“It’s a lie. I have nothing to do with him.”
“Oh, come now!” Logofet assumed an air of virtuous reproof. “Didn’t I hear him myself ask the Prince to find you a place, and the Prince wouldn’t have you without his leave? You take my advice, and don’t tell any more lies, which no one believes, but just go and speak to him, for he won’t go away without seeing you.”
“But how can I speak to him? They won’t let me pass through the gate at this hour.”
Logofet winked. Danaë had already suspected the source of his excessive geniality, and now she was certain of it. “They may not, my dear, but I will,” he said, “and I go on guard at the small door in a few minutes. Just cough three times when you come round the corner, and I’ll turn my back. If the Lord Glafko expects me to see in the dusk like a cat, why, he’ll be disappointed! So be a sensible girl, and do as you’re told.”
He stalked away with exaggerated steadiness, and Danaë wondered for a moment whether she durst claim the protection her employers had promised her against Petros. But after what had happened, her pride rebelled. And after all, he might only have come to assure himself that she and Janni were in safe keeping, and not to take them away. When the dusk had quite fallen, therefore, she slipped down the nearest staircase, which led into a smaller courtyard at the back of the main block, and seeing Logofet’s figure dimly as he stood on guard, gave the signal coughs. The bulky form at the gate became intensely interested in a gleam of light from an upper window, and she turned the well-oiled key and slipped out. Under the wall was waiting a man wrapped in a thick dark overcoat or kapota, and as Danaë approached him he struck a match, revealing the face which had been the terror of her dreams for months. When he saw her, he chuckled irrepressibly.
“So it’s true that you cut off half your hair!” he said. “I wondered whether I should find you tamed, my lady, with the Lady Zoe making such a pet of you, and the English lord putting you into a picture, but I see you’re the Despot’s true daughter still.”
“I suppose you have been drinking with your friend Logofet,” said Danaë icily. “Say what you have to say, and go.”
“That’s easily done, my lady. I want the little lord.”
“What do you mean to do with him?”
“To restore him to his anxious father, of course,” with a chuckle.