RAVEN BUSTLED INTO THE ROOM, carrying a tray laden with all the delicacies we could offer: a small sugar loaf made by me, ice cherry preserves richly purple in a tiny glass jar, chilled indi flower tea, and goat milk custard glazed with amber caramel. She had eyes only for Sid. “My lady, we are so honored! You will not want for anything here in my home, I assure you. I shall serve you myself. Annin, why are you staring?” Raven, who clearly hadn’t noticed my arrival, finally glanced in my direction. Her eyes widened and her mouth firmed. “Nirrim. Your appearance is disgraceful. How dare you embarrass me in front of our guest.”

“I didn’t know she would be here,” I said.

“That is no excuse!”

“Why not?” Sid said mildly. “It looks like she was doing work in the heat. I’m not surprised by how she looks, only by the fact that someone let her—what, garden?—in the sun on a day like this.”

“She insisted,” Raven said. “I tried to stop her. Nirrim, you stupid girl. Shut the door. You are letting the heat in.”

Sid’s smile hardened. When I shut the door, her face was thrown into sudden shadow. Her eyes glinted. “Apologize,” she told Raven.

“Of course, my lady. I had no idea that one of my servants was capable of such bad manners. Forgive me, please. It won’t happen again.”

“Apologize,” Sid said, “to her.”

I could tell that Raven at first had no idea what Sid meant, but then she blinked. “Nirrim, dear girl, why don’t you have a cool bath. Help yourself to one of my soaps. You poor thing, you look exhausted.”

Sid said, “That is not an apology.”

Raven cut a startled look in Sid’s direction before glancing again at me. “Nirrim, I’m sorry. You know I am always sorry when I lose my temper.”

It had hurt the first time she had called me “stupid,” when she had discovered the lost heliograph. This time it hurt even more, because I had believed that she would never do it again, and now she had just done so in front of someone I wanted to think well of me. I swallowed and said, “It’s all right. I shouldn’t have left the door open.”

Raven nodded in satisfaction. Sid looked unaccountably angrier.

But Raven didn’t actually think I was stupid. I had done a stupid thing. I had humiliated her in front of an important guest. Her reaction, I felt, was understandable.

“You were dazed by the heat,” she told me, kind. The wobbly feeling inside me steadied. “And I was so hot and irritable! I was not myself—”