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Cecília stirred awake, finding herself on a low mattress in what had to be the side room Tio Aloisio had mentioned, though she didn’t actually remember ever having gone inside. She looked around, disoriented for a moment both by the room and by questions of what had woken her. Then she heard it again.
“So Mendonça’s gone?” Tio Aloisio’s voice filtered through the door.
“He supposedly kissed the decree when he received it, the cabrão.” Senhor Carvalho swore loudly enough that Cecília was willing to bet he wasn’t aware she could hear. Or perhaps he didn’t know that she was there at all. “But yes, he’s reportedly left for Porto. Not as far as that traitor should be sent, but for now... I’ve recalled my brother from Brazil to replace him as Secretary of the Navy. I imagine things will go much more smoothly from here on, once we deal with the rest of our problems.”
If Tio Aloisio answered, Cecília didn’t hear it. Carefully, she stood, the straw in the mattress crinkling more loudly than she liked, and padded to the door to listen.
“Your niece is at court again?” Senhor Carvalho said after a beat.
“Santa Rita didn’t send her back to Loures as he said.” A bitter note cut deeply into Tio Aloisio’s tone. “He apparently underestimated the penchant she has for wandering when left to her own devices. Anyone who’s spent more than a day with the girl should know a league isn’t nearly far enough to keep her from anything.”
“Should we presume that means her sister is still here as well?”
“I imagine so, but I doubt that will be a problem. I intend to properly send both girls home with Santa Rita today. He’s signed over the plot in Lisbon, and Loures does seem far enough to keep them from trouble.”
Senhor Carvalho took a moment before responding. “The younger one, perhaps, but I’m not certain we should be so quick to send your older one away.”
Cecília frowned.
“No?” A matching frown came through Tio Aloisio’s tone.
“A girl that determined and with the skill to get where people may not want her? She would likely be of more use here than off with a man who obviously doesn’t have a thimble’s worth of common sense.”
Tio Aloisio spoke cautiously. “Cecília also has a unique way of inviting trouble wherever she goes. I’m certain that wouldn’t work in our favor.”
“Don’t be so certain. The trouble she found last night gave me a reason to arrest one of the Vilhena sons. And she may have even turned the Terra bastard. He only stopped running his little ‘secret’ messages last night after he fell in with her. Didn’t speak up for Vilhena, either. Fairer girls at court wouldn’t be able to say they could do the same.”
Cecília frowned at the implied slight.
“She seems to be a very handy girl indeed with her skill set,” the first minister finished.
As the conversation trickled off, Cecília debated her next move. Still exhausted from the previous night, she half wanted to sit, have a nice meal, and nurse her sore arm and feet, but there was too much to do to remain in one place. Once Tio Aloisio and Senhor Carvalho’s voices moved off, Cecília slipped out of the side room then out of the antechamber entirely.
Winding her way through the palace, Cecília looked for any clues to what she had missed while she’d been away. The halls were all but empty. The odd, subdued feeling there had been at Senhor Mendonça’s home—his former home—coated the Real Barraca. She glanced into the open doors as she passed, but it almost seemed as if she were the last person alive. As she passed another room, she noticed a lump lying across a few cushions.
She stepped inside and made out who it was. “Senhor Terra?”
Luís started awake, blinking as he looked around. He jerked as he spotted her, quickly going to straighten out his clothing, though it was in surprisingly good shape for having been slept in. “Senhorita—”
“You slept here?” she asked.
“It was... a long night.”
Cecília nodded. “You didn’t go back to your room?”
“That’s an even longer story.”
“Because of Mateus de Vilhena?”
“It will all work out,” he said. “Word is that Isabel’s trying to call in what Távora connections she has to help him. As upset as the family is at Carvalho after last night, they very well might intervene, even with as little as they actually like Isabel. Having the Távoras as an advocate is nearly as good as having the king.”
After last night? Cecília kept that question to herself. “You want him to be helped? Mateus?”
Luís frowned.
“He hit you.”
Luís shrugged. “He’s Mateus.”
Her lips pursed, but he seemed to consider the topic closed with that statement. “Do you still think you did the right thing, coming with me last night?”
He studied her face for a long moment before speaking. “It’s going to be Carvalho or the Távoras who win this. Whoever does, I’m not certain I want to be in the middle of that fight.”
“Do you have to be?”
“I don’t have many other good options, if I...”
“If you...?” she prompted.
“Cut myself off from the Vilhenas,” he said.
“You can’t go back to your own fam—” Everything came together in a flash of understanding: Maria not giving Luís a second name. The Terra bastard. “You’re illegitimate.”
His eyebrows rose.
She realized she had spoken aloud. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any insult. I just realized—”
“My parents married,” he said quickly, eyes dark, “but my father died within a month. People like to question if the marriage happened at all when they don’t care for me.”
“I truly meant no offense.”
He looked at her for another moment, his expression softening in a way that made her wonder if her uncle had been a little more correct about how Luís thought about her than she realized.
Don’t be silly. He barely knows you.
“I should let you get on with your day.” She took a step back. There were more things to worry about than Luís de Terra.
“Please be careful, Senhorita Santa Rita,” he returned.
“It seems you should likely call me Durante right now,” she said then stepped back out into the winding hallways.
***
CECÍLIA SAT ACROSS from Senhor Carvalho in the dimly lit office, waiting for the man to speak first. He watched her from behind his large desk, his piercing eyes making Cecília’s skin crawl as he seemed to peer into her thoughts.
He finally sat back and interlaced his fingers as he set his hands in front of him. “I hope you didn’t have too hard of a night, Senhorita Durante.”
“I’ve had much harder,” she said.
Senhor Carvalho lowered his head an inch in recognition, some hint of amusement at her reply softening his eyes a fraction. “Your uncle told me you had actually returned to Lisbon all the way from Queluz after the quake.”
“I was looking for my family.”
“You didn’t trust your uncle to do that?”
Cecília chose her words carefully. “I’ve never been very good at sitting and waiting when something’s happening. Patience is a virtue I often lack.”
“That isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Senhor Carvalho said.
Cecília tilted her head. “I believe you’re the first to have thought so, senhor.”
Senhor Carvalho leaned back in his chair slightly, still watching her face closely. “If there is anything I have learned over my life, Senhorita Durante, it is that the only way to truly learn about the world is to go and experience it. If you wish to learn the truth, you have to go after knowledge with a net. If you don’t, you’re only going to learn what others choose for you.”
Not certain what else to say, Cecília nodded.
“And how is your sister?”
That question felt even more loaded. She treaded carefully. “Likely worried after me, honestly, since I didn’t return last night.”
“But she’s generally well?”
Cecília nodded again. “The king was very kind to send his physician to see her.”
“You believe Senhor Nunes is behind her recovery?”
Whether she did or not, she certainly wasn’t going to suggest differently in front of the first minister after last night. “It was only when he arrived that she got better.” Obviously, that was the correct answer. More of a smile came to the corners of Senhor Carvalho’s serious mouth. “I have a proposition for you, Senhorita Durante, if you’re willing to hear it?”
Cecília caught her hands in her lap, squeezing her fingers as she said, “Please.”
“There are enemies in court. A number of them attempted to overthrow what progress the king has made to recover from our great tragedy last night. I have ears listening for me, but I imagine it would be much easier for a pretty girl such as yourself to listen without attracting attention.”
So now I’m pretty. Some bitterness from the morning bubbled up unexpectedly. She kept the thought off her face. “You want me to spy for you?”
“I wouldn’t say ‘spy.’ Just let me know if you hear anything that sounds important to the welfare of the country. Of Lisbon. I imagine you would wish to stay at court, given the chance?”
Yes. Cecília couldn’t entirely deaden the part of her that truly wished to stay. She forced herself to ask, “With my sister?”
“If she wished.” Senhor Carvalho didn’t so much as hesitate, seeming to have expected the question. “Though I would be a bit worried that too much excitement might lead to a relapse of her condition. I imagine the quiet of the country might suit her better in this case?”
The country likely would have been Bibiana’s choice in any case.
If Senhor Carvalho is in charge, it’s best for her to stay away. So the question was whether Cecília could justify abandoning her sister. Is it abandoning? If I’m helping Senhor Carvalho here, he’ll care less about Bia and Avô Santa Rita.
The little nagging voice in her head popped up. Trying to convince yourself again?
“Senhorita Durante?” Senhor Carvalho cut in before she had to come up with an answer for herself.
“Yes, senhor,” she said, “I imagine you’re right.”
“Wonderful. Then I believe it’s settled? Your grandfather can see that your sister has all the rest she needs, and you can remain with your uncle. I’m sure there is a nicer set of rooms you two could share, assuming you are willing to make note of anything important you might happen to hear while going about your day. Are you willing to do that?”
All the nice words still sounded decidedly like spying—and that still couldn’t be good for her soul. But if she was going to be honest with herself, she had already made her decision, especially in the face of someone who seemed truly to believe that curiosity was a virtue, not a vice. She offered her own small smile back. “Yes, senhor. I am.”