Simone, spying from behind a sheer curtain that hung in the front window, saw her walk back down the road, head down, looking miserable. She looked on in surprise as Katkin suddenly tossed the gold box out into the busy street, in front of a delivery cart. The box burst, disgorging its contents out on to the cobblestones. She and Katkin both watched as the gold and green dress entangled itself in the wheel of a passing carriage. Eventually, torn and muddy, it passed from sight. The piece of red silk remained in the road, looking like a puddle of fresh blood. Simone, thoroughly pleased with herself, went back to bed.
Her impulsive destruction of the dress Tomas had given her did not lift Katkin’s spirits at all, and she had yet to deliver her unhappy news to him. Once she reached the Citad
