She made a waffling gesture halfway between a nod and a shrug. “A bit. I wanted to see if they were just speaking nicely for his daughter, but it seems as if he truly was as good as his press.”

“Why would you care if my father was as good as he seemed?”

“Honestly?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Your uncle on your grandfather’s side beat me and exiled me for refusing to marry him. Your grandfather was Uar the Cruel, and he earned that name. Your mother is narcissistic to the point of being delusional, and your uncle is the same. Your aunt on your father’s side is a sexual sadist and a sociopath, or maybe even a psychopath; her son, your first cousin, was worse than his mother. He’d have been a sexual serial killer if the women of his bodyguards hadn’t been immortal and able to heal nearly any injury. I’ve taken more lovers from among them than you have, and they hate the late Prince Cel with a fine and burning passion.”

“We all knew that Andais was tormenting her guards and others of the court. She was very public about most of it, but I didn’t know what Cel was doing with his guards. He was much more private about it.”

“I think he hid it from his mother.”

“She enjoys torturing people,” I said.

“I’ve had more pillow talk about some of the horrors he did to the women, and I believe he was discreet because Andais might have stepped in and interfered with his fun.”

“What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander,” I said.

She shook her head. “No, Meredith, what Cel did to some of his private harem … I’m so glad you’ve found them a therapist.”

“I’m glad they were willing to go.”

“They didn’t think they had a choice when they started.”

“What?”

She smiled. “They thought you ordered them to go to therapy, and by the time they realized you hadn’t meant it that way, most of them were benefiting from it, so they kept going.”

“I would never order someone to go to therapy. I mean, you can order them to go the appointment, but you can’t make them actually work their issues.”

“You ordered them to talk to the therapist, and after what Cel did to them if they disobeyed him, or Andais did to anyone who disobeyed her, they worked their therapy as if their lives depended on it.”

I shook my head and sighed. “They are all so much more damaged than I knew. Wait, is that why some of the female guards stopped going to therapy a few weeks ago?”

“Yes, they finally realized that you hadn’t meant it as an order. A few of them tested to see if you meant it as a suggestion and when you didn’t get angry about it, a few more stopped going.”

“Most of them haven’t stopped going,” I said.

“As I said, Meredith, they worked hard at their therapy for fear of what you’d do to them if they didn’t, and it worked strangely well for many of them.”

“I didn’t think you could force someone to do therapy like that.”

“Neither did I, but it seems to be working for them.”

I frowned, puzzling, and finally shook my head. “If it’s working, it’s working.”

“You are surprisingly practical about very impractical things.”

“Do I say thank you, or is that a problem?”

She smiled. “Neither, but the same guards who speak of Cel in hate-filled tones say wonderful things about your father. I think most of them are still in love with him, both as a good leader and as a man.”

“I was actually thinking earlier that my family has more crazy than sane in it. Though you forgot that my grandmother was wonderful and caring, as were her parents, my great-grandmother and -grandfather.”

“You’re right, I did forget. Because your grandmother was half human and half brownie I counted her as less, but I shouldn’t have, because it seems like the insanity comes from the sidhe side of things.”

“We’re not the most stable people,” I said.

“I think it’s living for so long, Meredith. Our bodies don’t age, but maybe our minds do.”

“Are you saying that Taranis and Andais have a version of dementia?”

“Maybe, though Cel wasn’t that old by sidhe standards.”

“I think Cel was always weak and twisted, but his mother indulged him, let him think he could do no wrong, and that cemented his crazy.”

She studied me again as if looking for a flaw, or a hint, or something I couldn’t guess at. “You are your father’s daughter, and that is a good thing.”

“I am my grandmother’s, too, and that’s a good thing as well.”

“Yes, yes it is.” She brushed off her hands as if brushing the topic away. “Let’s go see the newest babies—though with Nicca and Biddy’s daughter, Kadyi, and Liam, there are a lot of babies.”

“Did you hear that Cathbodua and Usna are expecting?”

She looked startled, and then she laughed again. “No, I hadn’t heard; that’s wonderful and just fun, that the cat and the bird are having a baby.”

“Andais said something similar, the cat and the crow.”

Maeve’s face sobered. “I would not be compared to the Queen of Air and Darkness in any way.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She shivered, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. “It’s all right, you didn’t … it’s just so many of us seem to go mad as the centuries pass, it makes me worry.”