"What is it, Rachel?" said Friar Mathieu. He shook his head at Simon. "If you want to help me, if you love her, just leave me alone. She was kind to me as no one else has ever been. She was my friend. Stop trying to find out about her." What was this girl hiding? What was Sophia hiding? Simon felt as if he were surrounded by enemies, all of them plunging their daggers into him. "Does a friend send a young girl like you to a brothel?" said Friar Mathieu softly. This brought no reply from Rachel. She put her hands to her face and sobbed. Simon could bear no more. He stood up abruptly. He was torturing this girl. And in a way, she was torturing him. He said, "Rachel, we will leave now. I am sorry I frightened you. In truth, I have no wish to hurt you. But, I--I am upset too. Listen to me. If you ever decide you want to get away from here, tell me. I will not let John or Cardinal de Verceuil or anyone else stop you if you want to be free." Rachel took her hands away from her face. "Where can I go? Tell me that, Your Signory. Where can I go?" Her eyes, rimmed with red from crying, were pools of darkness in her pale face. The sight of her tears made Simon's own eyes burn. Friar Mathieu stood up, leaning heavily on his stick. He took Simon's arm, whispered a good-bye to Rachel, and drew Simon out of the room. Silently they went back up to the top-floor loggia. Simon seethed and churned, his mind full of confusion and pain. They sat together on a bench in the deepening twilight. The sun was down and the sky over the distant hills was copper-colored. "How clumsy I was," Simon said. "She will tell us nothing now." "You learned quite a bit," said Friar Mathieu, "if you think about what she told you." "I know this much," said Simon. "I have been a fool. Sophia has been lying to me." "Everyone in love is a fool, Simon. The more in love, the more they want to believe whatever the beloved tells them. Only a man or woman in love with God can be a fool without risk." From the distant walls of Viterbo, the guards called the hours to one another. Their long-drawn cries echoed against the stone building fronts. "What did you mean, think about what she told me?" Friar Mathieu sighed. "Rachel said that Sophia told her after they left Orvieto she would not _have_ to stay with Tilia Caballo anymore. Rachel was not at Caballo's of her own free will. And you may have noticed that when I suggested that Sophia sent her there, she did not deny it." Simon felt another rush of anger at Friar Mathieu for trying to make him believe evil of Sophia. "Are you saying that Sophia forced that girl into a brothel? Father, Sophia is too much of an innocent to be a party to anything like that."