Tiberius smiled darkly. It was good that Macmillan had chosen his own wife. Tiberius had no particular feelings about having arranged the marriage rather than going through the motions of courtship, provided it was something he had arranged himself and not a punishment inflicted on him from someone else — Tiberius had done the same thing with his own wife, of course, though with... unexpectedly mixed results. It was difficult to tell how a woman would turn out, apparently, when one selected her at fourteen.

"And now your tastes are more refined and your standards somewhat higher?" he asked with a chuckle. Tatiana was superior to Noelle in every way, obviously, and Tiberius didn't think it much of a secret.