Now he drew aside the curtain that veiled her portrait and placed a lamp beneath it. The golden light warmed glints in her hair, almost lending the illusion of life to the dazzling eyes that gazed out far beyond the canvas.

Rainbow eyes.

‘What am I to do?’ he asked her. He sat down in front of her, trying to evoke the fading memories of lost intimacy. ‘Oh, Iridial, what am I to do?’

The painted image stared on into the far distance. Into eternity.

‘Should I have told her? Warned her? I didn’t want to cloud her life – when it was clouded already. And besides, there was no guarantee she would inherit the… the gift.’

Even as he spoke the word aloud, he knew he had been deceiving himself with false hopes, false securities, all these years. Orial had the gift as surely as she was her mother’s daughter.

‘Have I done wrong in denying her? Would it have developed anyway, no matter what I did?’ And then, wrung out of him, ‘Does she have to die too?’

A floorboard creaked outside. He sprang up and, grabbing hold of the oil-lamp, flung open the bedroom door.

The landing was in darkness – but by the light of the lamp, he saw the pale figure of a girl, a slender girl in a gown of white and blue muslin…

‘Iridial,’ he gasped, and clutched his chest.

The girl turned, looking over her shoulder.

Eyes. Dazzling rainbow eyes, Irises a multi-coloured striation of prismed light strands, violet, sapphire –

It was not Iridial but Orial – creeping in like a sneakthief, her eyes wide with guilt

‘How – could – you?’ He was choked with fury now. How could she violate her mother’s memory, stealing one of her dresses to attend her secret assignation? Double betrayal. ‘Take it off! And before you go to your room, you will tell me where you have been. And with whom.’

‘I have – been at the Assembly Rooms. With Sieur Jordelayne. He brought me back in his carriage,’ The rainbows suddenly dulled with brimming tears.

‘You have been with – that creature? Listening to music? ‘

‘You never said I couldn’t listen to music outside the house! Never expressly. And it was so wonderful, Papa.’ Tears began to trickle down her cheeks. He had made her cry and he could not remember her crying in many years. ‘So wonderful I wanted to be a part of it. Punish me if you must – but please don’t keep me from the music. Please!‘

Her words made him chill with sudden fear. She meant what she was saying. He had never seen her so in earnest before. And abject fear made him stern, impervious to her tears.

‘You will go to your room and stay there until I give you permission to come out.’