LOGINThe apology was demanded on a Tuesday.
It was a small tidy thing, a procedure Hobb delighted in above all else. The Honourable Julian Tavish, it seemed, had departed the Orangery on the night of the fourteenth with a stain upon his sleeve. A drop of wine. A small matter. But the Honourable Julian was the son of a Lord of the Treasury and it was perfectly clear to all that someone had been negligent and that the some
The news arrived in the capital on a Tuesday. By Friday every drawing room in Myraval was buzzing.A lord was coming.Not a local lord. Not one of the bickering, thin, constantly mortgaged lords of the Imperial court. A lord from abroad. From the other side of the sea. From Lumora. An ancient land of mines and mountains. A land famed for its silver and copper wealth. Rumoured for three hundred years. Their rulers had never visited their northern neighbours in living memory.They were rumoured to be extremely wealthy.The first news came from the Imperial wharf. A sweaty, chatty, fat spice merchant named Corvin Aldous. He claimed to have heard it from a captain who had heard it from a harbour master. A huge ship had been spotted on the horizon. Not one ship. Three. A gall
It was four days later when she went to see him. She made sure that it was the right time; the grey evening, The Duke alone in his study with the bottle of good red and everyone else asleep. She was sure no footmen would bother her for two hours.She knocked."Come in," he called.He was tired looking and older than she remembered, wearing a shirt and sitting at the desk with a ledger and one candle. "Evangeline. You should be asleep."“I wish to speak to you about the fire.”A short pause."That was sorted."“Evangeline. It is late.” I didn’t agree. Close the door please. She stood with her hands clasped
The grave was found on the third night thanks to a woman with a scar on her chin.The woman was waiting for them. She wore a grey cloak and deep hood. Her figure was small and quick. She walked through a Hawthorn bush like a cat. Evangeline recognised her immediately. Last time she had seen her was at a grave in a spring churchyard. Her face was thin with freckles. Her finger was placed on her lips.'Wren.’ The woman said with no offer of a handshake. 'That’s what they call me. You are the letter person.''I have them.''The pie seller gave them to me.' Wren said. Her dark eyes scanned over Evangeline, Garrick who stood solidly by her side with a spade over his arm and Dorrie with the lantern. 'I didn’t think you would come. I thought the Duke’s daughter would do somethi
There were a few strong scents in the cellar. The midwife looked up from her seat as Evangeline entered.It was Thursday, just after midnight. They had walked across the lower city in an hour. Evangeline wore a plain brown cloak she had borrowed off a laundress. Her hair was pulled up and her gloves tucked in her pockets. Dorrie, a tall quiet young woman now, walked a head of her holding a lantern with the shutters down. They had walked through three alleys, dry goods warehouse and a seemingly closed tavern. At the bottom of some slimy steps they arrived at the door, which opened when the right knock was made. Inside was a stout old woman sitting in a cell. She was sitting at a plain wooden table with a single candle burning and a pot of tea cooling by her side.'Have a seat.'Evangeline sat down onto the hard bench. The candle flickered.'Doctor’s daughter.''Yes.''I heard from my Garrick that you gave him a slap across the face in front of everyone.''Yes.''Hmm.' The woman looked
The Palace of Lamps was designed to make everybody feel small when they entered, and it never failed.Sitting atop the capital, the Palace was built in tiers, with roofs made of beaten copper that had turned a dull green with age. The windows glowed with ten thousand lights, all lit by a team of silent servants. Pilgrims travelled from the provinces just to see it. Sometimes they even cried. Although they didn’t cry at the gates, where the White Battalion stood in rows of silent white men, or in the grand courts, where the marble was so shiny that you could see your reflection of your fear.She was walking through the Hall of Seven Lamps, wearing a pale grey silk dress. Her hair was pulled into an elaborate updo, and there was just one green stone around her neck. She kept her head held high.The blessing wasn’t really a big deal. Everybody said that. The Emperor had the privilege of giving a favourable word to engagements between great houses. It cost him nothing, but it tied them cl
Nobody actually asked.It wasn’t that she was worried about the engagement, or even the stag. It was the fact that nobody had actually asked her what she thought about it during the three days following the hunt. All they had done was send a flurry of letters, visit, congratulate, and have hushed conversations with lawyers. They had ordered her engagement dress, and had a printed announcement ready in the Imperial Gazette.She had found out from the Gazette.It was lying on the breakfast table, folded to the second page, and surrounded by a small black band. ‘With great pleasure His Grace the Duke of DeNova announces the engagement of his only daughter, Lady Evangeline to Commander Denovan Windemere (Hero of the Marrow Road), Captain of His Imperial Majesty’s White Battalion’.She read it three times.Her father was sitting opposite her, folding his napkin into his collar, and spreading butter onto a roll with great care, as if it was some sort of operation. He didn’t even look up. “I