They stop calculating.

They mistake the promise for the fact, and they relax, and relaxing is the one thing you cannot afford to do in the hour before everything changes.

Camilla had relaxed weeks ago.

Damian had seen to that, the way he saw to everything, by telling her exactly what she wanted to hear.

“Lydia,” she said, with a small smile.

“You look tired.

These evenings can be so much, can’t they.”