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Huh. Suddenly, Hector felt a little bad for him. Not enough to ease up, though. If Amelia Carthrace was going to run some gigantic, nation-rescuing bank for him, then he needed to know more about her.

Lionel took another moment to gather his thoughts. “Well... if I had to put my misgivings with her into words... then I would have to point to her propensity to say one thing and then do another.”

Hmm. That was actually a pretty serious accusation, Hector felt. It spoke of untrustworthiness. He was going to need a hell of a lot more detail, though. “Is there a specific incident that you’re referring to?” he asked.

“More than one, to be sure,” said Lionel, “but off the top of my head, there was the incident in which she promised my sister a position in her company, only to turn around and give the job to someone else.”

Hmm.

“And there was the time,” Lionel continued, “when she claimed to be supportive of a marriage between my nephew and the daughter of Arnold Greenway. She decided to withdraw said support mere hours before our two families were to finalize terms, and when the Greenways caught wind of her change of heart, they decided to call off the entire thing. To the misery of my nephew. He was quite smitten, you see.”

Hmmmm.

“Oh, and of course, there was also the time that she decided to go on a drunken tirade about my late father--her own brother--on the very occasion of his funeral. In front of hundreds of esteemed guests. That was certainly a manner of insult and humiliation that is difficult to simply forgive and forget, let me tell you.”

Okay, now that one did sound pretty bad, Hector thought. But Lionel was far from done, apparently, and as Hector continued to listen, he still couldn’t help distrusting every version of events that this guy was feeding him.