“You did exactly right tonight.

You saw the trap and you did not step in it.

Now we find out how deep it goes.”

She had spent her career taking orders from generals.

It was a strange and steadying comfort, at thirty-nine years old and freshly certain her marriage was over, to take one from her father.

And there was something underneath the comfort that she only let herself feel once she was moving, once the car was carrying her and Alma away down the dark drive.