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off.'
    'Gibberish is better than bullshit, which is what you gave me, Leo. Bullshit - and no baby.' She suppressed a small burp. 'Now you're using my money to pay for a few pretty pictures, a new bath - and for what? To impress a man who grows roses, for gods' sake. Oh, those drapes are new.' She staggered over to finger the elaborate tapestries which graced the arches. 'At least you're putting my dowry to good taste.'
    Leo's face coloured dangerously. 'This is neither the time nor the place to discuss the financial settlement, Lydia. I'll get someone to escort you ho— back.'
    'Who says I'm going "back"?' Lydia retorted. 'Who says I might not decide to spend the night here? In one of the— how many bedrooms are we up to now, Leo? Ten?' She leaned over and helped herself to Claudia's wine. 'Ooh, you're new, too,' she purred. 'But you're out of luck, darling. If it's his money you're after, there is none. He lost it in those bloody vines, despite what he tells everyone, and he lost in half a dozen other hare-brained ventures, as well. Now the bastard's spent my divorce settlement on his wonderful refurbishments, so I'm in debt, too. God, I hate you, Leo. How I didn't see through you years ago I don't know!'
    'Lydia, please,' Leo cajoled. 'You're embarrassing yourself.'
    She turned her wine-laden breath upon Claudia once again. 'You're too old for him, sweetie. You're young and you're beautiful, but darling, you've got breasts. Has he told you how old she is, his little prepubescent bride? Thirteen. Can you believe that, sweetie?' Her laugh was bitter. 'Now if
    we'd had children, how do you think Leo would have felt about some middle-aged pervert taking his thirteen-year-old daughter to bed?'
    'Enough!' Leo jumped to his feet. 'I will not have you inferring I'm some kind of depraved monster, simply for wanting an heir. It's a man's right, dammit, to continue the bloodline, and the girl hails from good breeding stock.'
    'Stock. Yes. How sensitive you are, Leo, seeing her in terms of a prolific foaler.' Lydia staggered between the dining couches until she was eyeball to eyeball with Leo. 'Eighteen years,' she hissed. 'Eighteen years I put up with your boorish behaviour, your insufferable arrogance, and how am I repaid? I'm put out to pasture, while you fuck a child in my bed.'
    Teetering, she knocked the table sideways, sending a salver of honeyed peaches slithering over the mosaic floor. The smell of split fruit exploded into the air. No one moved. All eyes were riveted on Lydia.
    'Well, fuck you, and fuck the rose-grower's daughter. You're not my concern any more. I came here tonight to talk about Magnus.'
    'Who's Magnus?' Claudia whispered, but Volcar flapped a hand to silence her.
    'What did you tell him, Leo? What did you say to frighten him off? Or did you bribe my little marble man away?'
    When she tried to laugh, it came out a throaty, unstable rumble. As though Lydia's tenuous hold on her emotions would give way any second to a stream of unstoppable tears.
    'That would be the ultimate insult, wouldn't it? You buying off my suitor with my own money?' She waved her hand in weary dismissal as he opened his mouth. 'Oh, spare me more of your lies, Leo. I don't care what you told Magnus, it doesn't matter, really it doesn't. I don't want a man who can be bought off or bullied.' She paused for breath. 'But you went too far, Leo. Now it's my turn.'
    'I'm trembling.'
    'Mock all you like, but I'm still putting a stop to your marriage.'
    'Impossible. I'm already wearing her betrothal medallion.
    We exchange wedding rings on the girl's fourteenth birthday. Even you can't break the contract.'
    7 don't intend to,' Lydia said, and there was a glint of triumph in her glazed eyes. 'You'll be the one doing the breaking.'
    'That contract's sealed in law. No one and nothing can break it.'
    'What if I say, "life and death", my dear darling husband? Life and death cut straight through signatures and