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Stomach turning, Kit pushed through the gate, out of sight of their blind skulls. He thought of Babington’s haughty smirk, Morgan’s sneer, Mary’s sharp dark eyes- pecked out by crows. Eyes long since food for birds, their empty sockets leered down at Kit, rimmed with the black of weathered blood. Four scarlet-stumped heads, speared on pikes atop the peak of Bishopsgate’s arch. Enough to knock you over, like week-old meat smeared with shit. It seeped out through Bishopsgate like a living thing, and Kit gagged, pressing a hand over his mouth and nose. What came next, as London itself rose before him, was the smell. Disarray and disorder, reaching north of the wall to house the excess. He wove through Shoreditch, a sprawling, ill-constructed neighborhood backed up against the dusty expanse of Finsbury Fields. Its walls like a man grown too stout for his clothes. If Tom hadn’t become a murderer, Kit would be If Kit hadn’t been reckless enough to pick a fight, Tom wouldn’t be here. If Kit hadn’t lied, Evan’s appearance wouldn’t have sent Tom into a panic. Christ, Kit,” he shouted, his voice breaking, “ you’ve made me a murderer, did you ever think about what that might mean?” Kit took his head in his hands. Whatever connections you think you have, they won’t save your neck from this. And because you wouldn’t know self-restraint if it shook you by the hand, we’re both set to be hanged. It’s that you are, without a doubt, the stupidest person I’ve ever met.” “I-” “You almost got both of us killed,” Tom said over him, voice rising, “in a fistfight with your drunk brother-in-law. “ So the danger here isn’t that Lord Strange might have you murdered. But this? Murder in a public house, unprovoked? Men were killed like animals for that. Tom might even be commended for it: extraordinary acts of heroism. Walsingham and Cecil could smooth that over with a few coins and a promise to look the other way. Murder in defense of the queen would have been ill-advised but defensible. Tom was a lawyer-he knew what would happen next. Kit didn’t need to ask what he was thinking. He was my sister’s husband.” Tom fell so silent Kit could almost hear him blink.