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" 'Fifteen!' I was amazed. 'Well, I'm eighteen,' I said. 'We're both precocious. Our children will be geniuses. ¡¯

" 'Yeah, no doubt of that,' she said. 'And they'd have private teachers like I do now, and they'd travel the world. ¡¯

" 'We could travel the world with my Aunt Queen,' I said, 'and with Nash, and he would tell us about all the countries we would be visiting. ¡¯

"She had the most serene smile. 'It would be a dream,' she said. 'I've been to Europe -- this last year I went all over with Ryan and Pierce -- Ryan is Pierce's father. Ryan is the big lawyer in our lives, though we have a whole family firm of them actually. But anyway, what was I saying? Europe. I could go again and again and again. ¡¯

" 'Oh, think of it, Mona. You have your passport already, and I have mine. We could just steal you away. Aunt Queen's been pleading with me to go!¡¯

" 'Your Aunt Queen would never let you steal me,' she laughed. 'I can see she has a venturesome spirit, but she wouldn't agree to kidnapping. Besides, the family would just come after me. ¡¯

" 'Would they really?' I asked. 'But why, Mona? You speak of your family as though it's a giant prison. ¡¯

" 'No, Quinn,' she said, 'it's really like a giant garden, but there are garden walls that separate us from the rest of the world. ' She was getting abysmally sad. 'I'm going to cry again and I totally and egregiously hate it. ¡¯

" 'No, don't cry,' I said. I got the box of tissue for her and set it down before her. 'I totally can't bear the thought of you shedding one tear and if you do I'll swallow it, or I'll dry your eyes with these. Now tell me why they wouldn't let you go to Europe. I mean we'd have Aunt Queen as the perfect chaperone. ¡¯

" 'Quinn, I'm not just an ordinary Mayfair as I told you. I'm not just an ordinary witch. I'm what they call the Design¨¦e of the Legacy. And the Legacy is something that dates back hundreds of years. It's a great fortune that is inherited by a new woman in each generation. ¡¯

" 'How big a fortune?¡¯

" '

It's in the billions,' she replied. 'That's why it could endow Mayfair Medical, and right now the Heiress is Rowan Mayfair. But Rowan can't have a child and I've already been named to succeed Rowan. ¡¯

" 'I see. They're grooming you and guarding you for the day when you have to take over. ¡¯

" 'Precisely,' she answered. 'That's why they want me to stop acting wild and sleeping with all my cousins. Since we got back from Europe I've listened pretty much. I don't know what it is with me and sex. I just love it. But you get the idea. I have to occupy a position of honor, if that doesn't sound too egregious. That's why they wanted me to go to Europe, to be educated and cultured and --. ¡¯

"Again her face went dark, and this time the tears came up to stand in her eyes.

" 'Mona, tell me,' I pleaded.

"She shook her head. 'Something bad happened to me,' she said. Her voice was breaking.

"I got up and I led her away from the table. I shoved back the bedclothes and the two of us kicked off our shoes and we climbed in against the nest of down pillows. Never had I loved my fancy bed so much as when I was lying under that baldachin over there with her. And you have to picture that we were fully clothed, except for the fact that when I started kissing her I opened her blouse all the way down, feeling her breasts, but she didn't mind.

"But then we tapered off, principally because I was so tired, and then I brought her back to the subject.

" 'Something bad happened?' I asked her. 'Can you tell me what it was?¡¯

"For a long time she was silent and then she started to cry again.

" 'Mona, if anybody hurt you, I'll hurt them,' I said. 'I mean it. Goblin could even --. Tell me what happened. ¡¯

" 'I had a child,' she said in a hoarse whisper.

"I said nothing but I could see that she wanted to go on.

" 'I had a child,' she said, 'and it wasn't what anyone would call a normal child. It was. . . it was different. Very precocious, yes, and perhaps what is best called a mutation. I loved it with my whole soul, it was a beautiful child. But. . . it was taken away. ' She paused, then went on. 'It was taken far away, and I just can't come back from that. I can't stop thinking about that. ¡¯

" 'You mean they made you give up your baby! A family that size with all that money. ' I was appalled.

" 'No. ' She shook her head. 'It wasn't like that. It wasn't the family. Let's just say that the child was taken away, and I don't know what happened to it. It wasn't the family's doing. ¡¯

" 'The father's doing?' I asked.

" 'No. I told you this was something terrible. I can't tell you all of it. I can only say that at any time I might hear about that child. ' She chose her words carefully. 'That child might be returned to me. Some news might come, good news or bad news. But for now there's nothing but silence. ¡¯