‘A faked one,’ said Clariel. ‘Aronzo, under a hood, pretended to take a dagger-swipe at me, then ran off while his father came up with a whole troop of men and made a speech about not attacking goldsmiths, which seemed to be the whole aim of the stupidity.’

‘We shouldn’t be talking about this sort of thing,’ said Yaneem stuffily. ‘Dyrell could come back, or Mistress Ader might come in.’

Everyone else ignored her. Aronzo shrugged at Clariel.

‘That was the point of it. Father wanted an excuse to warn some of the weavers and tailors who’ve been talking trouble. I merely volunteered to help out, and you happened to be a convenient target. Besides, I wanted to take a look at you.’

‘Why?’ asked Yaneem, with a sniff that suggested no one would want to look at Clariel at any time. Particularly not if they had her to look at instead.

‘Sometimes one wants to … see something new,’ said Aronzo, with a sigh. Yaneem coloured and pursed her lips while Denima and Belatiel exchanged a swift glance.

Clariel noted all this and inwardly sighed, though she was careful to show no outward emotion. Back home in Estwael she had avoided becoming involved or even necessarily knowing about all the complicated romantic entanglements of her former school-fellows, simply by not being around.

Clariel’s own sexual experimentation with a twenty-two-year-old Borderer the previous year had happened out of curiosity, not love, or even very much desire. She had liked Ramis well enough and he had certainly desired her, but though she had slept with him three times to be sure of what she was feeling – or not – she had not particularly cared when he was posted away and neither had she sought out a new lover. Though her aunt Lemmin had suggested her feelings might change as she grew older, Clariel wasn’t so sure. She simply felt she had better things to do. Or she did have, when the Forest lay close by.

But though Clariel was not a captive to such feelings, it seemed to her that Yaneem was in the grip of just such emotion. Clearly Aronzo and Yaneem had some history as bedfellows, and Yaneem considered the relationship to be more important than Aronzo did.

‘I trust your curiosity has been entirely satisfied,’ said Clariel coldly. ‘You were lucky I didn’t kill you.’

‘Oh I don’t think you could have done that,’ drawled Aronzo, displaying massive – and to Clariel deluded – self-confidence. ‘I was a little surprised to find you so suddenly beclawed.’

‘I would have liked to have seen this combat,’ said Belatiel. ‘My money would be on my cousin if it happens again.’