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Lady Maccon said nothing, simply crossed her arms over her ample boso for rowl "I asked her to keep an eye on you while I ay"

"And you did not tell et"

"I ent to track h I were a fox in the hunt That is si end! How could you?"

"Oh, she isn’t BUR We’ve known each other a long time I asked her as a friend, not an employee"

Alexia frowned She wasn’t sure how she felt about that "How long a tiave a watery little senuinely surprised "Really, wife, you are not usually given to such denseness I dinna fit Madame Lefoux’s preferences"

"Ah, any more than I fit Lord Akelda a mite jealous of the effete vampire and resented the"Verra well, I take your point, wife"

"Admittedly," interjected Madame Lefoux, her voice soft and tear-strained, "I was also interested in contacting Angelique, and she is Lady Maccon’s enda," accused Lord Maccon, looking with suspicion at the Frenchwoelique told me you used to be intimate and that Quesnel is hers, not yours"

"When did she tell you this, before she died?" wondered Lord Maccon

Alexia patted his arhtened considerably "She is a ghost?"

Lady Maccon waggled her fingertips about "Not anyasped, what appeared to have been a strange kind of hope quickly followed by a return to sadness "You exorcised her? How cruel"

"She asked, and we struck a bargain I as into account"

"These days, no one seems to" The inventor sounded bitter

"There is no need to ," replied Lady Maccon, who did not approve of maudlin humors

"Really, Alexia, why such sharpness with the woman? She is overset"

Lady Maccon looked more closely into Madame Lefoux’s face "I believe there may be cause You are not so sad over lost love as you are over a lost past Is that not so, rief, and her eyes narrowed, sharpening on Alexia "We were together for a long tiht I did want her back--not for round her in the daylight world She changed so very much after she became a drone They tapped into the hardness Quesnel and I had once ed to temper"

Alexia nodded "I deduced as much"

Lord Maccon looked at his wife appreciatively "Good Lord, woman, how could you have possibly known that?"

"Well"--Lady Maccon grinned--"Madame Lefoux here did play a bit of the coquette withI do not think she was entirely sha"

Madame Lefoux flashed a sudden smile "I did not know you were even aware"

Alexia arched both eyebrows "I was not until recently; hindsight can be lowered at the Frenchwo with htened her spine and looked up at hiet territorial, old wolf You find her attractive--why shouldn’t I?"

Lord Maccon actually sputtered

"Nothing happened," corroborated Alexia, s broadly

Madarowled and looly in Madame Lefoux’s direction The inventor rolled her eyes at his posturing

Alexia’s grin widened It was rare to have soh to tease the earl She shot a quick glance in the Frenchwo Just to be on the safe side, she hastily switched topics "This is all very flattering, but could we return to the subject at hand? If Madaible to keep an eye on elique with parental duties, then it was not she who tried to poison elique either"

"Poison! You didna tell , wife! You only an to vibrate with suppressed anger His eyes had turned feral, solid yello instead of tawny brown Wolf eyes

"Yes, well, the fall was Angelique"

"Dinna change the subject, you i herself "Well, I did suppose Tunstell would have told you He took the brunt of the incident, after all And he is your claviger Norardless"--she turned back to Madame Lefoux--"you are after the humanization weapon as well, aren’t you?"

Madauess?"

"So to break into or steal my dispatch case Since you knew about the parasol and all its secret pockets, I figured it had to be you, not Angelique And what could you possibly ith it except my records as muhjah on the London hus?" She paused, her head cocked to one side "Would youof ier to knohere you hid it"

"Mave his wife a funny look

Madanored that bizarre stateure it out in the end, didn’t you? The source of the huestured to Lord Maccon’s wolf eyes--"it seems to have been reversed"

Lady Maccon nodded "Of course I did"

"Yes, I thought you ht That was the real reason I followed you"

Lord Maccon sighed "Really, Madame Lefoux, why not wait until BUR had it cleared and siave him a hard look "When has BUR, or the Crown for that matter, ever shared such information openly with anyone? Let alone a French scientist? Even as a friend, you would never tell me the truth of it"

Lord Maccon looked like he would rather not co paid by the Westminster vaned

Mada at this point It was rare for her to be able to put one over on her husband "Conall, you mean to say you did not know? Mada for the hives either She is working for the Hypocras Club"

"What! That canna be possible"

"Oh yes, it can I saw the tattoo"

"No, really it is not," Lord Maccon and Madame Lefoux said at the same time