"Fine." He agreed. "Before you do anything, I would make sure you have a plan for Dee. She's very attached to him." His tone told her what he thought of that. "She came in, screaming, and tried to scratch me up and when I wouldn't fight her back she put her hand to the bars." He frowned. "It was like trying to talk to her when she was on house arrest the first time."

The countess squeezed her hands in a ball against her lap. "I know. I fear she is not going to be very well-disposed to me o'er this, either, which does not leave very many other people here who can reason with her. But . . . I can't very well worry much about her just now. This is my niece. She's just a baby. If . . . my last hope for any of this is that somehow he was forced into it, but I don't know how likely that is."

"As likely as him forcing you to act this way." Davide replied, quietly. "Blackmail can do a number on some people." He said. "How do you think I became a Lieutenant Commdandeur? Talent?"

Niabheara jerked in place as if he had jabbed her with a pin, her head snapping up and her hands instantly going apart. Two bright red balls of color burned on either cheek. "At the moment, I don't think the two matters are related," she said, also quiet.

"Does your Mother know? Have you told her?" He asked, and rubbed his face, waving a hand at her. "I don't care what's going on. Maybe when this is all over, what you do is send them both back to Brideslea and make it clear only Dee ever gets to come back."

"I don't want to look at him again," Niabheara said, so flat as to be monotone. "But for the moment, I see no other way to get through this but to keep things quiet for a while longer."

"Sometimes the best way to get around these sorts of people is to wade through the scandal." He replied. "Everyone forgets it, after awhile. And what he did was worse. He took a child." He said quietly. "He deserves more than just banishment for that."

"Sir," she said, sharp and a little desperate, "I know this. I know. If it was so simple I would have already been rid of him. He's sleeping with Dierdre. He's got his . . . his hands all o'er her." She shuddered and put her arms around herself. "If there was anything to be done I would have already done it, if only to keep him away from her."

Davide nodded. "I wasn't saying it like it would be simple to do. It's not. But sometimes fear outweighs good decisions." He told her, and sighed, crossing his arms. "I know. But Dee is attached to him, so perhaps he's different with her." He looked uncomfortable with the thought. "He would have to be."

"He must be," she said. "She's not a foolish woman. Surely he couldn't have deceived her all this while."