How much did Saetan know? Was the comment about not having to maintain a household simply a comment, or did he know about the little house she kept in Draega for the pretty toy-boys? It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy sex with Saetan. He was an exquisite lover. How could a man who had been Witch’s Consort for years not be exquisite in bed? But he wasn’t as much fun. She couldn’t play with him the way she could the toy-boys. So why shouldn’t she enjoy a romp with a male she could dominate? Besides, it wasn’t like she was doing anything wrong. Fidelity and sexual exclusivity were required of the male in a marriage, not the female. Males served, after all.

But Warlord Princes were a law unto themselves, and a Black-Jeweled Warlord Prince might not think the status of a wedding ring was sufficient reason to overlook his wife’s lovers.

Her mother, Martella, entered the room, unhappiness and embarrassment rolling off her in waves.

“We had to go to a different butcher, so the Darkness only knows what the cook will set before us for the evening meal. And the bastard demanded payment before he’d hand over the meat!” Martella’s mouth thinned to a petulant line. “I had to return the pearl brooch I’d bought last week in order to pay for the meat.” She sighed as she joined Hekatah at the window. “Your . . . husband . . . is being difficult about assisting the family, isn’t he?”

“He says he won’t make another loan because the extra million gold marks he gave Father wasn’t used for the estates as they’d agreed.”

“How could it be?” Martella cried. “Your brothers wanted that new carriage and team of horses, and then there was that payment that the Queen demanded we make because that witch was broken when Caetor got a little too enthusiastic about enjoying himself.”

“Didn’t she tell him she was virgin?” Hekatah asked.

“Well, of course she did. But she wasn’t anyone important . Nothing would have come of it if her family hadn’t gone to the Queen and made a formal accusation. And they said it was rape, insisting the girl hadn’t agreed to have sex. The Queen gave your father and Caetor a choice: They could pay all the Healer’s expenses and make a settlement as compensation for breaking the girl and stripping her of her Jeweled power, or Caetor could stand before a tribunal of Queens to determine if the accusation of rape was justified. The only reason she offered a choice was because the girl is a nobody and Caetor is from one of Hayll’s Hundred Families.” Bitterness filled Martella’s voice. “The question wouldn’t have come up at all if we still had the wealth we deserve. But I suppose we can’t expect your husband to understand aristo concerns.”