Chapter 23

At one time, Nick would have been eager to deepen an acquaintance with many of the men he met, but since learning about Deverell, Nick found it difficult to consider anyone other than the dark and dangerous Deverell Bastard.

For that was how Nick thought about him in the privacy of his own thoughts. Dark he certainly was; not only his hair in its short cut with not a curl in sight, but the stigma of illegitimacy that hung around him like a fascinating pall. That he was dangerous Nick had no proof, but the way everyone spoke of him and the wariness with which they treated him suggested he was. The combination was reminiscent of Shelley’s Zastrozziand to some extent, the wicked caliph in Beckford’s Vathek