Heavy sweet-smelling clouds of perfume clung to every shrub and tree they’d passed on their way to the provincial border. They did not come here often. For the tavern in which they usually received their suitors was a generous distance away from Nathum’s settlements—secluded, near a weather-beaten hiking path, which was only used by those who knew what they were looking for. A few hours of fun, conviviality, secret information, sometimes just an open ear. It was a place to go