for the gods’ sakes get him out!”
“You’ll manage,” Haught said. He carefully put the curl where it belonged and
adjusted a pin for her while she snuffled. He wiped her cheeks with his thumbs,
careful of her kohl-paint, and of her rouge, and tipped up her face and kissed
her gently on salty lips. “Now. There. My brave Moria. All you have to do is not
mention me. Say I delivered my messages. Say Stilcho’s with me and we’re going
to go down to a shop and see about that lock you want for your bedroom-now won’t
that fix it? I promise you-“
“You could witch it.”
“Dear woman, I might, but you don’t do a thing with an axe when a penknife will
do. You don’t want your maid blasted, do you? I doubt you want that. I’ll find a
lock / can’t pick and see if you can. If it suits, I’ll have it installed on
your door within the week. I promise. Now go upstairs, fix your make-up-“
“I want you here! I want you to tell Her what you did to me, I want you to tell
Her you made me beautiful!”
“Now, haven’t we been over that? She won’t care. I assure you she has quite a
many things on her mind, and you are the very least, Moria. The very least. Do
your job, be gracious, be everything I’ve helped you be, and the Mistress will
be very happy with you. Don’t ruin your makeup. Smile. Smile at everyone. Don’t
smile too much. These men have been a long time out of a house like this. Don’t
attract them. Behave yourself. There’s a love.” He kissed her on the brow and
followed the sudden panicked dart of her eyes, the appearance of a shadow in the