The Family Trade

“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 i

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 a

“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 doppelgängered 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.