“Sit. Rest. You’ve had a full day of it at work.”

“You’re not saying what you mean and I do not like it.”

Masson’s eyes narrowed. “You would make mockery of your father?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Where have you been?”

“I am not at liberty to say.”

“So your silence speaks for you. My work on the King’s head was rushed, yes? Simplistic too, perhaps. But my own daughter? He would seek to destroy my reputation.”

“Your reputation remains intact, Father. You’re jealous.”

“I’m scared, child!” Masson hurled the spoon and it clattered on the floor. “Scared for you. This is not a place of warmth and trust. It’s a cold, brutal circle of lies, and while they might use and discard me, as long as there is breath in my lungs I will not permit them to do the same to you. The King has his favorites. Then, one day, he becomes tired of them and no one sees them anymore.”

Claudine let out an exasperated breath then looked around for Masson’s small blue bottle. She found it on a low shelf, opened it, and without taking her eyes off her father, poured out the contents.

The old priest listened silently in the darkness of the King’s bedchamber. It was well past midnight, yet the priest was always available should the King need him. He was perched on a stool with the King beside him, kneeling on a cushion with his head bowed. There were no sounds but the clock ticking on the mantle, a wind rattling outside, and the King’s anxious breathing.

“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned,” Louis said.

“What is your reconciliation?”

“The mortal sins of envy and wrath.”

“Remember, Sire,” the priest began. “Some transgressions by the State are necessary, whereas if committed by Man –”

“Do not address me so,” Louis challenged. “In this moment I am a man, alone, burdened by sin, doing my penance under God.”

The priest nodded.

“How shall I repent?”

The priest folded his wrinkled hands and thought before speaking again. “Acts of contrition take many forms, Sire. One may atone in kind by practicing the sin’s corresponding virtues in their stead. The sin of envy, for example, is mirrored by kindness. The sin of wrath is mirrored by the virtue of patience.”

Louis stared into the shadows. “We are at war, where wrath has its station. And war is no place for kindness.”