"Thank you. I...appreciate your willingness to trust me. As I told your brother yesterday, I don't intend either of you any harm."

But Lust knew how much her word was likely to hold. It meant something, that they accepted her honesty for what it was. She frowned when Al began to cough, immediately reaching to thump him on the back. That was what you did, wasn't it, when someone was choking?

"Something caught in your throat?"