“You are intelligent as well as lovely.” Leaning over he placed his hand on hers. She felt it from him, the vile, dark movement of death. “To make a man suffer, to destroy his soul, you deprive him of what he loves best and leave him to live with it. His children and grandchildren dead, his country in chaos, a man would have nothing left but misery. And a country without an heir becomes unstable—and profitable—if one is shrewd.”

“All of them,” Hannah murmured. She thought of little Marissa, so pretty and soft, and Dorian with his smudged face and bright grin. Fear for them was suddenly so strong, so vital, she thought it had to show in her eyes. She kept them down, looking at his hand as it lay over hers and the cold, hard glint of the diamonds.

“All of them, monsieur?” When she thought she could trust herself again, she looked back at his face. He was smiling. In the fragile light of the chandeliers he looked wan as a ghost and infinitely more frightening. “Not an easy task, even for someone of your power.”

“Nothing worthwhile is simple, my dear. But as you said, nothing is impossible—particularly when one is trusted and close.”

Her brow lifted. She didn’t shudder or draw away. Business, she told herself. Lady Hannah was all business. She was being offered a job, the most vital one Deboque had to offer.

“You were carefully chosen, Lady Hannah. For more than ten years, I’ve had one dream. I believe you are the instrument to see it to fruition.”

She pursed her lips as if considering while her mind raced ahead. He was giving her a contract, a royal one. As she said nothing, his fingers played lightly over her knuckles. Like a spider, she thought, a handsome and very clever spider.

“Such a responsibility is weighty for someone in my position in your organization.”

“That can be seen to. Bouffe is—retiring,” he said softly. “I will be looking for a replacement.”

She let her hand lie under his as she touched her tongue to her top lip. “A guarantee, monsieur.”

“My word.”

She smiled a little. “Monsieur.”

With a nod of acknowledgment, he rose and pressed a button on his desk. Within seconds Ricardo appeared. “Lady Hannah will be replacing Bouffe. See to the arrangements, Ricardo. Discreetly.”

“Of course.” The pale green eyes half closed as if with pleasure.

Hannah waited for the door to shut again. A man’s life was over. “The day may come when you decide to replace me as casually.”

“Not if you continue to please me.” He lifted her hand again and kissed it. “I have a feeling you will.”

“I must tell you, monsieur, I have a distaste for killing children.” His fingers tightened, very slightly on hers, but she didn’t fidget. “I believe it will take five million American dollars to overcome this distaste.”