Jon glanced away, shrugging. “He insisted on it.”
Ugh, I thought. The man was old. And married! It was clear Mr. Hart had developed an unseemly attraction to me, a woman young enough to be his grand-daughter! But to force his way into a closed meeting with a judge? I laughed in spite of myself. “I wonder how much of a bribe he had to pay to get in there.”
Jon smiled fondly. “Perhaps not as much as you might think.”
I found this amusing. “True. He is a Patriarch, after all.”
Yet Jon seemed uncomfortable. “I must be going.”
I felt weary, and a sudden loneliness, but I did remember manners. “Thank you for calling on me. And for appearing today in my support. I do appreciate it. Very much.”
Jon grinned, and whatever discomfort he had vanished. “It was fiendishly difficult to get here in
