Rafe, are you sure? I mean”—and here Daniel colored and cleared his throat—“it’s not exactly the sort of employment a gentleman normally considers, that’s all. It’s rather… I mean, it smacks a little of….”“Trade?” I said.Daniel grimaced. “Well, yes.”I rolled over and stared up at Daniel’s bedroom ceiling. There was a stain there the shape of the tip of South Africa. The hooked peninsula near Cape Town, in fact, that was all harsh gray hills running down from Table Mountain and tumbling into the ocean. How bizarre. “I suppose it is. But I don’t see it’s any more demeaning than working in a business in the City, because buying a clerkship at merchant’s or accepting one from my House are my only other options.”Daniel squirmed, an action that sent some very suggestive messages to the part of my anatomy most impacted by the squirming. “But Rafe! My dear man, trade? Is that really necessary?”“I have to find some occupation. I need an income, Daniel.
