"If she'd decided to be Queen no one would be doing this to her," he said irritably. "No one would dare."

Marcello raised an eyebrow. "That's not necessarily true," he replied. "She'd have just as many enemies. More, even. Supporters of Titania who would think they needed revenge. We have enough of those as it is."

"It still seems like that girl's in the middle of a ridiculous amount of fuck-ups these days." He sighed. "I'm not blaming her. I know it's mostly not her fault. I mean, I would assume she'd rather not be blackmailed. But . . . it's my mother." He gritted his teeth. "It's not fair. How could anyone want to hurt Mum? It's just--" His eyes narrowed and he sucked in his breath. "She's e'en looking after Lady Dierdre's babies, for pity's sake!"

"I know," Marcello replied. "I don't know why he did it, Bram. He obviously doesn't much give a damn about anyone else, or he wouldn't have done what he did. I suspect he wasn't thinking of it as hurting Meg. I suspect he was only thinking about getting what he wanted."

Starling snorted, rubbing his throat. "At least you didn't give me the life's-not-fair business." He looked downcast, gloomy. "I can size 'im up for you. It's going to be finding an excuse to get close enough to talk to him, I think. Probably I'll have to make like I want to talk to Lady Dierdre and oh, he just happens to be there too. I think she likes me well enough to see me."

"And I think she just requested more company, since she's been feeling a bit lonely up there all alone, not being able to go out because of the geis," Marcello said. "So you can say you heard about that and wanted to pay her a visit." He smiled. "Good neighbor," he said. "And we'll get your sister back, and then we can worry about what to do with the bastard."

"I'll have to get a feel for him. I can do it pretty quick," he said. "If he's smart he's gonner have his game face on, especially around me." Then he brightened. "Permission to spy?"

Marcello's face broke out into a grin. "You need to ask permission to spy?" he asked. "Of course you may spy. You don't get permission to get caught, though."

"No worries," he said, "I can play dumb real good. Ask anyone."

"Ha, ha," Marcello replied. "This is why Niabheara says we have a lot in common."