She smiled, sadly. “Dad and Ma and Marsilia are always busy. I could always go to Grandfather and tell him about the babies. The funny, ordinary, adorable things they do. It made him smile. He’d say he didn’t have enough conversations about ordinary human things. And sometimes I’d be there when people came, important people, and at first if that happened I’d try to leave, but he pressed me to stay and make small talk with them, to set them at their ease, so I’d do that. And once he told me that Simmea used to do that for him, and he never worked out how to do it. He knew he had to offer them something and talk about insignificant things first, but he always felt awkward doing it and wanted to jump right in to whatever they’d really come about. He said he admired the way I could do it naturally and make them feel comfortable.”

I couldn’t say anything. Saying I’d been in love with her for years and that this made me love her all the more would have been wrong, but there wasn’t anything else I could think of to say. I nodded.

“I’d make a terrible consul. But Marsilia is a splendid one, exactly like Dad. And she’d be awful at looking after babies, and I’m really good at that. It wasn’t only our looks, it really was our souls. So sometimes I think looks do reflect souls.”

“Maybe,” I said. “Though what I remember Plato saying about that seems to be a bit different from the way you see it. But how can you think Marsilia would be awful with babies? What about Alkippe?”

She smiled again. “Alkippe’s seven years old. And now she’s old enough, Marsilia’s the best mother in the world for her, teaching her things, and Alkippe’s so bright, she soaks it all up. But for the first three years I looked after her. If I hadn’t wanted to, I think Marsilia would have left her in the nursery full-time. The year she was two, Marsilia was away on a mission to Lucia. Alkippe hardly noticed.” Thetis smiled. “She’d notice now, though! If Marsilia had to go away again she’d take her with her, I think. But she won’t. She’s consul, and she’s fixed here for a year.”

“That’s good,” I said. “Though I don’t know how she manages to make time for everything she does and working on the boat.”

“She enjoys it,” Thetis said.

“Thee—” I stopped.

“What?”