Elisabeth Waters
Three riders, each wearing the habit of a Novice, clattered into the courtyard of the Temple of Thenoth in Haven. The two girls dismounted easily, and the younger one took their horses to be watered. The young man dismounted slowly and clung to the saddle while he got his feet firmly underneath him. Meanwhile the older girl was carefully lifting a dog out of a specially designed saddlebag. The Prior arrived just as the other girl came back and took the third horse for its well-deserved drink.
“Lady Magdalena, Lord Keven, welcome,” he said, giving Lord Keven a hand to the bench next to the chapel. After Keven broke both legs in a riding disaster that killed the horse, his father had sent him to the Temple and told people his oldest son had died. Keven had not only made a much better recovery than his father had anticipated, he had married Lena—in part to save her from the over-insistent courtship of his younger brother. His father had not been pleased, but he had already disinherited Keven, so Lena simply added him to the family she was expected to rebuild.
The Prior looked at the dog Lena was holding. “Is that Orson? You can put him down; he’ll be fine here.”
“Thank you, Prior.” Lena released Orson and joined the men on the bench, sitting on the Prior’s other side. “It’s good to see you again. Maja asked us to fetch the hooved stock you want moved to the daughter house—and the King insists that we appear at Winter Court and be Formally Presented.” Her face made it clear that she’d rather muck out stables.
“How is Maja managing at the daughter house—and why did she send Stina? I’ve never seen a more disruptive Novice.”
“Maja is managing much better than she thinks she is, and Stina has settled down. The boy-crazy routine was an act, and Maja got her to drop it.”
“Why would a girl pretend to be boy-crazy?”
“Sven-August’s mother.”
“I think, Lena, that I need a bit more of an explanation than that.”
“Stina and Sven-August were betrothed a few years ago. Unfortunately, her family lost their money—bad investments, I think—and then Mistress Efanya didn’t want them to marry. They still want to, and they’re determined not to marry anyone else.”
“Will you be staying here?” the Prior asked. “We will have to put you back in your old Novice cells, if you do.”
Lena and Keven sighed in unison. “We really wish we could stay here,” Lena replied, “but the King wants us at court. I’m taking Stina with me as a lady-in-waiting, but she will be helping move the stock when the time comes. She’s actually quite good at it.”
The Prior smiled. “I’m glad that the daughter house is doing so well. Maja is much better at handing young girls than I could ever hope to be, even under the Peace of the God.”
“We did notice that you sent all the girls with her, but it’s working out well. Of course, we now have everyone with Animal Mindspeech except for Arvid. I hope you still have him?”
“Yes, he is still fostered here.” The Prior sighed. “We rather need him at the moment, because the Heralds don’t have anyone with Animal Mindspeech available to teach a new Trainee, so they’re sending her here for lessons.”
“Do you mean Tansy?” Keven asked.
“That’s right; I had forgotten she comes from your estate.”
They were interrupted by the bell for evening prayers. “I didn’t realize it was so late,” Lena said. “Prior, the horses are tired, and so are we. Could we take you up on your offer of Novice quarters until we have to go to court?”
“Of course.” The Prior extended a hand. “Keven, come with me. Lena, you and Stina finish stabling the horses, wash up, and join us in chapel.”
Lena nodded and went to tell Stina they were staying.
• • •
The next morning, Lena and Stina were almost finished with morning chores in the stables when the clatter of a Companion’s hooves was clearly audible in the courtyard. “Can you finish up, Stina? I want to say hello to Tansy.”
Lena walked into the courtyard as Meri came to a halt and Tansy dismounted. “Good morning, Tansy; good morning, Meri.”
“Good morning . . .” Tansy trailed off, obviously either not recognizing her or not remembering her name.
“Good morning, Lady Magdalena,” Arvid said, arriving for Tansy’s lesson.
“It’s just Lena, Arvid, unless we’re at court. How are you doing?”
“Very well,” Arvid smiled. “I love it here.” He paused. “Do you have some time? We’re playing ‘pass the message’ today, and having a third person would be helpful.”
“What is ‘pass the message’? And, yes I’d be happy to join you.” As Stina came out, she added, “Stina, you remember Arvid.” Stina nodded, and Lena explained, “I’m going to help Arvid with Tansy’s lesson.”
“Have fun,” Stina said. “I’m done with the stables. Arvid, what else needs doing this morning?”
“Sven-August could probably use help with the birds,” Arvid said.
“Good.” Stina headed happily toward the mews.
“We’re working with the dogs this morning,” Arvid said, leading the way. “We decided that the best way for Tansy to practice was for one of us to use our Gift to tell an animal something, and then for the animal to tell the other one. Hence, ‘pass the message’.”
Tansy frowned. “Speaking of messages,” she said slowly, “Meri said to tell you that Lord Repulsive’s father is dead, but ‘repulsive’ can’t be right, can it?”
“You haven’t met him,” Lena said grimly. “Thank Meri for the warning, please.”
• • •
They spent the next candlemark or so passing messages back and forth through the dogs, several of which were part of Orson’s litter. The results were frequently hilarious as messages got garbled along the way, although Orson invariably relayed them accurately to Lena. So did an older dog Lena was sure she had seen before, but couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t until Arvid called her Greta that Lena remembered her.
“Greta, why are you here?” she asked both aloud and through her Gift. Greta’s answer was nonverbal. Arvid’s was not.
“She’s healing from broken ribs,” he said angrily. “Since her owner was the one who kicked her across the room, I hope he forgets she exists.”
Lena picked up a pretty clear picture of Repulsive—more properly known as Lord Ruven Crane—as he stormed around a room she was pretty sure was Lord Crane’s study, shouted at a man who was apparently the late Lord Crane’s steward about the lack of money in the estate, and got even more angry when the man said that “the young lord’s spending” was part of the problem. Then he kicked Greta, she hit the wall hard, and anything further was lost in a wave of pain and the struggle to breathe.
“He sent her here with a message that she could join the other useless cripples,” Arvid added. “I don’t know what he meant by that.”
Lena, knowing perfectly well that he meant her husband, forced herself to keep her voice calm. “It means he probably won’t come back for Greta.”
:Do you want to stay here, or do you want to go back to him.?:
The reply was quick and firm. :Stay here.:
After Tansy’s lesson was done, she and Meri left, while Lena and Arvid cleaned the kennels, gently and carefully shifted Greta to a fresh bed, and went on to the next job that needed doing.
• • •
They had put in a good day’s work, and Lena was ready to go to her cell and collapse, but as they headed that way, Stina silently pulled her arm and led her to an empty stall at the back of the stables. Lena was astonished to see both Keven, who was supposed to be resting, and Sven-August there.
“We have to talk,” Sven-August said. “Things have happened that you need to know about.”
Lena nodded. “Meri told Tansy to tell me Lord Repulsive’s father was dead. Does that mean Ruven is now Lord Crane?”
“Yes,” Stina said, “but that’s not the problem. He married Sven-August’s mother, and they’re living in her house.”
“And he’s claiming that, as my father-by-marriage, he has the right to arrange a ‘good’ marriage for me,” Sven-August said. “I’m tempted to flee to the country, get a job as a swineherd, and marry Stina.”
“I don’t think you have to be quite that drastic,” Lena said calmly. “I should be paying Stina for all the extra work I’m dragging her into, and I can certainly hire you. In the short term, I’d really like for Keven to have a bodyguard while we’re stuck at court, especially if his brother is going to be there. After that, we’ll figure out what you both want to do and what you’re good at. As long as you can support a wife, the Prior should be willing to marry the two of you. He’s known you for years, and I already told him you’d been betrothed to each other. You’re not highborn, so you don’t need the King’s consent.”
Fortunately, the Prior agreed with Lena, and Sven-August and Stina were married the next morning. Then, with all four of them still in their Novice robes, they rode up the Hill to the Palace.
The Palace Steward had known Lena for years, so he was not particularly surprised by having four Novices of the Temple of Thenoth arrive for Winter Court and a formal presentation. He found them a modest suite with two bedrooms where they could all stay together, told them where the nearest bathing rooms were, accepted that Orson was going to accompany Keven and Sven-August, and promised to have the rest of their baggage delivered to their rooms when it arrived.
:Let me know at once if anyone bothers them,: Lena told Orson as they dropped their things in their rooms and went their separate way to the women’s bathing rooms.
“Ooh, this feels good,” Stina sighed, leaning back in her tub.
“Yes, it does,” Lena agreed. “I like to travel quickly—”
“—with most of your things several days behind you—” Stina teased.
“—and it helps to have saddles you won’t fall out of even if you fall asleep, which didn’t occur to me until we had to design one for Keven back when he couldn’t walk, but it is nice to be out of the saddle, especially when it involves hot baths.”
“I’m surprised you don’t own a house in Haven—or rather that your family doesn’t.”
“We do, actually. I lived there before I went to live at the Temple. It’s been rented out since I was ten, but the last report from my agent said the family that’s been renting it for the last several years finally married off their last child, and doesn’t need it this year. We should take a look at it. It might be worth moving there instead of being stuck in a small space at court. We could also start shifting some of the stock we’re going to take to the daughter house to the stables there.” Lena thought about the idea and started wondering what the house had in the way of staff. Surely there was at least a small staff, even if the house wasn’t rented out at present.
“Does it have a bathing room?” Stina was obviously weighing advantages and disadvantages as well. “And how far away is it?”
“Yes, and not far; it’s in the first circle outside the Palace and Collegia.”
Stina gaped at her. “Just how rich are you?”
Lena shrugged. “Very. I don’t really care all that much. Money is a useful tool, but it doesn’t make me a better person than anyone else—despite what some of the rich and highborn seem to believe. Money lets me buy food for the Temple and let me set up a daughter house at my nearest estate. It also lets me hire people who need work, so that their lives can be better. Speaking of which, what can you do besides what you’ve been doing at the Temple? And what do you want to do?” The first question was the immediate one, but Lena thought the second was more important in the long run.
“Believe it or not,” Stina said hesitantly, “I can run a household in Haven. My younger sisters are bookish—that’s why they went to the Sisters of Ardana, while I came to the Temple of Thenoth—and my mother was always busy shopping and socializing, so I gradually took over running our household as I grew up. I wanted to be ready to make a good home for Sven-August when we got married.” She sighed. “When my family didn’t have much money anymore, I learned how to bargain and how to keep up appearances with very little—before everything finally fell apart.”
She got out of the tub and wrapped a towel around her. “Speaking of appearances, what are you and Keven going to wear for your formal presentation at Court? Isn’t that less than a fortnight from now?”
• • •
The next days were hectic—especially for the girls. Keven still had a limp, and the ride from the estate to Haven had been hard on him, so it was a good thing the Healers Collegium was part of the Palace complex. The Healer who had worked on Keven when he was first injured was impressed by how much he’d improved with the exercises he had been doing in the country, but she was able to do a bit more work on him, followed by stern instructions to rest as much as possible. So Keven spent most of his time relaxing in their rooms and keeping a journal to track the projects they were working on.
The most urgent project was clothing for the presentation, and Stina proved to have not only a real gift for design but also the ability to find lost items, such as the entire court wardrobe Lena had abandoned the night she fled out her bedroom window the previous year to avoid Lord Repulsive. Not having to make a second set of elaborate clothing for her in less than a year saved a lot of time and let them concentrate on the presentation outfits.
For Keven, they went with a simple ankle-length robe made of the richest fabric they could find. For Lena, on the other hand, Stina designed something so elaborate that anyone looking at them would look first at the dress, then maybe at Lena, and then possibly at Keven. Stina would be with them as well, because part of Lena’s dress was an elaborate train with embroidery interspersed with peacock feathers (the keeper of the King’s peacocks was a friend), and it needed to be carried—if only to make sure nobody stepped on it. Lena was just thankful it started at her waist instead of her shoulders and wasn’t as heavy as it looked.
In between fittings for The Dress, Lena went to see her agent, and they agreed she would move into her house for the season. She delegated hiring additional staff to Stina and Sven-August, met and approved the new hires, and left Stina and the housekeeper to discuss refurbishing, redecoration, and a possible party—“later in the season,” Lena said firmly before going to check on the stables and the mews. The head groom had been there since her childhood, when the stables had been her refuge, and he was happy to help with the plans to move animals from the crowded conditions at the Temple of Thenoth.
Lena, Stina, and Sven-August all kept Novice habits in the tack room, and whenever they had a spare hour, they would ride down to the Temple and bring back an animal or two. They went back to court each evening, got food from the kitchen to eat in their rooms, and the girls spent the evening embroidering while the three of them updated Keven and he recorded everything in the journal. It was a bit chaotic, but it was at least semiorganized chaos, and they did get the clothing finished in time.
• • •
The Greater Throne Room was full of people. Courtiers were ranged on both sides of the center aisle, where they could watch the people walk down it and make their Court bows to the King. Having a good view enabled them to gossip about what the people being presented were wearing, the quality of their bows—they probably lived for the times when some poor soul fell over—and whether the King showed special favor to anyone. When one’s position at Court is the most important thing in life, Lena thought, any newcomer could be seen as a threat.
Lena prayed that Keven wouldn’t fall and that the robe would hide his limp. Not that she cared what a bunch of empty-headed highborn thought, but she didn’t want Keven to feel any worse about this than he already did. They were first in line, so the people behind them wouldn’t be about to see them well, if at all. Also, it was the first Formal Reception of the Winter season, so a lot of people wouldn’t have arrived in Haven yet. Once Lena realized the King was determined that she and Keven be formally Received by him—regardless of the fact he had been her guardian since she was ten—she decided to attend the first possible Reception and get it over with.
Even so, Keven had been dreading this for the entire fortnight since they left their estate. He held the arm by which he was supposed to escort her down the aisle in a death grip, but Lena had planned for that. She knew he would need to lean on her, so she and Stina had designed her dresses with long flowing sleeves, which hid Keven’s hand now and would hide the inevitable bruises later.
“Cheer up,” she whispered to him. “A candlemark from now this will all be over, we’ll never need to do it again, and we can relax and enjoy the holiday.”
“What if I fall?” Yes, he was a nervous wreck all right.
“You’ll just get up and we keep going. I’ll help you. All we have to do is satisfy the King. We’ll probably never see most of the other people here again. It’s not as if you’re trying to impress the court so you can find a suitable highborn bride.” That actually got a smile from Keven, just as they were announced.
They made it down the aisle without incident, their bows were at least adequate, and the King congratulated them on their marriage in a voice that could be heard clearly throughout the entire room. Judging from the sudden increase in the noise of courtiers talking, their marriage really was a surprise to most of the court. Lena had arranged with the King beforehand that once they made their bows, they could go out a side door, meet up with Sven-August, and head back to their quarters from there. So as soon as the King turned his attention to the next people being presented, the three of them quietly slipped off to the side. Even before they reached the door they were behind at least three rows of courtiers. As they were going through the exit, however, they heard a familiar name.
“Lord and Lady Crane” boomed the announcement from the back of the room.
“What?” Keven said in surprise. “Is my brother being Received?”
“Probably with his wife,” Lena murmured back, “but I don’t want to see them. Stina, can you stay and watch?”
“Can you manage your train?” Stina asked, but she was already draping it carefully over Lena’s free arm. She wriggled through the crowd, while Lena dragged Keven along on her escape and transferred him to Sven-August when they reached the hallway.
“Back to our rooms, out of these fancy clothes and into something comfortable, and Stina will tell us all about it when she rejoins us.”
“Good plan.” Keven limped along at his best pace until she pointed out that they were no longer on display and could slow down.
They still had time to change and collapse into comfortable chairs before Stina joined them. Her eyes were the size of a barn owl’s.
“He introduced Mistress Efanya to the King as his wife, and the King congratulated them, so they’re definitely married. But he was also asking permission for his sister’s marriage to some old guy.”
“Over my dead body,” Keven snarled.
Lena sighed. “Legally, that’s sort of the case.”
“You don’t understand! Sara is twelve!”
That got horrified gasps from both girls.
Lena forced her mind to practical solutions. “We’ll talk to the King. She can’t marry without royal permission because she’s highborn, and I don’t think the King will allow her to marry at twelve.”
“What happens if Ruven goes ahead and marries her off without royal permission?”
“Well, the King would probably declare the marriage invalid, but we certainly don’t want it to get that far. Where is Lady Sara likely to be now?”
“She should be home with her governess!”
“I think we can assume she’s not. Maybe Greta knows; I can ride down to the Temple and ask her.”
“I think she might be at Mistress Efanya’s house,” Stina said. “Sven-August?”
“She’s there, but are you sure she’s twelve? She didn’t look that old to me.”
“If I were still her older brother,” Keven said sadly, “I could demand custody.”
“You are still her older brother,” Lena said. “It’s just a legal fiction that you’re not, and we can argue that Ruven is not a fit guardian for her. If we win that argument, the King might well consider us to be the best guardians she could have. Even if he doesn’t, he’ll pick someone decent, and we can visit her.”
“I didn’t realize Ruven hated her so much. How could he even think of this?”
“I don’t think he hates her,” Lena told her husband. “I think he sees her as a marketable asset, rather than a person he should care for. Look at what’s happened since your father died. First, the steward told him he didn’t have much money in the estate, and he got so angry he nearly killed his favorite dog. Then he married Mistress Efanya, who is not highborn but who is rich. And rich had to be the major concern, because a woman with a seventeen-year-old son is not exactly in her prime childbearing years. Then he moves into her house rather than bringing her to his. I wouldn’t be surprised if his prospective brother-in-law is renting the Crane house, probably for a good sum, and paying the servants as well. I’d say Ruven’s motivation is money, so I’m pretty sure he’s not paying a governess for a sister he expects to marry off soon. Was she living in town with your father?”
Keven nodded.
“That’s why she’s at Mistress Efanya’s. Unfortunately, Mistress Efanya doesn’t like animals, so I can’t do much spying there. Sven-August, however, knows every hiding place on the property. I bet Stina does too; her family used to live next door. So they can find out what’s going on with Sara, and I’ll go talk to the King.”
“While I just sit here and wait.” Keven pounded his thigh in frustration and winced.
“You’ve done a lot already today,” Lena pointed out, “and none of it was good for your legs. You will still be sore tomorrow, but you don’t have to do this again, so you can concentrate on getting better now. And you can pray. Prayer has much more power than most people realize.”
• • •
By the time she was ushered in to see the King, however, she discovered the problem was already unfolding.
“Lady Lindholm,” the King said using much more formal address than he usually did, “you are just the person we need. I believe you know Lord Crane.” He did not introduce the other man, although from his age, court dress, and proximity to Ruven, Lena suspected he was the prospective bridegroom. Perhaps the King didn’t think he was someone Lena should know.
Lena inclined her head to Ruven. “Yes, we met last year. My condolences on the death of your father, Lord Crane.”
“Unfortunately,” the King continued, “his sister Sara has gone missing, and I’m hoping your Gift can help us find her.”
“Of course I’ll do whatever I can to help. How did she go missing?”
“We believe she might have run away for some reason,” the King said. “We are waiting for one more person to report.”
The door opened and a tall, thin man entered. The dog with him walked at his left side as if held there by an invisible string, and sat in place when the man stopped to bow to the King.
“Any luck, Jervis?” the King asked.
The man shook his head. “It seems today is laundry day. Not only the girl’s bedding but every stitch of her linen went into the wash, and by now it doesn’t smell of her at all. Signy here couldn’t find a scent that went anywhere but to another room. I even had her smell the inside of the clothes chest, but . . .” He shrugged. “I can’t imagine how all the girl’s clothing wound up in the wash at once, and neither could the servants.”
“Hmm,” Lena muttered. :Signy.: She reached out to the dog. :What did the clothes chest smell like?:
Signy didn’t answer in words, but Lena had no trouble understanding the reply. “Was the clothes chest Lady Efanya’s?”
“No,” Ruven snapped. “It came from our townhouse. It was made for Sara to take with her when she married.”
“Why do you ask?” Jervis said, and then realized. “You’re the one with Animal Mindspeech, aren’t you?”
Lena nodded. “That chest smelled of Lady Efanya’s perfume.”
“They don’t use the same perfume?” the King asked.
“I wouldn’t expect a twelve-year-old to use that scent,” Lena explained. “Girls her age use rosewater, if they use anything at all.”
“What twelve-year-old?” the King asked. “I thought we were talking about Lady Sara Crane.”
“We are—or at least I am,” Lena said. “I am reliably informed that she is twelve.”
“Twelve,” the King said grimly, glaring at Ruven. “We will discuss her marriage later. Much later.” He turned to Lena. “I don’t care if you involve every animal in Haven. You find that child and bring her to me.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Lena said, with a deep curtsy. She paused, looking from him to Jervis. “May I borrow Signy? She may have picked up more than she realized.”
• • •
With the King’s permission, Lena took Signy back to her room and introduced her to Keven. She explained to Signy that Keven was Sara’s brother, and their scents might be similar.
“What happened?” Keven asked. “I get a bad feeling when you go to seek an audience with the King and come back with a strange dog. Where is Sara?”
“She apparently ran away from Lady Efanya’s house, she did it on laundry day, and every bit of clothing that could be used to track her went into the wash. What’s not washable smells of perfume. Smart girl.” She stroked Signy’s head. “When the King found out she was twelve, he was appalled. He told me to find her and bring her to him, not to Ruven. He’s not going to consent to any marriage for her now.”
“Good,” Keven said. “But where can she be?”
“The King tasked me with finding her,” Lena said, “but I need something from you. I don’t know what Sara looks like. Can you do some sketches for me?”
Keven nodded, turning to the back of his journal. While he produced several sketches, he answered every question Lena could think of about Sara’s friends (none), favorite animals (Greta), and any place she might go to hide. Keven didn’t know, but that meant Ruven would know even less.
• • •
Lena borrowed a horse from the royal stables, and she and Signy went to the Temple to talk to Greta. Lena was hoping “pass the message” would work for scent as well as words. It seemed to, but she was afraid a lot of information was lost when it was filtered through her human senses. Greta was also vague on when she had last seen Sara, but now at least Lena had a dog’s eye view of what the girl looked like. The odd thing was that Greta was absolutely sure Sara was safe. Lena tried passing the scent to the other dogs there, and they all recognized it. They told her Sara was safe, but they didn’t know where she was. They passed back scents/people they had encountered recently, and Lena was able to identify Arvid, Tansy, Sven-August, and Stina, but she knew all of them had been at the Temple in the last few days, so that wasn’t much help. She showed Keven’s sketches to Arvid, who thought he had seen the girl, but he also thought Sara was one of the Novices from the daughter house.
Lena took Signy up the hill to Lady Efanya’s. Fortunately she and her new husband were still at court, but the housekeeper, who remembered Lena from previous visits, after asking anxiously if Lena was sure that dog was the only animal she had with her, allowed her to search the garden. Apparently Sara had spent a lot of time at the far end of it; her scent was strongest there. They cast about on the street until Signy found the scent again. Oddly enough, it led to Lena’s stables. All of the animals were there, but her Novice habit was missing. Signy then led them back to the Palace, which didn’t make much sense to Lena, but if you worked with hounds, you needed to trust them to know what they were doing.
They arrived back at her quarters to find the King in the sitting room talking to Keven.
“Ah, Lena. Any luck?”
“Some, Your Majesty. I have a full cry of hounds assuring me that she’s perfectly safe—including Greta, who should certainly recognize not safe.”
“Greta?”
“Lord Ruven’s dog. She went everywhere with him, until the day he kicked her into the wall in a fit of temper. She’s at the Temple with multiple broken ribs. She can barely breathe and certainly can’t walk, but she does know what Sara smells like. I used my gift to get the scent from her and pass it to Signy and the other dogs at the Temple.”
“I didn’t know you could do that with Animal Mindspeech,” the King said.
Lena shrugged. “I thought it was worth trying, and it worked enough that Signy was able to pick Sara up outside Lady Efanya’s house and track her from there.”
“To where?”
“To my stables, and then to here. In fact . . .” She linked with Signy and followed her to Sven-August and Stina’s room. She and the King stood in the doorway and looked at Orson, who was halfway under the bed with his tail wagging vigorously.
Signy crossed the room, poked her nose under the bed, and then pulled back, sat in place, and looked at Lena. :Here.:
Lena walked over to pat her. :Good job, Signy.:
Lena knelt and looked at the child and the dog both trying to occupy the same space. “She’s here, Sire.”
“Thank the gods,” the King said. “But how did she get here unnoticed?”
“She’s wearing my Novice habit. If she came with Sven-August and Stina, nobody would give her a second glance, and they could get her past Keven by coming in and out multiple times. Knowing Stina, that’s exactly what they did.”
Keven sighed. “They were in and out all afternoon. I didn’t notice three at one time, but I wasn’t paying much attention.”
The King chuckled and shook his head. “They used her as the pea in a shell game. Clever of them. Lady Sara,” he added, “please come out from under the bed.”
“No!” Sara said hysterically. “My brother said he was going to get the King to give that horrible old man permission to marry me, and I don’t want to get married!” She ended on a wail.
“Lord Ruven,” the King said firmly, “does not have anywhere near the influence on me he thinks he does. Nor can I imagine why anyone would think I would consent to the marriage of a twelve-year-old to a man four times her age. Now come out from under the bed so we can discuss this rationally.”
Sara tried to wriggle away, but Lena reached out, grabbed a large handful of her habit, and pulled. The King lifted the girl to her feet, marched her into the sitting room, deposited her into a chair, and sat in another one. Lena joined Keven on the sofa.
“First, Lady Sara,” the King said, “I am not going to consent to your marriage to anyone for at least another four or five years, and the only way I would allow you to marry at sixteen or seventeen would be if you asked me to and I approved of your husband. Second, I really do not feel that Lord Crane is the proper person to have charge of a young girl. Do you have any thoughts on where you would like to live?”
“At the Temple of Thenoth with Greta and the rest of the useless cripples?” Sara asked hopefully.
“Not another one.” The King looked sternly at Lena.
“Not guilty, Sire. I never saw her before we found her just now. I think she’s repeating what Ruven said when he sent Greta there—or possibly what their father said when he sent Keven there.”
“Keven’s dead.” Sara shook her head firmly. “Father said so, and I saw what happened. The horse died too.”
“The horse died,” Lena agreed, “but Keven didn’t, though he did break both legs. The Healers said he would probably always be lame, especially when he walked too much and got tired, and your father . . .” She decided more detail was not a good idea. “Your father sent him to the Temple and disinherited him so that Ruven would be the next Lord Crane. I met him there and married him, and he took my name, so he’s Lord Keven Lindholm now.”
Sara looked at Keven, recognized him, burst into tears, and ran into his arms. Lena stood up to make room for her on the sofa and moved to sit next to the King. “I know that legally we’re not related, but would you allow us to foster her? It’s better than sending her to the Temple of Thenoth. We’re opening our house here and planning to stay in Haven through the Midwinter Fair. I may even let her go to a few afternoon parties if she wants. And I’ll make sure she learns how to run an estate as well as a household, because she may end up in my situation as the last member of her family. Lady Efanya may have married young the first time, but her only child is married now, so there’s no guarantee she’ll give Ruven an heir.”
“There never is a guarantee,” the King sighed, “although I certainly hope that you and Keven will have children. I’ll sign the guardianship order if Sara agrees to it, and I think we can safely assume she will. I agree there is probably no one better qualified to raise her than the two of you.”
• • •
A fortnight later, Lena had moved her extended family (Keven, herself, Sara, and Orson, Stina and Sven-August) out of the Palace and into their own house. All of them were enjoying the midwinter holidays.
As she browsed through the booths at the fair with Sara and Stina, with Sven-August along to carry packages, she realized that having a little sister had changed her life for the better.
“You know,” she remarked to Sven-August, “going to this fair is a lot more fun than trying to drag the Temple’s goats away from the highborns’ decorations.”