We sat in almost silence all theway to the restaurant. I was the happiest man alive as we walked intothe place every pair of eyes was on us as we were...seated. We had aterrific meal and we got on really well again, there just seemed so muchwe had in common it was terrific.As the meal wound down I could sense something was changing Emma beganto get more and more tense, I tried to ignore it but I couldn't but shewouldn't tell me what was wrong. I paid for the meal and as we walkedout to the car I. The First Knight will be my advisor on matters that include his areas of expertise."Can you for a minute imagine that? Yet there it was for what remained of the world to see, Jeremiah Brock, uneducated and unrefined muleskinner, kneeling as Elizabeth the Seventh touched a sword to my shoulder. I walked off the stage in a daze and rejoined my smiling friends.Deming escorted us straight to Liz's house from the square as soon as Liz finished speaking. Liz had some sort of speech she was presenting. .. you're hovering on the edge of getting them." Master... about the Auctions? All that money for Audrey and I...? I thought you'd be rich?" Hah, so did I! You three white girls stolen out of Amphala were the first real bonanza Mustafa and I ever ran into. White girls are hard to come by without an organization behind you. We'd mostly had to deal in coffee colors. If it hadn't been for those bastards, Abdul and Mustafa, I'd have made enough out of you to turn respectable." Seth grimaced in. ?He pushed the tabloid across his desk to his stunned assistant. Shelooked at the picture and then the text next to it, and then back athim.?Fuck!? she said softly. ?Shit, oops, sorry. I mean ? seriously?Mermaids???Like a heart attack,? he answered.She looked at him for several seconds, searching for the clue that hewas kidding. ?No kidding, for-real mermaids???For real,? he said.She looked at the tabloid, and then back at him.?You mean some of this stuff is true?? she asked. ?Like, Men In.