“I suspected as much,” he answered. “I’ve a carriage waiting outside which should fit the four of us, given that neither you nor Lord Hamilton have any more substance to you than the stair railing. I will speak to my driver, and then you will all accompany me to my home, since Lord Marlborough and his brother have eyes and ears everywhere else. You will all rest and be fed and I will see if I can contact Ned Russell, whom I suspect will be very interested in Lord Alfred’s business dealings.”

From To the Upper Air:

What’s that saying? Give a boy a fish, and you feed him for a day, teach a boy to fish and find yourself feeding him and at least three other people and running around keeping them out of trouble for the rest of your career? That seems to be Hennessey’s general experience here, and he doesn’t mind it nearly as much as you’d think, although in this case I’d imagine he’d really, really like James to stop kicking over hornets’ nests that are quite this big and important. On the other hand, though – from what I’ve seen, George Churchill can’t have been very popular among the other admirals. He was an effective army officer but didn’t really do much in his office as admiral, and the aforementioned Ned Russell fell out with him over a dispute about rank. Hennessey is pleased to finally be given a reason to see the asshole removed from his branch of her Majesty’s service. James and company are no doubt just relieved to have at least one powerful ally in the form of Hennessey, and to have a place to go where they’ll be at least safer than they are at present. They’re all running on fumes at this point, and a brief respite is just what the admiral ordered.

This might, in retrospect, be the first time anyone’s shown Thomas anything resembling paternal care – that’s got to be quite a change for him and Silver both. James, meanwhile, is surprisingly the one of the group that’s had something resembling an acceptable childhood and has gotten kind of used to this.