"Sit down, boy," the old baron said, tapping the table firmly with a gnarled finger. "I haven't told you the rest yet. Wait to hear the whole offer before you turn your back on it…"
For a long moment, nobody in the little back room moved.
Roch stood with one hand on the back of his chair, and Rose Marie's veiled face turned toward him, waiting to see what he would do.
Then Roch slowly sat back down, and Mervyn let out a slow, quiet sigh of relief.
"All right," Roch said. "But you heard my wife. Papers and ribbons are thin shields to go up against the Church and the Inquisition… It would take something extraordinary for us to sign on to this venture of yours."
"Something extraordinary," Mervyn said. He ran a hand over his shaved head and furrowed his brows for a moment, searching for something that would help to bridge the gap between them.
