“I think I shall arrange a meeting for all three of us. But not today, nor tonight. Nor even tomorrow, perhaps. The betrothal is what must be managed right now. Nothing must go wrong with that. Do you think that the situation with Thick can wait?”

I shrugged. “It will have to, I suppose. Good luck with the rest of it.” I rose to go, picking up the basin and wet cloth to tidy up in passage.

“Fitz.” His voice made me pause. “You know, I have not said so directly, but you should treat these chambers as your own now. I know that a man in your position needs a private spot sometimes. If you wish things changed . . . the bed’s position, the hangings, or if you wish food left out for you here, or a supply of brandy. Whatever . . . let me know.”

The offer put a chill down my back. I never wanted this assassin’s workroom to belong to me. “No. Thank you, but no. Let’s just leave all as it is for now. Though I may keep some of my things up here. Verity’s sword, private things.”

There was some secret regret in his eyes as he nodded. “If that’s all you wish, that’s fine. For now,” he conceded. He looked at me critically, but his voice was very gentle as he added, “I know you still grieve. But you should let me even your hair out for you, or let someone else do it. It draws attention to you, as it is now.”

“I’ll see to it myself. Today. Oh. And there is something else.” Strange, how that first urgent concern had almost been driven from my mind by other fears. I took a breath. It seemed even more difficult to confess my carelessness to him now. “I’ve been foolish, Chade. When I left my cottage, I did so expecting to return to it soon. I left things there . . . dangerous things, perhaps. Scrolls where I have written down my own thoughts, as well as a history of our waking of the dragons that is, perhaps, too accurate to bear sharing. I need to go back there, soon, to either put those scrolls into a safer place or to destroy them.”

His face had grown graver as I spoke. Now he blew out a long breath. “Some things are better left unwritten,” he observed quietly. Mild as the rebuke was, it still stung. He stared at the wall but seemed to see into a distance. “But I confess, I think it is valuable to have the truth recorded somewhere. Think what it would have saved Verity in his quest for the Elderlings if even one accurate scroll had been preserved. So gather your writings, boy, and bring them to safety here. I advise you to wait a day or so before you depart. The Piebalds may be expecting you to bolt. If you went now, likely you’d have some following you. Let me arrange a time and a way for you to go. Do you want me to send some trustworthy men with you? They’d not know who you were or what you went to retrieve, only that they were to aid you.”