Chapter 18Spring, 1815
Some weeks later, sitting in the upper room at the Golden Lion after a convivial supper, Percy idly wondered, if mooted several months previously, how he would have responded to the suggestion that such a low-key and casual arrangement would become the most valuable aspect of his entire social round.
As Percy glanced around the table at the assembled men, he noted with wry amusement that even relatively recently, he would have been baffled and appalled at socializing with a country doctor, an irascible former military man, two gentlemen who were dangerously close to being businessmen and a mere tailor.
Surrounded by such accepting company and completely at ease, Percy was aware that he could rely on every single one of them. He no longer felt threatened by Edward
