Beatrice nibbled on a grape before bringing the next one to Strax's lips.
Her eyes watched him intently, as if trying to decipher a chessboard.
"So..." she began, twirling the bunch of grapes between her fingers, "what's the next plan?"
Strax opened one eye lazily, then closed it again. "Plan? I don't have much to do right now. I'm tired."
Beatrice raised an eyebrow. "Tired...? You made half the women in this house want to rip your mother's head off, and on top of that, you turned the most powerful man in the world against her. That's 'not having much to do'?"
He smiled slightly. "The problems have been solved... at least the ones that mattered to me. Now I just need... to rest."
Monica, who was sitting in the armchair next to him, swirled her wine glass slowly before taking a sip.
"Resting is dangerous," she said, her tone somewhere between warning and provocation. "Especially with that woman upstairs... isolated in her room."
