"How do you come to be with Count Simon?" Sophia asked, hoping that answering would calm Rachel.
But Rachel went on weeping into Sophia's shoulder, and Friar Mathieu spoke for her. "Rachel and I fell in with Count Simon, and we thought it safest to stay with him. And he chose to come here."
"It's all right now," Sophia said, patting Rachel's back as she held her in her arms. "Everything will be all right."
"No, Sophia, no." Rachel, it seemed, could not stop crying. Bewildered, Sophia looked up. Friar Mathieu and Simon were standing side by side in the center of the room. Sordello, his face working with barely controlled fury, had moved to a far corner. His sword still lay on the bed, Sophia noticed, but his hand was on the hilt of his dagger.
Simon and the Franciscan were looking, not at Rachel, but at Sophia.
"David told you I was here," Sophia said. "He must have."
In an instant, she understood why Daoud had told Simon where to find her. And why Rachel kept weeping and weeping.
"Is he dead?" she asked.
They answered her with silence.
A wave of dizziness came over her. She reeled, and Rachel was holding her up. Friar Mathieu took her arm, and they lowered her into the armchair. She knocked the candle to the floor, putting it out. Now the only light in the room was the red glow of the fire.