As I know the passwords of a journeyman of the guild, I was admitted to that society, & met the Dean, who made me welcome. He had corresponded with my father on guild business, & gave me a proper condolence for the loss of my family, & for the tragedy that befell Ethlebight. And straightaway he arranged for a Leave-Taking, which is a ceremony of the Butchers to say farewell to one of their number, & a great honor to my father. The Leave-Taking will occur in four days’ time.
I asked if I might store some money in the coffers of the guild (for we do such favors for our members) & I was shown to the strong-room, where I deposited a third of the money, & all the gems & gewgaws. I asked for a recommendation of some reliable bankers, which he gave, & I went to two of the countinghouses, & placed in their strong-rooms each a third of the money, & so I have now safeguarded my fortune, & made certain that the failure of a bank, or the looting of a strong-room, will not bring me down.
I do not wish to remain in clothing borrowed from a dead man, for I have worn nothing else for many weeks now, so from the bankers I went to a tailor, & commissioned two new suits, one suitable for court. There are colors that are forbidden—scarlet & gold, collectively or individually, may be worn only by members of the royal family and their kin, which includes much of the nobility—though different shades of yellow & red are permitted, like mustard or cramoisie—and the tailor pushed me to garb of a sober brown. So I ordered a staid brown suit, but also a more splendid array of deep blue velvet slashed to reveal a silk shirt of sky blue worn beneath, with trunks and hose to match. It should be most dashing. Perhaps I am influenced by the splendor of his grace the duke.
I returned to the duke’s for supper, & found the company reduced, with many returning to their homes, & others gone for Ethlebight to see to their property there. The duke informed me that he was unable to make headway against the throng about the Queen, all men greedy for honors & office, for it is certain that the Queen will change the composition of the Great & Privy Councils, & make appointments to other offices besides, but nothing is known for certain, so all manner of people permit themselves hope. Nevertheless, he spread word of the fate of Ethlebight in the ears of the court, & spoke in particular with those who come from the West or have interests there.
In the two days since, I have found myself an apartment, though I have not yet moved in, a place with a private stair in the house of a member of the Butchers’ Guild. His kind wife offers to cook me meals. But more important than this, the private stair is off Chancellery Road, which is the principal route of business that runs up the hill to the Outer Ward of the Castle, & which is dominated by the Royal Court, the High Court, & the Moots, where lawyers are lodged, & their apprentices instructed. Should I obtain certification by one of the Moots, I may hope to lodge there & practice law within the capital.
And in my travels about the capital, & my conversations with the duke & duchess & their guests, I have come to understand much of the current state of the court & of the kingdom. For I am no longer in the Kingdom of Duisland, but rather the Kingdom of Women.
For not only is there a reigning Queen, but also the Queen’s mother, Leonora, who has long resented the way the late King put her aside, & who, all are convinced, plans to exercise power through her daughter. While over in water-girdled Howel, the eastern capital, we find the Countess of Tern, mother of the bastard Clayborne. Clayborne, the duke confides, would never have rebelled had it not been for the ambitions of his mother, & of his stepfather, Lord Andrian, both of whom wish to rule the land between them. And there is the divorced Queen Natalie, who has v. great ambitions for her young daughter the princess Floria, but who has neither powerful friends nor an office through which she might wield patronage.
Apparently, we must also consider Marcia, the Countess of Coldwater, the new Queen’s best friend. When the late King divorced Leonora, he ordered her & the princess to lodge at Coldwater House on the north coast, & Marcia became a kind of older foster-sister to the princess. And now Marcia is expected to have much influence with her, perhaps as much as her mother, for the Queen has confirmed Marcia in her father’s title, one of the few to descend in the line female.
And beside these yet another woman has come into play, for the bastard Clayborne has not risen in his own name, but as regent for young Queen Laurel’s unborn child, who, an it be male, is the rightful King of Duisland.
Those of Queen Berlauda’s faction say that Queen Laurel is not with child, but that she is held hostage in Howel, & that five or six months hence, an infant will be produced that is in no wise the child of King Stilwell. Whereas Clayborne maintains that not only is Queen Laurel praegnatis, but that astrologers & learnèd doctors & great scholars & practicers of grammarie have confirmed the child is male and destined for a long and healthy life.
His grace the duke has said that he is not inclined to believe in the existence of this heir, as the King’s attention had lately been caught by a young lady-in-waiting, & that it was she with whom the King bedded in the months before his departure for Bonille. Which affair was why Queen Laurel left in advance of the King, & also why the two princesses lagged behind, not wanting be seen compliant or approving in the business of the King and his new paramour.
Whereat her grace, hearing this, gave only a deep sigh, & said “Poor Laurel!” For it is certain that this young girl, whose only fault it was to be caught & held by a roving King, is now mewed up as a prisoner, & fated either to be used by those who care only for their own advantage, or viewed as a traitor by Berlauda’s faction. She may never see the light of day again, & as one who was but lately held prisoner myself, I feel great sorrow for her—and greater sorrow for the child, if he exists, for he is certain to fall prey to one side or the other . . .
I, having coming to the bottom of the sheet of paper, paused for a moment to read what I had written, and began at once to feel I had been too bold. What might be an acceptable opinion spoken aloud in the intimacy of a dining room or a private closet had a fatal look when written on a piece of paper. The country was at war, and the land was filling up not only with armies, but with informers and spies. There were private companies that carried mail through the kingdom, but I had no doubt that the government could read such mail whenever they desired. What would one of Berlauda’s partisans make of those words about the Countess of Coldwater and her ambitions? Or of my sympathy with the unfortunate Queen Laurel and her unborn child? And might mere sympathy be construed as treason?
I should, I thought, tear up the pages, and took them in hand with the intention of doing so, and then I hesitated. Perhaps, I thought, I should instead find a reliable captain to carry the letter to Ethlebight, or at least as far as Newton Linn.