“What chance? The king being ill or dead?”
Her eyes flashed. “Yes. The girls are ready. They will come back with us, now.”
She stood with shoulders squared, a defiant little figure before me.
I said, more gently, “What are you girls planning to do, Sonya?”
I think she had already told Alice and Dolores. They moved closer as though to defend her. Alice flashed me a defiant look.
I repeated, “What are you planning to do?”
Her eyes held level. “It is not my secret. You are a man. I have no right to tell you.” She added very slowly, but wholly without emotion,
“I think perhaps you had better go back.”
It struck me with a vague sense of shame. I felt like a deserter.
Alice said calmly, “Are you going back, Len?”