He was . . . well, not precisely drunk when he took his place on the pony-cart seat again. But he also was extremely cheerful, and stowed in the messenger’s satchel was the tightly corked bottle of distilled spirits that Isla had pressed on him.

“You are too clever by half,” Delia told her sister, once the messenger was out of earshot. “He’ll want to come back.”

“Well, the dear man deserved some reward, after being saddled with our accounting books,” Isla replied, giving her a sidelong glance of warning. “Now if he’s asked to bring something else here, at least he won’t be laggard about it, because he knows what will be waiting when he gets here.”

Delia flushed, realizing she’d been careless, and followed Isla silently into the manor and into that little side room.

“I’m putting you in charge of equipping our home-barges,” Isla told her as soon as the door was closed. “Go down to the barge-yards, pick three, and then start bringing everything down from the manor that we’ll need to make permanent living spaces out of them. I was going to do that, but if Hakkon and I are supposed to be conducting an affair, I can’t be in two places at once. There will almost certainly be eyes on us. I don’t expect scrying—” she sneered a little “—mostly because the Emperor is not going to permit anyone to enjoy their own little bit of salacious entertainment.”

Delia didn’t object—although a few days ago she might have, because she had certainly never equipped a barge with anything before, much less equipped one for living in for who knew how long. By now, she’d already done so many things she’d never dreamed of doing before that she just nodded. Besides, she was more interested in the answer to another question. “You’re going to do it, then? Pretend to have an affair with Hakkon, I mean?”

Isla sighed heavily. “Not precisely willingly. But this Record Keeper has already proven not only shrewd and clever, but full of good advice. And if the Emperor brought Kordas to the Capital with the notion of making him a figure of amusement, this will certainly fill that bill. Nothing is more amusing to a lot of salacious man-boys than the opportunity to mock someone for being cuckolded. The Record Keeper is probably correct. There are two of Merrin’s spies watching the manor, and if Hakkon and I can keep their eyes elsewhere, then that’s what we should do.”

So Delia found herself once again on Sundrop, once luncheon was over, on her way to the barge-builders.