Page 28 of Claiming the Tower (Council Mysteries #1)
B ess was doing her best to be entirely ordinary.
She was in a corner of the sitting room, embroidery out, while Lucina and Clarissa— Hereswith’s sisters-in-law— had begun a desultory game of cards.
Cribbage, in this case, which did not tell Bess nearly enough about their wits, memories, or other skills.
Piquet would have been far more useful to observe on all counts.
Hereswith had given Bess a thorough overview while they were preparing this afternoon.
She’d apologised for not doing it sooner, which was ridiculous given her other obligations on Saturday.
Bess had waved the apologies away. There had been plenty else to do, making sure the dining room and sitting room were pleasant, along with making sure Hereswith’s father had company.
Bess had been included at the meal. As Hereswith pointed out, it made the numbers uneven, but that was no real bother. Her brothers had sat one on either side of their father, then their wives, then Hereswith and Bess, facing each other.
Lucina and Clarissa had spoken pleasantly enough to Hereswith, with a much briefer cordiality to Bess. Hereswith had made certain to explain who the names were; Lucina and Wulfred had three children. Clarissa and Oswig had two. Combined, they ranged in age from twenty-nine down to nineteen.
All out of school, the eldest three married, the younger two were still in their apprenticeships, and there were two small grandchildren.
Hereswith certainly seemed fond of her nieces and nephews, asking after their particular interests or whether a specific toy might be welcome for one of the babies.
Clarissa and Lucina were pleasant enough, though perhaps more concerned with what others of their social circle would think than what they themselves thought.
It was clear Hereswith was the sort of aunt who’d taken the younger relatives out to a treat and a bookshop regularly, each in turn, or sometimes to some performance suitable for children that their parents didn’t care much about.
Bess approved of that, too. Not that she wanted children of her own, certainly not the getting of them.
Besides, she was getting too old for that, even with magic to help.
But she enjoyed having a hand in making sure the next generation grew up knowing there were people who cared about them. She’d not got to do that much for her own cousins, but perhaps their children. Depending on her own circumstances, of course.
But when the meal had ended, Hereswith had stayed seated when the other women rose to withdraw to the sitting room. She’d said, simply, that there was a family matter she wished to discuss with her brothers. That had been five minutes ago. Now, both women were more visibly uncertain.
Bess considered them again. Both the other women were older, each perhaps five years younger than their respective husbands, which put them in their middle and early fifties.
Lucina was a rather startling blonde, and Clarissa dark-haired, with a tint that suggested charm dye to avoid threads of grey.
Both women dressed well, in rich fabrics, but with little ostentation.
They were not wearing their best, Bess thought, but dresses two or three years old, suitable for a quiet family evening.
Or at least, they’d likely assumed the quiet.
As Bess took another stitch, all three of them could hear voices rising.
Male voices, pitched, not caring who heard.
Bess could not hear Hereswith’s, though she didn’t know if that might be some quirk of the acoustics.
Maybe a woman’s voice was different. On the other hand, she was certain if Hereswith wanted to be heard, she could be.
She was a mistress of Incantation, and that included all the ordinary uses of the voice as well as the magical, at least to a certain level.
Then, like a wave breaking on the shore, they could hear words.
“... can’t believe you’d suggest such a thing.
” There was the sound of a door opening, hard enough to rattle something on the wall between the dining room and the sitting room, then loud footsteps in the hall.
“Lucina, we’re leaving.” Wulfred, the older brother, stood in the door, his shoulders heaving, red in the face.
Behind him, there was a fainter sound, she thought Oswig. Then Hereswith’s voice cut across it, beautifully trained and used with purpose. “If you leave now, you’ll hear what I am going to do in gossip from other people. It will catch you up and snare you.”
Wulfred whirled around to stare at her. Lucina had taken a few steps toward the door, abandoning the card game. In the tone of a family matriarch doing her best to find out what nonsense had happened now, she said, “Wulfred, I would like to hear, please.”
Her husband turned back, then let out a huff of breath. “I won’t be shamed.”
Hereswith did not come in. “I’ll bring Papa.
Bess, perhaps tea all round, from the side table.
” She disappeared from Bess’s line of sight through the door, replaced by Oswig as he came in.
It took three or four minutes before Hereswith escorted her father in, with him leaning on her arm.
Bess closed the door behind them, having served up the tea.
The interval was long enough, she thought, that they’d had a little quiet conversation first. Now, Hereswith saw her father to what was obviously his particular chair in this room, and then settled on the sofa, gesturing for Bess to sit beside her.
Bess would give Hereswith’s family one thing: they were civilised about their arguments.
Wulfred was still obviously angry, but he was not huffing and puffing and yelling like many other men might.
Once Hereswith was ready, she spoke clearly.
“Lucina and Clarissa, what I told my brothers after supper was that I will be speaking with Council Member Ventry about what is involved in making a Challenge for the open Council seat at the end of August. She suggested I consider it, having seen some of my work recently and having asked some probing questions about how I went about things.”
Bess could not decide where to look. Lucina, she thought, was considering the implications faster. “Thank you for telling us.” That was also cordial. Then, more cautiously, the woman went on, “It is not a decision I would have expected from you.”
“Who is going to take care of Father, for one thing!” Wulfred burst out with it. “And it’s not, it’s not what our sort do.”
That, Bess thought, was likely the dual crux of the problem. First, that other commitments might mean Wulfred would have to pay more attention. Second, that something might draw the wrong sort of attention to Wulfred.
Oswig cleared his throat. “If it’s a change you want, Hereswith, dear, it’s not too late to consider marriage. Perhaps a widower with a child, if you don’t want your own.”
Wulfred muttered, but not so quietly Bess— and Hereswith— couldn’t hear. “Who’d want her.” Oswig glared at him, which meant Bess could make note and pretend she hadn’t heard that. For the moment. Lucina, to her credit, narrowed her eyes and seemed to disapprove as well.
“In the interests of family harmony, I am going to pretend I did not hear that, either of you.” Hereswith shrugged slightly.
“I do not wish to marry, thank you. That has not changed. I have been working, for more than a decade now, in a role that has irregular hours. We have sorted things well for Papa. It is, in fact, exactly the sort of problem money can help with, and we’ve no shortage. ”
Then Hereswith inclined her head. “Bess has been helpful so far in demonstrating the benefits of having someone else here reliably, and what range of tasks is most helpful. There are hiring agencies, depending on the needs. Unless you intend to chain me here, day in and day out, the Council is, I believe, not so different.”
Her father had been quiet, and Oswig certainly gave him no chance to say anything. “What makes you interested, though? It’s nothing anyone in our family has done. It— it draws attention.”
“The heavens forbid we do anything that others might notice.” Hereswith snorted, amiably mocking that silliness for what it was.
“I was not asking permission. I am telling you my plans, so that you may decide what you wish to say in public.” Her posture was ramrod straight, and Bess didn’t venture to move or cough or do anything that might break that moment.
There was a silence that drew out until her father spoke. “What would you like from us, Hereswith, my dear?”
“Your support. I know I have yours, Papa.” But, Bess noted, she’d said that here, in front of the rest of her family, so that her father would repeat it.
He, mind, was laughing, as if that was far too simple a thing to catch him out.
“You have my full support, yes. As you said when we discussed it earlier today, there are reasons you might withdraw from considering it. But you also have reasons to make the attempt. I will support whatever you choose there, with all at my disposal.” Then he added, offhandedly.
“Do not name children for entirely competent dynasties and expect them not to make the most of an opportunity, mmm?”
Bess suppressed the desire to ask for a suitable biography of Hereswith’s namesake or her family. She could do that tomorrow when they were alone in the library, after all, and not show her hand about it.
Wulfred grimaced, but at least he’d stopped shouting. “People will ask me why you have the effrontery to put yourself forward. It’s not?—”
Hereswith said, matching his tone exactly, “The done thing.” She shrugged.
“What I suggest you say is that I have a decade and a half experience in the Ministry. I certainly know how the slow wheels of administration work, and perhaps I’d like to try a fresh set.
If I try and fail, I doubt I’ll be one of the sort who keeps trying.
But I feel, as the others I’ve consulted agree, that if Magistra Ventry made the suggestion, she must have good reason. ”
Oswig cleared his throat. “So, what is your plan for preparation? Groves was going on about his outfit. You’re no duellist— you’ve other skills, of course.” His voice faltered a bit at the end, but at least he’d said it.
“I have an increasingly long list of questions for Magistra Ventry, and that is one of them,” Hereswith agreed.
“Along with the protocol for making the request, the event itself, whatever other preparations she recommends, if there is anyone else she suggests I speak with. I cannot make actual plans until I’ve had that conversation, whatever comes out of it. ”
Wulfred, finally, managed a “She’s terrifying.”
“Oh, yes. With excellent reason. But I have had two conversations with her in or near private recently, and I have come out of them well enough. Third might well be the charm, don’t you think?
” Then she added, slipping it beautifully, “Also, I might know a thing about being a woman who needs levers to be listened to. If nothing else, I will enjoy the chance to see how a true mistress of Incantation uses her words and her self toward her goals.”
It made her father laugh, comfortably. “Settled?”
Hereswith’s brothers swallowed, more or less in unison, bobbed their heads, and then murmured that yes, they would not argue the point.
Hereswith gave it a brief space, before picking up and asking her father about some small matter on the grounds that her brothers might have some ideas about.
And Clarissa, who had a touch for garden design.
Hereswith excused herself as her brothers and their wives left, saying she wanted to retire immediately, and Bess did not chase her.