Tybalt Kirke was being awfully nice about this, which Zelda probably would have found alarming if she didn't know his wife. She spent so much time interacting with the boys' club of law enforcement that she was used to having to be on time, because if she was not going to see someone who would make her feel bad about it she was going to see someone she was related to, which was worse. (Occasionally it was both.)

"More or less," Zelda said, with a wry smile. And because she did not want to develop a reputation for this, she added, "My nanny fell ill, so I had to — wrangle some things."

(She knew too much about Kirke to worry that he would hold Having Children against her.)