She hurried forward, Ednund and Clarice following dutifully, getting just as wet as she was. So, how was she going to do this? Her hair was a mess, already hanging like a saturated mop down her back. Her pantsuit, made of the fine, almost sheer fabric, was clinging to her body like a second skin. Not that a Taglioni minded, genetics had given her a hetaira’s body, but the drunken louts in that maggot-choking casino would be thinking of her the same way they thought of the prostitutes working on the floor.

“I’m not sure it would work, but I could try and seduce him away from this Talina Perez.” Clarice’s voice was full of uncertainty. “Though the man I saw in the casino hardly spared me a second glance. Even when I posed myself as available.”

“No, he didn’t. Not even when he wagered for us,” Ednund agreed. “And didn’t the freak child say he and Perez were monogamous? Curious use of the word, that.”

Ednund might be Falise’s way out of this. She’d send him in while she waited. Maybe somewhere out of the rain. Ask him to have Derek step outside. Keep her humiliation to the minimum.

“But will he do that?” she asked herself as rain trickled down her face. “Or, knowing me, will he suspect a trick?”

“Lady,” Clarice said from behind, “you know that he hates Claudio and Malissa, so no appeal to family loyalty will work. But I have been thinking about that man you played poker with. About the things he said. How he acted. It is a risk, and humiliating, but from my study of his behavior, and knowing who you are, the most likely chance for success is if you walk in, looking just as you do now, and tell him you have made a mistake and ask him if he will forgive you.”

“Ask him to forgive? When I look like a fucking drowned dog?”

“Of course,” Ednund said as if in revelation. “I see. Lady, think of it. He’s expecting retaliation, scorn, dismissal, some counterattack completely in accord with your personality. Even the Derek we knew—and there must be something of him left inside—would be surprised, curious, and even satisfied by what seemed a complete capitulation. What was the word you used? Grovel?”

“It’s so totally out of character, he can’t help but take it seriously.” Clarice reached around to wring out her hair as she stumbled along on the uneven surface.

“The danger is that the riffraff will forever hold it over me. I’m a goddamned Taglioni! It’s bad enough I have to humble myself in front of Derek. I’ll be damned if I do it in front of an audience of gutter trash.”