“Well?”

“Young Master’s condition appears to be stable. Thankfully sir Gunterson was abl-”

“This is not what I’m asking you.”

“My Lord, I-”

“Enough.” Baron interrupted the sweating butler mid-sentence. “You know what I mean. Who was it?”

“My lord!” the butler exclaimed, “If I had any idea, I’d immediately inform you!”

Baron didn’t say anything, simply letting the silence hang in the air. The butler knew that he had to say something, to quickly counter the unsaid accusation that grew more damning with every second, but he discovered that his mind was completely blank. All the arguments he had prepared beforehand were gone. It took all his courage just to meet the gaze of the man he’s served for all his life

Finally, the deep timbre of baron’s voice resounded again. It was flat and detached, like of someone going over the accounts. “Your family has been with us for quite a long time. I think it must be fifty years since that time when your father was invited to serve here. That would make for close to three generations of you and your relatives that we fed and housed.”

The butler grew pale as he realized the direction the baron’s thoughts were taking, yet he could do nothing but maintain his silence, desperately hoping that what he feared most would not come.

“Your sons had the privilege of sitting in at the classes I have arranged for my children,” baron continued, seemingly oblivious to the rivulets of sweat pouring down the butler’s face. “One of them has even found himself a seat at the town council. Your daughter has the honor of serving as the personal handmaiden to the heir. And yet it appears that was not enough for you.”

“My lord! I-”

“Ever since the question of succession came into being, your family started moving, spreading around. Your son started following Charles like a fly after honey and I haven’t said a word. You even sent another of your daughters to my youngest and still I haven’t said a word.”

“My lord! I just-”

“Can’t say such eagerness is something I look favourably upon,” the baron said. “But I figured you had some right to prepare. In your own way.” There was a brief moment of silence as the baron apparently considered something. “But now I have changed my mind. Back then, those fifty years ago, when your father was first brought here, he didn’t know anything. He couldn’t read, embarrassed everyone, once he even started a fire that nearly burned the whole house down. But he did understand one thing extremely well. The magnitude of the favor that my father had bestowed upon him.”

Though the baron’s expression remained as impassive as before, there was now a flicker of light in his eyes, a spark that could start a fire.

“You seem to have misunderstood your position. The issue of succession is not something that you have any right to even consider. The mere thought that my servant might have entertained the idea of influencing who will lead my family after I’m gone is laughable. But here we have someone who’s not only considering it, but even taking direct action.” The baron’s monotone baritone suddenly grew an edge. “Someone who took it upon himself to try and assassinate my son.”

The butler laid on the ground trembling, too terrified to speak a word.

“Do you have anything to say?”

“I swear, I’d never dare!”

“And yet someone did. I have to wonder, your servants are all around the house and haven't noticed anything? You want me to believe that one of my sons, who you control so intimately, has managed to not only obtain poison but also to administer it, all without you discovering anything?”

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Silence.

“Who was the last person to enter Richard’s chambers?”

“It, it was Mary, my Lord.”

“And yet from what I hear she wasn’t in his bed when the attack happened?”

“My Lord! I swear on my life she would never-”

“Enough. Get out and send the wench in.”

The butler raised himself from the floor. His mostly bald head was dripping with sweat. He left the baron’s gabinet and gently closed the door behind him. Then he tried moving a few more steps and quickly grabbed the nearby wall for balance. He looked at his hands. They were trembling and no matter what he did he couldn’t calm them down. His heart was pounding.

There was a measure of truth in what baron had just said to him. He did grow up in safety and comfort that made it difficult for him to consider himself a simple commoner. His late father had often harangued him with long tales of misery and destitute that marked his own childhood, but it wasn’t something that the butler could ever relate to on a personal level.

Still, even if he never fully understood his father’s experiences, he had a very clear understanding of the status his position conferred upon him.

The richest merchants would greet him with the deepest courtesy. And on the rare occasion he’d be tasked with surveying the farmlands, the experience was akin to visiting a foreign country. It was sometimes difficult to even consider serfs members of the same species. Countless villages filled with dirty, small people. Dim and half mute, just repeating “Yes, m’lord.” to whatever he said, as if these were the only two words in their vocabulary.

His own childhood was markedly different. He and the baron grew up together, and although he served as his attendant, he naturally started considering the boy he spent most of his life with as something of a brother. That was his father’s arrangement, or rather, he understood it now, the former baron’s arrangement.

The butler pushed his fingers through the sparse hair still adorning his head, trying to fix it up. A few strands of hair, mostly grey, stuck to his fingers. He and the baron might have grown up together, but while the latter still had the physique of a man in his early forties, his own looks didn’t hold up half as well.

And he felt fear. Because suddenly, at the moment he was lying on the floor of baron’s gabinet, praying for mercy, he had realised that that man was no brother of his, and he must have been mad to ever consider him so. That man could order execution of his whole family and it would not warrant even a change of expression. Just on a whim or faintest of suspicions. He just couldn’t do anything about those hands! If only they stopped trembling, he could concentrate. No, I can’t dally. If I don’t send in Mary immediately, the baron will grow even more suspicious.

He rushed to the servants quarters and barged into the room where his daughter lived. Mary and some other handmaidens were sitting on their beds whispering excitedly. Mary’s face was no longer pale, but rather slightly pink as she conversed happily with other girls. Her relaxed nonchalance drove the butler furious. How could she not realize the situation they were in! Their whole family was on the brink of disaster and there she was happily yapping away as if discussing the latest piece of gossip from town!

“Everyone but Mary, get out!” the butler roared.

The other servant girls immediately grew pale and promptly exited the room. Some tried to hang around the doorway, spying curiously at the newest commotion, but the butler slammed the door shut.

He looked at his daughter.

“Where were you tonight?”

“I was with the Young Master as alwa-”

“Stop lying, you stupid brat! Do you not realize the situation you’re in!”

“Papa! I swear I was with the Young Master! I swear! You have to believe me!”

Oh Lord, have mercy, what have I done to deserve such a stupid child.

“Tell me! Did you put anything in Master’s food!”

“Dad, you’re scaring me!”

“Answer me!”

“No, I promise!”

She promises again. Lord, have mercy.

“Listen now,” the butler said slowly, doing his best not to strangle his heretofore favorite daughter. “You’re going to be questioned by the baron now. Remember: you haven’t put anything in Master’s food. You have done everything as always. As for where you were when he-”

The door suddenly opened.

“I have told no one to interrupt me!” the butler roared at the intruder.

“I beg your forgiveness,” an amused chuckle came from the middle aged man standing at the doorway. “It’s just that baron grew rather tired of waiting, so he sent me to look for Mary as well. And having chanced on an opportunity to finally learn where Mary disappeared to during the night, I couldn’t help letting myself in.

The butler’s whole body shook as he stared at Richard’s tutor.

Still, Gunterson had little interest in tormenting the man. He simply turned to the girl and said: ”Come with me, Mary. The baron wishes to speak with you.“