"Well, I'm certainly not your better nature," Marcello answered, grinning playfully. "Let me get my shoes on and I'll see what I can do with your hair."

Niabheara gave him a wan smile and swept to her bench before the dressing table, where she began to put in her earrings. "They're under the bed," she told him. "Where they had better always be."

"Oh?" Marcello asked. He bent down and reached for his shoes. "Is that a threat? Am I not permitted to leave them by the door?"

She snorted. "Maybe it's funnier in Tuathailli. Or another thing we have that you don't." She frowned at herself in the mirror. "On the subject of boots under beds, apparently Goneril's queensman took it upon himself to police the scene in the tower. I do not think he is much impressed with us."

Marcello sighed, and rolled his eyes. "Well, we'll just have to work harder at Imbolc," he replied. "I suppose that means he was with my sister?"

"I suppose it does," she said. "Really, I am very interested in seeing how Fiona runs her court. I can only imagine it is an orderly realm of well-behaved people all working together in happy harmony. Like an anthill."

Marcello laughed. "An anthill full of people who sleep with young girls a hundred years their junior?" he asked nicely.

Niabheara laughed and offered him her comb. "I can't tell you how grateful I am that I ne'er need worry about you sleeping with girls a hundred years younger than you are."

"Ha, ha, very funny, ha," Marcello replied, and he took the comb, parting her hair gently. He sectioned it off and began braiding. "If you want to sleep with girls a hundred years younger than you, I'll be so old and decrepit that you might as well."

She feinted an elbow at his waist. "That is not what I meant and you know it," she chided gently. "And you are going to be a dark and elegant old man with silver at your temples and I will have to turn into a she-wolf and scatter the young things off you." She bowed her head to let him comb. "I do not envy your parents Goneril once the Queensman's gone, though."