Distracting Rex wasn’t a bad idea, all things considered. He had not said as much, but Orlando detected a deep concern about something in his step-son that he had never noticed before: he could only assume it was to do with the fog, but beyond the worry that it simply existed he wasn’t entirely sure. Of course Rex wasn’t the only person he worried about and as he watched his sister staring at nothing his heart ached.

“Would it make you happy Ada? To do something like that I mean?”

Orlando was more inclined towards sitting in his study as much as he could be allowed to do but if Ada, or Rex, would be cheered by a play then he would find a skull and deliver Hamlet’s soliloquy to half of Hogsmeade. Not well of course, but he would do it.