Dav parted from Henry Norwood at three. He needed the roof. He had been patient with hours of legal talk while thoughts of his new grinder intruded. He would read Norwood’s full report in the days ahead, looking for the places in it that would show him how to beat his grandfather. He headed up the north stairs and met Emma Portland coming down them. She had something cupped in her gloved hands that claimed her whole attention so that he had a moment to look at her without her notice.

An old black bonnet covered her bright hair, but when she looked up, blue was what he saw. He tried to recall what had made him so suspicious of her the night before.

“What have you got? You’re like to break your neck if you don’t mind the steps and your cloak.”

“Oh, it’s you.”

He blocked her way. “No one else. What’s in your hands?”

“Robin’s baby dragon. Do you want to see it?”

He raised a brow. She lifted her cupped hands and it felt like an invitation, so he fitted his hands around hers. As soon as he touched her, he knew he had been wanted to touch her since yesterday. She tilted her upper hand slightly so that he could see the creature huddled inside.

It was a toad, a common toad, brown and speckled, knobby and squat. Its amber, jewellike eyes stared unblinking. She held it as gently as possible, but the frightened creature’s pulse quickened. Dav felt the rapid beat of his own pulse, glad for the concealing linen around his throat.

“Looks like a toad to me.”

She closed her hands and looked up at him, the blue dazzling. She gave a slow reproachful shake of her head as if he were a thickheaded student.

“What? Are you an admirer of toads?” He hardly knew what he was saying with her hands still cupped in his.

“He’s quite handsome if you think of him as a dragon.”

“But homely if you’re in the toad faction.”

She withdrew her hands from his. “Well, I’m in the dragon faction, and we’re going to find this fellow a proper home on the riverbank.”

He looked at her again. He’d just shared a light moment with her, and he’d thought the only brightness in her spirit was in that hair.

“Don’t fall in.” He stepped aside, and she passed him, but it was another minute before he remembered whether he had been going up or down.