When directed at Harrow, Gideon's anger has always been offensive, reactionary; an explosion of action, flying words and limbs and the trembling point of a sword. The tight control of her voice now is a shock, the careful movement of her hand as she sets her mug down, a sight that sinks through her like cold stone. She slips a little lower in the bath, her cheek resting against the enamel, her hands raised to keep her mug above the water.

"I understood him as a threat from the first instance," she says. "I am not naive, Griddle, compromised though I was. I will admit it took longer than it should have to comprehend how...wholly vulnerable I had become."