When we finally got Gregoire clean to Guillaume’s satisfaction and back into his more courtly outfit we were able to leave and head back to the palace. Gregoire was uncomfortable. He wanted to know what was going to happen and how things were going to happen. He got quite angry that neither of us knew the answer to that.

Still, we made relatively good time and were ushered up the back stairs so that we could avoid all the courtiers that were waiting to speak to the conquering hero. Even so, we could easily hear the gossip starting up. The various people wondering about how the landscape of Toussaint was going to change given recent events. I stopped to listen for a brief moment while Guillaume took the opportunity to get some more heavily watered wine into Gregoire who was plainly nervous.

The main topic was about wondering who was going to lead the traditionalist faction now that Morgan had been destroyed. I didn’t get many guesses but one of the suggestions was that Lord Tratamara, the unofficial huntsmaster of Toussaint, might step up. I doubted that and told Guillaume so as we resumed our journey. The man had just lost a daughter, did not have much of a taste for court anyway and his anger would be focused on the people that were running the Jack scam once they were outed. That these people would almost certainly be Traditionalists was something that I was almost taking for granted.

“I’ve never been up these steps before.” Gregoire was looking round in interest.

“They’re the back way to the Duchess’ private study.” Guillaume told him. “She has these used when a person is prestigious enough that she doesn’t want them to be kept waiting. Or if the matter is secret and private. Or again, if she wants to send one message in private or another in public. Surprises me that you have not been this way. Sooner or later, everyone that I know that has performed some service for Toussaint learns the location of these stairs.”

“I am never called upon.” Gregoire rumbled. “There is always a prettier, more prestigious, more charming and more graceful Knight. I tried it, when I was younger. Killed a bandit encampment or two but I was criticised by the Camerlengo for use of excessive violence.”

I laughed at him but he appeared to be deadly serious.

“I didn’t know you could use too much violence when dealing with bandits.” I commented, trying to keep the tone light as well as to keep the obviously very nervous man’s mind off things.

“You can when you tread blood into the Camerlengo’s carpet.” Gregoire commented. I couldn’t decide whether or not he was joking.

We got to the landing outside the Duchess’ study. Kerrass, Emma, Laurelen and Mark were waiting outside along with Anne’s son who gave Gregoire an appraising look. There was also Lady Vivienne who was next to the door, beckoning us in.

Inside the room was Syanna and the Duchess who were conferring closely along with Anne who was sitting in a chair with the attitude of someone who has spent some time breathing in and out to stop the grey on the edge of their vision from spreading out. Ariadne was next to her and looked as though she was talking the other woman through it.

Gregoire stopped at the sight of the stricken woman. His fists clenched on the sword that he wore at his side and I rather thought I could hear his teeth grinding. Then he took a step towards her.

“Sir Gregoire.” The Duchess interrupted.

Gregoire stopped in the middle of the carpet. The sound of his name had startled Anne and she looked up at him with teary eyes. They stood there for a while, staring at each other before Gregoire turned and bowed to the Duchess. “Your Grace.”

She was smiling at him.

Lady Vivienne shut the door behind us and went to stand near the Duchess.

“Before you make any grand gestures Sir Gregoire, we wanted to make a few things plain.” The voice that the Duchess spoke with was formal but her expression and the tone softened the overall feel of the thing.

“Of course your Grace.”

Guillaume stood on one side of Gregoire and I took up the other side. I caught Ariadne’s eye and winked at her.

“First of all,” The Duchess began. “Well fought. I do not think it would be unfair to say that your opponent was utterly outclassed.”

Guillaume murmured something in Gregoire’s ear. “Doubtless it was the rightness of my cause Your Grace.” Gregoire said after a short pause.

The Duchess sighed.

“Also,” She continued. “I hope you don’t mind me saying that you caught me completely by surprise. I will admit that I didn’t think that you had it in you to stand forward like that. I am overjoyed to see that a member of my court has the moral courage to stand for a lady in peril. I am just stunned that it was you. Pleased. But surprised. I beg that you take no offence.”

Guillaume murmured something else.

“Your Grace.” Gregoire rumbled. “Whatever else I might be, I am a Knight of Toussaint. It is my honour, and my duty, to protect a lady in distress. I only regret that I did not speak up sooner.”

The Duchess’ eyes narrowed.

“Sir Guillaume, you have served as second with honour and distinction. It is time to step aside.” She said to the preening Knight.

“Your Grace,” he said formally. “I stand with my friend.”

The Duchess groaned. “Prophets save me from the sudden nobility of men. Nevertheless Sir Guillaume, I would remind you that you answer to me. This is not a courtroom and I require Sir Gregoire’s answer. Why this time Sir Gregoire. Why this time and not before? If Sir Guillaume opens his mouth I shall have his tongue removed.”

Guillaume knows his Duchess better than I do and he claims to have detected an undercurrent of fun to the whole affair. How he knew that. I do not know but he mimed holding his hands out and sewed his mouth shut with a grin.

Lady Vivienne smiled at her husband that suggested, duty permitting of course, that she intended to take him off somewhere when this was all over.

Gregoire considered the problem and scratched behind his ear.

“Truth be told…” He began before swallowing, his voice had sounded like a farmers for a moment. “Truth be told, it is not an easy answer. I do not volunteer because I have never had to. Others, better men and better Knights, have leapt to the fore at every opportunity. If any other man would step forward then I would have been forced to step aside anyway so that Toussaint and her Duchess could be better served by a better man than I.

“Also,” he smiled a little bitterly. “It might be said that no-one would want to be rescued by the Brute of Beauclair. Nor would the Duchess have chosen me.”

The Duchess in question’s eyes glinted.

Gregoire continued. “This time… I nearly didn’t. I will confess that and I would have the lady know that I nearly didn’t. I don’t think I would have either if Lord Frederick had not goaded me into action.”

“Yes.” The Duchess said, turning her flinty eyes on me. “We shall come to you Lord Frederick.”

I bowed. “I look forward to it, Your Grace.”

She glowered. “Carry on Sir Gregoire.”

“Truth be told, Your Grace. I froze in place. I kept waiting for another man to step forward. There were many points to that. The horror of what Morgan was saying was almost too much to be believed. I kept waiting for someone else to step forward and take up the challenge. I was horrified, appalled even. That no-one did. But I froze, like a cursed Coward.”

He shook his head.

“I apologise Your Grace,” He turned to Anne. “I apologise My Lady. If Lord Frederick had not done what he had done then I might still be frozen now.” His face flashed in rage as he turned back to the Duchess. “I froze, in a way that I have not done in combat. It was too much. Why this time?”

He shrugged.

“Lord Frederick goaded me. Because it was horrific, no-one else was going to do anything about it and... and…” He took a deep breath. “And because I love the lady.”

Anne moaned. I looked over and she was wringing her hands, tears streaming down her face with an expression of horror. It was easily understandable why Sir Gregoire mis-interpreted that look.

“I do.” He told Anne. “I am so sorry, but I do.” He took a deep breath. “Your Grace I beg your pardon but I cannot contain myself any further.”

He strode to Anne and knelt before her, both knees and with his head bowed.

“I love you.” he said. “I always have.”

I checked the Duchess who saw that I was looking at her. She kept her face expressionless but, I swear that this is true, she winked at me.

“I am not much of a man.” Gregoire had not finished his declaration. “I have no doubt that I would be a poor husband. I understand your horror madam. We are engaged now but say the word and I will withdraw the offer for your comfort. Or, if you need the protection, we will be married. I will arrange matters that you and your son will live at my estate and that you never need to see me again. I swear that I would leave you alone after the ceremony and that you never need to see, or hear from me again. I am so sorry to put you in this position but I could see no other way to save you.”

The big man was weeping as he said it.

“But you hate me.” Anne whimpered. “You hate me. You turn aside from me when I come near and you go elsewhere when I am available. Why… what…? You hate me.”

“Hate you.” Gregoire was appalled. “I don’t hate you. I adore you. I would wash your feet if you let me. I would carry you the world over with my own two hands. I would…” He stood up and paced frantically. “I turned away from you because I could barely stand to look at you and know that you would never love me the way I loved you. I chose others because… Because… I did not want to pay for it with you. I didn’t want to cheapen… Prophets but it sounds so foolish in mouth now. I wanted it to be special. I didn’t want it to be some transaction or think that I would have bought you. I didn’t want you to be a slave. Either in my eyes or yours. I count myself as beyond lucky to even live on the same Continent as you.”

It should have been corny. It really should. It should have been cliche and cheesy and the stuff of terrible ballads. But the depth of feeling in Gregoire’s voice was overpowering.

I looked down and felt Ariadne put her hand in mine.

“Put better than I ever could have said it.” She whispered for my ears only.

I saw a similar sentiment in the look between Vivienne and Guillaume.

I also get the feeling that Gregoire would have gone on for longer if he hadn’t been struck by a blonde haired woman who used the same force as your standard siege ballistae as she launched herself, weeping, at the bigger man.

She nearly knocked him over. A relatively slight woman versus a giant of a man in his dress armour and she nearly knocked him to the floor. I would have laughed if I hadn’t been busy being moved.

We all found intensely interesting things to look at on the walls of the Duchess’ study while the pair of them wept in each others arms. There was an interesting portrait of Lord Geralt on one of the walls. Truly I had not seen it’s like before and I doubt I ever will again.

Apparently, Lord Geralt hunts down other copies of it and has them burned.

We stood there for a little too long really. All of us with our own thoughts or busy reaffirming our own relationships. I can’t speak for everyone but certainly, Ariadne rested her head on my shoulder and I, in turn, rested my head on hers.

The Duchess waited for as long as she could I think. She waited for the sounds of outright sobbing to come to a halt so that it was less sobbing and more a kind of whimpering.

I knew how they felt. I mean, I didn’t know exactly how they felt but I think I have a general idea. They had, both of them, but Anne in particular, had come from a place of ultimate despair and resignation. To the point where they were now just beginning to feel hope fluttering in their hearts.

That hurts. I cannot describe it in any other way, but it is a very real, very painful thing. When you have given up to the worst possible outcome. When you know that it’s all going to end badly and then someone throws you a life line. When I finally knew that we were going to die when the Skeleton ship came for us. When we finally knew that the Cult was going to overtake us and there was no hope coming. At that final loss of hope, there comes a moment of serenity in despair.

I have found that I got to the point where the worst had happened. It had already happened. There was no fear anymore, I knew what was going to happen. So that when it turned out that I wasn’t going to die after all. That the Wave-Serpent had made it to shore or that Kerrass had figured out the solution to the riddle. That onrush of feeling as your body and your brain realises that you are going to go on living after all.

It hurts. I mean it’s wonderful but… and this is particularly where I can’t speak for Anne or Gregoire. There is also a certain part of you that resents the fact that you are being brought back and I have always thought that it is from this that the pain comes.

There is an old story, and I call it a story because there is no way to prove whether or not it’s true. But Queen Helga of Maecht was due to be executed. According to rumour, it wasn’t really her fault. She just had the misfortune to come from a treasonous family and was a pawn in her father’s games. It is even true that the King didn’t want to execute her, but was forced to for reasons of state. She spent her last days surrounded by friends in relative comfort. The King had decided to send for the best Executioner that was available which was a man from Novigrad. The executioner claimed that he was so good with his blade that the expression on the heads of his victims showed genuine surprise that they were dead at all.

But the date was set, the block had been arranged and Queen Helga was determined to meet her end with grace and dignity. She had ordered that the block be taken to her rooms so that she could arrange her wardrobe in such a way as to leave her neck properly exposed and so she would not stumble when it came to it. She got all dressed up, cleansed her soul with her priest and was waiting for the summons.

But the headsman had been delayed on the road due to bad weather.

According to the story it was this that finally defeated the Queen’s grace and she threw a tantrum of fear and anger declaring that she was to die today and now she was robbed of this final dignity.

I can understand exactly how she felt.

I also think that the Duchess knows the same kind of sentiment as she waited for the Sobbing to lessen before she called out.

“Much though I would like nothing more than to allow the pair of you to affirm your affection and discuss all of the things that need to be discussed when it comes to planning a wedding and getting to know each other properly. There are other pieces of business that it is essential that we address sooner rather than later.”

There was some clearing of throats and straightening of outfits as we all shuffled back into position. The only difference being that Anne clung onto Gregoire instead of Ariadne who went to stand with Vivienne.

“First of all,” The Duchess was not smiling although I guessed that she wanted to. “Lord Frederick.”

“Yes Your Grace.” I took a step forward. Always best to advance into your doom.

“The matter was in hand Lord Frederick.” The Duchess told me. “Why did you find it necessary to interfere?”

“You had arranged that Sir Guillaume would step forward to challenge Morgan.” I told the room. “That was a mistake.”

“Oh?” The Duchess’ gaze was like steel.

“For two reasons.” I said. “A political one and a romantic one.”

“Interesting.” The Duchess’ tone suggested that it was far from interesting to her.

“Yes.” I told her. “The Political reason is that it would make the matter political. It would still be your faction against the traditionalists. Sir Guillaume is a Knight of Francesca and as such, he is well known to be the Duchess’ man. The court knows this and although I have no doubt that Sir Guillaume would have trounced Sir Morgan as handily as Sir Gregoire did. It would be clear to some, if not all, that Sir Morgan would have been set up to fall. They would feel your puppet strings around their necks and they would have resented you for it. Even as he lost, Sir Morgan would have been a victim of the Duchess’ machinations and her determination to carry Toussaint forward in a way that others are not comfortable with and people would have resisted that. Morgan would have become a martyr to a traditional cause and you would have struggled with that.”

“Interesting.” The Duchess said again

Lady Vivienne wore an expression that spoke of “I told you so.”

“Therefore,” I went on. “It needed to be a challenge from outside your normal… and I use this word as your enemies at court would use it. A challenge from outside your normal cronies. Someone who could beat Sir Morgan. Sir Gregoire occurred.”

“And the romantic reason.”

“Just before court began properly and Sir Morgan started his… entrance. I’m gonna call it his entrance. It was made clear to me that Sir Gregoire loved Anne. I already knew that Anne herself was one of the few people in Toussaint that could see past the facade that Sir Gregoire presents to the world in order that he might enjoy a quiet life. But I had no idea, until that moment, that Sir Gregoire reciprocated. It seemed churlish to me to prevent him from defending the woman he loves from the pieces of filth that would destroy her good name.”

The Duchess nodded. “Not many courtiers would think like that.” She said,

“But I am not a courtier.” I told her. “I am a scholar. And I like to think that I take care of my friends. Anne has been very kind to me and she deserves to love and to be loved. I do not know Sir Gregoire well although I hope to rectify that in times to come. I have felt that he was unfairly treated by the society of Toussaint and now I had a chance to rectify that a little. Thus, I could arrange for my friend.” I gestured at Anne. “To be together with the man that she loves.” I gestured at Gregoire. “What can I say? I am a romantic and I like to see my friends being happy.”

The Duchess nodded. “How very Toussaint of you.”

“I shall bathe and take my medicine immediately, Your Grace.” I told her.

Syanna snorted and more than one person in the room had a small coughing fit.

“Yes, well. We were aware of the problem, but we did not have enough time to find an alternate champion. Again, it simply didn’t occur to us to ask Gregoire.”

She thought for a moment before shaking her head. “Thank you Lord Frederick.”

“Your Grace.” I took it for the dismissal that it was and gratefully stepped backwards. I looked around and found a patch of wall to lean against.

“Lady Anne. I apologise Sir Gregoire but there is still the matter that your betrothed was spying on guests of mine.”

Anne reached up and put her arm on Gregoire’s chest. Calming him so that she stood forwards. She stood forward and curtseyed.

“Lady Anne.” The Duchess said. “It is the tradition of this court that a member of it can rectify great wrongs with service to the realm. I find that I am well pleased with your service. You have brought to light a dangerous intelligence gathering effort, something that we would not have found if not for you.

“Furthermore, it is also known to us that your crimes were committed out of love for your son. Having only recently become a mother myself. I must admit that I would not have known the suffering that you were under had your crimes come to light only a week ago. But now I am more sympathetic to your plight. I cannot condone your problems as your crimes are still fairly serious. You could have gone to the Knight Commander or any other people and warned them of what was happening and we would have saved you. There were plenty of times that you could have passed word to authorities without endangering yourself and yet you chose not to. That was serious, if understandable.

“Further to this, it is also a mark in your favour that you stood up and admitted your crimes rather than to prolong a lengthy investigation that would have prolonged matters and increased the suffering of many people including other guardsmen and palace servants. That shows courage and honour.”

Anne had bowed her head at some point during that speech.

“Not that much courage.” She said, all but whimpering.

“You would be surprised.” The Duchess responded. “Courage is in the eye of the beholder. For instance, I would hate to put words into his mouth but I would guess that the man that would think nothing of wading into a melee or a group of bandits needed as much courage as he could muster in order to declare his feelings for you just now. Courage is a matter of perspective. You risked your own life and the life of your son in order to do the right thing.”

The Duchess literally smirked.

“Let us not be too concerned with the fact that you were late to the party, let us instead celebrate the fact that you turned up at all.”

Anne laughed.

“But there cannot be no penalty.” The Duchess went on. “I celebrate, and will reward your courage. But in turn, I must punish your failure and your crime. You will be put to service. You will serve the Duchy in some way although I have yet to immediately think of how that will go ahead. Until that time, I remand you to the custody of Sir Gregoire, the Knights of Francesca or the family Coulthard while they remain in Toussaint. We will find work for you and you should no of your new duty before they leave.”

“I understand Your Grace. I am grateful.”

“Do not fear, you will not be cleaning out chamber pots or anything. It will be work for which you are suited and will reflect your talents.”

Anne shifted uncomfortably and the Duchess saw it.

“Nor will I be sending you to someone’s bed. Have no fear. Part of what must go into things must be a discussion about what you can actually do for us.”

“I might have an idea or two.” Syanna suggested.

The Duchess rolled her eyes.

“In the meantime,” Anna Henrietta smiled. “Sir Gregoire has proven your innocence in many areas. Perhaps you might like to stay and witness the punishment of the people that have wronged you?”

Anne looked nervous and confused.

“No-one can hurt you.” The Duchess said. “And if they try to level insults at you or do anything against you, then their heads will roll. They might anyway but definitely if they disobey the laws of honour.”

Anne took a deep breath and nodded.

“Then you and Gregoire go and stand with the Coulthard family. Do not be afraid. And someone send in our other guests will they?”

The Duchess nodded to Vivienne who left while we all moved around.

Everyone filed in to stand in the appointed places. At which point, there was nothing really to do other than to wait. I was trying not to watch the interplay between Gregoire and Anne but from what I could overhear, he kept trying to put his arm around her as an act of protection before she would shrug it off and smile at him.

“They’re going to need to work on their communication with each other.” Kerrass commented to me quietly. Not that he needed to be particularly quiet. I rather think that there could have been a full scale battle going on in the room with fireballs flashing everywhere and the pair of them would not have noticed.

“They’ve just declared their love for each other Kerrass,” I chided him. “After years of pining after each other, it just happened over the most dramatic of circumstances. I’m honestly surprised that Anne can stand up at the moment.”

Kerrass grunted. He was unhappy. A running theme for him at the moment and I was worried about him. “How are you doing?” I tried.

“Still desperately trying to restrain myself from knocking Alain’s teeth down his throat.” He told me. “It’s getting darker and I still think that that’s going to be the quickest and easiest way to get this done.”

“Kerrass.” I tried to put as much warning into my voice as I could.

“I know, I know.” He blew a breath out of his mouth so that it almost whistled. “I just can’t help but think that if there wasn’t any of this politics going on around the place… If this was just you and me on the road without any of this nonsense, then the matter would have been solved by now.”

“Possibly.” I said. “Or we could be dead.”

“And by “we” you mean “I”.” Kerrass responded. “You are not wrong. But that is always the case isn’t it? Anyway, enough about me. I will feel better the instant that you all let me off the hook to go and smack the bastard around. How are you doing? Don’t think that I, that we, haven’t noticed that you are trying to get by on too little sleep. And also that today has been tough on you as well. I know you Freddie, you Love Ariadne and the two of you are made for each other. But you will not be able to convince me that Anne isn’t breaking your heart, just a little bit, right now.”

“No, I can’t deny it.” I admitted. “I am tired. I feel like I am borrowing energy from some kind of future me. I’m going to pay for this, I know it.”

“Maybe.” Kerrass agreed after peering at me for a little. “Look, I’m going to talk to Ariadne and Syanna. Syanna especially needs reminding that you are not a well man and that you need rest. Both for your body and for your soul. So after this, there will be a strategy meeting and everyone is going to want to know your opinion. After that there is going to be a lot more discussion. We can deal with that. I am going to get Mark to listen to your confession, then you are going to get something to eat before you get an early night.”

“I’m not sure I can do that Kerrass.”

“What are you going to do that the rest of us can’t?” He told me. “This morning there was a raid, this afternoon was a duel and you have been heavily involved in both. Last night you rescued a girl and fought both Jack and a witch to prove my innocence. Correct me if I’m wrong but you’re mostly running on the leftover energy from both of those things. You killed men today Freddie and you have to deal with that.”

“I don’t…”

“If you say “I don’t have time” or “I’m fine”, I’m going to slap you. This is how you got in trouble in the first place, trying to do too much and deluding yourself into thinking you were alright when you are not. You need to let yourself crash for a bit so that you can come back to work tomorrow with the full weight of your intellect. We need that a lot more than another man patrolling the streets to try and stave off another murder. An effort that will almost certainly not work.”

I nodded. He was right, and both of us knew it. Ariadne was watching me as well and judging by her expression, she not only knew what we were talking about but she agreed with Kerrass as well.

Anne was gazing up at Gregoire, her eyes were large and shining.

I looked away.

Which was alright because it was then that Lord and Lady Tonlaire made their entrance followed by Lady Vivienne who, once again, shut the doors behind her.

Sir Morgan Tonlaire, who men called The Black Hand, looked wretched. When I had first met him, it was clear to me that he was a once powerful and strong Knight that was on the downslope of his career. Sam, who had stood at my side while we watched his matches on the field of the tournament, had been able to provide quite the in-depth analysis.

It is a truth that, sooner or later, no matter how fast, strong or talented you are. If you make your living as a sportsman of some kind, or a fighter or anything that uses the body as part of the job, then sooner or later, you will simply not be as good as you used to be.

You find that you need to work harder and work longer to just keep your standard the same let alone to make any improvements. Sam claimed that a Knight can expect to be at the very top of his game for about a decade but then, to the back end of a Knights thirties or maybe, if they are particularly lucky, into their forties. But after that, their body will start to let them down a bit. Injuries take longer to heal, they just can’t focus as well, or keep their stance as long.

He hastened to say that this didn’t make them useless. Such men then have a wealth of experience and knowledge to be able to fall back on in times of need as well as the other man’s fear of their reputation which a skilled Jouster can use.

Sir Gregoire for example.

But it takes a wise man to recognise that his star is fading and to bow out at the right time rather than to make a fool and a spectacle of themselves. His assessment of Sir Morgan was that he was a man who had just begun to pass his peak and slide down the other side. When I first met him properly at the banquet that was thrown in order to honour the victors of the joust and to crown Sir Guillaume as the champion of the Saint, Sir Morgan had seemed like an old fashioned gentleman. His stance was pristine and he wore the grey in his hair with pride. He showed them off like some men show off battle scars. It was his views that dated him. I can’t remember how old I thought he was but it was clear that he wasn’t young. Well into his forties if I thought he was a day. But he bore up well and if Sam’s assessment was right, he still had another five or six years in the top quartile of the jousting field before he would be forced to retire to avoid disgrace or serious injury. At which time he could retire to his lands or become an official, or a jousting master of some kind if he was really strapped for cash.

Now, he looked as though he had aged twenty years and I would not be adverse to describing him as an old man. He was bent and broken. His wrists and ankles were manacled while he wore a plain shirt with the wrists and collar untied. It was the kind of thing that you throw on when you have just got out of the bath. His trousers and boots were better fits and in better conditions. But not by much.

His hair was damp and my feeling of a man just climbing out of a bath was complete. He drooped. He was a man that was barely able to keep himself upright. Pale, trembling almost. If you told me that he hadn’t slept for a week then I would have believed you. He looked awful.

Lady Tonlaire however, she looked the same as she ever did. Identical even. She stood tall, prim, proper, spear shaft straight. Head back, shoulders high and her eyes swept over the surroundings as though everything was beneath her. I had forgotten how tall she was. She reminded me of Aunt Kalayn, or rather the Aunt Kalayn as she should have been before my uncle got his claws into her.

Seeing her again in these circumstances made me think that she had been poisoned by life. She was a handsome woman, similar in age to her husband. My feeling was that she had once been a very beautiful woman, one of those ladies who’s beauty seems remote and untouchable , like looking at a statue, but something had soured her so that she had been robbed of whatever it was that had made her beautiful.

She was impeccably dressed and made up, her hair was perfect with not a single strand out of place from under her courtly head dress.

I had looked for her after the duel had ended and I had not been able to see her. At the time, I had kind of assumed that she had fled in the face of her husband’s loss and disgrace as well as the fact that his loss all but proved her role in the, well, treason that had been perpetrated.

But looking at her now, it seemed impossible to believe that she had fled from anything. Quite the contrary, she didn’t flee from people or events. People or events fled from her.

She too was manacled at the wrist and ankle. Of the two people, it seemed that we were more at risk from the lady than we were the husband.

It also struck me that I had never actually heard Lady Tonlaire speak.

“Remove the manacles gentlemen,” The Duchess told the guards “and then leave us. We will not require your services from there.”

“Your grace?” One of the guardsmen was unhappy with this and raised an eyebrow. I rather thought I saw Syanna nodding in approval

“Gentlemen. In my company I have two of the most famous Knights in the land.” The Duchess began. “As well as the Knight Commander herself, a Witcher and a pair of powerful Sorceresses. I do not believe that we are in any danger from an unarmed and unarmoured man.”

The guard was unhappy but he did as he was ordered nonetheless, taking the manacles with him.

When he was gone, Lady Tonlaire sunk into a low curtsy. An act that I would have thought impossible given her rather restrictive looking clothing. Then she turned and glowered at her husband who was massaging his wrists. The scorn on her face was rather telling I thought. Her husband clearly agreed as he fairly withered under her gaze. He visibly realised what she was trying to tell him though and turned to bow before the Duchess before straightening.

The room was silent before Morgan took something of a deep breath and sank to his knees.

“Your Grace.” he began in a small voice. “Your Grace I beg.”

The Duchess said nothing. She was using the same tactic that Kerrass uses when he wants to get something out of someone. He just says nothing and acts expectantly and nearly always, the person fills the silence with words.

Often with words that they shouldn’t have been using.

“Your Grace.” Sir Morgan pleaded. “I know that I, that we…” He gestured to his wife who sniffed in scorn. I honestly think that Lady Tonlaire was desperately trying not to roll her eyes.

Morgan’s voice trembled and he cleared his throat. Guillaume pointedly turned away in disgust, refusing to look at the fallen Knight’s shame.

“I know that out… that we are proven guilty upon the field of honour. I know that this means that our lives are yours to do with as you please and that, in the face of everything, that we would not deserve anything better. But please, I beg of you, show mercy.”

“Why?” Syanna demanded in what I guessed to be a rehearsed move. “Why should my sister show you mercy?”

The Duchess was examining her fingernails.

“We… I…” He swallowed and started again. “We have served Toussaint and the Duchess most faithfully.”

“That’s funny,” Syanna sneered. “I remember you doing very little to serve Toussaint in recent times. Indeed, since I returned to the realm and took up my own penance, All I have seen you do is further your own glory and your own prestige. In what way have you… served?”

She sneered at that last. I wanted to join Guillaume in turning away. It rather felt like we were pissing on an already broken man. I know the reasons and I know why it needs to be done sometimes and I hate it. But I needed to watch. There might be clues here.

“I have always been loyal.” Morgan said. “I might disagree but all I have ever done is do my best to serve Toussaint. To offer views and to speak for the people and…”

“Ha.” Syanna sneered. I felt that she was enjoying herself a little too much and I felt sickened.

“But I would never move against the Duchess.”

“That’s not what you were saying earlier.” Syanna countered.

“But in the early part of her reign, she never had a more faithful servant. After her husband died…”

“After, but not before. Earlier, but not now.”

Morgan realised he was going to lose that argument. “I know that we are guilty in the eyes of the law. But I swear, I swear that we knew nothing of what was happening. My wife would never be involved in such a thing. Your witness is not wrong and I apologise for what I said. But she might be mistaken. My wife is a kind, gentle and meek woman and she would never…”

I opened my mouth in incredulity as I looked at the astonished and outraged face of Lady Tonlaire as she gazed down at her husband before her face twisted into disgust.

“Oh get up you old fool.” Lady Tonlaire Snarled. “You disgrace us even further with your snivelling.”

Her voice was actually much higher than I was expecting.

“Prophets curse you for a fool,” she went on. It was like she had been a dam, holding back the torrent and now all that water was pouring forth. “After all this mess that you made. All of it. If you had just come and talked to me then all of this could have been avoided and now both of us are going to be hauled over the coals and everything that we worked for, everything that we dreamed of, is going to be destroyed.”

Then she hit him. A large, open handed blow to the back of the head. It looked like it hurt as well. Guillaume almost darted forward before arresting his movement.

“Prophets,” She went on. “If I had known that you would be that stupid, I would never have married you in the Prophet’s damned first place. But even then, it could have been solved if you had had the courage to die like you were supposed to. If you couldn’t beat him, you should have died and then I would have been able to say that I was coerced into doing what I did by you. Then I would have been safe, but you didn’t even see that did you? You were too obsessed with your own survival. Too cowardly to keep it going. I could have claimed innocence, but now that you have made us both guilty by losing and not leaving us with anyone to blame, the Knight Commander can send in the troops and ransack our home.

“What will they find then Morgan? Do you know? I know. They will find all the correspondence that you have written urging others to stand up to the Duchess. They will find all the reports that I have been sent and all the rest of it and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. If you had died, we could have prevented that, we could have saved our sons and daughters at least. But now, even they are poisoned.”

She started pacing before stopping and putting her hand to her head.

“Well now it’s fucked.” She said. “It’s all fucked and you have done this by being stupid, incompetent and never, ever listening. You could even have apologised to her and we could have got away with it but you and your damned pride didn’t allow that to happen. Oh and before I forgot.”

She strode over to the horrified man who was still kneeling on the floor and she hit him again.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice.” She snarled in his face. “Don’t think I didn’t realise that you knew exactly who Anne was, even before she was introduced. In fact, you were the one that introduced her to everyone. All you had to do was to keep quiet and we could have said that she was mistaken. We could have showered her and her child with gifts and all kinds of kindnesses which would have proven our innocence and we would have been protected. But oh no, you had to…”

She gave up then and hit him a few more times. Syanna stepped forward to restrain the plainly furious woman but Lady Tonlaire stood up abruptly and held her hands up. “I’m alright, I’m alright.”

Syanna stayed where she was though.

“We were going to change the world.” Lady Tonlaire snarled at her husband. “You were going to change the face of the Knigthood and I was going to change the face of the courts. We were going to be the golden couple, leading the court and the land of Toussaint into a new world where we would be the leaders of that change. And now look at us. A piss-streaked coward and a woman that victimises those weaker than herself because I have nothing better to do with my time.”

She spun and whirled on the Duchess, who was clearly caught by being appalled at the sudden shift in the woman, as well as a certain amount of amusement.

“That was literally it.” She said, “Building an intelligence network as a hobby. Something to do because I found the grind of Embroidery and sewing to be too tedious for words. Treason as a passtime because what else was I going to do with my time.”

She spun back to her husband. “Well now it’s fucked. It’s fucked and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Sir Morgan found a shred of… I don’t know. Dignity maybe? Courage?

“But my love…”

“Don’t you “my love” me.” I think it was that that finally broke her as the first tears slid down her face. She didn’t change from an expression of cold fury, it was just that now there were tears. “When was the last time you called me that? Can you remember? I can’t. Do not play cheap manipulation games with me Morgan. I taught them to you anyway as I recall.”

She brushed the tears away angrily. “Now, all we can do is throw ourselves on the Duchess mercy and hope that she doesn’t choose to make an example of us given the facts that we are, clearly, guilty. Both in the eyes of the law after your spectacular failure as well as in actuality. Two arrogant, stubborn, failures.”

She sighed and brushed the tears away.

“Curse me for a fool.”

She drew herself up and nodded to the Duchess. It was a nod of equals and I saw that strike home a little bit.

“I am sorry, Your Grace.” Lady Tonlaire went on. “I have no doubt that we are bound for the headsman but I didn’t want this piece of dung to go there without knowing exactly why he got there. If I have any right to a favour, I would ask that you make his death as painful as possible so that whatever it was that Gregoire would have done to him would have been a mercy in disguise.”

She considered for a moment.

“Oh, and before I forget. Lord Frederick?”

“Madam?” I wondered. I found that I was enjoying the show. And yes, my mood was shifting and turning on the edge of a Knife. Something I should have been wary of, but ignored.

“Nothing personal Lord Frederick.” She said, “Just the price of doing business.”

I found that I was angry as well as amused. I checked with the Duchess and she gave me a small nod.

“It’s funny.” I began. “People always claim that it wasn’t personal when they lose. Taking my spear, telling other people about my illness and the way to get inside my head. I don’t know, that felt pretty personal to me.”

“Not from us.” She assured me. She was calm now. “Your enemies though? That I can’t speak for.”

I saw the play then. I saw what she was going to do.

“You’re about to try and make a deal now.” I told her. “You are going to stand there in front of everyone and say, “What I know in return for our survival.” You have almost certainly figured out terms. What are you prepared to give up? A reduction in lands? You will want to keep your titles and your lives, a significant portion of your wealth in return for whatever you might be able to give us in terms of information. There will always be a bit of a nugget of information that you are holding back until we promise to give you… I don’t know… Something. You disgust me.”

Lady Tonlaire actually had the good grace to look appalled. “Of course not.” She said, “I am beaten. I know I am beaten. And despite the way my husband has behaved, I am a loyal servant of Toussaint. My little games would never have worked against Toussaint, or the Duchess. What my husband….”

She kicked him in the side.

“... forgets is that this whole thing actually started out of loyalty to the Duchess. We were going to be her biggest supporters. We were going to lead the charge on her behalf but… someone lost that somewhere.”

“That begs the question as to why some of those reports were gathering information from my own rooms.” The Duchess wondered.

Lady Tonlaire shrugged. “To see if I could. I fashioned a weapon that was supposed to be used for the benefit of the Duchy. And Morgan only ever used it for his own advancement. “I need to advance so that we have more access,” he said to my continued questions of “When are we going to start to make Toussaint better Morgan?”

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She sighed in disgust.

“I will not beg.” She said, “I will not claim differently. I was foolish to allow Lady Anne.” She scowled at her husband. “To see my face. I don’t know why I did that but I have been becoming less cautious in my older age.”

“I know why.” Kerrass spoke up. “You were bored. You wanted to be caught.”

Lady Tonlaire considered this. “It is possible.” She admitted. “Although a little… tragic I suppose. Still, I was stupid. Not the first time but I was increasingly astonished as to how much I could get away with.”

She shook her head.

“Nevertheless.” She decided. “I have said my piece now and I await judgement.” She settled herself. “Prophets but it felt good.”

The Duchess watched for a moment longer. Even with that, I would be willing to agree that it would have been a mercy if Gregoire had killed Sir Morgan on the field. That way… he would not have had to suffer the indignity of having us all listen to his wife’s tirade.

“Despite your words.” The Duchess began. “I find I agree with Lord Frederick. I simply cannot trust that you will not use your knowledge to hold something over us. Therefore, I should tell you that you will be interrogated thoroughly. Both of you. But you will be interrogated after I have passed judgement. Before I pass judgement however, and for the benefit of our chronicler in the body of Lord Frederick. I require the full story. What happened here?”

“Errr, well.” Sir Morgan tried to regroup but his wife overwhelmed him again.

“We were idealists.” She said. “We married, not long after the Duchess’ betrothal was signed.”

“I was ten,” Said Anna Henrietta. “And my departed husband was already in his mid-twenties. Go on.”

“It was plain to see that the marriage would not be a happy one. Morgan and I were disappointed with the choice although looking back, I think we were both disappointed for different reasons. For the wrong reasons. I was disappointed because the late Duke was so clearly, such a bad choice that it was almost embarrassing. I think Morgan was disappointed because he rather fancied himself as a contender for the Duchess’ hand. I can only see that now of course.”

Sir Morgan had climbed to his feet but he wilted a little more under this new assault.

“It was not hyperbole to say that we wanted to change the world. We wanted to shape it, change it, adjust it. At the time, it seemed to me that everyone was so set in their ways. It was plain to us to see that Nilfgaard was rising further which meant that they would, inevitably, come into conflict with the North. War brings chaos but it also brings advancement and back then, when the Emperor had only just returned from exile, we didn’t know who was going to win, but it was clear that whoever it was, Toussaint would be destroyed in a proper battle. The flower of Toussaint chivalry would not stand against the Mahakaman crossbows of the North, the Longbows of Kaedwen and the siegeworks of Temeria.

“Likewise the massed infantry of the South when paired with the battle magic of Nilfgaard would destroy us utterly, but we would still hear our parents and our peers boasting of how many soldiers they would destroy. It was laughable. So we were going to change it. We were going to be a team. I was going to gather a cabal of like minded women and we were going to gather the other women behind the Duchess, withholding our favors and ruling our husbands from the bed chambers.”

I thought of Ciri’s growing cadre of women that she was including in Government, as the rulers of other nations and said nothing. I call them the Empress’ knitting circle and it seems to be working as well.

“All that time,” Lady Tonlaire continued. “Morgan was going to be gathering those men and forging them into a force for change for the better. We were going to bring industry and justice to the surroundings.”

“When did it fall apart?” Syanna wondered.

“It never did.” Sir Morgan began. “We are still trying to…”

“Shut up Morgan.” Lady Tonlaire sneered. “The grown ups are talking now. Go and play with your toy soldiers. Do not try and suggest to others that you are moving for progress when you have been trying to make Toussaint more traditional for years. You didn’t want progress. You didn’t want new methods or new technologies. You wanted the old ways, only more successful.”

(Freddie’s note: In military tactics this is called “The Pellew delusion” and is best illustrated by fortresses.

The problem, as with so much in the world, is the conflict between traditional and progressive views. The one wanting to hold back or go backwards while the other wanting to run forwards as fast as possible. The true line being a mixed balance in the middle. If we hold ourselves back too much then we risk stagnating whereas if we go forward too quickly then we risk leaving some behind or making mistakes that we should have seen coming.

As I say, this is illustrated best by fortresses.

When people used to build castles, they would be built tall, powerful and imposing. It was a psychological thing as much as it was a military installation. You wanted your walls to be bigger, more imposing and more terrifying. You wanted the enemy soldiers to have been destroyed before they even got to your walls while your own men felt indomitable and confident.

So in the pursuit of building castles, if you leave aside all the stuff about them being residences or civic centres. If you boil off all the stuff about them being shelters for people, market places, barracks and things. Also ignoring the argument that a castle is only as powerful as where it is located. Another huge argument of being too remote to be useful versus being too approachable by assaulting forces. If you only think of them as defensive fortifications then we are talking about the walls, how many men and siege engines you can fit on the top of it. Towers for shelter and things like that.

And that has been the science of the thing for a long time. How to build bigger walls without them toppling down. How can we fit more siege weapons on them. How can we fit more men on top and how can we make those men more useful. Staggering innovations that mean an archer can stand on top of the wall and fire his bow directly down onto the troops that are massing at the foot of the wall. Arrow slits which is a balancing act between having enough holes to shoot out of while maintaining the strength of the wall itself. A slant to the wall, making it wider at the bottom than it is at the top, both providing a more sturdy base but also meaning that catapult fire, battering rams and other siege ammunition will be more likely to bounce off rather than damage the wall itself. Not to speak of making it more difficult to get the siege towers up to the walls themselves to disgorge their contents.

And that was the thrust of siege science. Higher walls, wider walls, more siege machines, more men on top of it. As I say, this is leaving aside all the things about killing grounds and gate houses and the like which is a whole other school of tactical thinking.

But recently, there has been a growing fascination with a man called Pellew. He was a Temerian siege engineer who designed King Foltest a new kind of Castle. He was challenged as to how he could make any location unassailable.

My understanding of the matter was that it was a bet first. Someone bet him that it couldn’t be done. He had declared, rather drunkenly, that he could design a Fortress that would be impregnable on a flat plain of earth.

Naturally people laughed at him and bet that he couldn’t do it and in response, he pulled over a piece of hide and a bit of charcoal.

What he came up with was a short, squat looking thing. There were still towers and things but they were relatively small. The walls seemed misshapen and ugly. And it was not the castle itself that was the most surprising thing. It was the artificial hills that he surrounded it with. He called them “Glacis”. Small things that you could climb to the top of without losing your breath. But what they did was to obscure the castle from the eyes of the beseiging forces so they couldn’t sight the catapults and the trebuchets. And given that the walls are much smaller, it presented a much smaller target to strike at. Meaning that the things that were fired at them would often miss, sailing over the walls themselves to impact uselessly.

Yes, if that was how a town or city was defended, then the houses behind the wall would take a battering. But that would still keep the wall intact.

He was ridiculed of course but being fairly rich, Foltest had ordered a fort to be built to Pellew’s specifications. I will leave you to wonder which of the border forts that held out the longest against Imperial forces. In the end, they were starved out as they were under provisioned.

The military establishment was furious with Pellew, indeed, he was actually assassinated shortly after the end of the war, and it took the world a little while to figure out why. His methods were newer and untraditional. What the military thinkers of the world wanted was new and improved things to bolt onto old techniques. They wanted bigger walls, taller walls, wider walls.

Whereas Pellew argued that the old techniques were becoming unsustainable. That if you build a bigger wall, then someone will just build a longer ladder. That it all needed reworking from the ground up. They wanted to win using the old ways. He showed them that the old ways were becoming clumsy and ungainly.

Pellew’s sons are amongst the people that Emma sent to work with Jarl Helfdan and Lord Svein. I’m told that they are already calling the castle that they are building “The Rock”.

Another example is the pending fall of the armoured Knight as a military force and this is probably more relevant given the context. In the most recent wars. The South was held back on two fronts. The first was Radovid’s superb use of the Pontar river as a natural bulwark against invasion. The second was the sheer power of the Kaedweni Longbows. Northern Kaedwen is a boggy, marshy place. Thick rivers and rocky outcrops. The ground is uneven and unpleasant and is absolutely not place for a Knight to be charging round. So what the archers did was to pick themselves the worst piece of muddy, rocky ground that they could find and put it between them and the enemy Knights and soldiers. Then they would just stand there and empty barrels of arrows into them. True, only one in twenty might find a mark while the rest bounced off the armoured plates. But given that the properly trained archers could fire off one arrow every ten heartbeats. It still adds up.

People are still struggling to overcome this. The Knights and the nobles who are used to the privileged position of being the only people that can afford the heavy armour, resent the fact that an uncultured peasant from upper Kaedwen can defeat them so easily. Armour makers throughout the continent are currently working to find more and more ingenious ways to protect the Knight and his horse from the falling arrows. There is a critical point coming where the balance is going to tip over and the armour of the Knight as well as the armour of the horse will become so heavy and ungainly that it will stop being practical.

So someone will have to find a different alternative to beating the archers with armoured Knights.

Why is this all relevant? Sir Morgan was the kind of man who demands better armour, stronger armour, more secure armour that will protect him all the better.

His wife is the kind of person that would suggest that what is needed is light infantry, or even lighter horsemen, who can close the distance the quicker.

Sir Morgan would say that this would be dishonourable.

His wife would argue that it would work.

He wants to win using the old tactics that are gradually becoming out of date. She is willing to look at new options.)

“I do not know.” Lady Tonlaire told the Duchess. “It is entirely possible that my husband,” she sneered as she said it, “really believes what he is saying in claiming that that was still his intention. But I don’t believe that’s true. I don’t know for sure as I will admit that I have never really thought about it in that way. I think…”

She tilted her head to one side and looked up towards the ceiling. A classic tell of searching for an answer if ever I’ve seen one. I found that I started to believe her.

“I think… I think,” She rubbed at her forehead. “I think it was when your husband died. Our first child had been born a little earlier and I think it was then. You were still in the prime of your beauty and I was… I think he loved you then and I think he… I think he hated me for not being as beautiful as you any more.”

Morgan’s face had turned to ash. “No,” he protested. “No, that’s not true. I have always loved you. I love you still, even if you don’t… I will always love you.”

I didn’t believe him. Neither did his wife. I rather think that he believed it. I even think he meant it but… There was just something. It was the very image of a man who was protesting too much.

“I think that my having children and not being the figure of femininity that I had been. Your youth, beauty and power. I think he regretted not being free to woo you as so many Knights did at the time and I think he resented me for that. Let alone the fact that he had courted me and chased me, now there was the gap… I was truly lucky, I ,that Jack was not killing people back then. I don’t think I would have survived.”

I noted that down for later. Syanna opened her mouth to interject and follow that line of questioning but the Duchess held her hand up to forestall her.

“I don’t know when it happened.” Lady Tonlaire continued. “But suddenly, he was no longer spouting the lines to keep his peers happy. He was spouting them because he believed them. It wasn’t all his fault. I was devoted to our children because I knew that he would not be. I wanted to mold them and hoped that they would pick up from where we had failed.”

Flame but what an awful house that would must have been. I suddenly had the insight that I was looking at my father in female form. That she loved her children was not in doubt in my mind. But in forcing them to be better, I wonder if she had driven them away. Just as Father had done with me.

“It was not all his fault. But at least I do not delude myself into thinking that I am some great hero of Toussaint.” Her anger came back in a flood as she scowled at her, now, weeping husband.

“We failed Morgan,” She sobbed and snarled at the same time. “We failed and lost and wasted our lives in the name of your ambition. In trying to prepare ourselves for the coming fight, we forgot that we were supposed to be fighting and what we were supposed to be fighting against.”

She had tears then and angrily scuffed them from her face. “Curse me for a fool.” She growled again.

“My sister,” THe Duchess began after a moment, “is positively dancing with a desire to ask you what you know about Jack, but before we get there, I still have some questions before judgement is passed. What were you doing? Why were you spying on people.”

Lady Tonlaire shrugged. “It was fun.”

Anne sobbed at that which prompted a growl from Gregoire.

“Oh shut up.” Lady Tonlaire sneered back. “You were nothing more than a playing piece. Know your place and be silent.”

And all the sympathy that she might have gathered to herself vanished in the wind.

“How did it start?” The Duchess’ voice was steel.

“It started early. Servants gossip. As Lord Frederick once wrote, servants are invisible. So I made friends with my maid who made friends with other maids and housekeepers. It was soon a vast enterprise. I wanted to know what Morgan’s enemies would be up to before they did. As servants, they would always, always betray their masters for the fun of it and the thought that it would make them feel a little bit superior to their masters.

“But over the years, Morgan asked for my advice less and less. And as he went, I had to force my information on him. And then he stopped even listening to that. So there I was, an intelligence master without anyone to talk to. But it was fun to know everything, and to torment everyone. It was fun, to trade secrets and be the spider in the centre of the web. It is… nice to be able to inspire fear.”

I was not alone in having an expression of disgust on my face.

“So you are another person that hates everyone and everything.” The Duchess said. “How sad for you. You even hate what little bit of happiness that Anne had found and enjoyed the torment that you gave her. Why did you show yourself to her when you broke her? If you hadn’t, we would still be chasing you.”

“The best part, if you don’t coerce an agent into following you, the best bit is always when you force them to do what you say. That moment when they realise that they have no choice?” She sighed happily. “There is not quite any feeling like it. As for why her?”

She sneered before seeming a bit rueful.

“It honestly didn’t occur to me that anyone would take her seriously, even if she did try to tell anyone. Certainly not that people would act on it so quickly.”

“Yes, well. I think you should re-evaluate your views on Northern Lords. And it shames us all that you think that no-one from Toussaint would listen to the word of a whore.” The Duchess said. “Does anyone else have any questions before judgement is passed?”

Syanna opened her mouth.

“Not about Jack or about specific events.” The Duchess forestalled. “Nothing that would allow her to keep the information over our heads.”

I had lots of questions. But it was all too easy to imagine Lady Tonlaire refusing to answer.

“Do you still love your husband?” Syanna wondered.

Lady Tonlaire considered before throwing her hands in the air. “Yes.” she yelled at no-one in particular. “Yes, I still love him. And I hate myself for being so weak.” She wept for a short while after that. Not by much. Little more than a small out pouring of tears and a couple of brief sobs before she mastered herself.

Her husband was appalled.

Syanna nodded and stepped backwards.

Later, I would wonder if I missed a signal between the two most powerful women in Toussaint. What happened next had the feelings of another piece of theatre where the rest of us were just players on a stage of their direction.

“Very well.” The Duchess began. “Then it is time to pass judgement on the pair of you.” She took a deep breath. “Can I trouble someone for some wine?”

Lady Vivienne poured.

“I must admit to finding this particular test rather difficult.” The Duchess went on, accepting the drink before taking a sip. “I am struggling to remove my personal feelings from the matter. According to the law, placing a spy in my chambers is treason. As is spying on foreign nationals, let alone my guests. Thus making me an oath breaker. So, according to the law, the pair of you should be marched from here to the headsman. Yes, even you Sir Morgan. You were complicit in this and you know it. The courts of old would not even hesitate before having you watch your wife’s head part ways with her neck before you were made to kneel before the block.”

Sir Morgan had looked hopeful for a while there, which made me hate him all the more. He would have been quite happy to throw his wife to the wolves in order to preserve his own miserable existence.

“It is also true that you, Lord Tonlaire, have been a thorn in my side since time out of hand. Your appalling display deserves some punishment but I cannot help but feel that I am being petty here.”

She shook her head. “I struggle to think what I am going to do with the pair of you.”

She stared at the pair of them for a long time.

“If I may Your Grace?” Anne stepped forward and stammered. “I would plead for mercy. It seems appalling to me that this is all happening on my account.”

“I agree.” Emma said. “I would plead for mercy. This is all getting a bit much.”

The Duchess laughed.

Sir Gregoire frowned and started to look angry.

“Oh, put your temper away Sir Gregoire.” The Duchess teased. “I do not laugh as an insult. It just occurs to me that one of the measures of Knighthood, and therefore of Toussaint, is to show mercy and we are consistently being shown how mercy is done by foreign nobles and people who, and I mean no insult, woke up this morning as a whore, even if she is now a lady.”

Anne looked astonished. Gregoire was visibly working through the Duchess’ speech to see if he could find offense in any of it. He could not.

“Well, now I have to be merciful.” The Duchess went on. “I mean, two of the wronged parties have asked for clemency, it would be churlish of me to turn that down. But there does need to be some kind of punishment.”

“I have a punishment in mind.” Syanna said. “If I may, Your Grace?”

The Duchess nodded. Syanna bent down and started whispering in her ear. The Duchess listened intently, nodding along. Then she smiled at the end. “Yes, I do believe that that would be fitting. You may deliver your sentence, Knight Commander.”

Syanna nodded and grinned at Lord and Lady Tonlaire. “Your punishment is to receive your heart’s desire.” She said, “Sir Morgan. You have just become the Duchess’ biggest fan. You will be a guest of honour at the Duchess’ table and you will receive a title as befits your station while meaning that you will have a seat at the Duchess’ privy council. You will have an opportunity to make your case in the council chambers but after the Duchess’ decisions are made, then you will lend nothing but your full-throated support to everything that she says. Everything that she says. Every word. Whether you agree with that or not. If you start saying things in private against what the Duchess says, then you will be found to be a traitor due to talking about things from the Duchess’ council chamber. The punishment for that is already set at castration, followed by quartering.”

Morgan paled at the thought.

“Your jousting days are done. This due to you being called to a higher duty. That being your service to the council. But your praise of the Duchess starts today. From today, you will praise her decisions and tell everyone that you are grateful for her, astonishing, mercy,”

“Which is true.” Lady Tonlaire commented. “It is indeed astonishing.”

Syanna ignored her. “From now on, you are the Duchess’ foremost ally and friend. If you waver, if you hesitate, if you continue to take actions that we even dream of as being critical of the Duchess, then you will be sentenced accordingly.”

“So it is tyranny then.” Sir Morgan’s courage had come back in the wake of being told that he was not to die.

“Do not be a fool.” His wife said. “You will have every opportunity to tell what you think in the council chamber. Did you not listen? She is offering you a post in government. Even if, as I suspect, it will be relatively minor and ceremonial until you can prove yourself.”

“Your wife is wise,” Syanna smirked. “You should listen to her more often. You might find that you don’t hang yourself with your own tongue if you do so.”

He paled again.

“As for you Lady Tonlaire?”

Lady Tonlaire squared her shoulders a bit, smoothed down her dress and wiped her face before nodding to show that she was ready.

“You work for me now.” Syanna told her. “I have the right of conscription to the Knights of Saint Francesca and I am using it for the first time now, with you.”

“You can’t do that.” Morgan protested in horror.

“She can.” The Duchess snapped. “She can and she will. Remember what your sentence is, Sir Morgan. Full throated support in public and,” she gestured to the assembled Coulthards, “we are in public.”

“You will work for me.” Syanna said again. “Your agents are now my agents. Your information is now my information. You will hold nothing back, your position will be public. You are my head of intelligence although your agents can remain private. We will come up with something so that they can communicate with you confidentially. You will answer to Captain de La Tour, myself,the Duchess and one other that I shall place over you. You served yourself and your husband, and now you will serve the realm.”

Lady Tonlaire frowned in thought. “You will make me the most feared person in Toussaint.”

“That is correct.” Syanna said. “And a lightening rod for disgruntled nobles.”

“My chances of survival will not be great.” Lady Tonlaire had started to pluck her lips in thought.

“To that end, you will be training a replacement to take over when you either succumb to the Assassin’s blade, or become overtaken by age and illness. In, say, five years time you may retire to your estates, or continue to serve the person that you have trained. We will add them to the list of people that you answer to.”

“And who is this person?”

“Well, the newly named Lady Anne also needs punishment.”

Anne herself, gasped.

Lady Tonlaire frowned again as she turned to look at Anne. “She is too soft-hearted for this type of work. I do not mean to insult in that way. But it is still the truth.”

“No.” Syanna said. “She is too soft-hearted to be needlessly cruel. She will earn her agent's loyalty. Where you ruled your sources with fear and blackmail, she will use loyalty. Care and the fact that they are serving the Ducal throne instead of your petty whims. Remember, this is not a game any more. You will be serving Toussaint. There are plenty of people who you have forced, that would serve much happier in the cause of Toussaint.”

Lady Tonlaire nodded in thought.

Then she grinned horribly. “You are giving me that which I have always desired.” Then she laughed and almost did a little jig. “Oh Your Grace. The opportunity to be listened to? To have my thoughts and desires taken into account. I do believe that you have given me my heart’s ambition. I thank you.”

“Do not thank me yet.” The Duchess said. “You should both know that your continued survival as well as the status of your children and your lands are contingent on your obedience in this matter. If either of you shirk in your new responsibilities then the life of the other is also forfeit. As are the lives of your children. The headsman’s axe hovers over you both and you would do well not to forget it. At the first whisper of either of you turning against us, all of us, then you die.”

“We understand.” Lady Tonlaire said in glee. “Don’t we Morgan.” She cuffed him round the ear.

“Yes, yes I understand.” Sir Morgan looked as though he was on the edge of falling over.

The Duchess wasn’t finished “We will add to this matter that a significant portion of your lands will be removed from you. Half of that will be given to Lord de Gorgon and his wife. The other will be returned to the Ducal crown. You will be fined five thousand crowns. Payable by the end of next year’s harvest.”

“Yes, Your grace.” Lady TOnlaire agreed. Still containing the joy. This time she only had to glower at Morgan who nodded his agreement to the terms.

“Excellent.” The Duchess agreed. “Then from here, I believe that Syanna and her team will have questions for you Lady Tonlaire, about your knowledge of the Jack killings. Lord Morgan, you need a bath. The stench of your cowardice clings to you.”

Morgan nodded miserably before looking up at his wife.

“Just so we’re clear.” She hissed down at him. “If I hear word that you have gone against this, most magnanimous of deals, then not only will I inform the Duchess and the Knight commander of your betrayal. I will ask to march to the block beside you. I will beg to wield the knife that cuts your balls off and to be your executioner before I walk to the block myself where I will set my neck across it with a happy smile. You disgust me, you awful piece of filth and I disgust myself for being unable to stop loving you.”

Then she spat in his face.

Morgan was so beaten by this point that he didn’t even wipe the spit from his face.

“Was that entirely necessary?” Syanna wondered.

“It made me feel better.” Lady Tonlaire said. “Necessary? No. His enemies have given me what I wanted. What does that say about us? About me?” her face darkened. “About him?”

Syanna had no answer to that.

“Very well,” The Duchess began, “Lord Tonlaire, I expect you need to go and find a place to freshen up and ready yourself for the ridicule that you will receive as you sing about our mercy to the heavens. Lady Tonlaire? I believe that your service starts immediately and that my sister and her colleagues have questions for you. If I may though Knight Commander?”

Syanna bowed.

“Sir Gregoire and his intended, should be given a weeks notice before Lady Anne’s new duties began so that they may get their house in order and acclimatise to their new lives.”

“I quite agree, Your Grace.” Syanna bowed again.

“Your Grace,” Sir Gregoire’s voice piped up. “May I speak?”

The Duchess considered the huge man. “Does it require the presence of Lord and Lady Tonlaire?”

“It does not Your Grace.” The big man’s face twisted in disgust.

“Then away with you,” The Duchess’ dismissing wave was as close to an insult as a simple gesture like that can be.

Gregoire led Anne into the middle of the room while Lord and Lady Tonlaire left.

“I want to do this before witnesses.” He said. “People are quite right in saying that my reputation is not wonderful. I am partly to fault for that.”

“Not as much as you might think.” I spoke up. “People were putting you into the hole and then you allowed it. Do not take too much blame on that score for yourself.”

Gregoire, and a couple of the others present nodded although I could see that the man himself would still need some convincing before he allowed himself to believe that.

“But I will not have it said that I forced you, Anne, into doing something that you did not want to do. So again, as I said earlier in the courtroom.”

He took a deep breath.

“I love you.” He said. “The desire to marry you is sincere in me, I would beg that you never doubt that. Never. No matter what others might say to you on the subject. Never doubt that. I do not care about your past. I do not care about your former profession, indeed I am pleased that I was able to cross your paths and know you as a result of that. No-one will ever insult you for any of that in my presence or in a way that I can hear again. Not and survive as well.

“I do not care that you already have a son. I shall make him as good as my own, including making him my heir, if you, and he, wish it. I do not care that you are… provably not a virgin going into a marriage.

“I love you. However, I understand that although I have been well aware of my feelings regarding yourself for many years. To you they are a shock and maybe even a cause for disgust and concern.”

I could see the negative in Anne’s eyes already, but Gregoire pushed on. I get the feeling that he had practised this speech a little and was forcing himself through it.

“In the heat of the moment, I asked you to marry me so that I could protect you. The question was sincere on my part. However, if you took the ring then in order to save yourself. An action for which no-one could blame you and again, if anyone tries then my blade will demand an answer for it.

“But if you are now having second thoughts. If the Thought of marrying the Brute of Beauclair is repulsive to you then please, I beg you. Say so now and we need never speak of this again.”

For just a moment, Anne nearly threw her arms around him. There was just a moment where she almost automatically said yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

“I beg,” Gregoire said. “I beg you to think on this seriously. The only example that I have as to how a man should treat a woman is from my father and he was a poor example. I do not know how to be a good husband. All I can promise is that I will try and that I will need your help to do so. Please consider, as I…” He wiped his own tears from his face. “I do not believe that I will have the strength to make this offer a second time.”

Anne nodded as a thought slotted into place behind her eyes.

“Gregoire,” She began carefully. “It might surprise you to learn that I have loved you for a long time. No.” She held her hand up to forestall what Gregoire was going to say. “You have said your piece and now it is my turn.”

I nodded, so did Lady Vivienne and Syanna I think.

“I have loved you for a long time. But it is also true that I have loved you. Gregoire de Gorgon. Him I would marry. The man standing before me I would marry in a heartbeat. Indeed, if there was a priest nearby I would ask it to be done now.”

Mark cleared his throat. “It can be arranged.”

There was some small laughter at that. “I’m hardly dressed for the occasion.” Joked the Duchess. “But after today, I don’t think I can allow the two of you to elope, I would make a fuss of the two of you.”

“But,” Anne continued and the room fell silent. “As I say, you, I would marry. But I would not marry the Brute of Beauclair. I have known you a long time, Gregoire, a long time. You take on this mask, this persona of the Brute. And when you become him, as I have seen before. You frighten me. I can understand temper, but who you become when you go to Tournaments or contests. Him, I will not marry.”

Gregoire frowned as he thought about this.

“I don't know how to do things any other way.” He said, stricken

Guillaume stepped forward. “My friend.” He began. “You have taken the first steps away from that today. Today you were a hero, embrace that and it will fall into place.”

“How?” Gregoire begged. “I really don’t.”

Guillaume laughed. “Ah my friend. I will teach you. As will all of your friends. I suspect that you will find that you have many now. My first lesson is this. How will you use your strengths differently?”

Gregoire frowned in thought. Then he brightened before turning on Syanna. “Knight Commander?”

“Sir Gregoire?”

“My sword is yours if you would have it.”

Syanna grinned. “I would and gladly. Although I am forced to wonder. I did offer you service before and you turned it down. Why not then?”

Gregoire frowned. “I saw what you were trying to do. I suspected that it would hurt you more than help you if you had the Brute of Beauclair under your command.”

Syanna laughed. “That might have been true.” She admitted. “But no more than the Traitor who brought about the Night of Long Fangs.”

Gregoire frowned. “I had not thought of that.”

“Still, I will need you I think. And that must start immediately. We are still under threat.”

Gregoire nodded and turned back to Anne. Who had tears streaming down her eyes.

“Anne?” He wondered. “I’m sorry I don’t…”

“Yes you fool.” SHe laughed. “Oh prophets yes. I am so proud of you. Yes.”

Gregoire stared at her. Then his face began to fold. “Proud of me?”

We all found reasons to examine the art work again.

“Then I must begin my service.” Gregoire said. “My Lady…” Then he laughed. “My Lady. I would speak with your son and then, I will begin service. With your permission of course Knight Commander.”

Syanna was laughing. “Yes of course. I will get things going, Lord Frederick? Master Witcher?

We all started to file out but I hung back.

“Freddie? You coming?” Kerrass wondered.

Anne and Gregoire had emerged from the room and Anne’s son, Fabrice, launched himself at his mother who quickly knelt to accept the hug.

“I will.” I told Kerrass. “I just want to see this.”

Kerrass saw what I was looking at and nodded. “So long as you are not going to depress yourself Freddie. I will tell everyone that you will be along.”

Emma and Mark passed me. “We will take Anne and make sure she’s ok.” Emma told me. “You know, while you and the boys work.”

I nodded. Anne was in the process of introducing her son to the huge Knight.

Ariadne also put her hand on my shoulder as she passed. “Cauterise the wound properly.” She told me. “I love you and I will see you in the council meeting where I will ensure that you do not stay up too late. You have done great things today and you need to rest.”

I nodded. “Thank you. I love you too.”

Saying that never ceases to get a smile to her face.

Fabrice was looking up at the huge Knight and shuffled up to him. Anne saw me watching and said nothing.

“Are you going to be my father?” the child asked Gregoire.

Gregoire frowned before kneeling. I don’t know if he did it automatically or deliberately. But Kerrass would have approved. Where possible, get yourself on the child’s level.

“That is an interesting question.” He said to the boy. “The answer is that that is not up to me. It is up to you and your Mother. I hope so, but, that is up to you and I encourage you to take your time to think about it.”

Fabrice nodded and thought about that.

“I’ve never had a father before.” The lad admitted.

“I have.” Gregoire said. “He was spectacularly bad at it.”

Fabrice giggled and a plainly astonished Gregoire smiled back.

“I’ve been thinking about this though,” Gregoire went on. “How I would have liked to have been treated though and whether or not I am going to be your Father, you and your mother will be coming to live with me which means that I am responsible for you. So I would like to make a pact with you.”

“What’s a pact?”

“A promise, an oath between the two of us as the men of the household.”

Fabrice nodded solemnly.

“I promise,” Gregoire began. “That I will never lie to you. Not ever. That might mean that you hear something that you don’t want to. There might be answers that leave you feeling awkward or embarrassed. But I will never lie to you. Do you understand?”

Fabrice nodded solemnly.

“So, in return, I expect the same thing. Never lie to me Fabrice. We will make mistakes with each other. We are going to upset each other and make each other angry. You are going to do things that I disapprove of and make me angry. And when you make those mistakes, or have those accidents, I need you to tell me. I might laugh, I might cry, I might get angry and I might be disappointed. Do you understand?”

Fabrice nodded again.

“But Fabrice,” Gregoire went on. “It will be nothing compared to how angry I get if I find that you have lied to me or kept things from me. You will not have a better champion than me, except maybe your mother, but if you lie to me. Then I will be upset. I cannot stand people who lie for their own purposes. Do we have a pact?”

Fabrice considered and nodded. Gregoire held out his hand and shook Fabrice’s little hand. Even while the small hand disappeared into the huge.

“Now,” Gregoire wondered. “Do you have any questions for me to start us off?”

“Do you love my mother?”

I wondered if the child really knew what he was asking.

“More than breath.” Gregoire told him. Anne gasped as he spoke but neither Gregoire or Fabrice noticed.

“Will you make her happy?” The boy asked.

Gregoire chuckled. “By the Prophets lad, you don’t start off with the easy questions do you. Well, I promised I wouldn’t lie.” He looked up at Anne. “I don’t know.” He said. “Just as my Father didn’t teach me how to be a good Father, he also didn’t teach me how to be a good man, or a good husband. I can promise….”

He turned back to the boy. “I can promise that I will try. With all my heart and every day until the day I die. Both her, and you as well.”

Fabrice considered this and decided he was satisfied before throwing his arms round the astonished Knight.

I decided that I had seen what I wanted to see and turned to leave, driven by a growing lump in my throat that was started by something that I did not recognise. Neither Anne or Gregoire deserved, or wanted my tears. Especially not the boy. But, it is a truth that no good deed goes unpunished and I heard Anne calling my name as I walked away.

Cursing myself for a fool I turned to face her and gave her my best smile.

“Are you not going to say Goodbye?” She asked. She still had a certain delay to her words and a fuzziness to her gaze which suggested a person coming to terms with things.

“Is it Goodbye?” I answered. “I have no doubt that we shall see each other soon. Not least because I expect an invite to the wedding.”

“Are you joking?” Gregoire had walked up, he looked kind of amused, shocked, confused and overjoyed at the fact that a little boy was holding his hand. Well, his finger, holding a still gauntleted hand was a bit more than could easily be expected. “You and Guillaume… You stood next to me at what is possibly the most important moment of my life. Any man that would stand next to me in the hardest points would, I hope, stand next to me in the most joyous.”

Right there and right then, I couldn’t think of anything more horrifying. The black part of my mood was rising.

“I would be honoured.” I said, shaking Gregoire’s hand.

“Thank you Lord Frederick.” he said, staring into my eyes. “I mean it, for everything. I might not be much of a courtier, but I recognise a courtier’s hand in all this,” he gestured between Anne and himself before taking a breath. “I will admit that I thought badly of you, Lord Frederick. You deserved better at my hands.”

“I will forgive you Sir Knight.” I told him. “I would imagine that it is a hard habit to break, being used to everyone hating you for no reason.”

“It is.” He admitted before smiling. “What. No speech about how I had better not hurt her?”

I found a laugh from somewhere. “What would I do otherwise, call you out? Let us be fair Sir Knight. You would split me in two for my impertinence.”

“True,” he admitted.

“But in all honesty, I have always found such speeches demeaning. Both to you and to the lady. She can take care of herself I fancy.”

“She can.”

“Would you excuse us, love?” Anne asked her betrothed. “I have words to say to Freddie.”

Gregoire’s eyes narrowed in suspicion for a moment before he visibly frowned at himself and shook his head in shame. “Distrust of people is a hard habit to break.” He said. “Of course you have private things to say to each other. I will be at the end of the hall. I shall see you soon Lord Frederick.”

“Freddie, please. I think you’ve earned it.”

“I am less certain. Come along Fabrice.”

The big man walked to the end of the hall, carefully keeping his stride slow so that the boy could keep up.

“Thank you Freddie.” Anne told me as she watched the huge Knight walk away. “Thank you so much.”

“I am sorry you had to go through hell to get there.”

“I have been through worse.” She said, a shadow of pain crossed her face. “Are you alright though? You look a little…”

I sighed. Of course she had seen through my mask of false cheerfulness.

“I am… not.” I decided.

She nodded a little sadly. “I am so sorry Freddie.”

“What for?” I snapped, a little harsher than I had meant to. “I am sorry.” I told her.

“No, it’s I who am sorry,” My brief flash of unfair rage washed over her. “But I doubt I can be there to help support you in these last days of your hunt for the killers. All I can ask is that you try and take care of yourself, at least a little.”

I looked out the window to see that Dusk was settling and the sky was turning dark. crimson.

“I suspect that a few people are conspiring to mother me.” I told her. “I have already been told that I am heading for an early night.”

“There are worse things.” She said before taking a deep breath. “I don’t want to leave it like this Freddie. You were among the best clients I ever had. Enough that I thought of you as a friend and I would have looked back on it all fondly. I felt as though I was doing good work with you and that I really helped you. I really believed that I was contributing. I am excited by my new life and I am looking forward to what comes next, both married life and the work that I have ahead of me. But I am sorry that it ends like this between us.”

“How else would it have ended?” Again, there was too much bitterness there. I didn’t mean it and I took another breath. “I’m sorry again.” I said.

“And again, it is I who am sorry. To answer your question. When you were feeling better and properly well. When you were leaving Toussaint or when our contract ended, I had something planned along the lines of one last perfect evening. I would have had you take me to a play, followed by a nice meal in a local, up market tavern that I know before taking you to a room somewhere where we would have made love for as long as possible before falling asleep. Then I would have parted from you as gently as I could in the morning. I would have looked as beautiful as I could manage and the tears that I would have shed at our parting would not have been feigned. Not for you.”

“That sounds nice.” I admitted.

“But instead, I betrayed you. Hurt you and if I am any judge, I have broken your heart a little.”

“A little bit,” I admitted, trying for a smile.

“And in return, you have given my son a father, me a future where I do not have to sell my body for a living.” She laughed. “Not all clients are as pleasant as you.”

I laughed at her. “I will take that compliment.”

“You should. And you have given me one of the few men that I have been able to love. Hardly seems fair.”

“I would pay that price.” I said. “You deserve it.”

“Thank you for your kindness.” She told me. “I will see you soon Freddie, I do not wish us to be strangers, although I will leave it for a while until you are feeling more comfortable.”

“Thank you.”

She went to offer a hug and Flame curse my disobedient body, I flinched backwards.

“I can’t.” I said, the lump back in my throat. “I really can’t. I am sorry.”

“Oh Freddie.” I could see the wet shine in her eyes in answer to mine. “It is I who am sorry.”

“Take care.” I told her.

“You too.” And she was gone. Gregoire looked at her for a moment and hugged her. She said something that I did not hear and he looked up at me with an unreadable expression before he nodded towards me. The new family unit turned and left.

I sighed and looked back out the window. The sun was setting over Beauclair and I decided that I could allow myself a small amount of time to brood. I went and stood, looking out the window and let a few tears stream down my face.

I have been lucky enough, in my life, to know a number of wonderful women. Of those, the greatest is the one that agreed to marry me. I give thanks for her every day of my life.

But Anne was another. I don’t know how much of our time together was part of her doing her job, or how much was a genuine connection between the two of us. I dare not ask her now because I do not know if I want to know the answer.

I spent some time watching the sun set, I rather thought that it was going to rain soon. But after a brief time, I could no longer prevent the guilt that was scrabbling at the back of my mind, trying to tell me that I needed to be doing some work and helping people rather than moping around. I found a servant who told me that Syanna and the rest were working in a certain room and they took me there with little complaint.

It was another one of those meeting rooms. Long table, drinks nearby, pastries and fruit provided. Ariadne was waiting for me and gave me a quick hug before passing me a cup of honeyed tea. There were also a lot more people in the room. A number of other Knights that I didn’t recognise as long as several guardsmen and Lady Vigo was in the back. As I walked in, it appeared that the meeting was not going well.

“What do you mean that you don’t know who Jack is?”

“I’m telling you that I don’t know who Jack is.” Lady Tonlaire screamed back.

I swallowed a hot piece of sausage, a little bit faster than I probably should have done.

“For those of us that are just turning up.” I wondered. “What’s happening?”

“Lady Tonlaire claims that she doesn't know what’s happening.” Kerrass added helpfully.

“Dear Prophets, is this the group that finally managed to unearth my presence?” The lady in question wondered. “I was resigned, but now I am a little ashamed.”

‘I wouldn't worry.” Syanna said, sounding tired and rubbing her eyes. “Freddie’s the real brains of the outfit. But still…”

“And Freddie needs to go to bed and get some rest.” Ariadne insisted.

“Yes, I knew that he was ill and he is looking a bit pale.” Lady Tonlaire frowned at me.

“Ok look.” I said. “While I drink my tea, can someone please explain what is going on?”

“I have been trying to explain to Captain De La Tour here that I do not know who the killer Jack is.” Lady Tonlaire said. “These attacks are utterly disgusting and I would never have had any part of it. If I had found out, then I would have found a way to get the information into your hands. And I was looking.”

“Oh?” Syanna wondered.

“Why yes. Those poor women. No-one deserves to die like that.”

“So do you have any ideas at all?” I wondered.

“Ideas? Theories? Certainly. But nothing concrete. For a start, I am unconvinced that it’s only one person but...”

“I don’t believe her.” Damien insisted.

“I do.” I said. “She wanted to make the world a better place, this is a backwards step for everyone isn’t it. We know that.”

Damien grumbled.

“Thank you Lord Frederick.” Lady Tonlaire snapped. “Finally a sensible person.”

“I am many things.” I retorted, “but I am pretty sure that I am not sensible.”

Kerrass snorted.

“I must check though.” Syanna said. “Is it definitely not your husband. Is he definitely not involved.”

“Of course not. Do not be absurd.”

“Why not?” Syanna was implacable.

“These deaths are despicable. My husband was as revolted by these events as anyone.”

“So then why...?” Damien demanded.

“That’s enough.” Syanna snapped. “We do not have a lot of time for speculation. And we can tie ourselves in knots trying to get our new head of intelligence up to speed. What we need now is a target. Who are they going to go for first. Freddie?”

“Yeah?” I looked up from where I had suddenly found my head sinking.

“Freddie, you look grey.”

“That’s weird because I feel a picture of health.”

Guilaume and Kerrass grinned.

Ariadne did not.

Syanna allowed herself a smile. “Today has been a big day for you.” She said. “I know it, we all know it and after yesterday with the Witch and your other… problems. It is a small miracle that you are upright at all.”

“Hear hear.” someone muttered. Lady Tonlaire was looking at me curiously.

“So Ariadne has threatened me with actual death unless I get you to your bed as quickly as possible. To that end, we will do that detailed thinking, I want a starting point from you. Who are they going to come after tonight? What are they thinking now?”

I took a deep breath.

“They have to know.” I began, just letting my mind speak while the rest of me tried to relax. I had been pushing aside the physical reactions for a while now.

Strong coffee can only do so much.

“They have to know.” I tried again. “That we are closing in on them. The pool of suspects is getting smaller by the day. They have to know that we’re on to them. We know about Alain…”

“De Moineau?” Lady Tonlaire asked. “But Jack killed his wife.”

“We think that they were clearing a way for Alain to be able to marry Lady Caroline.” Syanna said. “It’s complicated and we will explain everything after Freddie’s gone to bed.”

“And it’s well known that the man’s bored of his wife.” Lady Tonlaire mused. “And he’s a snake as well.” She shuddered.

“And we have their pattern.” I went on. “We know that their objective is to undermine the throne, make Syanna and the Knights look incompetent and to remove power from the Knights and The Duchess.”

“I am looking forward to hearing how you came to those conclusions.” Lady Tonlaire said, a little too eagerly for my comfort. “I mean I can believe it. There are plenty of people who would want to do that, but resorting to this?”

“In short.” Syanna said, “It’s the only theory that fits all the facts. Don’t interrupt him though. We will explain everything while we wait for the next crisis to come up.”

Lady Tonlaire nodded.

“I think that there are two options.” I said. “The first is that they go to a dragon Fire level. Or that they move to protect themselves.”

“One at a time Freddie.” Ariadne told me. “What is the Dragon Fire level.”

“They have to know we’re closing in on them, so they either double their bet or walk away from the table. Doubling their bet means that they go after a VIP. My family, Emma would do, after all. I know that my family are well protected so I use that as an example. Someone like Lady Vivienne or if there’s another female advisor that the Duchess depends on. Or another female VIP that the Duchess should be looking after above all others.”

“Lady Anne.” Guillaume suggested. “After today, it would devastate Toussaint if she died.”

“Lady Caroline as well.” Damien said.

“Lady Caroline is at the Chapterhouse of the Knights under so much guard that she is probably wishing that she was back with the Witch by now.” Syanna said. “And anyone that wants to get to Anne will need to go through a love sick Gregoire. But I will double that guard anyway. But let’s save the ideas, what would “walking away from the table” look like Freddie?”

‘They will try and find a scapegoat. They know that you, and the Duchess, will never allow this crime to go unpunished.” I told them all.

“Too fucking right.” Someone muttered. It was a female voice.

“They will want to set up a scapegoat. Someone that is easily believable to have killed all the targets so that they can wash their hands of this attempt at a coup and regroup for another attempt down the line. So who would it be believable that could do all of this and therefore, who would that person go after. Who would their scapegoat choose as a target.”

“Witcher Kerrass.” Lady Tonlaire said. “I would say the same of Lord Geralt were he here and…” A light went on behind her eyes. “Oh. You know that there’s more than one attacker but you kept that secret so that… Oh that’s good.” For the first time, she looked as though she was impressed. “You people are cleverer than I thought.”

“Ok. That’s lovely and everything but…” Damien snapped, clearly unhappy with her presence.

“I SAID THAT’S ENOUGH.” Syanna thundered. You could have heard a pin drop when she was done. “Right. Ok, that makes sense to me Freddie.”

“And me.” Damien agreed after taking a breath.

Lady Tonlaire looked astonished at the rage in Syanna’s voice. She looked as though the world was changing before her eyes.

“Right. That’s it Freddie. Go and get some rest, spend some time with your family and relax. We will need you tomorrow. Ariadne?”

“I will go with him.” My fiance said, wrapping her arm around me.

“Everyone else? Who’s the target. I want names, no-one’s too stupid a suggestion. I want a curfew as well along with penalties for whoever thinks that it doesn’t apply to them. Move it.”

I did as I was told. I was astonished at how tired I was. Despite this it took me an age to get some sleep. I ate with Emma, Mark and Laurelen who wanted to talk about Anne and Gregoire. I was congratulated on my actions and the things I had done over the last couple of days. I played some cards with Mark to help get my mind off what was going to happen next.

He let me win.

But I was sinking fast. There was no doubt in it.

Ariadne took charge and ordered me to a bath where she acted as nurse. She bathed me and got me into bed, literally tucking me in. She lay on the bed next to me and held me tight as I went through some stuff. I won’t bore you too much to talk about it here. Suffice to say that I wept, shook, sweated again and then she soothed me as eventually I fell asleep.

All told, I got three hours of sleep.

“Freddie?” Ariadne was shaking me awake. “Freddie? I am so sorry but I need you to wake up now.”

“What? Whass’ happening?”

“Freddie. I have hot coffee and a set of sausage pastries that I will force down your throat before I allow you to dress and go out.”

I blinked at her until I could see her face.

Which was stone.

“What is it?” I demanded.

“They need you. Lady Duberton, the Colonel of the Imperial Regiment’s wife. She was found battered to death at the bottom of a cliff on the edge of town.”

“Oh no.” I groaned. The vision of a bright, cheerful if subdued, pretty but not beautiful, woman swam before my eyes. Dressed in black with her face bracketed with blond curls that had fallen loose from her head dress.

I had liked her and her husband and had spent some time trying to make friends with the pair of them.

“They need you Freddie.”

I nodded and swung my legs over the side of the bed.