She winced, the way she always did when the thought occurred. She wondered what might happen if the secret somehow came out. If they learned her children were the grandchildren of King Jezal…

Kort flicked out the tails of his coat to sit. “It seems that motherhood very much agrees with you.”

“Somewhat to my surprise.”

“Not to mine. I heard one Citizeness we both know wonder aloud whether you might give birth to a set of razors. I told her she was an idiot if she thought you wouldn’t excel at anything you put your mind to.”

“There has been a Great Change.” Savine frowned towards the window, sure she had heard something outside. She waited a moment, but there was nothing. “We must change, too.”

“I could not agree more.” Kort’s bulk had subsided into his chair, but now he eased it earnestly towards her. “And the greater the change, the greater the opportunities. Commissioner Pike seems fixed on crushing the banks. Between the lack of credit, the price of bread, the interruption in coal supplies from Angland… through nothing but buying and selling shrewdly, fortunes can be made in a day! And for those who know the right people, see the right openings, those who can actually bring goods into Adua… Selest dan Heugen—”

“There are no ‘dans’ any more, remember?”

“Whatever her name is, she’s adjusted to the new reality like lightning. She’s dispensed with the wigs, it’s all about honesty now, apparently, and she’s not even a redhead, would you believe?”

“I am astonishment itself.”

“But she wears a red sash! In sympathy with the bloody Burners, and talks as though she’s been arguing for the Great Change for years while she’s making an absolute fortune buying flour in the provinces. They say the weather will only get colder, and the royalists are about in the east, burning crops. Lord Marshal Forest and his men, refusing to lay down their arms. Everything will get scarcer. With our canal, we—”

“No.”

“No? Motherhood has changed you.”

“On the contrary, I have always been extremely careful about which opportunities I take, and which I turn down.” She lowered her voice, glancing towards the window again. “When they have hanged all their enemies, do you think they will stop? Things will unravel and they will need people to blame. Do you read the pamphlets? They print more than ever! Attacking aristocrats, and foreign agents, and speculators and hoarders and profiteers. Attacking everyone!” She thought of the mob, the clawing arm slithering through her broken carriage window. “I will not be making myself conspicuous. I strongly advise you to do the same.”

Kort stared at her, his mouth ajar. “I never supposed that you, of all people, would lack the nerve to seize what is right in front of you. Lady Savine—”

“Citizeness Savine.”

“There are such opportunities—”

“Haroon will see you out.”

Zuri’s older brother had eased silently into the room. His head was respectfully bowed, his smile almost apologetic, but there was something in the set of his broad shoulders, in the way one strong hand clasped the other, that made it clear it was time to go. He was almost as good as his sister at saying it all without saying a word.