“More than that,” the Owl rushed on. “The whole thing about Miss Mulloy climbing down off him in the pit, and wanting you to send him back to Professor Fell. It seemed to me at the moment to be … well … an excuse not to kill him. I didn’t say anything, because I know you trust her as your advisor, and rightly so. But … even there when Corbett had his gun on her … something passed between them. I saw it in their faces. He was not going to shoot her, Samson … and she knew he was not going to. Right after that, she was the one who said no one should be hurt on account of those two!” His mouth twisted below the protuberant golden eyes. “Her! As many as she’s put to death!”

Lash’s solemn face was immobile.

“And … and,” the Owl said, “consider this! She excused herself from the breakfast table. It wasn’t ten minutes after she returned that we heard the first gunshot!”

“He’s blathering, Lash,” said Cardinal Black. “About to start weeping, I think.”

“No, listen to me! Is it possible … at all possible … that she went down and unlocked the door for him? That she told him how to get in through the gazebo? That she has some kind of connection with him that we don’t know?”

It was a moment before Lash replied, during which he reached out for the cup again and stirred the ashes gently with his index finger. “One of your men made the error,” he said. “You shame yourself by trying to muddy my Elizabeth. She has never known about the gazebo. I built that some months after I brought her home, and there was never any need for her to know.”

“And I know why!” said the Owl, whose face had begun to display a sheen of sweat. “You didn’t want her running off into the city and murdering someone the law might take notice of! Because you could barely control her yourself, when she goes mad!”

“Control your tongue,” Lash said softly. He stood up, which made the Owl also start to stand up but Lash said, “Stay seated. I have a complaint against your service that you may wish to weigh against your future value.” He walked around behind the Owl and placed his huge hands on the man’s frail shoulders. The Owl’s head turned to an impossible angle to look up—fearfully—toward the hulking giant at his back.

Lash leaned down and spoke quietly into the Owl’s right ear. “For all your vaunted service and sense, you allowed two imposters to enter my house on the most important night of my life. You allowed them to take my Elizabeth and the book. You caused my airship to be lost … forever lost …”

“I did my duty I swear it how was I to know—”