The Vanished Pearls of Orlov

Orlov won't make me happy and he's either sterile or genetically deficient.

     "I don't care who he is! I will not marry that monster and that is final!" Lannie DelFino screamed. She was loud enough, she was happy to notice, that she set the dusty prisms on the chandelier tinkling, although her foot-stamping undoubtedly helped. Marble parquet floors made for good echoes as well as being cool underfoot in the heat.

     "You will marry him. We need the money. Have you seen my gambling debts? Orlov has agreed to pay them off as your bride-price," Albion DelFino retorted. Unfortunately, his only daughter, Yilanda, had never been the sweet, accommodating girl that her mother was. He sometimes wondered, in darker moments, if Yilanda was his daughter but he knew Constance. She would never cheat on her marriage vows although he felt no such compunctions.

     "Why should I care?" Lannie snarled back. "They're not my debts. You were the idiot, not me, betting on every stupid game that came along."

     Albion sighed deeply, brushing back a lock of his still jet-black hair from his high forehead. He caught a glimpse of himself in the enormous, ornate mirror gracing the reception room they were arguing in. His valet did an excellent job of covering the gray and he might tell him so in lieu of a raise. He was so good-looking and the mirror was large enough to reflect all of his glory. He loved this mirror which was one of the two reasons his particular branch of the family still owned it. The other reason was that it was far too large to sell without some officious relative noticing at once that it was gone.

     "My dearest little daughter," Albion said with a warm, creamy smile. "I'm not doing this for my benefit, although having my debts paid would be helpful. It's actually your mother who truly concerns me."

     Lannie shut her mouth firmly on what she had been going to say.

     "Oh?" she said instead. "What about mama?"

     Albion sighed again, even deeper. "I don't wish to distress you any further."

     Lannie chewed on her lip for a moment. Albion DelFino was probably lying, but even with a lifetime of experience of dealing with her father, she couldn't tell. She studied her father for long moments, willing him to speak first so she'd have more information, information that might even be accurate. Fortunately, he was posing in front of the huge mirror so if he turned away, she'd still see at least some of his facial expressions reflected in it or its more accurate partner mirror on the opposing wall.

     "I'm already distressed," she settled on, since he was obstinately remaining silent. Speaking first meant he won the battle of wills but he could remain silent far longer than she could. He'd proved it often enough. "Please do continue."

     "Your dear mother wishes so much to see you happily wed and with the promise of grandchildren to come. You know she does."

     "Orlov won't make me happy and he's either sterile or genetically deficient," Lannie snapped, back on safe ground.

     "That is the fault of his previous wives," Albion replied smoothly. "Genetically, you're extremely far removed from him, unlike them. He is not sterile. The miscarriages prove it."

     "All right, Rastislav Orlov is not sterile. You are correct," she replied smartly. "But he is genetically deficient because if he didn't have bad genes, he'd have fathered at least one healthy baby by now. The man must be pushing fifty!"

     "Which is why he needs you, my dear. You're young and healthy, you have a sibling and many, many cousins. Since there are no problems with any of the DelFino or Ranaglia lines, he'll be fertile with you."

     "That is a big 'if'" Lannie said coldly. "As big as Phobos and Deimos combined. Now what about mama?"

     Albion gazed nobly off into the middle distance, discreetly checking his stance in the mirror to ensure he looked his best and most trustworthy self. Its gold-framed partner on the other wall let him reposition his foot to best display himself, although that mirror's glass suffered from a slight waviness making him look puffy around the middle. Damn, but he still looked good for his age.