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sophisticates is hanging it on a weak hook indeed.” The languor and disdain with which he spoke chilled me bone deep. Unfortunately, that chill also got hold of my fragile good sense and snapped it in two.
    “Then, Uncle, you may write me off. I am no longer your concern and may make my own way in the world.” My aunt pressed her fingers to her lips as it sank in that I had just declared my perfect willingness to live without protection. “All I ask is that you allow me to keep some sort of contact with my aunt and cousin. Agree to this, and I shall trouble you no more.”
    All manner of calculations passed behind my uncle’s hard eyes. He very much wanted to be able to wash his hands of his sister’s branch of the family. Despite this, he hesitated, and I read the refusal in his expression before the words left his mouth.
    “Olivia is to have nothing to do with you.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous, Father,” said Olivia. “I’m to marry into a title and power so I can help advance the family, and we all know it. What could be better than for me to start making friends at court?” Being a banker, my uncle was not happily admitted to the company of the blue-blood aristocrats. My patronage could open that door for Olivia in ways my uncle’s could not. I was certain we all felt the irony of this fact most keenly.
    Uncle Pierpont did not even look at Olivia. His gaze remained fixed on me. I had looked into a murderer’s eyes. I knew when a man had found his own sticking point. This was where the games ended and, even between enemies, there was only honesty left.
    “What do you want from me?” I asked him.
    My uncle’s thin lips twitched. “Honor the contract with your name on it. Marry Sebastian Sandford.”

FIVE
I N WHICH A MOST TOUCHING REUNION IS ACHIEVED.
    I had been ready for Uncle Pierpont to issue this command. I could not remain justly proud of my courtier’s skills had I missed the signs of it. Especially when one of those signs had been Sebastian Sandford appearing at my door with an expensive gift and consoling manner.
    My difficulty lay in the fact that now that the order was laid before me, my outrage obliterated the calm answer I held ready. I blush to report that what replaced it was somewhat less than gracious.
    “Uncle, I would not marry Mr. Sandford even if I were dying of the pox and could have the satisfaction of taking him with me.”
    This drew a startled gasp from Aunt Pierpont and a salute of appreciation in the form of a pair of abruptly raised eyebrows from Olivia.
    My uncle, while less appreciative, was much more demonstrative. He leaned forward and gripped the edges of the table as if he thought to snap them clean off.
    “You think I do not know your game? You smile and you simper and you talk of advantages you can give. But what you mean is you will get your hooks in and make me dependent on your largess.”
    “You don’t honestly think—” began Olivia, but her father rounded on her with such an expression of violent fury that even my voluble cousin was shocked into momentary silence.
    “I have said you will have nothing to do with her! That is an end to it!”
    “Why do you hate me?” I murmured.
    Uncle smirked. “I would have thought I’d made myself plain enough. You are the bastard child of my whoring sister.”
    “Oliver!” cried my aunt.
    “My mother served her rightful queen and her native country!” My shout pulled me to my feet so that I was looking down on this small-minded, thin-souled, unutterably foul man who happened to be my nearest living relative. “But you can’t be bothered to see that! You prefer to believe your own sister was a whore rather than to learn the truth!”
    For a moment, I saw my uncle startled. For a single heartbeat, he looked uncertain, and for that same moment, I thought I might have scored some small victory. But then, a thin smile spread slowly across his face.
    “Very well,” Uncle Pierpont said. “What is this truth? If you