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the continual din.
    ‘Are we barred from the Queen’s Head?’ said Pryde.
    ‘The company is not but one member of it may be.’
    ‘One member?’
    ‘Let me explain, Sylvester,’ said Nicholas, taking care to adopt a neutral tone. ‘Thus it stands. The landlord’s daughter is with child. Suspecting one of us to be the father, he rails against the whole company and would have cast usout into the wilderness had we not just signed a contract with him.’
    ‘Suspecting one of us?’ echoed Pryde. ‘Does he have no proof? Has the girl not volunteered his name?’
    Nicholas shook his head. ‘No. Whether out of loyalty or folly, I cannot say, but Rose will not part with it. This argues much for her strength of feeling about the man. Her parents have been stern interrogators but they failed to prise a name out of her. All that she will concede is that he was an actor. And she offered the briefest description of him.’
    ‘Rose Marwood is a pretty piece of flesh,’ said Pryde with a smile. ‘He was a fortunate man, whoever he might be.’
    ‘His good fortune has been our misfortune.’
    ‘Alas, yes.’
    ‘And it has left the girl in a parlous state.’
    ‘The price of pleasure can sometimes be very high.’
    ‘Let us talk about that price,’ said Nicholas discreetly. ‘This is a question I have had to put to each and every member of the company, Sylvester, so do not be offended when I direct it at you. The description which Rose gave could fit two or three of our players. Chief among them is you.’
    ‘Me?’ said Pryde indignantly.
    ‘Were you the girl’s lover?’
    ‘No, Nick. I was not nor would I be. Heavens, man, when I said she was a pretty piece of flesh, it was not because I had designs on her. I am not involved in any way here.’
    ‘Is that the truth, Sylvester?’
    ‘On my honour!’
    ‘I need to know.’
    ‘You have just been told, Nick. Ask the same question of yourself and you will understand how I feel. Are
you
the father of this child?’
    Nicholas almost blushed. ‘Of course not.’
    ‘Do you find Rose Marwood repulsive?’
    ‘Not at all. She is a most pleasant girl.’
    ‘Why, then, did you not bed her?’
    ‘Because my affections are placed elsewhere, Sylvester, as well you know. And that is only one of many reasons.’
    ‘I can offer even more why I would not even dream of embracing Rose Marwood or her kind. Suffice it to say, that I, too, have placed my affections elsewhere.’ He gave a lazy smile. ‘Those affections may shift from time to time but they would never alight on the daughter of an innkeeper. We talk of quality here, Nick. With a lady such as Anne in your life, you would not stoop to a dalliance with a serving wench. It would be beneath you.’
    ‘That is true.’
    ‘It is so with me.’
    ‘Yet Rose Marwood was so entranced by you.’
    ‘That does not make me her lover.’
    ‘No,’ agreed Nicholas, ‘and the vehemence of your denial makes me believe you. I am sorry to have to examine you on the subject but it is in all our interests to discover who the father of this child really is.’
    ‘One of our fellows deceived you.’
    ‘I find that hard to accept.’
    ‘Haply, the father does not even remember the coupling,’said Pryde. ‘If it happened in a drunken moment, it might have no purchase on his mind.’
    ‘Rose Marwood would not give herself to a drunkard.’
    ‘Stranger things have happened.’
    Nicholas’s mind was racing. Having decided that Sylvester Pryde was the most likely father, he was perplexed to learn that the latter was innocent of the charge. Had one of the others deliberately lied to him? Owen Elias? James Ingram? Edmund Hoode? Lucius Kindell? Could it even have been – his blood congealed at the thought – Lawrence Firethorn himself? Gifted actor though he may be, he was also, when he could escape the vigilance of his wife, a compulsive lecher who would not scruple to show an interest in any attractive woman. If the actor-manager