Jag wouldn't have minded being hired help; honestly, he'd have felt a lot better on that side of the party. But then, like Val had said, he would've had no date. Better this way, he thought, and sat on a chair close to Val's.

Margaret seemed all right, though. Natural, and without some of the preconceptions he had seen hints of in some of her guests.

"Just a couple of years, recently," Jag answered, scratching idly at his jaw. "I was with a circus, before I came to London."