‘Lovers, you mean? No, we weren’t.’ Her smile seemed a little regretful then. ‘See, the thing you have to understand about Adeard is that he could have anyone he wanted. Girls or boys, women or men, he could buy them all. Most of the time, he didn’t need to – they jumped when he opened his mouth. He was a Terashova, and they knew it. So, probator, imagine if you could have as many lovers as there were stars in the sky, any time, in any way, what do you think would happen? You would want something else. Something harder to get. Something that your name made more difficult to come by, not easier.’ She drew in a long breath. ‘You’ll have noticed that no one much liked Adeard. I wouldn’t have done, had our positions been different, but I was in the missionaria then. It was my job to see the good in people. I wasn’t one of the girls he would take to his apartment on a whim. If he’d asked me, I wouldn’t have gone. But I did want to talk to him. To try to save his soul.’ She laughed. ‘I never took on the easy jobs.’

‘How long were you with the missionaria?’

‘Ten years.’

‘And you knew Adeard for how long?’

‘Oh, I’d say three. Maybe four. He’d call me, sometimes very late. We’d talk. I don’t think he talked to anyone else, much. He was a lost one, in so many ways.’

‘So he was interested in what you had to tell him? What were you trying to do – convert him to a more sober life?’

‘I failed in that, obviously. But yes, I thought I might change him. That’s a common failing of women, isn’t it, probator? A man doesn’t try to change a woman – he accepts her or he rejects her. A woman thinks she can reform a man, and that’s why she gets hurt, because you can’t change some things. You must trust in the Emperor’s Grace, or in nothing.’

‘I really wouldn’t know about that. Women and men, I mean.’

She laughed. ‘Or grace, perhaps. But you’ve not come here for a sermon. Our relationship, such as it was, came to an end a while ago. He got bored, I think. Or maybe Udmil cut him off. She always hated me. Perhaps just because I showed an interest in him. So I came back here, and worked for a little longer, before things slowed down a bit. Now my prayers make their way down into the city, but I do not. I have my memories, and they are mostly good ones, for all the sins that are committed there.’

‘Did you know Udmil well?’

‘Not well. No one knows Udmil well. But, tell me, probator – what do you know of her?’