Chapter 39

“Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware)…”

I rolled that Latin phrase Lord Melbourne had deployed as a shield around inside my mouth.

It tasted bitter.

A term born in the courtrooms of ancient Rome had crossed over a millennium of time to survive right into the drawing room of 19th-century London, still being wielded as a shield for the strong.

Caveat Emptor.

Buyer, beware. It was a terribly convenient and cruel logic holding that “anyone who fails to inspect their wares thoroughly when making a purchase is a fool.”

True to Lord Melbourne’s assertion, in premodern societies when buying and...