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the whip of anger that had uncurled in him. What the devil was wrong with him? He barely knew the lady. Your niece certainly does not do things by halves, does she?"
    It was not her fault," Horatia said with touching loyalty.
    Vanneck lured her to that bedchamber."
    Who discovered them?"
    Horatia heaved another sigh of regret. Mister Drake, the nice young man who was on the verge of making an offer. He was accompanied by a companion. Naturally, there was no more talk of marriage after the incident. One could hardly blame Mister Drake for losing interest."
    Drake could at least have kept his mouth shut about what he had seen."
    I expect he did," Horatia said. But as I said, he had a companion with him that night. The other man was obviously not such a gentleman."
    Matthias released a deep breath that he had not realized he had been holding. I take it the incident, as you term it, put an end to the friendship between Miss Waterstone and Lady Vanneck?"
    Lucy took her own life the day after Vanneck was discovered with Imogen. She left a note saying that she could not endure the knowledge that her best friend had betrayed her with her husband."
    Matthias considered that briefly. How did she kill herself?"
    She took a great quantity of laudanum."
    Then there is no question but that she committed suicide?"
    None so far as the rest of the world is concerned. Imogen is the only one who believes that Vanneck murdered Lucy. I fear my niece's view of the matter is clouded by her own dreadful experience at his hands. Perhaps she feels a measure of guilt. But what happened in that bedchamber was Vanneck's fault. I have no doubt of that."
    Matthias glanced at the empty doorway of the library. And now, three years later, Miss Waterstone has hit upon this crazed notion of avenging her friend."

    I thought she had put it all behind her," Horatia confided. But through her membership in the Zamarian Society, she corre sponds with a vast number of people. A few weeks ago one of them conveyed the information that Lord Vanneck was hanging out for an heiress. My brother had just died and left Imogen this house and its contents and your, er, promise to him. Imogen was suddenly inspired."
    Inspired is not quite the word I would have chosen." Matthias straightened away from the bookcase. He paused as he caught sight of a recent volume of the Zamarian Review. He scowled when he noticed the date. Damnation."
    Is something wrong, my lord?"
    No." He picked up the copy of the Review and flipped through the pages. This just happens to be the issue in which the editors published two articles on the interpretation of Zamarian inscriptions. One written by me and one by I. A. Stone. The fellow haunts me."
    I see." Horatia busied herself with a funeral urn.
    For some reason, the editors gave Stone's article considerable attention even though any dolt can see that he is completely wrong-headed in his conclusions. I shall speak to them about it."
    You're going to speak to the editors about publishing I. A.
    Stone's papers?"
    Why not? I founded that damned journal. I have a responsibility to ensure that only the most scholarly articles are printed in it."

    I take it I A. Stone's conclusions about Zamarian inscriptions did not agree with your own, my lord?" Horatia asked very dryly.
    No, they did not. It was especially irritating because, as usual, Stone based his conclusions on the results of my own published researches." Matthias took a grip on his outrage. He generally regarded the work of other Zamarian scholars with complete disinterest and disdain. He knew better than anyone else that since Rutledge's disappearance, he had no equal in the field.
    There had been no real challenge to Matthias's authority on the subject until I. A. Stone had exploded upon the scene eighteen months earlier in the pages of the Review.
    To Matthias's increasing annoyance and total bemusement, I A.
    Stone was proving to be the first person in years who was capable of kindling any kind