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" 'For years,' she said, 'it was a dreadful ghost, just as Jasmine described He did a lot one now, this illustrious ghost And what surrounds theenetic mutations ¡¯

"I had to be quiet But it didn't work She went quiet too

" 'What happened to the dreadful ghost?' I asked

" 'Nobody knows except that so violent occurred Dr Rowan Mayfair almost lost her life, as I h it Now Mona, Mona came down from an intensely inbred line of the faacy Can you ienetic probleuess that Mona has them ¡¯

" 'I don't care,' I said 'I adore her ¡¯

" 'Mona didn't grow up at the house at First and Chestnut She grew up on St Charles Avenue, not very far from Ruthie's house, and her people went back to a plantation house in the country There was a irl, by any means ¡¯

" 'Mona told me all this So she wasn't rich Do I have to love somebody rich? Besides --¡¯

" 'You keepthe point The child is now in line to inherit the Mayfair fortune ¡¯

" 'She told me that, herself ¡¯

" 'But Quinn, don't you see?' she persisted 'This child is under intense scrutiny The Mayfair Legacy involves billions It's like the capital of a sone froinable fortune Nash, you explain it The girl's rather like an heir to the throne of England ¡¯

" 'Exactly,' said Nash in a very mild professorial manner 'In the sixteenth century it was an act of treason to court young Elizabeth or Mary Tudor because they were in line for the royal crown When Elizabeth finally became queen, the men who had dallied with her were executed ¡¯

" 'You're iht kill me?' I asked

" 'No, indeed not, what I' to say,' Aunt Queen returned, 'is that they will reclaioes or

how You saw for yourself They were quite prepared to pick her up bodily and carry her to that limo ¡¯

" 'We should never have let her go,' I said 'I have a terrible feeling about it ¡¯