Lucien handed him an actual list the next morning, typed and printed like a term sheet, and Ezra read through it with the particular delight of a man who had just been handed something he fully intended to enjoy dismantling.

"Breakfast is at seven," he read aloud. "The study is off-limits without express permission. Guests are not permitted after nine in the evening. Personal effects are to remain in the guest room and not distributed throughout common areas." He looked up. "This reads like a lease agreement for a very unwelcome tenant."

"You are a very unwelcome tenant."

"And yet here I am, tenanting."

"Temporarily."

"Sure." Ezra set the paper...