I had no idea of the time, but the pitying look on Valentine’s face told me it was too late to be working. He moved around my office, extinguishing some of the peripheral lamps until a sharply angled shade was cast over my desk. I sat in my shirtsleeves, my cravat lying on a nearby chair and the buttons at my throat loosened. The room was always comfortably warm.
“Lucas, neither of us should be up at this hour, let alone working on the sale. It will be a great success, of course it will. It will be the greatest thing that the Fides House has ever hosted.”
I laughed, a little sharply. “You speak as if it will be my best…and last.”
“No!” he cried, in gentle protest. He moved over to the desk and put a hand to my forehead, as Serena might have done when I was younger. I was aware of the ru
