Chapter 31: The Thread

The porter held the door for the Inspector and for the person, and for nobody else. Mira stood on the Guest House step in the first thin light with her shawl crossed over the brass key. The porter was a heavy man in the sponsor's green, with a face like a shutter pulled down on a shop. He had said "Madam" to Seren and nothing to Kael, and when Mira came up behind them he put his arm across the frame and said it to her too. Seren had walked up the hill a pace off Kael's bad arm, and her pencil had not come out once. One hour, she had told the road: Doss's window shut at the second bell, and after that the Bureau could put nothing more on this file until Meridian. Past the porter's elbow the breakfast room ran long and bright. A spirit lamp burned…