It might not be fair, but I gave my attention to who I considered the culprit.

“Silence?” I prompted.

And the instant I did, she turned to Farah and proclaimed, “I have been awful. Not a good friend a’tall. I…I…much has happened that has taken my mind, but ’tis no excuse.” She took a step toward Farah, lifted a hand, dropped it and finished, “I’m so very sorry you lost Sofia. I had not had the chance to know her well. But I can promise you, of what I knew, I’d been looking forward to it. And I am so very sorry that I was of no comfort to you when you lost a mother as lovely as she.”

Farah’s eyes grew bright and she pressed her lips together before she controlled her emotion, nodded to Silence and replied, “I understand. Mars is…” She seemed to be searching for words and then she found them. “A lot.”

“He is,” Silence murmured.

“Much of it is good,” Farah hastened to add.

“Yes,” Silence agreed.

“But he is, well…Mars.”

Silence appeared to be about to start laughing and thus forced out, “He is that.”

Farah smiled at her. “He’s most besotted with you. I can tell he cares very deeply for you. He’s never been that way, not close, not with even one of his other females.”

Oh shite.

I heard Hera emit a grunt and Jasmine curse under her breath.

This because, from the look on Silence’s face, this was not the right thing to say.

Farah saw it too and she took a step closer to Silence.

“Of course, they were from before,” she said quickly. “Before you.”

Silence lifted her chin a smidge. “Yes. Of course. Before me. He is a man, after all. And he would, erm…”

“Dally,” Farah put in.

Silence nodded sharply. “Dally. Yes.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned that,” Farah murmured.

“No need to be sorry. It is but truth. And we should always be honest between us.” Silence looked to me, lifting her arm my way, then she turned to Farah, swinging her arm back. “We Sisters of the Beast.”

“Yes, we should,” Farah agreed.

“We should,” I entered the conversation.

Both women looked my way, but it was Farah who asked hesitantly, “Is all going well with Cassius?”

“No,” I said on a smile. “He’s a lout.”

Farah smiled back, also hesitantly.

Silence didn’t smile. She regarded me not hesitantly but openly.

“Do you think you’ll be able to come to some accord?” she asked with concern.

“I like him,” I declared.

Both women stared at me, Farah with wide eyes, Silence was blinking.

And Severus was not far away, and I had no doubt he was listening.

So be it.

I spoke truth, and if that got into Cassius’s ear, maybe he’d be less of a lout.

“You…like him?” Farah asked.