The Cybersybils present Carnival

"Please allow me to finish. After we moved to Europe, I began to write a novel using my real name, Olivia Peyton. This book is about the daughter of Cinq-Mars; her name is Bijoux and she becomes the first woman astrologer at the court of Louis XIV - not to mention it's about the Man in the Iron Mask and lots of other mysteries, besides."

"That's truly bizarre," Duke agreed. "So what do I call you now, my little Strega - Posh?"

"Then you aren't horribly, terribly angry with me?" Miss Olivia of the Many Monikers exclaimed, throwing her arms about Domenico's neck. "You still love me?"

"More than life. Isn't Carnival all about the mask - and its removal?"

"You are the most amazing man alive!" Olivia exclaimed. "Let's not tell my parents that you know, though - agreed?"

So, oddly enough, many dominos remained intact that Carnival season in Venice. Olivia and her own Domenico attended numerous parties decked out in seventeenth century garb, completely anonymous amidst the crowds that thronged piazzas and palazzos - living in their private realm where fact and fantasy seemed one.

And on the evening of the revival of Cinq-Mars, Duke gifted his Incognita the most beautiful of diamonds - a fitting gesture for the young lady whose pen had recently created Bijoux, whose title in French designated many jewels.

Yes, all would have been right in the Cybersybil duo's world except for the fact that their engagement was observed through a pair of opera glasses belonging to a man who sat dutifuly in a private box beside his own new fiancée, Lucinda Cannoli, heiress to the largest pastry fortune in Rome.

"I'll get that Book of Love yet," the Jackal vowed, before lifting Lucinda's lace fan so his bride-to-be might inconspicuously consume yet another of the cream-filled confections brought along for the show.