"That depends," Cuthbert all but drawled. "Are there clothes I can wear that aren't stiff with blood and don't have my friend's brains spattered down one side? You may call me a traditionalist, but I do rather prefer that in my clothing."

Roland looked him up and down, then shrugged one shoulder. There was a pain in the draw of his jaw and the set of his mouth, but it was very well-hidden. "There are clothes back at the house that will fit you well enough to last while those are washing. As I believe I told you this morning."

"Well, then." Putting down the shirt he was looking at, Cuthbert smiled with a sharp kind of brightness, and said sardonically, "If Mama and Papa are in agreement, what can I do but obey? Don't do anything I wouldn't do," he added to Roland with a wag of his finger, heading over to Kaine.

He really did have very good hearing.