She got a nod of approval for that, although his face remained as stony and expressionless as usual. The trench was a good choice. And unlike Mildmay, she could move quickly through the snow if she was heading for it.

Then he tugged a lock of the fox-red hair hanging around his face. "I know." A beat, then he added, "When I was your age, younger even, Kee- uh, the woman who raised me, she started dying my hair. Black, like hers. Wasn't almost nobody in all of Mélusine had red hair. Folks thought you were cursed or a spy or a blood-witch or something. I had two septads and four, maybe five 'fore I stopped." And he'd had plenty of reason to regret it since, but he hadn't never gone back to doing it.