He praised the donkeys to their drivers. Congratulated the beasts on particularly narrow escapes. And told the [Egyptian] men anecdotes about London hackneys. Mrs. Pembrook bore it for as long as she could, which was not very long before she exploded. “They have no idea what you’re saying!” “Well, they’ll never learn will they? If one doesn’t make an effort,“ he said. If the streets hadn’t been so noisy, he was sure he would’ve heard his teeth grinding. She said nothing more, but Rupert was confident she was too preoccupied with his breathtaking stupidity to fret overmuch about her brother.

So Rupert is putting on an act. 😂 He is hilarious. He likes yanking her chain to get a rise out of her, and yet he does it with the clear purpose of distracting Daphne from her worries. Which also works to distrac her from acting rashly in the face of the overwhelming feeling that doing something has to be better than doing nothing, even when it’s not.

“Do keep your mind on why we are here. We can’t afford to waste time. Please resist the temptation to give Lord Noxley’s servants nicknames. […] You are not here to entertain anybody. You are hear to obtain information. Is that clear?” “You’re so forgetful,” he said. “Don’t you remember telling me that you’re the brain, and I’m the brawn? Naturally, I expect you to do all the talking. And naturally, shall knock heads, and toss people out of windows as required. Or did I misunderstand? Did you want me to think, too?”

🔊 Audiobook

Chapter 1 was riveting 😅

Or should I say:

01100011 01101000 01100001 01110000 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 00110001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01101001 01110110 01100101 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111

(📎It is actually binary code for ”chapter 1 was riveting”)