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"Does it help at all that I'm a halfbreed?" Faolan asked and was rewarded with an icy glare. Okay, he thought, just pretend I'm not here. He also couldn't help wondering who the hell Elle's mother had been seeking to marry her to.

"He's not your husband, Ellandra," Aunt Constance said, settling back in her chair. "Whatever silly ceremony they had is not legally binding, no matter what they've told you. We'll see the pikey on his way, maybe give him a little compensation for his trouble, and then we'll find you a nice decent husband to settle down with. Someone of good breeding."

That did it. "Oi, see here noo, you ol' biddy. Tha' there is ma wife an' she'll b'marryin' nae 'un else," Faolan said, standing up and frowning at the tiny old bat. "You won't b'gaen on as Ah donnae exist, either. Ah'm reet here an' Ah can hear you joost fine."

The old woman looked at him, arching a brow, then looked at her niece. "I don't speak pikey. Would you be a dear and translate, Ellandra?"

"Sit down, girl!" Aunt Constance commanded, standing up. "I didn't ask you here to listen to your drivel or meet this pikey you think you're married to. You will sit--and so will the pikey-- and then we will discuss the reason I invited you."

Faolan looked down at Ellandra, stroking her hair gently. She'd been right, he could admit that. The old woman was just . . . dastardly. But she was also Elle's only relative and he couldn't turn his back on the traditions he'd been raised in. "La, wife, she's all the blood you got. You really want t'be like the didikai, then you'll hear her out." He got Ellandra to sit back down on the couch, then seated himself back in the uncomfortable chair again, prepared to take more abuse so his wife could visit with her crazy aunt.

The old woman settled back into her chair, regarding the two of them and then focusing on her niece, deciding to ignore the filthy pikey currently lowering the property value of her home with his mere presence. "There is the matter of you trust fund."

"Actually," the old woman started. "The issue is more or less that you're of an age now that your trust fund is no longer for your use and to be set aside for your children." She gave a disdainful glance to Faolan, then looked back at Ellandra. "I'm speaking of course of the children you'll be having with the arranged marriage your father set up after we annul the pikey wedding you had and send this one back to his filthy camp."

Faolan just glared, not really sure what to say. Should he tell the old woman Elle was already carrying his bairns in her belly? That would probably just piss her off and have her insult him even more and likely insult Elle, too.

Eh, what the hell.

"She's already with children," Fao informed the elderly woman. "Sorry to whatever man you lined up for her, but her belly's already full of my bairns and we mean to see them born."

Constance actually looked a little surprised. "Then you have no idea? Your mother arranged for you to marry some pikey brat when you were a little girl. Said something about owing it to an old friend. Your father demanded she break that betrothal and then he arranged for your marriage to the son of a friend of his. Dear Ellandra, you can't be married to the pikey here. You're already spoken for."

Constance thought about it. "No, not that I ever knew. She was friends with a lot of his kind." She indicated Faolan. "I never knew all the people she talked about from that carnival."

Faolan's eyes were narrowed a bit, head tilted. "His name was Keagan, wasn't it? The didikai she had the arrangement with."

The old woman looked at him. How dare he speak with her, but, yes, he was right. "I do believe that was it, yes. You pikeys all seem to know each other."

Faolan chuckled. "Wait, so Da and your mother were tryin' to get us married when we were kids? This have anything to do with us meetin' so long ago?"

Constance ignored the pikey. "That betrothal was broken, Ellandra. You don't owe him anything. We'll annul the marriage and discreetly be rid of those children. No one will ever have to know and you can marry the man you're supposed to."

Striking a nerve would be putting it lightly. Faolan stood up, taking Ellandra's hand and pulling her to her feet, a bit more roughly than intended. "We're leaving. Now. Ain't no one, outsider or didikai, going to go about killin' my children again. Not now, not ever. She's married to the man she's supposed to be with. This other suitor wants her, he can come lookin' for her." He dragged Ellandra to the door. "Now how the hell do we get out of this crazy museum?"