In her dream, what had Ysidro said to her?
What kind of woman are you? Karlebach had asked, almost spitting the words.
And what kind of man am I?
She wrapped her arms – carefully – around his ribcage, rested her head on his shoulder.
There’s an answer to that question somewhere. But God only knows what it is.
Neither dreamed of Don Simon Ysidro again before they left China, nor for a long time thereafter.
But as he and Lydia walked up the gangplank of the Ravenna at Tientsin a week later in the freezing winter dusk, Asher did notice, among the trunks being loaded in the hold, a massive one of tan leather with brass corners.
