"I will be right back," Tilia said, squeezing Sophia's arm. She clambered out of the cart with Riccardo's help. Riccardo tied the cart to a hitching post on the side of the street. Tying her scarf across her face, Sophia watched from inside the cart. The man who had stopped the horse barred Tilia again as she started toward her house. He was a slender, middle-aged man with a prominent arch to his nose and heavy-lidded eyes. Riccardo moved toward him, but Tilia put her hand on the servant's arm. Tilia would not want the cardinal's man brawling with an officer of the watch. "I am Tilia Caballo, and this is my house," she said in a commanding voice. "How long have you been here?" What a brave woman Tilia was, Sophia thought. Could she herself face an officer of the watch and speak to him sternly like that? "Since the hour of None, Madama. The podesta was here, but he had to leave." "And what are you doing? Just standing about? Have you left that poor man's body to hang there since mid-afternoon, where women and children could see it? Take him down at once. Are you not Christians? How can you treat the dead with such disrespect?" In the midst of her own horror, Sophia took comfort from Tilia's display of strength, and wondered how the stout little woman felt inside. Sophia had hated her at times, and still thought Tilia had done a horrible wrong to Rachel. But what she felt for her now was mostly admiration. After all, all of them were equally guilty of what had happened to Rachel. The blame should not fall on Tilia alone. The beak-nosed officer called orders to others nearby. But his expression as he turned back to Tilia was surly. "There might be some question about whether _he_ was a Christian, Madama. This is, after all, a house of ill repute." "Ill _repute_!" Tilia blustered. "This is--this was--the handsomest house of pleasure in Orvieto. And our patrons occupied the very highest levels in the Church. You would be wise to have a care how you speak of my house." Sophia felt herself smiling. Amazing, when there was so much to weep over. "Would I?" The officer thrust his nose at Tilia. "Perhaps you can tell me why such a splendid bordello with such fine customers needed a torture chamber in the cellar? Or why you had to keep piccioni on the roof?" Sophia's body went cold. If they found out those were carrier pigeons and where they went, the trouble here might be deep indeed. "So that is what you have been doing!" Tilia stormed. "Looting my home! And how much did you steal after the Tartars left? And no doubt harassing my ladies, as if they had not been through enough already. And leaving my Cassio to swing from a rope. My God, there has been murder, kidnapping, rape, and theft done here, and you prattle of piccioni. What have you done about catching the _bestioni_ who did this?" Now the officer did look intimidated. "Madama, we are not certain who did these things--"