Hildi was too busy frowning towards the door. “Don’t look up,” she said, which had precisely the opposite effect, of course.

“Oh, damn,” muttered Orso around a mouthful of carrot with the consistency of firewood. Who should be leading the next batch of gawkers but that noted member of the Assembly of Representatives, Corporal Tunny?

“He looks prosperous,” grumbled Hildi.

“Debauchery is profitable under any government,” said Orso, trying and entirely failing to look as if he was relishing his vile meal.

“Well, well, Your Majesty!” Tunny flashed his yellowed teeth. “It is always a pleasure.”

“You really didn’t have to visit me at home. We see more than enough of each other in the Assembly.”

“Must say your quarters look rather humble for a monarch.” Tunny glanced up at a mouldy stain that spread out from one corner of the ceiling. “You should complain to Chairman Risinau.”

“Ignore him,” said Orso, but Hildi could never stop leaping to his defence. A singularly thankless task these days. She stalked towards the railing, bristling.

“Your entourage seems diminished.” Tunny peered down at her. “Never could make up my mind whether she was one of your bastards or one of your whores.”

“Whereas I was always sure you were a cunt!” Hildi went for him, tried to claw at his face, but Tunny caught her arm and they tussled over the barrier. Orso sprang up, making his plate rattle.

“Step back from the railing,” grunted Halder.

Tunny shoved Hildi roughly away and she stumbled and fell, cracking her head.

“You bastard!” snarled Orso, knife and fork clenched as though they were long and short steels.

Tunny touched his fingers to a red scratch on his grizzled neck and grinned. “What’ll you do? Fork me to death?”

“I’ll give it a fucking try!”

“Step back from the railing,” growled Halder. “The lot o’ you. And lower the cutlery.” The guards mostly treated Orso with the put-upon contempt of underpaid nannies supervising a spoiled child. If there had been a fight, he honestly could not have said on whose side they would have intervened.

“He’s not worth it.” Hildi scrambled up, guiding Orso back towards his chair. “I’m fine.”

“I always knew he was a bastard, but that bastard.” Orso glowered towards Tunny as he swanned out through the far door. “Betraying me is one thing, everyone’s at it, but taunting you—that bastard. How could I ever have trusted him—”

Out of sight below the tablecloth, he felt her hand slide into his lap.

He blinked at her, shocked. “Hildi, I think of you more like a little sister— Oh.”

There was something in her hand. A scrap of paper. Tunny must have slipped it to her in the scuffle. She gave him a significant glance from under her blonde lashes. “More wine, Your Majesty?”

“I think I will. And pour a little for yourself as well, eh? We’ve both had quite the shock.”

As the vinegary vintage slopped into his glass, he hacked away at his chop, plate rattling, and peered down at the note on his leg, pencilled in a bold hand.