“Help yourself to something to eat while I get my album of photographs so you can start getting to know our family,” she said. “Oh, Liam, this is going to be fun!”

Patrick couldn’t believe Gwen’s naïveté . All evening she had been chattering as she shoved countless photographs beneath Liam’s nose, trying to get him to learn the faces of all his cousins, uncles, and aunts.

Learning people’s names and faces wasn’t what Liam needed. Liam needed an intensive course in finance and contract law. The biggest industrial merger in history was unfolding, and Liam was about to be plunged into the middle of it. He couldn’t read, he harbored a grudge against corporate America, and he had a fresh three-inch wound in his abdomen. Liam was about to walk into a nest of scorpions, and Gwen wanted to show him family photos.

Her excitement dimmed a little when she turned another page. “That’s our mother,” she said, and for once Liam seemed truly interested.

Patrick was too, and he leaned over to admire the photograph of a woman standing on a beach, shading her eyes from the sun as she looked directly into the camera. Now he knew where Gwen got her blond hair and serene countenance.

“How did she die?” Liam asked.

“She caught meningitis when I was six years old. I don’t have many memories of her, but they are all good.” Her smile was wistful as she studied the old photograph. “She loved letting me cuddle with her, and she wore orange blossom perfume. To this day, when I smell orange blossoms, I feel very happy. Content.” She slipped the photograph free of the page and handed it to Liam. “You keep it.”

Patrick held his breath, hoping Liam wouldn’t do anything stupid, but he held it in his big, scarred hands as if it were a holy relic.

Gwen turned another page and kept talking. “You see how dapper our cousin Edwin looks in that summer suit?” she asked, pointing to a photograph. “We can order one just like it for you to wear at the family reunion. Perhaps we can visit the tailor tomorrow.”

Patrick frowned. “Gwen, we can’t stay here. If word gets around that your brother has returned, he won’t be safe.”

She was still skeptical that the attack on Liam originated from her family, but she agreed to take Liam elsewhere while she taught him what he needed to know about her family. Blackstone College had a second campus where they raised horses and students learned how to manufacture various antitoxin serums.

“It’s summer, so the dormitory will be empty,” Gwen said. “We can be alone out there while we work with Liam on all aspects of the family and bank business.”