"And yet I suspect I could manage it," Mathias answers with a laugh, imagining all sorts of things he could do to cookies if he wasn't paying attention.

At the mention of her household, though, he turns a little and says, "I met your father. That day on the beach." It's what he's decided to call the day he'd found Henrich's body. It makes it seem somehow less damaging and more casual than it really is, but he's okay with that. "He was very nice. I'm afraid it wasn't the very best time for he and I to meet."