“Penny,” I said. “You see how things are. I need your help. I’m asking you for the same reason I asked the Matriarch; because I can’t do this alone. Help me run things. For the sake of the family.”

Penny looked at me thoughtfully, her cool regard as unreadable as always. “What precisely did you have in mind? As a secretary?”

“Join my Inner Circle. Help set policy. Help make the decisions that matter.”

She looked genuinely shocked for a moment, and I had to smile. Whatever she’d been expecting to hear, that hadn’t been it. Membership in the Inner Circle would give her real power in the family, and a real chance of influencing me. She took a deep breath, which did interesting things to her tight white sweater, and was immediately her old cool and composed self again.

“Why in hell would you want someone like me, a hardcore traditionalist?”

“To keep me honest,” I said. “To tell me the things I need to know, whether I want to hear them or not. To rein me in when I go too far, try to make changes too quickly. Or to spur me on if I start dithering. You’ve always been the sensible one, Penny. A terrible thing to hear, I know, but facts are facts. If I can’t convince you something is right or necessary, maybe it isn’t. And . . . you know a hell of a lot more about running things and organising people than I do.”

“Pretty much anyone knows more about those things than you do,” said Penny. “I had to spend hours cleaning up your mission reports before I could pass them on.”

“So what do you say? Are you game?”

“Would I have an official title? I’ve always wanted an official title.”

“How about, my conscience?”

“Yes,” said Penny. “I could do that.”

“But first,” I said carefully, “I have to ask, Penny. Were you a part of the Zero Tolerance faction?”

“No,” Penny said immediately. “They had some good ideas, but I don’t believe in factions within the family.”

“Another good reason why I want you on my side.”

“What makes you think I’m on your side?”

It was my turn to consider her thoughtfully. “You were my contact for years,” I said finally. “You know me better than most. You know the things I’ve done for the family; the missions they gave me because they were too dangerous or too dirty for anyone else. You know I’ve always believed in what this family is supposed to stand for. I want to rebuild the family in its own image, not mine.”

“Against my better judgement, I think I believe you,” said Penny. “I’m not sure I believe in you; we’ll have to see what happens. But I’m . . . prepared to be persuaded. Someone has to pull this family together, and if the Matriarch won’t . . . But let me make one thing very clear, Eddie. I never fancied you. Not ever.”