“This is not the capital, where servants so freely betray their mistresses,” he said coldly, with a warning flash in his tawny eyes.
“It doesn’t matter what’s true, it matters what itlooks like,”she snapped, exasperated. “Surely you are aware of your reputation?”
“It certainly seems you are.”
“Well, I must ask. Ignorance is the only reason I can imagine why you would not already take steps to remedy it.” She cast a contemptuous look at his open shirt, which he had still made no effort to close in the presence of a lady. “You may choose to bed half of Segoile and all the laundresses in Tresingale if you wish, but could you not at least bediscreet?There is a reason no decent woman in the capital would allow herself to be seen with you.”
He scoffed. “Fortunately, Tresingale has different standards ofdecency.”
“I daresay you would think so, for you would otherwise have been dismissed long ago,” she shot back. “How are you not ashamed to so disgrace your lord? Even Duchess Ereguil hasdespaired of making a match for you. No lady could show her face in the capital, if every third woman there might tell her bed stories about her husband.”
“How you presume, madam,” he protested, his eyes glittering. “To think that I would ever chooseone,and break so many hearts.”
“Do you know what they say of you? Women talk, just as men do.” Fury fizzed in her temples, but her face was cool and smiling. “Among themselves, they speak of Miche of Harnost like a new attendant at the Candle Street baths. Oh, my dear, you must try the blond one. So clever with his hands, and even better with his tongue.”
“And yet here you are, with my scandalous self,” he drawled, sprawling back on his bed with a provocative roll of his hips. “Sure you don’t want to see what the fuss is about?”
She would sooner have set the bed aflame with him in it. How many women had accepted that invitation? How many women had been ruined by this man?
“Even if you care nothing for your own reputation, you might at least have a care for Ophele—”
He was on his feet and had her pinned to the wall in a sudden snap of fury, his beautiful face snarling an inch from hers.
“Do not trouble to speak her name,” he hissed. “There are names for women like you, too, madam.Mercenaries in pretty gowns, padding their own purses, and nowhere to be found once the well runs dry. And the only reason you’re here is because you’re afraid I’ll get in the way.”
Mionet glared back, as if her heart wasn’t hammering in her throat. But this time, she was the first to look away.
“You will ruin her,” she said bitterly. “Scandal has a long tail. Thirty years from now, when you go to the capital, they will still whisper of your paramours. It doesn’t just dangle afteryou,you fool. It dirties everyone you touch.Shewill pay for your reputation, just as your friends have. You make everyone around you filthy.”
“Then you should leave quickly,” he said, standing aside and waving his hand, as if she had bored him beyond bearing. “I should hate to sully anyone sopureas yourself.”
Fuming, Mionet slipped past, drawing back her skirts so they would not touch him.
***
To Her Grace Ophele, the Duchess of Andelin, at Tresingale Manor in the Duchy of Andelin, from Duchess Liliet Ereguil:
I hope all proceeds well in Tresingale, and thank you for your good wishes. I swear, half the household falls ill every time we move to the capital, but it passed quickly, and Laud is quite himself again, may the stars have mercy on us all.
The compromise Lady Verr suggested is a good one. I think we must havesomeevent for your debut, my dear, or we will leave too much space for rumor and speculation. But an outdoor ball will be the very thing, with room enough for half of society, and we might place you and Remin in one of the pavilions, where it will be easy enough to set up a guard. Do not apologize for needing one. I have told Remin all his life that I am a believer in placing the blame where it belongs, and it is not with him.
I was happy to hear that you resolved the trouble with your Benkki Desans. I quite agree with Justenin that it is one thing to let people freely associate, or not, and something altogether different when they begin barring one another from trade. We have experienced something like that in Ereguil, and more than once, I am afraid; we are rather pinned betweenCapricia and Noreven, and so there is frequent trouble between our merchants and theirs, and then they also have trouble with each other. It may seem a small thing, but people write home, and if you treat the people from other lands well in your country, then you may reasonably demand the same in theirs.
You have asked for my advice, so here it is: you must think further ahead, my dear. Do not consider only Tresingale today, but twenty or thirty or even a hundred years hence. Why, when I was first married, I recall I commissioned Caprician artists to paint a few frescoes, thinking only that they would look well behind the palmettoes.
Well, other ladies happened to admire them, and they hired more artists, and now we have a Caprician Frescoists Association in the city who argues constantly with the local Imperial Painters Guild and Laud has threatened more than once to kick them all out.
Those are the scales that a lady must balance. Do not play favorites with your own people, and still less between the merchants of other lands. Your people have a right to expect impartiality from their duchess, and I have found that becoming too friendly with the merchants of one nation may result in problems of state with another.
And this will be my final piece of advice for you: be careful in asking your elders for advice, for they might just indulge you. I really must fly. Take care of yourself and Remin and all those other dear boys, and kindly give the attached lists to Lady Verr. You may buy anything you like when you reach the city, but time will be short, and it will be a relief to your heart to have the things you need from home ready to hand.
Affectionately yours,
Liliet Ereguil
***
One month until they left for the capital.
