time to explain what’s happened or why. This is what I need from you.”

He waited a moment, and this time, when no one interrupted, he continued. “I want Hura’gh to send a man after me, on a fast horse, far enough behind us that he won’t be spotted because I have no idea where they are taking me. That’s the first thing. Once he finds out where this party is happening, he should come back and tell you guys. You got that? No heroics. If I want to escape, I’ll escape, but that's a terrible idea just now for any number of reasons.”

“Two,” he continued, “wherever it is, I'll find a way to leave little notes by my window so that someone…” he looked meaningfully at Danaria, “Can fetch them for updates. If there's a plan, you’ll know it so that Kar’gandin can decide how best to proceed. He’s in charge while I’m gone, you understand? Not Adin. Fuck Adin.”

“But why does it have to be like this,” Danaria pouted. “You were only supposed to be selling perfume, and—”

“And that leads to number three,” Lucas said with a touch of anger. “That bitch sold me out, so you tell Kar’gandin to handle it. Pay the Knights of Brass, or whatever. I want the Fallen Orchid in ashes. She thought she could sell me to the Prince for the reward, and I’d just disappear? Fuck that.”

“Oh my goodness?” Danaria gasped, approaching him like he was a wounded bird. “Did she do anything to you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Lucas letting her hug him for a moment before he brushed her off because she obviously needed it more than he did. “But I really need to finish this.”

“Item three: burn her down,” Gerwin spoke up from where he now stood at the writing desk. “What else, sir?”

“Four: let everyone know this is only supposed to take a few days or a few weeks. I’ll be back, and we have more than enough of, well… you know what, stocked to maintain normal distribution. Let Adin hand out the blue to the nobles, but tell Kar’gandin to count that shit, or he’ll rob us blind.”

Lucas moved back to stuffing his trunk with a few pairs of pants, and when that was done and he had a chance to breathe, he finally said, “Five, business as usual, okay? This is not a fucking crisis. This is just another curveball, and we’re going to get through it. With a little luck, I might even be able to turn it into a good thing.”

He wasn’t sure he believed that last part, but it was important that he seemed like he did. This was the sort of event that could easily cause everyone to panic and start skipping town. Lucas wasn’t about to go through whatever fresh hell the Prince had planned for him, just come back to an empty… well, whatever this life was becoming.

“Will there be anything else then?” Gerwin asked.

“Check on that bath,” Lucas sighed. “I want to feel clean before whatever happens next.” feeling vaguely like a condemned man.

Gerwin nodded and left the room, leaving him alone with Danaria. It was only when they were alone that she sat down on the bed next to him and said, “I don’t like this. Not one little bit.”

“Me neither,” he answered with a shrug, putting his arm over her shoulder. “But they got me by the… well, they got me, at least for this job, and there ain’t shit I can do about it for the moment.”

“What is the job, anyway?” she asked. “Is the Prince really addicted to drugs like they say?”

“Well, if he is, it ain’t the shit we’re selling,” Lucas laughed. “Listen, that man is dangerous. He remembered seeing me at a party months ago. Just another face in the crowd. He just wants me to help his pet alchemist with a project. It should be fine. I’ll spend a few weeks brewing potions, and then I’ll be right back. I promise.”

The two of them sat there for a few minutes in a comfortable silence that was only ended when one of the footmen informed him that his bath had been prepared.

“I’ll miss you,” Danaria said, unwilling to get up just yet once the young man had shut the door.

“I’ll miss you too,” he said, smiling sadly before he kissed her on the forehead. This time, he was less surprised to find that he meant it. Danaria looked at him then with eyes where smolder warred with sadness. Then she got up and left before she started crying.

Lucas almost got up and followed her. Instead, he sighed and started to unbutton his shirt as he made his way to the bathroom. “I’m getting too old for this shit,” he sighed.