Within minutes the news would be around the Settlement and there would be no need to say it again. Down the praia she saw Andr`e. He was waiting for her.

"Hello, Andr`e."

"I'm glad you're not going," he said simply.

"Ah. News travels fast."

"Good news. I need to talk privately."

"About money?"

"About money. How you've changed, Angelique."

"For the better, I hope. How are you, old friend?"

"Old." Andr`e was feeling drab today, and tired. He had seen Hinodeh last night and there had been shadows between them. And violence. While she was massaging him he had lifted up and reached into the neck of her kimono to kiss her breast, loving her to distraction, but she had jerked away and closed her kimono against him. "You promise not to..." she had gasped, and his fury at himself for forgetting--any such trespass sent her into a pathetic, hangdog sorrow that would craze him further--turned into fury at her and he had snarled, "Stop looking like that, stoppit!

Baka!"

There were never any tears when he was there, just the constant, abject muttering, "Gomen nasai, Furansu-san, gomen nasai gomen nasai gomen nasai" on and on until the words maddened him and again he shouted, "Shut up for Christ's sake!" She had. And stayed kneeling, eyes downcast, hands in her lap, immobile except for an occasional tremble like a whipped dog.

He had wanted to apologize and hold her in his arms, his love unending, but that would not help him, only make him lose further face so he just got up sullenly and dressed and without a word left their home. Once he was out of the Yoshiwara and across the bridge he went down to the shore and kicked the nearest fishing boat and cursed it until he was spent. Then he sat on the cold pebbles, choked with frustration knowing that she would be weeping and equally angry that she had not managed his mistake more cleverly, knowing that tomorrow they would begin again as though nothing had happened but he was sure, not far below the sweet and gentle demeanor was a vast reservoir of hatred. For him.

"And why not?" he muttered.

"Why not what, Andr`e?" Angelique asked.

"Oh! Nothing, just wandering."

"Look there's an empty seat. We can sit there and talk."

The bench faced the sea. The mail ship beckoned her attention and she wondered what would have happened if she had decided to go aboard. I'd only have gone into the Lioness's den earlier than necessary, she thought. No need to worry about that, no need to worry about anything--merely to ease into my new being, testing its limits, and wait. The smoke plume began trickling upwards. The mail ship was getting up steam.

Only a few tenders remained at her gangway. "I'm not very good company, sorry," she said.

"Could you let me have some money?"

"I have only a little. How much do you need?"

"A thousand guineas."

"What on earth for?"

He took a deep breath. "Her name is Hinodeh," he said and told her a story of falling in love and wanting her for himself and nothing about the real reason, his sickness. "It's difficult to tell everything, of course I can't, but I cannot live without that woman and the money is needed for her contract, I've got to have it. I must."

"There's no way I could find that amount, Andr`e," she said, genuinely shocked but moved.

"What about Henri, surely he could provide you with a loan?"

"He's refused, and refused to advance me anything on my salary, I think he enjoys my dependence."

"If I was to talk to him an--"

"No, you mustn't, that would be the worst thing to do."

He looked at her in a new way. "When you get your marriage settlement, I pray it's fast, I'll work to make it fast, I want you to lend it to me, a thousand."

"If I can, I will, I will, Andr`e."

"Can you let me have some now? A hundred, that will keep the mama-san off my back for a week--she was the one who helped you," he added, driving in a nail.

She let that pass, well aware of the many ways he had helped her, or had promised never to mention any of them, her mind jumping forward to new conclusions: this Hinodeh is an added security for me. "I'll ask Jamie for an advance."

"There's the money Sir William said you could keep, two hundred and sixty-three guineas, wasn't it, from the safe."

"Yes, there's some of that left." She looked out to sea to avoid his eyes, their disturbing intentness, wondering how he knew and to mask her abhorrence of this different Andr`e with his underlying, searing edge of hysteria. Foolish to be like that, doesn't he realize our Fates are locked together? But then he is in love so I can forgive him. "I sent some home."

"I'm working on your behalf, Angelique, every day with Henri. The Ward of the State, he's sure of it. Henri's important to your future, he and the Ambassador will be your champions in the coming fight, I guarantee it.

You're wise to stay here and wait, it's safer, better," he said and she remembered how, not so long ago, he had told her it was vital for her to go.

He was watching her, hard to see her clearly through the veil, remembering the signed affidavit he had deposited with his will in the British Minister's safe, not trusting Seratard--against any "accident" happening to him. The affidavit that told about the Tokaido assassin's lovemaking and the abortion--when and how it was achieved and the evidence buried--and about the death of the assassin. Then there was the second page of the letter her father had written her months ago that he had torn up in front of her but had put back together, the page that would damn any marriage settlement that Tess Struan might agree to when the screws were really turned on her--all of it to use, when necessary, Angelique his only passport to possession of Hinodeh and a comfortable future.

Raiko and Meikin and selling secrets and buying secrets? A pipedream, he told himself bitterly. I've given them the whole campaign plan and what have I in return? Promises--and no chance to offset those against my other debt. "A hundred," he said, too tired and angry to say please.

She did not take her eyes off the sea.

"How long will we have to wait? For Tess to act."

"It depends how Tess receives the news, or Hoag, what she does at the funeral. She will wait your thirty days--are you carrying or are you not--before deciding," he said in the same matter-of-fact voice, ramming back the past, wanting her dependent again. She looked back at him, glad for the veil. He thought her eyes were friendly--perhaps afraid, perhaps not. "Add ten days for that news to reach her. Ten to think, ten to send a message back. About two months, perhaps less."

"What will the message be?"

"Venomous." His own eyes slitted. "But I've a few ideas, plans. I can help to make you a rich woman. We have to wait, nothing to do for a while, just wait. Patience, Angelique. Patience and a little luck...

I've ideas."

And so have I, Andr`e Blackmailer. Many.

And plans. For you, Tess, and for the future.

Tenderly she leaned over and touched him. "I'm so glad you have a love to cherish. You're blessed," she said, meaning it. Then, as only a woman could, she put that tenderness aside forever, and her plans back in place. "The money will be waiting for you at six, Andr`e--I'm glad you're my friend."

"I'm glad too... thanks for the loan."

"So again we must be patient, both of us, and wait? That is what we must do, yes? A little luck and patience? I can be patient. A little luck and patience. Good. So be it."

He watched her walk away, straight and confident and, for all her splendid petiteness, somehow tall.