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February-March, 357 M.E.
Therese Halifax climbed out of the boat with the help of a waiting soldier. After steadying herself on the icy riverbank, she turned and helped her companion out, too. Princess Renata, Gräfin von Flaschburg, was a small, slender woman who looked as if she might snap in two if she fell here. Fortunately, she was more surefooted than she seemed.
The rowers remained with the boat while Therese and one of the soldiers led the princess up the bank and through the grubby little hamlet of Grimstan to a tiny Odelandic church. The priester there, already alerted to their visit, waited at the door to usher the princess inside.
Therese and the soldier waited in the vestibule, warming their hands over a brazier as the service dragged on. Through an old window, rattling in the wind, Therese could see back over the river. In the swirling snow, she could just make out the great, hulking shape of the Hafocbeorg and Wealdan Castle. She could hear the church bells ringing at the chapel up there, and at the great Terrwyn Cathedral in the city beyond.
A frigid hour later, the princess emerged with a beatific smile on her slim, dark face. As they made their way back to the boat, she apologized to Therese for the journey. “My religion is important to me, though,” she said. “I would have invited you in, but I would not insult you by presuming that your religion is not important to you.”
Her smile faltered, and Therese wondered if the princess was thinking of her husband, the Graf von Flaschburg, who had attended Leafa services with everyone else. The graf was here as the ambassador from Renata’s brother, the King of Odeland, and he seemed more interested in fitting in with Myrcian culture than in maintaining his own.
When Therese and Renata got back to the great Palm Court of Wealdan Castle, the princess was immediately monopolized and carried away by Queen Muriel’s ladies-in-waiting. But not before she shook Therese’s hand and said, “You are my friend now, and I will not forget you.”
“Thanks awfully for doing that,” said a low, masculine voice.
Therese turned and saw Prince Broderick leaning against a pillar near the wine table.
She curtsied. “Not at all, your royal highness. The pleasure was mine.”
“I doubt it was much of a pleasure in this weather. But thank you, anyway. It’s important we keep the Odelanders happy.”
“Yes, I remember you explained to me about the mercenaries they send for our army and so on,” she said eagerly.
“Exactly. Now I find I owe you a favor. Would you like to dance?”
Somewhere nearby, a small orchestra of minstrels was tuning up.
“Of course!”
Therese’s family and Broderick’s were somewhat distantly related. She recalled they were third cousins, or something like that. Her older brother, Kevin, had been squire to Broderick’s father, King Broderick. Her father was a great supporter of the king and the Gramiren cause. So, she and the prince had known each other for a long time without knowing much about each other. They were on friendly terms without quite being friends.
When he had asked her, almost in passing, if she could take the princess over the river, because his mother’s ladies refused to go out in that weather, she hadn’t even thought twice before saying, “Yes.” She assumed he would do the same for her, if it came to it, because everyone knew that was the sort of man he was. He didn’t need to be thanked or recognized for his actions, so neither did she. But it was nice that he had remembered and thanked her. It was even nicer to dance with him, because he was a very fine dancer.
After several dances and a glass of wine, Therese wondered if the princess was getting along alright with the ladies-in-waiting, so she left the prince and went up to the second floor parlors to search for Renata. She tried several rooms, looking in on card games, drinking contests, and poetry recitations, but didn’t see her royal highness anywhere.
At last, she tried the final door on the hall. It seemed to stick for a moment, but then fell open, revealing a naked couple having sex on a settee. The beautiful, shapely woman bent over the arm was Queen Muriel Gramiren, Prince Broderick’s mother. The handsome, well-built young man thrusting into her from behind was the Graf von Flaschburg, Renata’s husband.
Therese clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out, and she pulled the door quickly shut. But she was pretty sure they had seen her there.
Indeed, the very next day, as soon as Therese arrived at the castle, a footman approached and handed her a letter. It was an invitation—or perhaps a summons—to see the queen in her private chambers.
Trembling at the knees, Therese climbed up the stairs to the royal apartments. One of the ladies smirked and winked at her before letting her into the queen’s outer parlor, where her majesty sat writing letters at an ebony table in front of a long bank of high glass windows.
Queen Muriel finished writing and looked up, smiling. “Therese, darling. How are you?” She asked after Therese’s parents, the Duke and Duchess of Haydonshire, and all her siblings. She made a few idle comments about the weather.
All the while, Therese waited for the fatal blow—the moment the queen would mention the incident in the parlor with the graf.
To her surprise, though, the queen said, “I’ve been looking for a new lady-in-waiting. I’d like to offer you the position.”
Therese had the terrible feeling she was being offered this position as a bribe, in order to keep her quiet about what she had seen. But on the other hand, everyone at court knew Queen Muriel had little “dalliances” outside her marriage. She was notorious for it.
Beyond that, Therese had always wanted to be named a lady-in-waiting. She knew her parents would be proud of her. Her friends would be proud of her. She would get to spend a lot more time at the castle. And she might just see a lot more of the prince, too.
She gave her deepest and most formal curtsy. “I offer you my humble service, your majesty.”
Queen Muriel gave her a drink and then turned her over to the older ladies-in-waiting for “training.” There was a great deal to learn about how the castle worked and which servants handled which duties. Therese had been visiting Wealdan Castle since she was a little girl, and she had been “at court” since leaving Atherton the previous summer. But she had never imagined how much work went on behind the scenes to make the parties and feasts and balls and concerts appear effortless.
There were other secrets, too, like the intricacies of the queen’s love life. Therese learned which young men were currently “in favor” and which were not to be admitted under any circumstances.
“What about the king?” Therese asked.
The ladies giggled at her naivety. “Oh, the king is always admitted,” said one of them, “at least when he’s not away on campaign. But the queen likes him to ask first and make an appointment. If he barges in on her, you can bet she’ll be in a foul mood all day after that.”
They also introduced her to the “special” portions of the queen’s wardrobe, featuring her most alluring attire. And they showed her the mysteries of the queen’s bedside tables, with their strange collection of potions and oils and “toys.” Therese was alarmed and confused by it all, feeling as if her governess and Atherton had done very little to prepare her for life at court.
After all that, when they asked her to keep taking Princess Renata to the Glaube church over the river, it came as a relief.
Barely a week after Therese was made a lady-in-waiting, she encountered her first court sex scandal. She heard some ladies in one of the second floor parlors hinting at some impropriety involving the graf and his party. Therese instantly assumed they were speaking about the graf himself and the queen. Feeling it her duty to stand up for her mistress, even in the face of obvious truth, she interrupted the girls and demanded to know exactly what they were saying.
To her shock, they weren’t talking about the graf and the queen at all. They were talking about a handsome young knight of the graf’s retinue and Lady Anna Ostensen, daughter of the Duke of Severn, who happened to be an old schoolfriend of Therese’s.
She quickly went in search of Anna, only to find Anna was looking for her, too.
“You have to help me,” said the girl, tugging at Therese’s sleeve like a little child. “It’s not fair that people are slandering me like this. I swear I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Therese thought back to their years at Atherton. She knew for certain that Anna had spent a lot of time getting drunk and flirting with boys at the Crown and Gown; Therese had often had to drag her home at the end of the night so she didn’t miss curfew. She knew Anna had kissed boys and allowed them to take minor liberties with her person. Beyond that, she strongly suspected Anna had entertained boys in her room, in violation of the strict rules of Queen Freyda Hall. If someone had asked Therese to swear Anna was still a virgin, Therese could not have done so in good conscience.
Still, just because she knew or suspected that Anna had done certain things at Atherton didn’t mean Anna was doing those same things now at court. Those were two separate issues, and Therese felt duty-bound to believe the best of her friend. She did her best to fight the rumor, even getting into an argument with another of the ladies-in-waiting over it. But her best was not quite good enough.
The queen declared there would be a grand ball at the Equinox, especially in honor of the Graf and Gräfin von Flaschburg, who would soon be leaving court. All the girls at court were terribly excited about this and began plotting ways to get dances with all the handsomest and most eligible young noblemen. As the night of the ball approached, however, Anna discovered to her horror that no one was particularly interested in dancing with her—not even the young Odelandic knight with whom she had supposedly compromised herself.
She grew frantic and talked of throwing herself off the cliffs of the Hafocbeorg or drowning herself in the Trahern. Therese managed to convince her not to do anything rash and told her to get dressed and “meet your detractors head-on, like a woman!”
Then Therese went down to the Palm Court, even as the first guests began arriving, and cornered Prince Broderick in the library.
“When the dancing starts,” she said, “you have to dance with Anna Ostensen. It’s important.”
Broderick set down the book he had been reading. “I’ve heard some fellows talking about her.”
“I don’t believe them. She’s my friend.”
“Yes. She’s my first cousin, you know. I don’t think it’s right what people are doing to her.”
The prince was as good as his word. His first dance was with Princess Renata, as custom dictated, while his mother danced with the graf. But for his second dance, he chose his cousin Anna. And just as Therese expected, that put an end to any slanderous rumors about Anna and the Odelandic knight.
Much later that evening, the prince found Therese and offered her the last dance of the evening. “I have to say I’m very impressed,” he said, as they paced around the floor in a stately pavane. “What you did for Anna was remarkably generous. And Princess Renata was singing your praises all through supper. She says you’re a true Ivich lady, even if you don’t belong to the pure Glaube faith.”
“It’s nothing,” she said, feeling her face flush. “It’s simply my duty, your royal highness.”
In the morning, when Therese went to the queen’s chambers to begin her usual shift, she found the queen and graf were still fast asleep after staying up drinking until almost dawn. She cleaned up the glasses and (with a repressed shudder) some torn lacy underthings, and then left the illicit couple to their sleep.
She heard someone singing softly and went through to the inner balcony, where she found Anna Ostensen sitting with her feet on the big marble railing, smiling drunkenly with a bottle of Rodvin in her hand.
“Congratulate me,” she slurred. “The queen offered me a position as a lady-in-waiting.”
“Oh, how nice,” said Therese. “Congratulations, of course.”
“Huzzah for us, ladies at last!”
“Yes, how lovely.”
“And...do you know why she did it?”
Therese politely shook her head, even though she was pretty sure Anna must have walked in on the queen with the graf, just as she had.
“It’s because her son danced with me first. Well, not first, exactly. But first after the princess. The queen thinks Prince Broderick is in love with me!”
It felt for a moment as if something icy cold and crushingly heavy had landed on Therese’s chest. “What? You mean...you mean she told you that?”
“No, no. But it’s obvious, isn’t it? And, well, I never really thought about him before. I mean, yes, he’s very handsome, and he did look good in those tight leather trousers of his last night, didn’t he?”
Therese made a noncommittal noise. She had been trying her best not to notice those trousers, not to pay any attention to them, and certainly not to stare and admire.
“So, I thought, what am I doing chasing Sir what’s-his-name from Odeland?” Anna raised the bottle and took a slurping gulp. “I could be a...a princess!”
“No,” said Therese, suddenly struck with horror. “No!”
“No? Why not?”
“Um...why not? Um....” Therese’s face burned. “No, I just mean we’d better get you to bed now. The queen will be waking up sooner or later, and she won’t appreciate it if you’re out here treating her balcony like your own parlor.”
She busied herself with getting Anna to her room and running a bath for her and holding Anna’s hair back when all the wine started coming up. Then she cleaned everything and put Anna to bed and went to the queen’s chambers and cleaned everything there, too.
A thought was growing in her mind, coming closer and closer like a ship bearing down in the fog. It was right there, and she had never let it come so close before. She kept herself busy, because she knew once she said it, even to herself in the quiet of her own mind, then everything would change.
She went out on the queen’s inner balcony to clean the windows. Glancing down, she spotted the prince by the fountain. He happened to look up at that same moment, smiled, and gave her a low and graceful bow.
That was it. She couldn’t stop it anymore. “Oh, Earstien,” she thought. “I’m in love with Prince Broderick.”