Mars turned and interrupted his wife again to say to the maid, “Leave us, gather the others, go to your quarters and await my decision on this matter.” When she hesitated, he finished on a lean, “Now.”

The girl nodded, bobbed a curtsy and rushed away.

“Mars—” Silence murmured.

Mars did not respond to his wife.

He turned to her mother.

“Johan hired servants that would spy and report on his daughter and her husband?” he asked.

“Oh, my goodness,” Silence whispered in horror.

“It is—” Vanka began.

“You do know, this being discovered, it could be construed as a conspiracy of Wodell against the Firenz king and his queen,” Mars remarked.

“Dear gods,” Vanka breathed, her hand coming up to her throat.

“Mars,” Silence said soothingly, and he felt her come close and wrap her fingers around his upper arm.

“It was meant nothing like that,” Vanka stated quickly.

“No, I find it no surprise it was not,” Mars retorted. “Tell me, Vanka, has a maid or valet ever entered your bedchamber when you were abed with your husband?”

Vanka’s face remained flushed.

“Mars,” Silence whispered, her fingers tightening on his arm.

Now understanding this situation to its fullness, especially the fact Silence’s own parents were behind it, his control snapped when Vanka made no reply.

“Tell me!” he barked.

Silence pressed close to his side.

Piccola, her monkey, took that opportunity to transfer herself from her mama to her papa but Mars completely ignored the monkey crawling up his chest and positioning on his shoulder with its little hands clutching Mars’s neck.

“There has been occasion—” Vanka started.

“Of course there has,” he clipped. “You are wed, and you are gentry and your servants have the running of the household, but they do not dictate what happens within its walls. Your husband installed spies in his daughter’s home to report on what happens here so he could have any information he could acquire to utilize in order to undermine her marriage. And when Silence made it clear she would not fall prey to his personal attempts to do this, he sent you here to do the same. That is, after realizing his efforts had come to naught to get them to whore themselves in hopes of gaining my attention and causing a rift in my marriage I would not have been able to repair should I have been of the character to do such a revolting thing to my wife.”

Silence pressed closer.

“A revolting thing?” Vanka asked, appearing stunned he would find it revolting to cheat on his gods-damned wife.

The bloody, fucking Dellish.