“Lara,” he said, “I’ll spend my nights as I wish.” She stayed staring, so he said, “I mean that sometimes I enjoy change. We’ll discuss it in the morning perhaps.”

She said in a wondering whisper, “Are you dismissing me?”

He nodded lightly.

Her face was distorted. Even her nose quivered. I said, “Isn’t it rather bold to come uninvited to your lord’s bedchamber?”

“For such a sweet little honey-speaker to men as you are, your tongue and more than your tongue can be very sharp with a rival,” he said to me. He was amused. He was enjoying the presence of both of us.

“Someone told me what I might find here,” she said. Her anger had frozen by now. In the shadow only her hand moved. It clenched, rose a little, fell a little. I realized what it was doing. It was savouring the feel of the whip tomorrow.

“Yes, I know who told you,” I said. “This teaches one not to get acquainted with foreign bed-girls—or if one does so, to do so in a friendly way.”

I took my clothes from the bed and began to put them on. She watched in satisfaction, he looked annoyed and made a move to stop me.