Iolanthe, having left her husband behind on the ship, made her way back to her room at the castle, and was currently sitting at her dressing-table, brushing out her thick, wavy dark hair while wearing a plain, white night-gown. In front of her was a list, carefully copied out in her own handwriting, of goods and prices.

This time, he knocked, if only in consideration of the hour. He had taken time to tousle his hair dry and to strip off his soaked jacket. The only dark cloud hanging over him was purely metaphorical.

"Yes?" Iolanthe asked, putting down her hairbrush as she turned toward the door. "Who is it?"

She got up from the seat and made her way forward, latching the door cautiously in the event that it was an assassin.

He let out a small groan and pulled himself straight. "Midshipman Dumas reporting, captain. Requesting towel."

"Towel?" Iolanthe asked, as she opened the door, and looked him over. "My goodness, boy, what's happened to you?"

"Your granddaughter happened to me," he replied as he stepped, without invitation, into the room, thus assuring the audience that he was not a vampire but leaving open the option that he could still be the Puck. "Towel?"

She raised an eyebrow. "I presume this means you have no towels of your own?" she asked, finding him a towel and offering it out. "And what on earth did you do to my granddaughter to provoke this kind of reaction?"

"Refused to admit I was lying to her," he said stiffly. "When I wasn't lying to her. I am starting to wonder why Aquitaine feels the need to have a sea-witch on its payroll at all. All the trouble they've had with this one, it's going to be doubled if your granddaughter takes the position."

Iolanthe laughed at that. "She's a spitfire, isn't she?" she asked. "What did you expect? She's sixteen years old, stubborn as a mule, and half-savage to boot. What she needs is a good whipping, but her father and her grandfather both spoiled her."

"And the sea-witch has her bent as a pewter lunier," he agreed icily. "I should have kept my temper, but I'm afraid she got me on the defensive. I made a muck of it."