Marcus pulls back a little further to look at her, then uses one of his clean fingers to draw a line through the smudge of charcoal. "It's fine," he tells her with a smile. "It washes off easily enough. It's all over your fingers, too, so chances are you've just smeared it on the back of my neck."

Not that he minds at all. He's usually got charcoal on him somewhere. It's surprising Dutch and Matthias haven't had charcoal rubbed on them more often already. He reaches blindly for the edge of the easel, his fingers finally closing down on the damp cloth he keeps there for cleaning his hands and he smooths it against the mark on Dutch's cheek.

"Better," he says, still smiling.