His youngest brother was going to get married. His youngest brother. Did he have any clue what sort of pressure that put on Zechariah?

His eyes slid to the guests. He pursed his lips.

“It is good to know what you want in life,” he said with a forced smile, eyes sliding self-consciously to the constable.

This conversation was not over. God. Maybe if he stockpiled his inquiries and dumped them all on Crane at once, he would forget Uriel existed.

But first, there was the summer ‘swimmer’. Zechariah’s eyes immediately shot to the puddle forming on the nice oak floor. At the confession, he closed his eyes and took a long breath through his nose. Captain who had a tallyboard of everyone who drowned, tosses a man overboard for the mere sin of talking back. It could be gossip and a bad day on the captain’s account, but since when did such brazen behavior happen in isolation?

“Challah,” he answered, and just as blandly: “is anyone else currently in danger of your captain?”