The Queer Principles of Kit Webb

by Cat Sebastian

Two peculiar things happened in the next couple of days. The first was that the broadsides began bringing news of the new Duke of Clare’s latest doings. He altered his tenants’ leases and converted several properties to freeholds. Deeds of manumission were sent off to Barbados. Priceless artworks and a dozen horses were sent to auction. Funds were set aside for the building of schools and poorhouses, along with an endowment to keep them going for a generation. Public opinion was divided as to whether Percy had done these things to spite his dead father or because he had gone quite mad. The second peculiar thing was that Kit returned from walking Betty home to find a note on his pillow. “Stop fretting. I’m not dead. Tell your gent that Lady M isn’t dead, either, as she doesn’t seem disposed to do so herself. And for God’s sake, call off the hunt. Much love, R,” the note read, in Rob’s handwriting. When Kit showed it to Percy that night, he studied it for a long minute. “I can’t be certain, but I think it’s the same handwriting as the blackmail letters. The way the ink blots at the tail of the R and M is distinctive. I might wish for a reassurance slightly more enthusiastic than ‘not dead’ but it was kind for your friend to put my mind at ease.” He said kind as if it were a complicated foreign word, as if his tongue and lips didn’t want to shape themselves around it, and Kit knew that Percy was trying to tell Kit that he intended to be civil to Rob and about Rob. “I saw that...