He was well within his rights to insist, though again old-fashioned. “Is there anyone in particular you think we should talk to?”

He shook his head with obvious regret. “We paid little heed to her activities.”

“Is there someone we might speak to who would know?”

He thought for a moment. “Her closest friend was Dach’osmerrem Cretheno Cambesharan. But Dach’osmerrem Cambesharan does not believe that our wife was murdered, so we do not know if she would speak to you. You can ask Osmin Tativin, our wife’s secretary. She kept track of the marquise’s engagements.”

“Where might we find Osmin Tativin?”

“She is still here. She is a cousin of the marquise, and she has nowhere else to go. We have told her she may stay until she secures another position. She is badly shaken by the marquise’s death.”

“How did the marquise die?”

“It was very sudden,” the marquess said bleakly. “A thunderclap coronary is what our cleric decided.”

“Had the marquise any history of heart weakness?”

“None,” said the marquess. “We should have been suspicious from the start—but we could not imagine anyone wishing to harm her.”

“She had no enemies?”

“None that we knew of. But she did not tell us everything.”

“She did not tell you about the note?”

“No. We found it entirely by accident.”

“Would she not have told you if she were afraid?”

“She would have told us. We can only conclude that she did not think it was serious, but we do not understand, in that case, why she kept it.”

“Sometimes people’s reasons are unknowable,” I said. That was cause to regret that no one had had suspicions at the time of the marquise’s death, for it was a question I might have been able to get an answer to. She might even have known from whom the note had come.

“Yes,” the marquess said. “There is much about our wife we do not know. But will you witness for her? Not knowing the truth about her death will drive us mad.”

“Yes,” I said. “We will witness for the Marquise Ulzhavel. Although we must warn you that we may not discover an answer.”

“We understand,” said the marquess. “Any effort is better than nothing at all. And we have heard of you, Othala Celehar. We think it more likely that you will discover an answer than that you will not.”

To which I could only bow and say, “Thank you, Dach’osmer Ulzhavel. We will make our best endeavor.”

I found Osmin Tativin where the marquess had predicted I would find her: in the late marquise’s solarium, which was possibly the only room in the house into which sunlight was allowed to come.