The Duke's Decision

Rose clucked her tongue at her brother as she finished tying a strip of freshly-boiled cloth around his elbow. “You need to keep your bandages clean,” she said, picking up the dirty strip of cloth from the floor. “Or it’ll get infected yet again, and I don’t have any more necromantic salve to kill the animalcules. That stuff is expensive.” And every shilling Father spends on salves is a shilling less spent on new books or dresses, she added to herself silently, not wishing to risk her brother’s disapproval.

“The great Sir Walt won’t be laid low by invisible animalcules,” her brother said, smiling mirthfully as he thumped his chest with his uninjured arm. “But yes, sister, I’ll take care. I’m lucky to still have two working arms, and I’d rather keep it that way.”

“Very well,” she said. “I’ve a mind to try to take Father out shopping while you and Sir Gerald keep an eye on things here and stay out of trouble. Anything I should get for you?”

“A smile from Anna?” Walt winked.

“No,” Rose said. “She’s got her heart set elsewhere.”

“I was just joking. But who is it?” Walt asked. “I didn’t have my heart set on her, but I’m curious. I haven’t seen her give more than passing politeness to anyone outside of our traveling party. Me, she gave a handkerchief.”

“You were gearing up for battle,” Rose said. “It’s a tradition. I gave Father one of mine and Lady Constance gave one to Sir Gerald. It’s bad luck not to carry a favor into battle, and she believed in the cause you were making ready to fight for.”

“I’m not sure if I did,” her brother said. “Believe in the cause, that is. It seemed all well and exciting in the moment to respond to the city’s alarum, but… we hadn’t any real reason to stick our necks out to stand between Richard and Avery. Our estate was granted as a fief from Richard’s father. A generation or two ago, I would have been Richard’s sworn vassal, yet the other day, I fought against him. Even killed one of his men-at-arms. That feels like it lacks honor.”

“Sneaking in the dark to attack a city by surprise is hardly honorable conduct,” argued Rose. “You took the right side, not that you could have known it was Richard until you took the field.”

“I think Father might have,” his brother said with a frown. “He exchanged several sealed letters back and forth with Richard before we got news that the old duke died. There was some matter he wouldn’t talk about.”

Rose hesitated. “There was a rumor one of the maids told me she got from a courier who’d brought a letter, that Richard’s younger sister Elizabeth had got pregnant and you were to marry her to save face.”

“Me? To marry Elizabeth?” Her brother’s eyes boggled. “A master mage and a direct descendant of the old duke? Well, that’s not to happen now, for certes. But how would the courier know, anyway? Every letter from Richard I saw arrived sealed, and Father would take them up to his study to open them privately.”

Rose shrugged. “Maybe the courier made up that story to amuse the maid,” she said, patting his arm. “I’m sure the ladies of York will be all agog for their wounded hero soon enough.”

“Not if I’m stuck nursing my arm in this house,” Walt said. “I’m not in Sir Gerald’s condition, and the brave Sir Walt can’t earn any more ladies’ favors hiding from public view. I could take you shopping instead of Father.”

“You haven’t the money,” Rose said, pragmatically. “And even if you feel fit and spry, you’ll just get your bandages dirty again.”

“I’m a blooded knight of the realm,” her brother said, grinning. “Father entrusted me with half his purse. I could buy you a fashionable new dress.”

“Really?” Rose eyed her brother skeptically. “Just before we made the trip, you said buying a new dress would be a waste of good money.”

Walt grunted. “Yes, well, it’s been three weeks since we reached York, and Mom told us we’re not to come back until you find a husband.”

“What?” Rose squawked. “I knew Father was looking to set up marriage partners for us on this trip, Anna said so, but … we don’t go home until I get married? Really?”

“I mean, I don’t think we’re really going to stay in York past a second month at the outside, but that’s what she said.” Walt held up a finger. “To be fair, Leeds is tiny and you’ve had all of two gentlemen callers in the last year, one of whom you pushed in the duck pond. She’s got every reason to be worried.”

“He tripped,” Rose said, defensively crossing her arms over her chest. “Besides, he deserved it, he was incredibly boring the way he went on about casting processes.”

“The casting business makes his uncle a pretty penny,” Walt said. “All in all, though, you’ve shown as much interest in getting productively married as I have in wizardry, and that irks Mother. Now, stop arguing. I said I’d buy you a dress, didn’t I?”

Sir Walt the Generous, as he thought of himself at that moment, stared glumly at the closed door. “Anna said Madame Percy would be the one to visit to see the most fashionable dresses in town,” the young man said, frowning. He rapped on the door again. “It’s the middle of the day and we’ve passed by twice. Maybe she packed up and went back to London.”

Rose frowned. “Maybe she only works by appointment?” she said. “But you think she’d have to answer the door to make appointments, at least.”

A passing gentlewoman with a servant trailing in her wake paused. “Pardon me,” she said, dipping in a curtsy. “I couldn’t help but overhear. Madame Percy not only works by appointment, but she keeps strict night hours.”

“Oh,” Walt said, frowning. “Thank you, miss…” He paused, glancing over at the servant.

“Mademoiselle Ivette de Greystoke,” the servant said with a quick bow.

“Well met,” said Walt, turning to face the woman. “I am Sir Walter,” said Walt. “The younger, that is. Sir Walter the Younger. Or just Sir Walt. And this is my sister, Rose.”

Ivette dipped in another quick curtsy. “I don’t know how she makes appointments,” she said. “Marcel should, though.”

The servant, his expression bland, pointed at a slot in the door. “You write to her,” he said. “Or call on her during night hours. My apologies, but mademoiselle has a pressing engagement we must get to.”

Ivette pouted for an instant, then smoothed her face. “Farewell,” she said, dipping in a third and final curtsy before turning away.

“Anna didn’t tell you Madame Percy kept night hours?” Rose asked.

“I didn’t ask,” Walt said. “She was talking about the alterations she was making to one of her dresses and it came up in passing. What kind of business can Madame Percy possibly run, keeping night hours? Everyone knows it’s not safe to be out at nights in the big city. We’ll have to find another dressmaker.”

“York is hardly a patch on London for night-time hazards,” Rose said. “As you’d know if you read more books about society and fewer about derring-do in bygone ages.”

“And now I’ve derring-done!” Walt grinned at his own joke. “Those storybooks served me well, didn’t they?”

“Fine,” Rose said, scuffing her shoe on cobblestone idly. Then she looked up. “You know, there was a bookshop that we passed on the way here. Maybe we could stop in there?”

“We could,” Walt allowed. “But I only promised to buy you a dress. I didn’t promise to buy you any books.”

The corner of Rose’s mouth quirked up in a smile. “Still, we can look, at least, and looking’s much of the fun of shopping, isn’t it?”

“Is that a new book?” The older Sir Walter’s voice contained a detectable note of mild disapproval as he squinted at the object in Rose’s hand. “I hope that means you’ve found a friend to borrow from. Now put it away. Your mother wouldn’t approve of you getting back in the habit of taking books to the dinner table.”

“I traded in my copy of The Game and Play of Chess,” Rose said guiltily as she marked her place and set the volume aside, omitting to mention the role the younger Sir Walter’s purse played in the unequal trade. “Anna has one I can borrow if I want to re-read it yet again.”

“Considering how you’ve not yet beat her at the game, you could do worse than studying her margin notes,” her brother said.

“Have you ever read past the first chapter? It’s not about chess, the chessboard is an allegory for society,” Rose said.

“Fine. You still lose to Anna embarrassingly often.” The younger Sir Walter rolled his eyes at his sister, then glanced over at their father’s frown. He then started shaving some cheese over the open halves of a baked moonapple. “I’ll go take this to Sir Gerald. No telling how long it’ll be before Lady Constance and her daughter get back in from calling on Edward Taylor.”

Sir Walter nodded at his son. “Good idea, Walt. It’s past sunset, I give it good odds they overnight rather than walking back. The Taylors have plenty of money, but I wouldn’t trust in the sword arm of any of them in the darkness.”

As her brother disappeared down the hallway, Rose turned to her father. “Are we really staying in York until I find a husband?”

Her father sighed. “Rose, I want you to find happiness. Your mother and I think it’s time we introduced you and your brother to wider company. You do want to get married eventually, don’t you?”

Rose slowly nodded. “I never pictured myself becoming a spinster,” she said. “I guess I figured I would have a husband and children at some point, but I never really thought much about how it would happen.”

Her father nodded. “Well, it matters a great deal to your mother and I that we make advantageous marriages for you and Walt. The way things have been going, your brother may be the last knight in my line – and a landless one, at that.”

Rose stared back at her father in silence.

“Knighthoods are granted, not inherited. In our case, by the old duke, and in others, by imperial orders. Precious few of the orders will even consider accepting someone with less than a journeyman’s wizardly skills, which is why I tried so hard to get Walt lessons.” He shook his head.

Rose sighed. “I at least got some cantrips out of that.”

“He’s no more a head for it than I do. Unless he marries a woman of the right talents, it’s not likely any of his children will be able to qualify as mage-knights. And then there’s the money side. As country gentry, we rely on rents from our tenant farmers. We’ve got no proper skeleton crew to loan out, nor a staff necromancer to keep the ones we do have in shape.”

“You could buy a traction engine, maybe?” Rose’s mind raced.

Her father shook his head. “A new traction engine would require floating a loan. An older used one, maybe not, but in that case we couldn’t put off hiring a permanent staff necromancer for regular maintenance,” he said.

Rose frowned.

“That’s why marrying to advantage is so important. Without a large infusion of cash or adding wizards to the family… it might be ten years or twenty if we’re lucky, but we’ll eventually have to start selling off the estate bit by bit just to stay afloat. Your mother and I want to leave behind an intact legacy.” Sir Walter the elder sighed. “I don’t want to put pressure on you and your brother, but if neither of you marries upwards, we will surely all slide slowly downwards.”