For several months, Draven had been trying to determine how contraband was making its way through Norham.
At first, the matter had appeared to be little more than a collection of unrelated offenses. Goods disappeared from one shipment and appeared in another. Merchants who had no apparent connection to one another suddenly found themselves involved in the same questionable transactions.
Warehouses along the less-frequented routes have been used to store some of the smuggled contrabands, at least the few that Draven knew of, while men with no respectable employment somehow had enough money to settle their debts and disappear before anyone could question them.
The more Draven investigated, the more connected it all seemed. There was a system behind it.
Someone was coordinating the movement of the goods through his duchy, and the surrounding regions, using smaller men to carry out the work while keeping the more powerful figures far enough removed to avoid suspicion.
Draven had spent months tracing those connections, but every trail eventually disappeared before it reached the person at the centre of it all.
His investigation had taken him through merchants, warehouse keepers, sailors and men willing to sell information for the right price. None had given him what he needed.
Until now.
Nicholas Chatham, Count of Wolden and Draven’s close friend, had recently acquired a lead that might finally allow Draven to penetrate one small section of it.
A man connected to the operation was believed to recruit people for some of its more questionable work.
He was not high enough in the hierarchy to know everything but he was close enough to the men on the ground that he might know where certain shipments came from, who arranged their transportation and, perhaps most importantly, who gave the orders.
Nicholas’s contact had told him where the man could usually be found. A gaming house, his favorite place of leisure.
Which was how Draven found himself standing inside the most disreputable establishment he had entered in years, wondering whether strangling Nicholas would be considered an acceptable use of his evening.
The place was thick with cigar smoke and noise. Men crowded around tables covered in green felt, their attention fixed on cards, dice and pouches of coins.
Laughter burst from one corner while an argument was being conducted with increasingly hostile voices in another.
Serving girls moved between the tables, carrying drinks and leaning close to men who were considerably more interested in their company than the cards before them.
There was nothing particularly remarkable about the wealth in the room. That, Draven thought, was perhaps the most unpleasant part.
Several of the men were dressed well enough to have dined at his table without attracting a second glance. One wore a signet ring Draven recognized from a family whose name appeared regularly in the society pages. Another had once sat three seats away from him at a royal dinner with the queen.
Draven felt Nicholas watching him.
"What kind of gaming hell have you brought me to?" Draven hissed, his voice low enough not to attract attention.
Nicholas’s mouth twitched, amused by the rare sight of Draven looking off kilter.
"The useful kind." Came his response.
"I was not aware there was a useful kind." Draven groused.
"There is when you’re looking for men who are willing to conduct unsavory business that respectable establishments would rather not acknowledge. Men like the ones we are targeting."
Draven gave him a flat look.
Nicholas merely smirked and continued farther into the room, entirely at ease in this type of environment and the among questionable company.
He greeted one of the patrons by name, exchanged a few words with him before receiving a sloppy handshake from a man who looked as though he was ready to keel over from overindulging.
Draven followed, his irritation growing with every step.
Nicholas had always possessed an annoying ability to fit into places where he had no business belonging.
He could speak to a duke one moment and a beggar on the street the next without making either feel that he had lowered himself.
Draven had never understood how he managed it. Perhaps it was because Nicholas had no particular interest in upholding hierarchy when there was something he wanted.
"You seem remarkably comfortable here," Draven remarked.
"I have friends in unfortunate places."
"I am beginning to suspect you have more unfortunate friends than respectable ones."
"That explains why you are one of my closest friends. You know me so well." Nicholas said breezily, aware that he was dancing on Draven’s last nerve. "Now fix your face, you look like you sucked on something bitter."
Draven gave him a sharp look.
Chuckling, Nicholas led him toward a quieter portion of the room.
Their first contact was not the man they had come to question. He had simply arranged the introduction and ensured that Nicholas would be received without too many questions. The actual recruiter was expected to arrive shortly.
Draven would have preferred to wait somewhere else and unfortunately, the gaming house was not finished giving him reasons to regret coming.
His gaze moved across the space almost absently before stopping on a familiar figure.
Simon.
His cousin sat at one of the card tables with three other men, a glass resting near his elbow and several stacks of coins scattered before him.
The sight was so unsurprising that Draven might have ignored it entirely if Simon had not happened to look up at precisely that moment.
Their eyes met.
Simon held his gaze for a heartbeat before his face broke into a slow, delighted smile, the damn wretch.
Draven knew that expression. It was one Simon always wore when he just discovered something he intended to enjoy.
Not long after he had the thought, his cousin rose from the table and walked across the room to where he had spotted Draven and Nicholas.
"Well," he said when he reached them, glancing from Draven to Nicholas and then back again. "This is unexpected."
Draven’s expression remained impassive. "Simon." He said tartly.
"I must confess, I never thought I would see you here."
"And now you have. Congratulations"