Narrator:
Tabytha leads Richard by the arm down into the camp with Sir Hesketh trailing a bit behind. As they approach the sisters, an awkward silence grows in instants from acorn to giant oak. Elisabeth stares at her feet, Gloriana examines the mud on Richard's boots with apparent fascination, and Richard looks about as if searching for horse manure to avoid. The only one unfazed by this aura is Hesketh himself. In Hesketh's mind, his sole duty is clear. He marches up to Elisabeth and kneels, a gesture of amazing grace for an armored man, and takes her hand. Elisabeth turns 20 shades of red as she gazes down into Hesketh's face.
Sir Hesketh:
My Lady, I have returned with thy brother, who assures me that there is no cause for conflict between you and he. He hath sworn most solemnly that he will depart if thou should wish it, however. So if I have done ill in bringing him here, please give me thy word.
Narrator:
Elisabeth looks up at the others with an almost helpless expression on her face, then looks her brother over carefully. Richard, in turn, observes the state of affairs with a sense of resignation.
Sir Richard: [thinking]
He seems a good enough fellow, anyway. At every turn he rings true.
Elisabeth: [can't help smiling at him]
No, Hesketh, you have not done ill. I thank you for this service and... I am pleased that you're... I'm pleased that you didn't have to fight anyone in carrying it out. But please get up, would you? You shouldn't kneel to me like this.
Sir Hesketh: [rises with equal grace, looking perplexed]
But I carry thy favor, My Lady. 'tis only proper that as thy Champion, I should kneel to the fair maiden whose token I bear.
Narrator:
Gloriana and Richard stare at each other for a few moments, then wordlessly embrace. After another moment, he reaches an arm out for Elisabeth, who takes his hand only to get reeled in.
Gloriana:
I'm so sorry, Richi, I just couldn't find the strength to tell you. But you didn't have to follow us.
Sir Richard:
Of course I did, you didn't tell me you had an escort, and I was worried about Elisabeth. We could have traveled together, I've got business in McMannon. And I didn't know why you were going without telling me, I thought you were doing something dangerous. Oh, Glori, are you sure about this? This is foresight and not a vision?
Narrator:
Gloriana nods mutely and cries gently into Richard's chest. His pain-wracked eyes fill with tears as he looms over his sisters.
Hesketh looks on gravely, heartened by the knowledge that he has done the right thing and encouraged by the closeness of the family he hopes to join. Tabytha looks on with a face both wistful and sad, suddenly alone in the midst of her closest friends.
After dinner that night, Gloriana takes Richard aside to talk.
Richard:
What's this about Sir Hesketh being in mortal danger? Taby said that I should ask you.
Gloriana: [looks up at Richard finally]
Richard, name for me the men who have wooed me.
Richard: [trying to lighten up a bit]
Lord Hendrick's son was the first to kiss you, I think.
Gloriana: [breaks in]
He broke his leg that summer as I recall.
Richard:
Then there was Sir Rabban.
Gloriana: [breaking in again]
You were there for his demise. I couldn't possibly add to what you saw, but I can say that had he lived I'd likely wanted to marry him.
Richard: [shaking his head at the thought]
I'm not sure, but was one of the Pendleton's dancing with you for more than just political reasons during the feast of Harkan just over a year ago?
Gloriana: [nods]
Yes, he was killed within the week in the chapel in Trent.
Now do me a favor and recount Mary's suitors.
Richard: [mystified]
She's happily married to Craig Waltham last anyone knew.
Gloriana:
I'm about to be indiscreet with someone's confidences. I trust this will go no further than you.
[he nods]
Have you ever wondered at how every few years she looses a maid or a lady in waiting? You may not track this much, but we have. Mary is quite happy as the wife of the heir of Waltham. It is a position of power and Craig is quite a gentleman. They are best of friends, but when he is gone she is quite content to dally discretely with one of her maids or a lady who is agreeable to such things. There are less than a dozen people who know. There are six dead women who have loved her over the years, and every one of them has died from some accident or other. Old age. Shipwreck. Thrown from a horse. The mayhem at Harold's wedding. Nothing that can be traced to anyone. But her lovers are doomed. And Elizabeth?
Richard:
In addition to the Late Sir George of McMannon there is Sir Hesketh of McKitrick.
Gloriana:
Do you find the pattern disconcerting?
Richard: [shaking his head]
What you say of Mary is new to me, but I don't find yours' or Elisabeth's odd. I was there when Rabban died and it was no accident or even bad luck, but an expression of his fondness for power and egotism. George's death was no accident, either. Being a Knight like that is dangerous business. I could easily have died many times. In fact, Rabban damn well nearly took me with him, and Miranda would have killed me if it hadn't been for Evaine and Header. And if you're suggesting a family curse passed down to all of you, where did it come from? Why has nobody shown such before? There is no history like this in Mother's family, nor in the Stanley line that I recall. Besides, Hesketh is a man who would require a lot of killing.
Gloriana:
It's too much for coincidence, Richi. And I can't tell you where it came from, only that it is true. It's definite for Mary. Probable for me, to the point of being acutely painful when I look at a man, or when he looks at me. So far for Elisabeth, although the issue there is not clear. You and the rest of your brothers don't have it, rest assured, Ariana is safe in that regard. And the only thing Ariadne loves right now is flowers, and they don't count.
Hesketh was in mortal danger on that bridge, I didn't see it until last night, after we had left him there. The brigands were no threat, but had he and you come to blows, he'd have likely died in the water.
Richard:
Even if I accept what you say, and I'm not sure that I agree, what does this have to do with this trip? Why are you here in the hinterlands of McMannon? How does this relate to your future?
Gloriana:
It's difficult to frame into words, but my future is out here. I think that there are events about to happen that I should witness. That I am going to have a vision out here in the wilds somewhere.
Tabytha is with us at her insistence. I don't know what she told you up there, but life as the Duchess sits heavily upon her. I, you, uhm, ah, be careful around her, she seems to be in a very fragile state. I thought she was never going to let go of your arm as the two of you made your way down here.
Elisabeth came for the adventure, and when we are done to visit Geroge's grave. And I think to assure herself that she doesn't have the curse. If Hesketh lives until then, I think she will marry him.
Richard: [looking grave]
Tabytha told me. There are other things going on in Devonshire as well. Frankly, I'm concerned; it looks like Reg is becoming a repressive autocrat in the style of the early McKitricks. Taby's situation is worse than a badly arranged marriage with Reg's fantasies running through her
[Glori's eyes go wide at this, it's news to her]
mind. I don't understand it, and I think I'll try to pay him a visit to find out what's happened.
Glori: [hasn't a clue what Richard really means]
What?
Richard:
Glori, don't you pay any attention to the heralds? Reg has announced a whole series of changes. He's centralizing power, dismissing people, and has set up a system where he is exerting direct and constant control over his nobles. The last thing I heard before I came inland was that the Cardinal of Theonomy had died rather suddenly. He's laying groundwork for some sort of pogrom against wizards, too. I don't like it.
Glori: [waving him off]
No not that stuff, her and Reg! We talk about all kinds of stuff, but she is shy about talking about her and Reg. She wasn't at first, but she hasn't talked about her and him to anybody for a long, long time. The heralds are wisely silent about the relationship between the Duke and Duchess.
Richard:
Oh. Ummmm... Tabytha says that when she and Reg are... uh... together, that they aren't.... Ummm... which is to say that she's with him but he's with Allyson. She says that Reg pretty well ignores her entirely except when he thinks of her as being Allyson. And she doesn't know how to shut it off. It's a pretty horrible situation for her.
[sighs and switches the topic]
Hesketh seems like a good man. I can't say that I'm happy with the vision of Elisabeth living in McKitrick, but they seem to get on well together. He's smart and honorable, as well as tough and skilled. It would probably be good politically, too, since we're trying to bury the hatchet on the old family feud. I wouldn't worry too much about his health, though. Having seen him in action, I'm glad I waited rather than fighting him. I think I'm better with the sword, but he's probably better with the lance -- and he's a big strong moose of a man.
[Gloriana smiles and shakes her head]
Look, since you are all going to be here for a while, I think I'll stay on for a few days, myself. I brought the advance team from Arundel to start working on the McMannon Chapterhouse, so I could hang around here for a while to let them get started before checking in with them. I suppose I should pay a formal call to the Duchess before I go, too.
..