Marcus had been awakened when the patronus had been fired and when Brian had left the house. He had dressed quickly, expecting that this would not merely be a matter of Brian waving someone off. Marcus had awakened Khaat, and her staff had helped her dress.
He did not want her unnecessarily nervous. A nervous client often made mistakes and made themselves harder to protect than necessary. Part of his job was to ease her. All he had to do was to get her to relax about the tensions at the Ministry, about James Blood's intentions to kill her, about her inability to meet this fully under her own strength and power, and about her strong desire to hide her face from the world. Piece of cake, he sighed.
And he had been right. At Brian's signal, Marcus went over to Khaat's room. He could see the apprehension in her face, and he could sympathize. She had not been out in public, not with strangers, not like this, since before James had grotesquely disfigured the left side of her face and her neck.
She had wisely chosen to conceal her neck by wearing a black bulky cable knit sweater dress with a tall turtleneck collar. She had tried to style her hair so that it formed down around her face, and then she had added a large flowing black pashmina over her head and draped it around her face not just to protect her from the cold but also to try to hide some of the rest of the hideous scarring.
"You're working too hard at it," he smiled slightly, confident. "Let me." He cast a glamour spell to do her makeup and then adjusted the scarf and the turtleneck. "It is what it is, Khaat. There is no hiding it. You can minimize it, but you can't hide it." He picked up the large brace and sling for her crushed left shoulder that had very little hope of ever moving again without her father's skills. He changed the fabric of the brace and sling to black and put them back on and into place for her.
"I don't want to do this," she said softly as he went into her closet and got what he thought was a stunning pair of high heeled black knee boots, her cloak and her gloves. He helped her on with the boots. "What if they see my face?" she asked him, nervous. "What if they see I'm pregnant?"
"They will see your face, and you're not going to entirely hide a 5 month baby bump. ," he said gently, knowing that would be obvious, not to mention that she was still largely unable to walk, and still had no color to her face at all.
"You can't stop that, and none of it is worth your being ashamed of," he said. "We've done all we can now. You want to try your walking stick to see if it helps give you some support?" She nodded.
He retrieved the black walking stick with the amethyst set in the top. He helped her to her feet, fastened her cloak around her shoulders, helped her on with her gloves since her left hand was almost entirely useless, and then drew up the hood of the cloak. He handed her wand to her, and then drew his own, tucking in a bottle of cold water into his coat pocket.
He wrapped her tightly to him and they apparated to the ministry. He could feel how frightened she was at being seen. She said nothing, and her face was calm and all business on the outside, but he felt the shaking. And it wasn't from the cold. He knew better.
He did most of the work in helping her get from the atrium to the courtroom, taking on her entire body weight against his own so she could at least make a pretence of being able to be on her feet and walk.
"This had better be important," she whispered to him outside the courtroom door. He smiled. Her fear was turning to anger now, anger at feeling openly humiliated. "Take a breath," he suggested. "Remember yourself. Rely on me. I've got you."
She nodded, summoning up what grace and confidence she had. He opened the courtroom door and took her inside. Brian met them and loosened her cloak. He saw she didn't want him to remove it, but she would get too warm in here with it. He removed it and took it from her. They helped her to her seat, and Marcus took the bottle of water and opened it and put it in front of her.
"You know everyone here, don't you?" Brian asked.
"No," Khaat said. "Forgive me, I don't. I know Thaor. Good evening, Thaor."
"Introductions then are in order. Ms Levski and Mr. Tibbs, may I introduce Khaat Lupin. Khaat, Ana Levski and J L Tibbs," Brian said.
"Good evening, Ms. Levski and Mr. Tibbs," she said. "You obviously know my husband, and this is Marcus Belby."
"Ms. Levski and I have already met," Marcus said, not planning on going into details. "And your reputation preceeds you, Mr. Tibbs. I've heard a great deal about you."