Chapter 60: Hard Truths

“I believe we should bring the woman in and question her,” Elena said firmly.

“To what end?” Jonathan asked. “We have evidence in front of us. His belongings carried items even Celestine wasn’t certain how to use. Her bags contained a few pieces of spare clothing. His bags held a false bottom with hundreds of golds and silvers. She is a pauper that will need to work the barrooms for a week to earn enough coins to even return to her homeland.”

“You do not understand the ways of women,” Elena stated flatly. Celestine, who had been anointed as almost a junior member of the triumvirate, nodded her agreement.

“You do not understand men like this one,” Choran countered, coming to Jonathan’s defense.

“Then tell us of him,” Celestine insisted.

“This man is no different than the man that sired me,” Jonathan said. “He lacks personal courage or skill so he uses terror to get his way. He surrounds himself with weakness and controls those around him with an iron fist to ensure they do as he instructs. He is a coward and a bully. He would not have shared his plans with this woman – daughter or not.”

“I’m certain you’re correct,” Elena said. “He would not have shared them with her. That does not mean she wouldn’t have known of them. The parchment you found incriminates her. It gave her point-by-point instructions on how to integrate herself into our power structure.”

“It gave someone those instructions,” Choran interrupted. “It could possibly have been intended for her hands but it is just as likely it was meant for someone else. And you fail to note that they were found with his belongings. They were not found with hers. I think it unlikely that she had access to his bags. Are we in agreement on that point?”

“Yes,” Celestine replied. She had no doubt that if the woman at the inn had tried to open the bags she would have wound up floating in the harbor. “Unless she is an accomplished liar, she is not capable of gaining entry without injury or death.”

“You fail to note that they had been in our city for less than a day before he met his demise,” Elena stated. “The man arrived on our shore and was gone for most of the day. Perhaps he had not time to give her the formal plans for battle.”

“Celestine assures us that the woman was attacked,” Jonathan countered.

“Punishment takes differing forms,” Celestine replied. “My father took a switch to my behind once or twice before his death.”

“He did not put anything else there, though,” Choran said.

“No but that was my father not hers,” Celestine answered. “I do not wish to shock you but, across our land and across the known world, there are many children, women and even men being used for gratification without their consent as we sit here debating this issue. It is not just priests and drunkards that do these things. It is shopkeepers and farmers and noblemen and rug merchants. They attack their children, their house servants, the neighbor’s daughter or sometimes the whores they pay beforehand. The woman I met in the street, she had been ill-used by her customer. She had welts and bruises across her bosom and ... lower. There are men – and women – who find arousal in producing pain to their partner. And there are partners who find arousal in receiving pain. They willingly allow someone to strike them or choke them because they enjoy it.”

Jonathan and Choran blinked rapidly. They knew that the strong attacked the weak and that cowards used violence even when undressed. They were unaware, however, that some people enjoyed being on the receiving end of such activity.

“Do you suggest this woman is like that?” Jonathan asked. “You said she appeared terrified.”

“She appeared to be many things,” Celestine said. “To a person that does not know me, I appear to be a meek housemaid. On the surface, this woman seems to be scared and stupid. Only if you allow us to question her will we know for certain if there is more beneath that she keeps hidden as ably as I keep this hidden.”

With a gentle movement, her dagger appeared in her hand.

“I am no more a frightened mouse than you are, Choran,” she declared. “We use our stature to hide our capabilities. Only those that know us well see us for what we truly are.”

“If this woman is who she claims to be, you are talking about torturing a member of the ruling family of a sovereign nation,” Jonathan protested. “That nation, by the way, happens to be our ally.”

“Of all your arguments, that one is the only one that makes sense,” Elena said after a moment of silence.

“It is why we should leave the decision to Joseph,” Choran pressed. “He will return in two weeks or a bit longer.”

“It can be done without leaving physical marks,” Celestine told them.

“Do you plan to lie to the king when he returns?” Jonathan asked.

“Of course not,” Celestine replied. “I truly think Joseph and Rucar will see the value in having the information as quickly as possible. Just because her trainer is dead does not mean she won’t perform the dance he taught to her.”

“Do you truly believe she could have succeeded?” Choran inquired. “The plans were for her to assume a role at the castle, lure Joseph to his death and take over the military. None of those things could possibly have occurred.”

“I disagree,” Elena said.

“It is now you that doesn’t understand women,” Jonathan said, laughing lightly. “Look at Joseph’s constant companions. Do you truly believe they would permit an interloper into his midst without knowing every single thing about her? They insulate him from people like this woman as surely as we do.”

“Even if she had managed to strike up a friendship, do you think she could have lured Joseph into a sense of security?” Choran asked.

“I believe if any of the women around Joseph turned, he would be powerless to save himself,” Celestine answered in lieu of Elena. “It is what I worried about when your sister started to show an interest in the king. Please do not be angry for my words.”

“We are speaking freely,” Jonathan replied with a sigh. She had given voice to one of his unspoken concerns.

“Even with them, Joseph would not be powerless,” Choran insisted. “Yes, they are skilled but he is more skilled. Yes, they are intelligent but so is he. Mostly, they are honest with him. He can spot deceit. Perhaps it was because he lived in this building as a child. Perhaps it is just his nature. He knows when they are hiding secrets from him. He knows when I am hiding things from him. Mostly he permits us to wait until what we view to be the proper time to discuss things. That does not mean he missed that something was on our minds. It would be no different with this woman.”

“Then there is the most obvious flaw in the plan,” Jonathan added. “Even if she managed to ingratiate herself to the king and remove him, the army would never fall to her. She would need to remove Genrico, me, Choran, both of you and every commander. Even then, I do not foresee their loyalty shifting.”

“I can think of many scenarios where we would offer our support,” Elena replied. “Suppose she was to woo Joseph – and, by extension, us. A ruse that would leave Joseph dead and point the finger at King Olaf is feasible. We would rally our troops for her.”

“But you assume that none of us would have seen through her beforehand,” Choran said. “She is of no danger now.”

“That is a ludicrous statement,” Celestine said, shaking her head. “There is no telling what arts that woman knows.”

Choran held up his hand in a placating gesture.

“You misunderstand,” he said. “She is of no danger to the king or country. The king is gone and we are on our guard. We will tell Joseph what we know and let him proceed. There is no urgency to act on our own. As Jonathan noted, if we permit you to question her it might cause additional problems between Denaya and Azkoval. We do not need that right now.”

“I should have sat for a day before writing those letters,” Jonathan admitted. “It is a mistake I will not repeat.”

“You said what we all thought,” Elena said. “I was angered that he was permitted to commit such atrocities. I was unhappy that no one kept watch on him. It bothered me that he was permitted free passage aboard a ship flying King Olaf’s banner. I know Joseph values his laws. We all see the value in them. But this would not have been allowed to happen here. Rumor and innuendo or not, something would have been done to ensure the man paid for his crime. We would not simply remove the embarrassment and forget about it. We certainly would not permit him to father additional victims for his pleasure. We have told countries that we will hold them accountable for the behavior of their nobility on our shores. To be sure, we could have been more pleasant in how we delivered the message but the message was necessary.”

Celestine nodded her agreement. It had been more than two weeks since she’d killed Earl Ludwig von Schuman. She could wait two more weeks until the king returned. She firmly believed Joseph would accept the wisdom in learning all they could about Annika von Schuman.

“When will your ship leave our port?” King Olaf asked the Az emissary.

Rudolph, in turn, looked to the sergeant.

“The ship is part of King Joseph’s fleet, Your Eminence,” the sergeant answered. “It was tasked with this duty alone. We will leave at your command.”

Olaf nodded but Nadia’s ears perked up.

“Azkoval has a fleet of ships?” she asked with interest. “That must have been expensive.”

“We ... took them,” the sergeant replied with clear hesitation.

“They were pirate vessels that we captured,” Rudolph explained. “Some belonged to the merchants that lorded over our western shores. The king decided that the Crown had uses for them and took them as a spoil of war when he reclaimed that area. When I left, we had six.”

“It is seven now,” the sergeant corrected. “The Duchess Liala captured another just before Court convened. We share the profits with Troyvet.”

“Interesting,” Nadia said. “And the crews are paid from the treasury? Is that not expensive?”

The sergeant laughed.

“Choran is our finance minister,” he said. “If he were a man I didn’t know so well, I’d call him cheap. Instead, I will say he is frugal. He permits little that does not make coin. We have determined that the cost of paying the crews is far less than the price we pay for losing cargo or tasking men to hunt the pirates. I am not good with coin so I cannot tell you the expense. I can say that I do not believe Choran would allow this to occur without Azkoval seeing a tangible benefit.”

“A minister has that much power?” Nadia asked. “Is he one of the lords that your king left in place?”

“Those men have no influence,” the sergeant replied. “By this time next year, they will have no coin, either. Choran was our quartermaster.”

Rudolph saw that neither Olaf nor Nadia knew the word.

“He was tasked with provisioning our army on the march,” the emissary explained. “His father once worked for King Welton’s chamberlain. In old days, the chamberlain controlled the coin.”

“It is like our bursar, Dear,” Olaf said with a nod.

“Our bursar counts the coin but he does not determine where they are spent,” Nadia pointed out.

“Choran does not have that authority either,” Rudolph explained. “He advises the king but Joseph makes the final determination. Our king has decided the responsibility of governing is too awesome for one person. He has appointed men – and a woman – who oversee specific functions. For instance, my reports do not go to the king. They go to Lady Elena Westmont. She is called our foreign minister and she interacts not only with our emissaries but with the dignitaries in our country. Alexander of Burbridge conducts our trade negotiations and Genrico – a man from your own lands – is our defense minister. Lord Jonathan Burbridge is our interior minister. He deals with the landholders to address their concerns and the concerns of the citizens.”

“He is a baron now,” the sergeant cut in.

“I saw that ... but I did not know the word,” Rudolph admitted with a slight blush.

“We’d never heard it either,” the sergeant agreed. “King Joseph resurrected the title from ancient lore. It is a noble that does not hold land.”

“What of Burbridge?” Rudolph asked.

“He ceded it to his sister,” the sergeant explained. “Much changed at Court. Jonathan no longer holds land. His sister and Julia of Trimble now do.”

“No surprise there,” Rudolph said with a small smile.

“She is responsible for the land directly across from where we sit, in fact,” the sergeant added. “The biggest surprise was the elevation of Catherine of Burbridge to landed gentry.”

“Who is she?” Rudolph asked. He hated to exclude the king and his ward but both appeared to be listening with great interest.

“Lady Elizabeth’s maid!” the sergeant said with clear glee in his voice.

“Do I have this correct?” Nadia asked. “Your king has taken a common girl off the street and elevated her to nobility?”

“After a fact,” the sergeant said with a nod. “Catherine is far from a common girl, though. She was raised in the Burbridge household with Lady Elena. Alexander viewed her as his child so he offered her instruction on reading, writing and mathematics alongside Jonathan, Elizabeth and Elena. She is singularly prepared for her task. Joseph did not simply pick her and give her a new role. He ensured that she was up to the task before setting the task in front of her.”

“Marvelous,” Olaf said. “He has found a way to share the burden with those he trusts. I have met Genrico and Alexander. I know their loyalty rests with your king and nowhere else. I understand that Lady Elena is Joseph’s oldest friend so her trustworthiness is not in question. I do not know Jonathan Burbridge. I did not know his name until I read it this morning. I wondered why the letter came from the ministers and not from the king.”

“The king is away from the capital for a brief time, Your Eminence,” the sergeant said. “His trust is such that he thinks nothing of turning the country over to his subordinates. Jonathan is Lady Elena’s husband. She and Jonathan are acting as stewards. Choran is acting as the deciding vote if they disagree. If they are like most husbands and wives, I’m sure they disagree frequently.”

“Fascinating,” Olaf said after laughing at the sergeant’s attempt at humor.

“This is something you should consider,” Nadia said. “I have heard you lament for years that your presence is required here and you may not get away for longer than a day or two. You have men and women that you can trust.”

“I do,” the king admitted. “In fact, I believe I could have turned the kingdom over to you at any time in the past 10 years and few would have noticed.”

“You have more than me to rely upon,” Nadia said with a smile. “I believe you should give the idea serious consideration. Perhaps during my visit to Azkoval, I can see how it truly works. I am not a dignitary but perhaps Lady Elena will permit me to see how she does things.”

“If you want a true indication of the situation, you will need to speak to what the king calls his ‘shadow cabinet,’” the sergeant told the young woman.