Jenny: The Man in the Land of Summer

There was a moment's startled silence. Everyone, including Cathair, was staring at Domitia. Artos carefully moved the little wooden horse out from the range of his elbow before turning to the girl. He had passed only a few words with her in the entirety of her stay at his villa. Looking back at the foreign girl now, he could think of only two women in the world that he particularly cared a denarius for, one of whom was only a smudge of moonshine on his memory, the other was his sister. And he found himself caring so very little, that he almost let it go unanswered. But in the silence Kay scraped his chair back, picking up his drink and saying, very clearly and quietly, "I am not hungry. Excuse me." He nodded to Artos and strode off. After another moment's pause, Bedwyr made a philosophical gesture and he, too, went out.

After that he had to address Domitia. He cocked his forearm on the back of his chair and twisted himself round to face her, wincing a little as his leg protested. "You are dangerously close to equating what we do with the divine, which is even worse than equating what we do with the demonic. We want neither. When you have come to understand your philosophical anthropology as well as your theology, you will not need to ask me this.

"Guttersnipe," he added, carefully turning back around and picking up the wooden horse. "I made this for you."