The kitchen staff had not expected a guest to commandeer one of their stations at the ninth hour, but by the time they worked out an objection Isole was already done.
She came through the east wing door with two cups and found Vane at the terrace railing looking at the capital lights.
"I told them it was a medicinal preparation," she said, holding one out to him. "They seemed to accept this."
He took the cup. "Is it medicinal?"
"It's the blend." She sat on the stone railing beside him, which was the sort of thing she would not do anywhere with an audience. "I couldn't find the right spice. The estate's kitchen has twelve varieties of imported leaf and none of them are right." She looked at the cup. "It's approximately correct."
He drank it. It was approximately correct.
"Alistair is still in the study," she said.
"I know. I saw the light."
