A musical voice from the doorway suffused with diaphanous white sunlight. “Sosska! Is that you?”

Orvar stands in the next room, smiling politely at her. The woman enters from outside, light streaming around her veiled face.

“Mother!”

“Sosska, my darling! How changed you are.” She lifts her veil and takes Saskia by the shoulders, lightly kisses her cheek. The firm grip of her fingers is palpable even through Saskia’s stiff clothing.

“Are you well?”

Saskia only stares.

“You’ve been away so long! And never a word from you ...” she glances at Orvar, “We were worried, night and day.”

Saskia stares.

“I won’t press you. This campaign has changed you.”

She stands back from her daughter.

“Is Low with you?”

“Low?!”

“Yes, that’s what I said. Is he with you?”

Saskia stares.

“He didn’t mention me, did he?” She glances again at Orvar, whose polite smile grows firmer. “I believe I said he could be discreet.”

“What are you talking about?!”

“Please, Sosska, is he alive?”

“... He was when I last saw him.”

She looks closely at her daughter, “Where? Where did you see him last?”

“I left him in the interior. He was useless—practically a traitor.”

“What?! Low, a traitor? Nonsense. Was he hurt?”

“No.”

“Why did you leave him? Why in the world would you leave him?”

Saskia is staring incredulously. “What—what is this?”

“Oh how could you do something like that?” Madame Mauvudza stamps her foot irritably.

“What is this? Why are you asking me about that Low?”

“Well, I’m sure he’s alive. He’s always been so clever.”

“What do you know about him?”

“My dear, we’re to be married. Try to understand ... Really, when you look at me like that ... I met him in Tref, when he came through to join his unit. The man at Yashnik had been stationed in Port Conget when you passed through, and I chartered the ship as soon as I could. We’ve only just arrived.”

She sighs wearily.

“And we had thought you were still up north. Oh, my dear, how drawn you are. But, perhaps, in a few months, when I’ve recovered my strength, we can all go in together. Or, no, but you and Orvar can go, can’t you? If he hasn’t made his way back on his own by then?”

“Recovered—what’s that you say, recovered your strength?”

Ohra Mauvudza’s open lips bend upward in a meagre smile. “Oh—well, these are rather loose clothes, and the light in here is bad.”

She holds her hands up in the air by her shoulders and turns her body a little sideways, glancing down at the slight, uncharacteristic convexity of her abdomen, and then back up at her daughter.