Nicola would not admit it, and he would be cross to know anyone else might be able to see it, but there is some amusement at that, hidden in infinitesimal shifts around his eyes. Some part of him does think it's funny. Or some distant part of him is only susceptible to the influence of big, bright smiles.

But aside from that faint glimmer, he looks as stern as if he were back home waiting for a hungover cousin to finish pulling on his pants.

"Then it is even more convenient to find you here," he says. "Your," what, eyebrows raising and a deep breath accompanying the guess, "seventeenth cousin however many times removed was in business with my relatives for some time. Perhaps they will reach a new agreement now that Governor Levati is dead — "

He looks back at wide-eyed Benedict.

" — coincidentally, I'm sure."