He had learnt now who paid for them. Kegan’s wealth had been at Nicholas’s disposal for the excavations, the furnishings and doubtless the food and wine that would be required in vast quantities for the type of companions who would wish to be members of such a Club.
It would have been Kegan’s money that provided the wagonloads of women brought down London. Women who would do anything for gold and submit to whatever beastliness was required of them to satisfy gentlemen who could pay as well as Nicholas would be able to do with Kegan’s backing.
‘God, if only I had known of this before,’ Lord Melburne exclaimed to himself.
Then he knew that, as he had said to Major Foster, he needed proof before he could act.
‘But supposing,’ some quiet voice within him asked, “supposing that the proof is
