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himself.

Three
    our chimes from the walnut clock in the mar bled foyer announced the hour as Sebastian made his way to the study; the sound was lost in the vastness of the domed ceiling. Justin’s presence was proclaimed by the pungent smell of smoke from a cheroot.
    At Sebastian’s entrance, Justin turned. Quickly he abandoned his stance before the warmth of the fire. Crossing the room, he fetched a brandy from a delicate-legged side table.
    By the time Justin handed it to him, Sebastian had sprawled in the chair behind his desk. The events of the evening had taken their toll.
    “How is she?”
    Sebastian took a long, burning draught of brandy and swallowed. “The wound is not so deep as I’d first thought.” He rubbed his fingers over the scratchiness of his jaw. He needed to shave, he thought absently. “In time,” he said slowly, “I think she’ll be fine.”
    “Excellent.” Justin had ambled to the chair across from him. “I must confess, I’m mightily curious as to what you were doing in St. Giles. It’s certainly the last place on earth I should have expected to find you .”
    “Spare me the sarcasm, Justin. When I left for the Farthingale ball, Stokes told me you planned to spend the evening gaming. When I left the Farthin gales’, I stopped by White’s thinking to find you there. It was Gideon who disclosed he’d left you at a club in St. Giles.” Sebastian made no secret of his disapproval.
    Justin’s eyes glinted. “And so you decided to come to my rescue?”
    “Something like that.”
    “I’m a grown man, Sebastian. I don’t believe I need to apprise you of my every activity.”
    “St. Giles is a dangerous place,” Sebastian said sharply. “Surely you know that.”
    “I do. But as you can see, I’m none the worse for it, save for some wretchedly bad wine and a good deal more bad luck.”
    God knew Justin had ever been in defiance of the strictures placed on him by their father, even before their mother’s capricious flight of fancy. The three siblings had grown up knowing they could rely only on one another—he, Justin, and Julianna. But if life’s lessons had taught him anything, it was that a man could not be molded... should not be molded.
    Sebastian could never forget the scandal that had ripped their world apart when he was a boy. God knew, he’d lived with it every day since. Justin pos sessed the charm and vivacity of their mother. He also possessed her wild streak, and that worried him. Julianna had been too young to understand what had happened...she missed her mama, but only for a time.
    But Justin...Their father had tried to confine his headstrong ways. He had tried to restrain him. Se bastian wanted to protect him, but like their mother, Justin had always been one to go his own way. Sebas tian had recognized—as perhaps their father had not—that to rein him in, to control him, would only incur his rebellion.
    Yet at times he was given to wonder if something more had occurred between their father and Justin. On several occasions, when Sebastian tried to press the issue, Justin chose to dismiss it in that careless, nonchalant way he had.
    In truth, Sebastian could appreciate there were some things a man must guard closely within himself.
    And he would not mold his brother into some thing he was not.
    “Bad luck,” he murmured. “What, you?”
    “Indeed. And I would remind you, I arrived home before you, dear brother.”
    “So you did.” Sebastian chuckled, and the tension between the two vanished. “Let it suffice to say that I did not expect to encounter a woman on the streets. Or of the streets, in all likelihood. Why else would she be out and about at such an hour?”
    Justin frowned. “You don’t intend to notify the au thorities, do you?”
    “What, you think I shouldn’t?”
    Justin regarded him steadily. “No, I don’t.”
    “But the circumstances are suspicious at best. The girl was stabbed. Why? What brought it about? Who did it? And where is