Family ties

"What? Of course not!"

For once, Andrei had genuinely flustered Liesl.

"Why? What have you heard?" she demanded. "Has... she been telling you things about me?"

For once Andrei was surprised by his sister's reaction. It seemed quite unlike her to take his teasing seriously. But this time instead of her usual frown or rolling her eyes at him, he heard some fluttering in her voice. "She has simply turned my attention to a few things I didn't realize before. I wasn't aware that you were such a worldly woman", said Andrei lying through his teeth, but not that his sister would notice.

He was curious as to how far he could push this and what he could get out of it. Perhaps his little sister was hiding something from him after all. And it would be too boring to just plainly ask her. No, this was much more amusing. "I don't believe half of it of course. Rumors can be always nasty, as we both know. Either way, it's obviousl you haven't been bored lately", he said with a smirk.