Oh he heard the whispers that followed them them when he had first been seen with a very much younger woman from Anshan. "No fool like an old fool," was one of the kinder things he made out among natterings. Others were dead set sure she was after his considerable fortune and a title.

There had been many times when Ashia's heightened sense of hearing had overheard things even more vulgar and Elyot had to remind his lover that such remarks were based in envy so rancid it rendered those who spoke such filth beneath so much as a glance.

Except for that one time...