Stephanie raised her eyebrow slightly at that. It was quite a confession coming from Alistaire, but he could either be attempting to flatter her or be misreading the situation.

"If several assassination attempts on my husband is what he calls respect, I'd rather have his scorn. Maybe he would leave us alone then." But it was obvious that she didn't believe he ever would. After Shinobi had turned out to be such a failure, she'd been his great hope for a Shaw dynasty.

"You want to change." Stephanie replied, looking at him intently. "And what, may I asked, triggered this Damascene conversion?"

Her face remained impassive when he referred to Brooke as 'our dear friend'. She knew full well how Brooke felt about Alistaire- she wondered how that conversation had actually gone. She doubted that Alistaire would simply make it up- it would be easy enough to check.

"What happened to wanting to rule the Hellfire Club?" Stephanie asked, her eyebrow raising again.