Chapter 14: Ptolemy, and the Cost of Keeping Secrets

Cael came home at half five with flour on his jacket and the particular expression of a man who had rehearsed something.

"So," he said, dropping his bag by the door in the way he always dropped his bag by the door, which was to say with deliberate casualness that was immediately undermined by how carefully he then straightened it against the wall. "I've invited someone for dinner."

Evander was on the couch with a Penelope Fitzgerald novel he wasn't reading. Ptolemy was on his feet. He moved Ptolemy's weight from his left shin to the cushion beside him, which Ptolemy accepted with the expression of an animal who had decided to allow this.