her cheeks recalled him to what he wished to say. “You must forgive Captain Peters, ma’am. He is an old man who does not deal so well with people anymore. By the time he is ready to work with another human being they are so often unable to answer back.” He quickly apologised as Elizabeth’s face paled. “But he is not an evil man, just unsociable.”

“Is it quite proper that you talk of your leader in such a way?” Elizabeth asked, unsure.

“I trust that after the disservice he did you, you would not report me to him,” Fotherby responded, the curious smile catching his features once more, as it had done in the tent. “But come, you sought a cure to your headaches, did you not?”

“Yes,” she whispered, and despite her age b...

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