"You'll do as you're told," the ugly officer snarled as he tightened my bindings.
"Hands off," I spat. "You think dragging me into Lady Louisa's room proves anything? You're thieves in brocade."
"Lady Louisa doesn't like thieves," Hugh said. "She likes useful things. You'll be useful."
They shoved me through lacquered doors into a room that smelled of camphor and plum oil. The silk screens were shut. Lantern light threw hard shadows on lacquered panels. Footsteps stopped; a laugh threaded through the darkness, soft and precise.
"Bring her forward," a voice murmured from beyond the screen. "Let me see what's left of Mu Lingxi."
"She's young," one man said. "Thin. Maybe we can still—"
"Don't touch her," I said. "You touch me and I promise the Patriarch will know who sent you."
"Pathetic," came the voice through the screen. "Patriarch Matteo is a man of ritual. He doesn't move unless a seal commands him."
"Which seal?" I asked. My words were a blade when my body would not obey. I forced my jaw up. "Whose seal was on the divorce? I remember better than you do. It was not the house clerk's."
Silence. A silk curtain whispered. Then a laugh that made my teeth ache.
"Gal," a man hissed. "You should be useful instead of clever."
"You plan to sell me to the Marquis," I said. "You pressed the divorce papers with a visiting official's seal. The ink
