When the office door opened again, the shift reached the sitting room before Catherine did.
Daniel looked up first, instantly alert. Philip straightened as if he'd been caught slouching in front of a superior officer. Bruno put his glass down and tried to look innocent, which only made him look guilty.
Then Catherine stepped in.
Her expression was composed, the sweetheart warmth returned to her eyes, but there was a trace of exhaustion under it. The look of a woman who had just loved a stubborn man through a conversation he didn't want to have.
Damon followed a step behind.
Rafael had only seen him briefly before, but in the sitting room light he looked even more 'normal' in that unsettling way. Clean suit, calm face, hands relaxed as if he wasn't the chief of the imperial audit department and therefore capable of destroying a noble house with a signature. He didn't radiate menace. He radiated competence.
Gregoris came last.
