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“You came to observe my mood,” said Luther.

David smirked. “I am interested in your mood, am I? Dear brother, perhaps I should find you a larger cell. Your ego must be taking up so much room in this one.”

“Heh, I would not refuse the offer.” He stood and approached the clear wall, inspecting David’s face more closely. “But no, you are most certainly here to see how miserable I am. Because if I am not miserable, then you would begin to wonder why that is.”

“I would wonder that, yes. Are you miserable, then? Is there anything I can do to make you more so?”

“Knowing you, I am sure there is.” Luther pulled away and walked toward the other end of his cell. “What of our esteemed sister? She has not graced me with her presence.”

“I’m certain she will visit you eventually, but she has been rather busy of late. Cleaning up your mess, you understand.” There was a pause, and David almost expected Luther to crack some misogynistic joke about cleaning, but instead, the man merely asked a different question.

“And what about Meriwether?”

“What about him?” said David.

“He has yet to visit me, but if what you say is true about my stay of execution, then it would seem he has at least kept his promise to me.”

Briefly, David wasn’t sure what promise he was talking about, but then he remembered how Meri had managed to invoke Luther’s surrender. “Meri is a man of his word,” was all David said.

“I suppose I can no longer call him a fool.”

“Not without being the bigger fool, no.” As David expected, Luther was still unaware that their previous encounter had been a series of wild accidents. David was more than content with not correcting him.

Luther sat back down. “So what is your verdict, then? Am I hiding something?”

David was almost certain that he was. But instead of answering, he asked, “Are you not curious about your wife or your children?”

Luther paused. “Are they dead?”

“No, of course not.”

“Damn.”