There is no further message - but Adelaide has only a short wait before Benevenuta appears in her doorway. She must have sent her message quickly; she wears her traveling garments still, the sensible, close fitting trousers, the bodice and blouse that Adelaide so despairs of in this harsh southern weather, the coat now unfastened. Her boots have been traded for softer wearing slippers and her hair hangs loose and crinkled from days in braids, but she hasn't much settled.

She isn't much settled, unusually in motion - not fidgety, precisely, but ... less still. A hand touching a dresser, her feet taking her past a chair rather than to sit in it.

"Have we missed much?" she asks - her smile, warm and inviting, is just the same as ever.