Uchiha was engaged in mending a pen, but he looked up, and, when he saw his ward backed against the door, an urgent question in her green eyes, abandoned this task. He knew what those questioning eyes were screaming and was certain that the girl wouldn't leave until they had a satisfying dialogue. When the Earl spoke to her, a laugh quivered in his voice: 'Sakura, you goose! Did you really think that I should succumb to that unfortunate man's oratory?'

Sakura seethed towards his visage, her manicured nails clawing at her gown's skirt, dear, how she hated that smirk of his.

'Do forgive me! but surely he is a very dull dog?'

'I don't care for that,' she said, her contorted features relaxing into soft melancholy. 'He is not dull to me. I love him!'

'You must do so indeed! I should have supposed him to be the last man to take your fancy, too.'

'Well, he is not, and even if you are my guardian I won't submit to having my husband chosen for me by you!'

'Certainly not,' he said, flicking his hand out carelessly. 'It is plain that I should make a poor hand at it.'

At that, hope gleamed in her eyes, she moved towards him, and laid a coaxing hand on his arm. 'Dear Sasuke, if you please, may I marry him?'

He gave her hand a pat, nearly letting his amusement show; especially when he noticed that she said "may I" instead of "can I" as the young girl had the habit of doing. 'Why, yes, Sakura, when you are older.'

Her pleading expression evaporated immediately, it reminded him of that solution; thinner, which disappeared into thin air. 'But, Sasuke, you don't understand! Lee is going away to Brazil!'

'So he informed me.'

'Are you thinking that perhaps it might not suit me to live there? I believe the climate is perfectly healthy!'

'Salubrious,' he interpolated.

'Yes, and in any event I am never ill! You may ask my aunt if it's not so!'

'I'm sure it is. Don't let us fall into another exhausting argument! I have already endured a great deal of eloquence today, but it would take much more than eloquence to make me consent to your marriage to an indigent man who proposes to take you to the other end of the world before you are eighteen, or have been out a year.'

'That doesn't signify! And although I own it would be imprudent to marry Pierre if I were indigent too I am not indigent, so that's of no consequence either!'

'I promise you I shan't refuse my consent on that head, if, when he returns from Brazil, you still wish to marry him.'

'And what if some odious, designing female has lured him into marrying her?' Sakura demanded.

/Our New Lady/

/Uchiha/

'I absolutely refuse, Kit.'

'Aw, Kyū!' Naru cried, her gloved hands clasping the ends of his waistcoat. 'I beg of you!'

'No my decision is concrete,' Kurama said.

'But it's not fair! Why not?'

'I could give you plenty reasons why, ma chère belle, one; you haven't seen Uchiha about this, two; you are a lady of high status, and three; why a bloody cat! Falcons are more fashionable and acceptable!'

'Oh, but I don't want to be a dull bore, Kyū! Falcons! everyone has those,' she said. 'Don't tell me that you have lost your fun!'

'I haven't, just, blerry cats, who wants a ball of fur?' Tabi hissed from her perch on his shoulder. '...Except those who are brave enough to keep them?'

'Oh my!' Naru gasped. 'I should be getting back home.. the time has flown by..' she gathered her cloak, draping the hood over her head, and scuttled away, her skirts lifted. 'Thank you in advance, dear brother!'

The Viscount watched, his vocal cords dumbfounded, for a second before a pumped vein appeared on the corner of his brow with irritation. 'Hey! Wait a moment, you little rascal! I didn't agree to anything!'

/Our New Lady/

/Uchiha/

'He assures me that his nature is tenacious, so we must hope that he will be proof against all designing females,' he replied lightly.

'You don't hope that! You do not wish me to ever marry him!'

'No, of course I don't! Good God, child, how could I wish you to throw yourself away so preposterously, far less help you do it when you are hardly out of the schoolroom?'

'If he were a man of rank and fortune you wouldn't say I was too young!'

'If it comforts you, I do not wish to see you married for another year or two to anyone at all.'

Sakura was livid: 'Oh, don't talk to me as if I were a silly little child!' she cried passionately.

'Well, I don't think you are very wise,' he said.

'No, perhaps I am not wise, but I am not a child, and I know my own mind! You aren't very wise either, if you think I shall change it, or forget Rock! I daresay you don't care for that, for I see that you aren't kind, which I thought you were, but, on the contrary, perfectly heartless!'

'Not a bit of it!' he said cheerfully. 'There will still be balls to attend, and new, and expensive dresses to purchase.'

'I don't want them!'

'I wish I might believe you! Do you mean to abjure the fashionable life?'

She threw him a smouldering look, Sasuke not even blinking at it's intensity. 'You may laugh at me, but I warn you, Uchiha, I am determined to marry Rock, do what you will to prevent me!'

He replied only with an ironical bow, his bangs smoothly moving forward with him; and after staring defiantly at him for an instant before she gave up, sweeping out of the room with an air of finality, slamming the door behind her. Sasuke smirked, knowing what shall happen next. Indeed, she had marred her grand exit by the unfortunate circumstance of shutting her gown of delicate muslin and lilac robe in the door; and being obliged to open it again to release the fabric.

The Earl sighed, rolling his eyes and turning round to the seat he was previously occupying.

/Our New Lady/

/Uchiha/

Next day

The Earl looked up impatiently, but when he saw his wife standing on the threshold, his expression changed,and he smiled at her, saying in a funning tone: 'How do you contrive, Naru, always to appear prettier than I remembered you?'

He watched with a little smirk tucked into his cheek, as her neck, cheeks and nose became flush with colour; he mercilessly watched as she stumbled over the compliment adorably. 'Well, I did hope you would think I looked becomingly in this gown,' she confessed naïvely.

'I do. Did you put it on to dazzle into paying for it?'

This was said so quizzically that her spirits rose. For it had taken a great deal of resolution to bring her to the library that morning, after a most unwelcome missive had been delivered by the penny post. Madame Lavalle's civil reminder to her ladyship that a court dress of Chantilly lace was still unpaid for had lain on Naru's breakfast-tray. It was most certainly not an encouraging start to the day. It had quite destroyed her appetite, and had filled Naru with so much frightened dismay that for an unreasonable hour she the only solution she had come up with was to go seek refuge with her family, or any of her close acquaintances. But a prolonged period of reflection, however, showed her the unwisdom of such course, it also convinced her that it was very unlikely that a thunderbolt would mercifully descend upon her head. There was nothing for it but to make a clean breast of the matter to Uchiha, devoutly trusting that he would understand how it had come about that she had forgotten to give him Madame Lavalle's bill with all the others that day in the yester.

The more she thought of it the less likely it seemed that he could possibly understand. She felt sick with apprehension, recalling his stern words. He had plainly asked her if she was quite sure she had handed him all her bills; he had also warned her of the awful consequences if he found she had lied to him; and even if he had certainly begged her, later, not to be afraid of him, it was not to be expected that he would greet with equanimity the intelligence that his wife had overlooked a bill for three hundred and forty-five guineas.

It even seemed improbable that he would believe she really had overlooked it. She herself was aghast at her carelessness. So sure had she been that she had given the bill to Uchiha with all the others collected from a drawer crammed with them that her first thought upon seeing Madame Lavalle's renewed demand was that that chère exclusive modiste had erred. But an agitated search had brought the previous demand to light, wedged at the very back of the drawer.

It was by far the heaviest single item among her debts, casting into shade the milliner's bill which had staggered Uchiha. What he would say she dared not consider, even less what he might do. At the best he must believe her to be woefully extravagant (which she, indeed, knew she had been), and he would be very angry, though forgiving. At the worst- but to speculate on what he might do at the worst was so fatal to resolution (her imagination conjuring up an image of Sasuke summoning a purple unstoppable sheild which could shoot lightning at her) that she would not let herself do it.

With a childlike hope of pleasing him, she had arrayed herself in a gown which (especially on the authority of that arbiter of taste, Mr Tobi) many said became her to admiration. It had instantly won for her a charming compliment, and she was now able to reply, not without pride: 'No, no, it is paid for!' After a moment's reflection, she honestly added: 'You paid for it!'

'It is a great satisfaction to me to know that I didn't waste my money,' he said gravely, but his dark grey eyes were shimmering with laughter.

This was a much more promising start to the interview than she had been expecting. She smiled shyly, and was just about to embark on a painful explanation of her new embarrassment when he said: 'Are you Sakura's envoy, then? I own, I might listen with more patience to you than to her, but on this subject I am determined to remain adamant!'

Naru, who was not in the least sorry to be diverted from her real errand, said: 'Of course, I do see that it would be throwing herself away quite shockingly, but I believe you will be obliged (in the end) to consent.

'Well, I thought myself that it was just a fancy that would pass when she had seen more of society, and had met other gentlemen, but it isn't so, Uchiha! She hasn't swerved from her devotion to Mr Lee, even though she has been made up to by I don't know how many others - and all of them,' she added reflectively, 'of far greater address than Mr Lee!'

'Naru,' he interrupted. 'Can you tell me what she perceives in that dead bore to dote upon?'

She shook her head. 'No, there is no accounting for it,' she replied. 'She doesn't know either, which is what makes me think it is a case of true love, and certainly no passing fancy.'

'They are totally unsuited!' he said impatiently. 'She would ruin him in a year, half-year yet, what's more! She's as extravagant as you are, my love!' He saw the stricken look in her face, the colour ebbing from her cheeks (his chest filling with emotion he rarely felt), and instantly said: 'What an unhandsome thing to say to you! I beg your pardon: that is all forgotten - a page which we have struck down and shan't read once more. My dear Naru, if you could but have heard that absurd man adressing me in flowing periods this morning! Do you know that he proposed in all seriousness to carry Sakura off to Brazil?'

Her thoughts were very far from Sakura's affairs, but she answered mechanically: 'Yes, she told me of this appointment.'

Sasuke regarded her with a slight crease forming between his brows. 'You are looking very troubled, Naru. Why?' he asked, approaching a step. 'Are you taking this nonsense to heart?'

Now, if ever, was the moment to tell him that the page had not yet been stuck down. But the words refused to be uttered. She said instead: 'I can't help but be sorry for them. I know it is a bad match, and indeed, Uchiha, I understand what you sentiments must be.'

'I imagine you might! To own the truth, I wish I were not her guardian - or that I had never permitted her aunt to take charge of her. That woman wants both manner and sense, and, as far as I can discover, reared her own daughters as well as my cousin in a scrambling way, encouraging them in every extravagant folly, and allowing them to set up flirts when they should have been in the schoolroom!'

'Well, yes,' admitted Naru. Her voice was completely normal, none could have guessed that she was any other than fine. 'She is always very civil and good natured, but she does seem to be sadly shatterbrained! But I can't suppose that she encouraged Mr Lee, for she doesn't, at all, wish for Sakura to marry him, you know. She talked to me about it the other evening, at the Westbury's drum, and she seemed to feel just as she ought to.'

She paused, considering this. 'At least,' she amended, just as you think she ought, Sasuke.'

He was amused. 'Indeed! But not as you think, I collect? '

'Well, not precisely,' she temporized. 'I must say, it has me quite in a puzzle to understand how it comes about that such a girl should fall in love with Mr Lee, for he doesn't seem to have more than common sense, besides having such formal (mostly enthusiastic) manners -but -but there is nothing in his disposition to make him ineligible, is there? I mean, it isn't as if she wished to marry someone like Sir Jasper Lydney, or young Brixworth. You would not have liked her to marry either of them!'

'I should not, but there is a vast gulf between Brixworth and Lee, my love! As for eligibility, though there is nothing in his disposition to dislike, there is nothing in his circumstances to recommend him. He has neither rank nor fortune.'

'Saku doesn't care for rank, and she has fortune,' Naru pointed out.

'Unequal marriages rarely prosper. Sakura may imagine she doesn't care for rank: she doesn't know how it would be to marry a man out of her own order.'

Naru wrinkled her brow over this. 'But, Sasuke, I think she does know!' she objected. 'You yourself told me that Sakura's Mama was not of first rank.'

'You are a persuasive advocate, Naru! But I must hold to my opinion - and to what I conceive to be my duty. I have said that I won't withhold any consent, if both are of the same mind when he returns from Rio de Janeiro with fortune, for the job he is getting out there pays. But I shan't conceal from you that I hope she, by that time, will have transferred her affections to some more worthy object.'

'You want her to make a good match, don't you?'

'Is that so wonderful?'

'Oh, no! Perhaps if she doesn't see Mr Lee for some years, she will do so. Only - only - it would be so very melancholy!'

'My dear babe, why?'

She tried haltingly to express the thought in her mind. 'She loves him so much! And I cannot think that she would be happy if she married - only to oblige her family!'

She had been saying this while darting her eyes all over the room, so when she was replied with a heavy silence she looked back up at Uchiha.

His brows were drawn together, and Naru (though having found the look devastatingly dashing), drew in her breath at the cold orbs beneath them. He said quietly, but harshly: 'As you did?'

She stared at him almost uncomprehendingly. 'As - as I did?' she faltered.

A smile, not very pleasant, curled his lips. 'Had I not been possessed of a large fortune, you wouldn't have married me, would you, Naru?'

/Our New Lady/

/Uchiha/

Hunting was one of Kurama's favourite pas-times, so when anyone called him to go have a good hunt, he tried to never turn down the invitation. Though he liked hunting, he only hunted the prey he wanted to hunt, he didn't enjoy hunting down animals other than poultry (common birds), venison and the like. That was why he hadn't shot down the little fox.

Its mother was dead, if the carcass he and Kakashi had found was anything to go by, and it seemed tired and hungry. Tabi hadn't taken notice of it, flicking her tail dismissively at the little creature. It had been then and there, when he and Kakashi had come to its tranquilized and sleeping form, he had been hit with a brilliant idea.

His short sister had asked for a kitten, he couldn't find one (hadn't taken the time to look), and what else was better replacement than a kit? Come on, knowing his sister, she shall be utterly thrilled to get a fox companion. Though people seemed too fond of getting falcons as pets now-adays, Princes, nobles and people from the Africas and Asias kept more exotic companions, so he'd bet that every one shall be simply green with envy at the perfect duo they shall make.

Wait. . . that's it, his sister was an Uchiha now. But who said they couldn't still be the most envied sibling couple? The Viscount sighed, oh, right, that little (who cares if he were older than him? It was only by a few months, plus he was taller) Uchiha prick.

Kurama scowled, oh how he wishes he could snap his pale little neck and shove him into a hole dug in his own garden. That guy, it was as if he were shoving it in his face saying "I won the last battle" when he married his sister. At least he knew that she would be very well taken care of, in the hands of that dripping rich, lovesick raven. He hadn't expected it to be Uchiha who'd get his sister, but he couldn't have had any other way.. anyway back to the matter at hand.

Kakashi had given him that warm smile where his eyes curved up amiably. So Kurama decided, he was going to give his sister a fox.

What could better match their whiskers and Uzumaki heritage?

/Our New Lady/

/Uchiha/

There was a jolt of pain at her heart, but she heard him without any resentment. She thought of her debts, and of those mysterious Settlements, and could only be thankful that she had not disclosed to him Madame Lavalle's bill. It's existence weighed so heavily upon her conscience that she found herself unable to utter anything. A deep flush stained her cheeks, and her eyes, after a moment of hurt dropped from his.

'You must forgive me!' His voice had an ironical inflexion that made her wince. 'My want of delicacy sinks me quite below reproach, doesn't it? I fancy it gave Mr Lee a disgust of me too.'

She managed to say, in a stifled tone: 'I didn't think - I didn't know about your fortune!'

'Didn't you?' he said lightly. 'How charming of you, my dear. Your manners make mine appear sadly vulgar. Don't look so distressed! I am persuaded no man ever had so beautiful, so polite, or so amiable a wife as I have!' He glanced at his watch. 'I must go. I don't know what nonsense Sakura may have taken into her head, but I hope I may trust you not to encourage her in it. Happily, it appears to be out of Lee's power to marry her without a substantial portion. I'd as lief not be saddled with that kind of scandal!'

A brief smile, bow and he was gone, leaving her with her brain in a whirl. There was little of Sakura in it.

For the first time in their dealings Uchiha had hinted that he had looked for more than complaisance in his wife; and his words, with their edge of bitterness, had made Naru's heart leap. It was almost a sacrilege to doubt Mama, but could it in fact be that Mama was possibly wrong?

She went slowly upstairs, meeting Sakura, dressed to go out, who was saying that the Misses Thorne had called to take up their cousin on a visit to some exhibition. Naru, finding herself alone, at leisure to consider her own problems.

These very soon resolved themselves into one problem only: how to pay for a court dress of Chantilly lace without applying to Uchiha. If Uchiha had offered for her hand not as a matter of convenience but for love, this was of vital importance. Nothing could more surely confirm his suspicion than to be confronted with that bill; and any attempt to tell him that she had fallen in love with him at their first official meeting must seem to him a piece of quite contemptible cajolery.

No solution to the difficulty had presented itself to her by the time the butler came to inform her that the barouche had been driven up to the door, and awaited her convenience. She was tempted to send it away again, and was only prevented from doing so by the recollection that civility obliged her to make a formal call in Upper Berkeley Street, to inquire after the progress of an ailing acquaintance.

She directed the coachman, on the way back from the visit, to drive to Bond Street, where she had a few trifling purchases to make; and there strolling along, with his beaver set at a rakish angle on his golden head, his shapely legs swathed in pantaloons of an aggressive yellow, and a tiger-patterned kitten trotting threateningly besides his feet, she saw her brother.

The Viscount had never been known to extricate himself from his various embarrassments, much less anyone else; but to his adoring sister appeared in the light of a strong ally. She called to the coachman, telling him to pull up, and when Kurama crossed the Street in response to her signal leaned forward to clasp his hand, saying thankfully: 'Oh, Kyū, I am so glad to have met you! Will you be so very obliging as to come home with me? There is something I particularly wish to ask you!'

'If you're wanting me to escort you to some horrible squeeze,' began the Viscount suspiciously, 'I'll be dashed if I-'

'No, no, I promise you it's no such thing!' she interrupted. 'I - I need your advice!'

'Well, I don't mind giving you that,' said his lordship handsomely. 'What's the matter? You in a scrape?'

'Good gracious, no!' said Naru, acutely aware of her footman, who had jumped down from the box, and was now holding open the door of the barouche. 'Do get in, Kyū! I'll tell you presently!'

'Oh, very well!' he said stepping into the carriage, disposing himself on the seat beside her, Tabi settling herself on the carpeted floor. 'I've nothing else to do after all.' He looked over her critically, and observed with brotherly candour: 'What a quiz of a hat!'

'It is an Angoulême bonnet, and at the height of fashion!' retorted Naru, with spirit. 'And as for quizzes - Kyū, I never saw you look so odd in such a long time as you do now in those yellow pantaloons!'

'Devilish, ain't they?' agreed his lordship. 'Corny made me buy 'em. Said they were all crack.'

'Well, if I were you I wouldn't listen to him! Despite them being attractive, they are certainly not at all crack!'

'Oh, I don't know! Always up to the knocker, is Corny. If you ain't in a scrape, why do you want my advice?'

She gave his arm a warning pinch, and began to talk of indifferent subjects in a careless way which (as he informed her upon their arrival in Uchiha Compounds) made him wish that he had not chosen to walk down Bond Street that morning. 'Because you can't bamboozle me into believing you ain't in a scrape,' he said. 'I thought you were looking hagged, but I set it down to that bonnet.'

Naru, who had led him upstairs to her frivolous boudoir, cast of her maligned headgear, saying wretchedly: 'I am in a dreadful scrape, and if you won't, Kyū, I can't think what I shall do!'

'Lord!' said the Viscount, slightly dismayed. 'Now, don't get into a fuss, Kit! Of course I'll help you! At least, I will if I can, though I'm dashed if I see- However, I daresay it's all a bag of moonshine!'

'It isn't,' she said, so tragically that he began to feel seriously alarmed. She twisted her fingers together, and managed to say, though with considerable difficulty: 'Kyūbi, have - have you still got the - the three hundred pounds I gave you?'

'Do you want it back?' he asked.

She nodded, her eyes fixed anxiously on his face.

'Now, we are in the basket!' said his lordship.

Her heart sank. 'I am so very sorry to be obliged to ask you!'

'My dear girl, I'd give it to you this instant if I had it!' he assured her. 'What is it? A gaming dept? You have been playing deep, Naru?'

'No, no! It is a court dress of Chantilly lace, and I cannot - cannot - tell Uchiha!'

'What, you mean to say he's turned out to be a screw?' exclaimed the Viscount. His brow snapping together and darkening his eyes, because if that prick was (gentry or not, no one plays with Naru and gets away unscathed), Kurama was going to pay him a visit.

'No! He has been crushingly generous to me, only I was so stupid, and it seemed as if I had so much money that- Well, I never took the last heed, Kyū, and the end of it was that I got quite shockingly into a dept!'

'Good God, there's no need to fall into flat despair, if that's all!' said the Viscount, relieved. 'You've only to tell him how it came about: I daresay he won't be astonished, for he must know you haven't been in the way of handling the blunt. You'll very likely come in for a thundering scold, but he'll settle your debts all right and regular.'

She sank into a chair, covering her face with her hands. 'He did settle them!'

'Eh? '

'I had better explain it to you,' said Naru.

It could not have been said that the explanation, which was both halting and elusive, very much helped Kurama to a complete understanding of the situation, but he did gather from it that the affair was far more serious than he had at first supposed. He was quite intelligent enough to guess that the whole had not been divulged to him but since he had no desires to plunge deep, he did not press his sister for further enlightenment. Clearly, her marriage was not running as smoothly as he had supposed; and if that were so he could appreciate her reluctance to disclose the existence of yet another debt to Uchiha.

'What am I to do?' Naru asked. 'Can you think of a way, Kyū?'

'Nothing easier!' responded Kurama, in a heartening tone. 'The trouble with you is that you ain't up to snuff yet. The thing to do is to order another dress from this Madame Thing.'

'Order another?' gasped Naru.

'That's it,' he nodded.

'But then I should be even deeper in dept!'

'Yes, but it'll stave her off for a while.'

'And when, I suppose, she presses me to pay for that I buy yet another! Kyū, you must be mad!'

'My dear girl, it's always done!'

'Not by me!' she declared. 'I should never know a moment's peace! Only think what would happen if Uchiha discovered it!'

But he hadn't payed mind to what she was saying, already knowing her course of thought, he was already thinking up something new. 'There is that, of course,' he admitted. He took a turn about the room, frowning over the problem. 'The deuce is in it that I'm not in good odour with the cents-per-cent. I'd raise the wind for you in a trice if the sharks didn't know dashed well how our affairs stand.'

'Moneylenders? I did think of that, only I don't know how to set about borrowing. Do you know, Kyū? Will you tell me?'

The Viscount was not one whose conscience was overburdened with scruples, but he did not hesitate to veto this suggestion. 'No, I will not!' he said.

'I know one shouldn't borrow from the moneylenders, but in such a case as this - and if you went with me-'

'A pretty fellow I should be!' he interrupted indignantly. 'Damn it, I ain't a saint, but I ain't such a loose-screw that I'd hand my sister over to one of those bloodsuckers!'

'Is it so very bad? I didn't know, of course I wouldn't go to a moneylender if you say I must not.'

'Well I do say it. What's more, if you do so, and Uchiha discovered it, there would be the devil to pay! You'd a deal better screw up your courage and tell him the whole now.'

She shook her head, flushing.

Kurama said, severely, 'You know, it queers me to know what you've been doing. It sounds as though you've had a quarrel with him, and set up his back. Ain't my business, but I call it a cork-brained thing to do!'

'I haven't - it isn't like that!' she stammered.

But he insisted, 'You must have done something! I thought he doted on you!'

Her eyes lifted from Mutatabi's now yellow fur, quickly, to his face. 'Did you, Kyū? Did you, indeed think that?'

''Course I did! Well, good God, what would anyone think, when he no sooner clapped his eyes on you than nothing would do for him than to pop the question? Lord, it was one of the on-dits of town! Old Ichiraku told me no one had ever seen him sent to the grass before, no matter who set her cap at him. I thought myself he must be touched in his upper works,' said the Viscount candidly. 'I don't say you ain't a pretty girl, but what there is in you to make Uchiha marry into our family I'm dashed if I can see!'

'Oh, Kyūbi!' breathed Naru, trembling. 'You're not - you're not roasting me?'

He stared at her for a moment. 'Have you got windmills in the head too?' he demanded. 'Why the devil should he have offered for you, if he hadn't been head over ears in love with you? Don't tell me you didn't know you'd given him a leveller?'

'Oh-! Don't say such things! Mama told me, explained to me, how it was!'

'Well, how was it?' said the Namikaze impatiently.

'A - a marriage of convenience,' faltered Naru. 'He was obliged to marry someone, and - and he liked me better than the other ladies he was acquainted with, and thought I should suit!'

'If that ain't Mama all over!' exclaimed Kurama. 'It was a dashed convenient marriage for us, but if he thought it was convenient to be obliged to pay through the nose for you (which I don't mind telling you father made him do!), let alone saddling himself with a set of dirty dishes who have been under the hatches for years, he must be a regular cod's head!'

'Kurama!' she cried, quite horrified.

'Dirty dishes!' he repeated firmly. 'I can't remember the last time father had a feather to fly with, Lord knows I've never had one myself! In fact, it's my belief we should have been turned-up by now if you hadn't happened to hit Uchiha's fancy. It is the only stroke of good fortune that ever came in our way ever since Jiraiya!'

'I knew he had made a handsome settlement!'

Kurama gave a crack of laughter. 'Ay, and towed father out of the River Tick into the bargain!'

She sprang up, forgetting about a disgruntled Tabi, pressing her hands to her flaming cheeks. 'Oh, and I have been so wickedly extravagant!'

'No need to fret and fume over that,' replied Kurama cheerfully. 'They say his fortune knocks Golden Ball's into flinders, and I shouldn't be surprised if it was true.'

'As though that should excuse my running into debt! Oh, Kyū, this quite overpowers me! No wonder he said that!'

Looking uneasily at her, backing up two steps and beckoning to a serene Tabi. 'Said what? If you mean to have a fit of the vapours, Naru, I'm off, and so I warn you!'

'Oh, no! I indeed don't! Only it is such an agitating reflection - I didn't tell you, Kyū, but he said something to me which made me think he believes I married him for the sake of his fortune!'

'Well you did, didn't you?' He remarked his question, not quite ready to even think that his sister had taken a liking to the emotionless man.

'No!' she cried hotly. 'Never, never!'

His thoughts came to a screeching halt. 'What, you don't mean to tell me you fell in love with him?' said the Viscount incredulously.

'Of course I did! How could I help but do so?'

'Of all the silly starts!' said his lordship disgustedly. He was vaguely aware of the jealousy he couldn't help but feel at the thought of Naruto's love being shared with someone other than him, they already had to share it in the family, damn it! 'What the devil should cast you into this distempered freak if that's the way of it? What have you been doing to make Uchiha think you don't love him, if you do?'

She turned away her face. 'I - I was trying to be a comfortable wife, Kyū! You see, Mama warned me about not making demands, or - ot hanging upon him, or appearing to notice it, if he should have Another Interest, and-'

'So the blame lies at Mama's door, does it? I might have known it! Never knew such a henwitted creature in my life!'

'Oh, Kurama, hush! Indeed she meant it for the best! You will not repeat it, but she was so anxious I shouldn't suffer a mortifying disillusionment, as, I am afraid, she did.'

'Did she, though? I must say I should have thought even Mama could have seen that Uchiha ain't a bird of that feather. Never been a man of the town from everything I know. How came you to swallow all that humdudgeon, Kit? Dash it, you must have known he was in love with you!'

'I thought - I thought it was all a consideration, because he is so very kind and gentlemanlike!' she confessed.

'Kind and gentlmanlike?' repeated Kurama, in accents of withering scorn. 'Well upon my soul, Kit, seems to me you're as big a ninnyhammer as Mama! To be taken in by one of her Banbury tales, when there was Uchiha making a regular cake of himself over you! If that don't beat the Dutch!'

She hung her head, but said in a faint voice: 'It was stupid of me, but there was more than that, Kyū. You see, I knew about Lady Ino. Sakura told me.'

'That girl,' said the Viscount severely, 'wants conduct! Uchiha's way of life before you married him ain't your concern! Lady Ino's got Akimichi in tow now, so that's enough flim-flam about her!'

'Has she, Kyū?' Naru said eagerly.

'Everyone knows it, so they say. I don't know, or care.'

'Oh, if it were not for this dreadful debt how happy I should be!' she sighed.

'Nonsense! Make a clean breast of the whole to Uchiha, and be done with it!'

'I'd rather die! Don't you understand, Kyū? He wouldn't believe me sincere, if I told him now, when I am in debt again; that I didn't care a button for his fortune?'

The Viscount checked the scoffing retort that sprang to his tongue. He did understand. 'He'd think it was cream-pot love. Ay, very true: bound to! Particularly of you have been treating him with a stupid sort of indifference, which I have a strong notion you have! Well! we shall have to think of a way of raising to blunt, and that's all there is to it!'

Too grateful for his willingness to come to her aid to cavil at his words, Naru hopefully awaited, confident that he would be able to tell her how to extricate herself from her difficulty. Nor was she mistaken. He said suddenly: 'Nothing easier! Can't think why I didn't hit upon it at once. You must sell some of your jewellery, of course!'

Her hand went to her throat. 'The pearls Mama gave me? Her very own pearls? I could no-'

'No need to sell them. Something else!'

'But I haven't anything else!' she objected. 'Nothing of value, I mean.'

'Haven't anything else?' his voice was filled with incredule. 'Why, I've never seen you wearing anything less worth a king's ransom! What about all those sapphires?'

'Kurama! Sasuke's wedding-gift!' she uttered.

'Oh, very well! But he's always giving you something new: you must be able to spare one or two of 'em. He'll never notice, or you can have them copied.'

'No, thank you, Kyū! I wouldn't do anything so odiously shabby! To sell the jewels Sasuke has given me - to have them copied so that he shouldn't know of it- Oh, how detestable I should be to deceive him in such a way!'

'It is no worse than going to a cents-per-cent - in fact, it ain't as bad!'

'It seems worse!' she assured him.

She spoke with so much resolution that it seemed useless to persist in argument. The Viscount never one to waste his time over lost causes, abandoned his promising scheme, merely remarking that of all the troublesome goosecaps he had encountered she bore away the palm. She apologized for being so provoking, adding, with an attempt at a smile, that he must not tease himself any more over the business.

But just as he was congratulating himself on being well out of a tiresome imbroglio, his conscience cast a barrier in the way of his careless hedonism.

'Very pretty talking, when you know dashed well I can't help but tease myself over it! Well there's nothing for it: I shall have to get you out of it. I daresay I shall hit on a way when I've had time to think it over, but Providence knows I shan't do it with you sitting there staring at me as though I were your whole dependance! Puts me out,' he said this and turned around. 'Firstly, 'e've got to get your mind off all of this crim.'

There were those who would have taken the cynical view that he would speedily put it out of his, but Naru was not of their number: it did not so much as cross her mind that her dear Kyū, either from indolence or forgetfulness might leave her to her fate. And she was quite right. There was an odd streak of obstinacy in him, which led him, at unexpected moments, to pursue with tenacity the end he had in view. Especially when it was family.

Emerging from the house, he paused at the foot of the steps, not to wait for Naruto, but to consider if they should use transportation or leave on foot. While he was hesitating, a tilbury, drawn by a high-stepping bay, swept round the angle of the house, and he saw that the down-the-road-looking man in the tall hat, and the box-coat of white drab, who was handling the ribbons with such admirable skill, was Uchiha. He had no particular desire to meet the Earl, but he waited civilly for the tilbury to draw up beside him.

'Hallo, Kurama!' said the Earl, handing the reins over to his groom, and jumping down from the carriage. An amiable air was surrounding the dark-haired man, which was unusual.

Kurama, who's jealous feelings rose once he spotted the gentleman, glared at him and grunted. 'Hn.'

Uchiha stared at him for a moment, amusement crossing his features. 'Why, Kurama, in all the years of our pleasant acquaintance, I've never seen you look envious of me.'

Insults rose, bastard being just on the tip of his tongue, when the doors burst open behind him; a flushed Naru rushing out to clutch his arm, saying in excited tones. 'Sorry for being so long, only, I couldn't get Tabi to follow me out for a bit, I really should have let you handle. . . her,' she spotted Uchiha, her mood took a 90 degree turn. 'Sorry, I didn't see you! How do you do, Uchiha?'

'Hn,' his grey eyes were on their linked arms. And the Viscount, recognising the envy filling his rival's eyes, smirked a bit too smugly at him. Naruto's cheeks merely coloured more at that.

'Shall we leave, Kit?'