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“No,” he said.

“I thought –”

“No, you’re not coming with me,” said Nicholas. “Demoiselle.”

She released a hiss of exasperation. Always the short cut. She said, in the tone she used to Henninc, “Not to Milan. I propose to come with you as far as my sister’s husband at Dijon, and then to my brother-in-law Jaak and his dear wife in Geneva. Don’t you think I ought to tell them whom I have married?”

“No, I don’t,” he said.

“My only relatives?” said Marian de Charetty. She watched him making up his mind how to handle this.

He said, “Your sister’s dead, and Thibault must be nearly seventy and hasn’t been in his senses for years. It would only distress you, and probably him. He’s shown no interest in me since my unfortunate mother died.”

She said, “He had a daughter by his second marriage. By my sister.”

His face was quite composed. “Adelina. She was five when they sent me to Jaak’s. She’ll be married now.”

Marian de Charetty said, “And you don’t want to see her? Or your mother’s father, before he dies? Do you blame him so much for sending you to Jaak? He did something for you later, at least, when he found how they were treating you. He had you sent to Cornelis and me.”

His face changed then, and he said, “Yes. I have to thank him for that. But not to see him. Would you forgive me, would you allow me that? If you feel very strongly that you must visit him, I could leave you there, with an escort to bring you safely home again.”

“And Jaak in Geneva?” she said.

He suddenly smiled. “I don’t know what you have in mind there. Not a sickbed visitation at least. Are you by any chance trying to dazzle them on my behalf?”

She smiled too. “Partly,” she said. “Why not let me have my amusement? What could Jaak do to me or to you now?”

He said, “Insult you. And I couldn’t stand by and let it happen.”

“Then you’re still afraid of him?” she said.

There was a pause. Then he said, “I can understand him now.”

“But physically?”

“Oh, physically I’m afraid of him. Yes. Still.”

“You would like to be able to fight him? To beat him? To overpower him?”

The large gaze was empty of everything but surprise. He said, “Jaak de Fleury is thirty years older than I am. At least. If I’m afraid of him, I’m afraid for all time. What can I do about it, physically, that would make any sense?”

She swallowed. She began to speak, and swallowed again. She said, “I asked you how you felt about him, but that doesn’t mean I expected the pair of you to lock jaws over my marriage. I have a strong wish to visit him. I don’t think it would harm you either. And if he insults me, you can protect me verbally. You know you can.”

He was silent.

She said, “And Thibault is older, and sick. To see him is just an act of clemency, surely. He kept you and your mother. You were only turned out when he couldn’t look after you.”

She paused. She said, “I know you can probably argue me out of it. But I do want to go. To both places. I wouldn’t suggest it if I thought it was wrong for you.”

His elbows on his knees, he had sealed his lips with both hands and was staring past her, into the shadowy hall. She relied on him to perceive all the arguments she hadn’t used, and to form his own impression of her motives. If it was a wrong one, so much the better. She saw him decide, eventually, as if he had spoken. Yes. I can carry it. But he didn’t agree immediately. He said, “What will Felix think?”

“Nothing that will flatter you or me,” said Marian de Charetty. “You have demanded a circuit of triumph and I have weakly agreed. Petty revenge on Jaak de Fleury. And, of course, a warning. Now Jaak can’t touch little Claes, who has the Widow de Charetty behind him.”

He had long since identified that as her real reason. He said, “I wish Felix knew us as well as we seem to know him. Yes. Of course. If you want it so much, let us do it.” After that, he spent an hour in the yard and then left unexpectedly to follow Gregorio to Spangnaerts Street. Midmorning, she knew, he had an appointment to confer with Jehan Metteneye.