Two women stood ten feet apart, one shaking with rage, the other frightened into immobility. Around them, orange trees cloistered in an unseasonable climate perfumed the warm air.
“I don’t understand.” Miriam’s face was blank as she stared down the barrel of Olga’s gun. Her heart pounded. Buy time! “What are you talking about?” she asked, faint with the certainty that her assignation with Roland had been overseen and someone had told Olga.
“You know very well what I’m talking about!” Olga snarled. “I’m talking about my honour!” The gun muzzle didn’t deviate from Miriam’s face. “It’s not enough for you to poison Baron Hjorth against me or to mock me behind my back. I can ignore those slights-but the infamy! To do what you did! It’s unforgivable.”
Miriam shook her head very slowly. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But I didn’t know at the time it started between us, I mean. About your planned marriage.”
A faint look of uncertainty flickered across Olga’s face. “My betrothal has no bearing on the matter!” She snapped.
“Huh? You mean this isn’t about Roland?” Miriam asked, feeling stupid and frightened.
“Roland-” Olga stared at her. Suddenly the look of uncertainty was back. “Roland can have nothing to do with this,” she claimed haughtily.
“Then I haven’t got a clue what the it you’re talking about is,” Miriam said heavily. Fear would only stretch so far, and as she stared at Olga’s eyes all she felt was a deep wellspring of resignation, at the sheer total stupidity of all the events that had brought her to this point.
“But you-” Olga began to look puzzled, but still angry. “What about Roland? What have you been up to?”
“Fucking,” Miriam said bluntly. “We only had the one night together but, well, I really care about him. I’m fairly sure he feels the same way about me, too. And before you pull that trigger, I’d like you ask yourself what will happen and who will be harmed if you shoot me.” She closed her eyes, terrified and amazed at what she’d just heard herself say. After a few seconds, she thought, Funny, I’m still alive.
“I don’t believe it,” said Olga. Miriam opened her eyes.
The other woman looked stunned. However, her gun was no longer pointing directly at Miriam’s face.
“I just told you, dammit!” Miriam insisted. “Look, are you going to point that thing somewhere safe or-”
“You and Roland?” Olga asked incredulously.
A moment’s pause. Miriam nodded. “Yes,” she said, her mouth dry.
“You went to bed with that dried-up prematurely middle-aged sack of mannered stupidity? You care about him? I don’t believe it!”
“Why are you pointing that gun at me, then?”
For a moment, they stood staring at each other; then Olga lowered the machine pistol and slid her finger out of the trigger guard.
“You don’t know?” she asked plaintively.
“Know what?” Miriam staggered slightly, dizzy from the adrenaline rush of facing Olga’s rage. “What on earth are you talking about, woman? Jesus fucking Christ, I’ve just admitted I’m having an affair with the man you’re supposed to be marrying and that isn’t why you’re threatening to kill me over some matter of honour?”
“Oh, this is insupportable!” Olga stared at her. She looked very uncertain all of a sudden. “But you sent your man last night.”
“What man?”
Their eyes met in mutual incomprehension.
“You mean you don’t know? Really?”
“Know what?”
“A man broke into my bedroom last night,” Olga said calmly. “He had a knife and he threatened me and ordered me to disrobe. So I shot him dead. He wasn’t expecting that.”
“You. Shot. A, a rapist. Is that it?”
“Well, that and he had a letter of instruction bearing the seal of your braid.”
“I don’t understand.” Miriam shook her head. “What seal? What kind of instructions?”
“My maidenhead,” Olga said calmly. ‘The instructions were very explicit. What is the law where you come from? About noble marriage?”
“About-what? Huh. You meet someone, one of you proposes, usually the man, and you arrange a wedding. End of story. Are things that different here?”
“But the ownership of title! The forfeiture. What of it?”
“What ‘forfeiture’?” Miriam must have looked puzzled because Olga frowned.
“If a man, unwed, lies with a maid, also unwed, then it is for him to marry her if he can afford to pay the maiden-price to her guardian. And all her property and titles escheat to him as her head. She has no say in the matter should he reach agreement with her guardian, who while I am in his care here would for me be Baron Hjorth. In my event, as a full-blood of the Clan, my Clan shares would be his. This commoner-” she pronounced the word with venomous diction-“invaded my chamber with rape in mind and a purse full of coin sufficient to pay his way out of the baron’s noose.”
“And a letter,” Miriam said in tones of deep foreboding. “A letter sealed with… what? Ink? Wax? Something like that, some kind of seal ring?”
“No, sealed with the stamps of Thorold and Hjorth. It is a disgusting trick.”
“I’ll say.” Miriam whistled tunelessly. “Would you believe me if I said that I don’t have-and have never seen-any such stamp? I don’t even know who my braid are, and I really ought to, because they’re not going to be happy if I-” she stopped. “Oh, of course.”
“ ‘Of course,’ what?”
“Listen, was there an open door to the roof in your apartment last night? After you killed him? I mean, a door he came in through?”
Olga’s eyes narrowed. “What if there was?”
“Yesterday I world-walked from my room to the other side,” said Miriam. “This house is supposed to be doppelgangered, but there is no security on the other side of my quarters. Anyone who can world-walk could come in. Later,
Brilliana and I found an open door leading to the roof.”
“Ah.” Olga glanced around, taking in whatever was behind Miriam. “Let’s walk,” she said. “Perhaps I should apologize to you. You have further thoughts on the matter?”
“Yes.” Miriam followed Olga, still apprehensive, knees weak with relief. “My question is: Who profits? I don’t have a braid seal, I didn’t even know such a thing existed until you told me, but it seems clear that others in my braid would benefit if you killed me. Or if that failed, if I was deprived of a friend in circumstances bound to create a scandal of monstrous proportions around me, it certainly wouldn’t harm them. If you can think of someone who would also benefit if you were split apart from your impending alliance-” She bit her tongue, but it was too late.
“About Roland,” Olga said quietly.
“Uh. Yes.”
“Do you really love him?” she asked.
“Um.” Tongue-tied, Miriam tried to muster her shredded integrity. “I think so.”
“Well, then!” Olga smiled brightly. “If the two of you would please conspire to convince your uncle to amend his plans for me, it would simplify my life considerably.” She shook her head. “I’d rather marry a rock. Is he good in bed?”
Miriam coughed violently into her fist. “What would you know about-”
“Do you think I’m completely stupid?” Olga shook her head. “I know you are a dowager, you have no guardian, and you are competent in law. You have nothing to lose by such intrigues. It would be naive to expect you to abstain. But the situation is different for me. I have not my majority until marriage, and upon marriage I lose my independence. Isn’t that an unpleasant paradox?”
“I don’t understand you people,” Miriam muttered, “but I figure your inheritance and marriage law is seriously screwed. Rape as a tool of financial intrigue-it’s disgusting!”
“So we agree on one thing.” Olga nodded. “What do you think could be behind this?”
“Well. Someone who doesn’t like me-obviously.” She began ticking off
points on her fingers. “Someone who holds you in contempt, too, or who actively wants you out of the way. By the way, what would have happened to you if you had shot me?”
“What?” Olga shrugged carelessly. “Oh, they’d have hanged me, I suppose,” she said. “Why?”
“Let’s see. We have Item Two: someone who has it in for you as well as me. We all centre around-” something nagged at her for attention-“No, it’s not there yet. Well, Item Three is my unsecured apartment. That we can blame on Baron Oliver, huh? Someone took advantage of it to get their cat’s-paw into place by way of the roof, I think that’s clear enough. I got Brilliana to lock and bolt the inner apartment-which is doppelgangered-last night, when I realized the roof door was open onto areas that aren’t secured on the other side. Maybe their first objective was to shoot me in my sleep, and they turned to you as a second target when that failed. By attacking you they could either convince you that I was to blame-you shoot me, they win-or they could deprive me of an ally-you-and perhaps turn others against me. Do you think they believe Roland would think I’d do such a thing to you?”
Olga clutched her arm. “That’s it,” she said calmly. “If they didn’t know about you and Roland, they would believe him to be set on me as his prize. It would be a most normal reaction to be enraged at anyone who ordered his bride-to-be raped away by night. Out of such actions blood feuds are born.” Her fingers dug into Miriam’s arm. “You would swear to me you had no hand in it?”
“Olga. Do you really believe I’d pay some man to rape my worst enemy? As opposed to simply shooting her and having done with the matter?”
Olga slowly relaxed. “If you were not raised over there, I might think so. But your ways are so charmingly informal that I find it hard to believe you would be so cruel. Or devious.”
“I don’t know. The longer I spend here, the more paranoid I become.” Miriam shuddered. “Is there any risk of some asshole trying to rape me for my presumed riches?”
“Not if you’re a guest of someone who cares what happens on their estate, such as the duke. Even at other times, you are only at risk if your guards fail you, and your guardian is willing to accept maidenprice,” said Olga. “As you are of age and able to act as your own guardian, I don’t think that situation is likely to arise-an adventurer who took you against your will could expect to go to the gallows. But you do have guards, don’t you, just in case?” She looked anxious. “They’re very discreet, wherever they’re hiding!” A frown crossed her face. “Assuming the Baron hasn’t managed to make sure the orders assigning a detachment to your household haven’t been lost…”
“No shit,” Miriam said shakily as they climbed the steps toward the entrance, looking around at the same time for signs of Brilliana. “I must congratulate them on their scarcity. When I find out who they are and where they live.”
The snow was falling thick and fast outside, from a sky the colour of leaden tiles. The temperature was dropping, a blizzard in the making. “You must come up to my receiving room for tea,” Olga insisted, and Miriam found herself unable to decline. Brilliana hurried alongside them as they re-entered the barely heated corridors of the palace, ascending through a bewildering maze of passages and stairs to reach Olga’s private rooms.
Olga had left her guards behind. She wanted no witnesses to our little contretemps, Miriam thought with a cold chill. Now she berated them as she entered her outer reception room, four strapping tall men in household livery worn with cuirasses, swords, and automatic weapons. “Come in, be welcome, sit you down,” Olga insisted, gesturing toward a circle of sofas being moved hastily into place by a bevy of servants. Miriam accepted gratefully, placing Brilliana at her left, and presently Olga’s own ladies-in-waiting shepherded in a small company of servants bearing side tables, a silver samovar, and sweetmeats on trays. With the blazing fireplace, it was almost possible to forget the gathering storm outside.
Now that Olga’s fury at Miriam had been diverted toward a different target, she overcompensated, attempting to prove herself a charming hostess by heaping every consideration upon Miriam in a way that Miriam found more than a bit creepy after her earlier rage. Maybe it was just a guilt reaction, Miriam speculated, but it left her feeling very relieved that Olga didn’t share her interest in Roland. They were well into a second pot of tea, with Miriam eavesdropping on the Lady Aris’s snide comments about the members of this or that social set at court, when there was a polite announcement at the door. “Courier for Madame Thorold,” announced Olga’s steward, poking his head in. “Shall I admit him?”
“By all means.” Olga sat up straight as the messenger-dripping wet and looking chilled to the bone-entered. “My good man! What do you have for me?”
“Milady, I have been charged to deliver this into you hands,” he said, dropping to one knee and presenting a sealed envelope from a shoulder bag. Olga accepted it, slit the wrapping, and read. She frowned. “Very well. You may tell your master I received word and passed it on to all present here. Feel free to leave immediately.”
The messenger backed out, bowing. Olga returned to her chaise, looking distracted. “How unfortunate,” she said.
“ ‘Unfortunate’?” Miriam raised an eyebrow.
“Tonight’s reception is postponed,” Olga read, “by virtue of the unusually foul weather. It shall in any event be held tomorrow, once arrangements have been made for additional shelter from the elements.” She glanced at the shuttered window. “Well, I can’t say I am surprised. This may be the season for storms, but this one appears to be setting in hard.” Wind howled around the shutters outside.
“Is this normal?” Miriam asked. “To postpone events?”
“By your leave, it’s not normal, my lady, but it’s not unheralded.” Brilliana looked unhappy. “They may need time to move the lifeguard cavalry to other stables, to accommodate the coaches of the visitors. Or a roof may have caved in unexpectedly. This being the first real storm of winter, they may be hoping it will blow itself out overnight.”
“Hmm.” Miriam drained her teacup. “So it’ll be tomorrow night instead?”
“Almost certainly,” Olga said confidently. “It’s a shame to postpone once, twice is an embarrassment. Especially when the occasion is the return to court of his majesty’s winter sessions. And his opening of the sessions and levy of taxes follows the next day, to be followed by a hanging-holiday.”
“Well, then.” Miriam nodded to herself. “Is anything at all of consequence due to happen then?”
“Oh, a lot of drinking, and not a little eating and making merry,” Olga assured her. “It’s not a greatly important event for the likes of us. Our great sessions fall in six months, near upon Beltaigne, when alliances are discussed and braids rededicated, and the court of families-in-Clan hear grievances and settle treaties.”
“Hmm. Well, I suppose I’d better make sure I’m around for that, too,” said Miriam, waiting for a servant to refill her cup.
Olga winked at her. “I expect you will be-if we find you some reliable bodyguards.”
Late in the afternoon, Miriam returned to her apartment-briefly.
Dismissing the servants, she called Brilliana and Kara into her bedroom. “I’m in trouble,” she said tersely.
“ ‘Trouble,’ my lady?” asked Kara, eyes glinting.
“Someone tried to force themselves upon Lady Olga last night. Someone with gold in their pocket and a commission bearing the seal of my braid. Which I have never seen, so I have to take Olga’s word for it.” She sat down on a chest and waited for Kara’s declarations of shock to die down. Brilliana just nodded thoughtfully.
“This room-and other parts of this suite-are not doppelgangered properly,” she continued. “On the other side, security is virtually nonexistent-until you go fifty feet that way.” She gestured at the wall. “I don’t think that’s an accident. Nor was that open door last night,” she added to Brilliana’s questioning look.
“What are we going to do?” asked Kara, lookin
g frightened and younger than ever.
“What you are going to do-both of you-is tell the servants we’re going to have a quiet supper: cold cuts or a pie or something plain and simple. Then we’re going to dismiss the servants and go to bed early so we are well rested for the morrow. After they bring our meal up and stoke the fireplace, they can leave.” She stood up and paced. “What’s really going to happen, once the servants have left is that two of Lady Olga’s guards-the guards Baron Hjorth hasn’t assigned to me-are going to enter the near audience chamber through the side door.”
She grinned at Brilliana’s surprise. “You will put on your cloaks and go where they lead you, which will be straight to Lady Olga’s rooms, where you will be able to sleep safe and warm until it’s time to come back here, in the morning.”
“And you, my lady?” asked Kara, searching her face. “You can’t spend the night alone here!”
“She doesn’t intend to,” Brill said tersely. “Do you?”
“Correct.” Miriam waited.
“You’re going to go over there,” Brilliana added. “How I’d like to follow you!”
“You can’t, yet,” Miriam said bluntly. “Someone is conspiring against me. I am going to have to move fast and be inconspicuous. On the other side, there is a teeming city with many people and strange customs. I can’t risk you attracting attention while I’m on the run.” She raised a finger to anticipate Brilliana’s objection. “I’ll take you along later, I promise. But not this time. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Brill muttered something under her breath. Miriam pretended not to notice.
“That’s it, then. If someone comes calling in the night, all they’ll find are beds stuffed with pillows: You’ll be elsewhere. On the other side, the fewer people who know where I’m going, the safer I’ll be. I’ll meet you back here tomorrow afternoon, and we’ll decide what to do then, depending on whether the opening of the court of winter sessions is going ahead or not. Any last questions?”
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