She nodded. "I can get a ship from Palermo. Rachel has kindly offered to pay my passage. Lorenzo found the chest full of gold she got from the Tartar, right where he buried it out in the woods. So Rachel is still rich. As for me, I am quite destitute."
God's mantle! That never occurred to me. What an idiot I am.
"Would you—"
She raised a hand to silence him and shook her head. "I would not."
He shrugged and nodded. "Take this from me at least—a warning to your emperor. Charles wants Constantinople. He has a claim to the crown of Byzantium. He told me just today that he means to do to Michael what he did to Manfred."
Sophia gave him a crooked little smile. "Michael will never let him even get near Constantinople. I hope I can help with that."
"If ever I can do anything for you—"
Her smile grew wider. "Do not be too quick to promise that, Simon. If we ever meet again, we may be on opposite sides." In a softer, sadder tone she added, "Again."
He took a step closer to her. "If so, I will not be so easily deceived. Now I know the real Sophia, the one who did not love me."
Her smile fell away. "I think the real Sophia did love you, Simon. Every time you told me how you loved me, it was as if you were taking me up to a mountaintop and showing me a beautiful land I could never enter. And the worst of it was that because I could not enter, neither could you. We were both barred forever from happiness."