«What’s going on?» asked Jinadh, close enough their shoulders brushed. Proximity encouraged her exhaustion and she sagged against him, nose in his hair. Hostility melted out of her as she breathed his scent. Her eyes prickled and she bit the inside of her cheek.

“They…” She had to take another breath. Caution sent her into Porashtu. «Jinadh, they found him.»

There was a beat, a moment where he didn’t know who she meant.

“Cyril,” she said, so softly only he would hear.

He stopped in the center of the hall and caught her elbow, turned her to face him. Their eyes met briefly and she faltered, so that by the time he had his arms around her she was choking on a sob she should have let out hours ago.

“Not here,” she said, cheek wet against his ear.

His hand tightened on her elbow and guided her deeper into her own family’s home, as if she had forgotten the way. She almost felt she had. Jinadh flicked the light switch just before they reached the library and plunged the front hall into darkness. The remnants of a fire burned in the library hearth, and the tufted leather sofa was warm. A crocheted blanket hung over one arm, mussed from recent occupancy.

“You were waiting up for me,” she said.

He shrugged. Then, sitting by her, «Tell me.»

«I don’t know.» She twisted the blanket in her hands, stretching the stitches. «I had a telegram, but it didn’t say anything. Only that he turned up, and Makricosta went to see him. It was three lines, Jinadh. That’s all. And my brother—» She put her hand over her mouth to stop the flow of words, because there didn’t seem to be another way. Jinadh closed his own over it gently, prising her chilled fingers from her cheeks.

«If you need to go to him, you must. We can probably afford to send you. And I know I was very insistent, but Stephen and I can take care of ourselves during the holiday.»

“Oh, temple bells,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut so tightly she saw stars. “I can’t leave. The dedication ceremony, Jinadh. And the last months of campaigning. If I want to … I can’t be in Liso for that.”

She didn’t dare open her eyes after she realized what she had said; she could feel Jinadh pulling away from her.

Part of the tension that had simmered between them since their arrival was Lillian’s determination to install herself in whatever administration took the Cliff House. Her position with the provisional government, by its nature, would not last. She was well qualified to shill for the state, and it might help put a shine on the family name, which had grown a bit tarnished in recent years.