deciding where each purchase I had made in the Marketplace goes in the newly painted suites of rooms for both Proton Minos and Lady Varilla. Stifling a yawn, I send the workers to get their midday meal. I stay behind and futz with a lamp here and a side table there. Lord Jihanus finds me puttering with these small changes in Varilla's antechamber.

"Anna, are you sure you should be moving that table by yourself?" he asks with a smile, since the table I am moving more decorative than anything.

I straighten and smile back at him. "Well, since you weren't to be found this morning, I had to do it myself!" I notice a servant behind him with a tray of food for our own meals. "You brought food! How nice of you."

He waits for the tray to be set on the table I had just been moving and for the servant to leave before answering. "We can't have you wasting away just when Zegros has finally given up the pretense that he can run the palace and have you take his place. As Palace Steward, you'll need to keep your strength up!"

"How did you know?"

"I have my ways," he says mysteriously. At my pout he laughs and says, "I talked to Zegros himself when I got back to the Palace just now."

Questions rush from my lips. "You've been gone? Where were you? Did you encounter any trouble?"