Chapter 03

Elmery’s suitcase was returned only minutes before the call to dinner.

The clothes were still in their neat piles and seemed completely untouched. Her footsteps were light on the chevron tiles of the dining hall, buoyed up by the show of the faith, and she stood happily behind her chair. Only matching Lyona’s careful stillness when her father entered the room.

“Be seated.”

Eli was every inch a great Lord. His ward and daughters bowed their heads and made practised steps around their chairs and into place at the table. His staff lined the hall in neat rows, bearing sterling platters and glass carafes of peated scotch. No ruffle of uniforms or waver in their stance.

Only silence.

“You may serve.”

Elmery watched his finger rise from the table. A subtle command; the show of garnet set in a master’s ring.

It sent the slow dance of dinner moving. A slow and steady rhythm of laid plates, careful strokes of knife and spoon, until every course was served and they faced a single glass of amber.

Smoke curled Elmery’s lip. Not the steady hearth, or lingering cloud from the kitchen servers. The tang that washed through her teeth and scorched its way down to her stomach.

Devin timed his sips with hers, a smile returning as she wrestled the measure down.

“Are you well, father?”

Boldness passed for affection at this table. Only Lyona could afford it.

“Sufficiently.”

“And your work is satisfying?”

“I have tended it to be so.”

“Then, I am pleased.” Lyona set down her emptied glass; eyelashes dark, but her voice unwavering. “The ladies sent their greetings to you.”

“So their letters suggested.”

Lyona paused. Elmery swallowed and stared down the last dregs of bitter water.

A neat suitcase seemed a hollow victory, under his tone.

“It was a boy,” Lyona offered.

“The details are better saved for your maids, daughter. They will not concern me until he comes of age.”

Roundly defeated, Lyona sat back in her chair. She laid her hands flat but Elmery watched them gripping; the pad of her thumb bleaching white.

“Was there trouble on the roads, miss Lyona?” Devin asked her, carefully. “Some of the villagers have sighted wolves.”

“No. Thank you. We had no trouble.”

“Hard to believe it’s the season, all ready.”

“Only a man with no work has slow days,” Eli observed. “You must be making yourself productive.”

“There is a lot to learn,” Devin inclined his head. “I’m grateful for the education.”

“May it soon displace your art of sycophancy.”

Elmery’s glass changed.

She waited for Devin’s eyes and cast the whisky aside for an empty tumbler. The same shape and glisten, the same gentle press from her lower lip. Only, the whisky was gone.

Her father’s words melted from Devin’s face; lips pressing to hold back the questions that were raging.

“Elmery.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Elmery set down her empty glass and turned to the head of the table. The fire burned orange against Eli’s shoulders.

“Yes, father?”

“Stand.”

Lyona was watching a blank space on the opposing wall. Devin dropped his eyes when Elmery obediently got her feet.

The garnet rose and a server came to take her chair. They placed it on the stone slab that raised the heart; close enough for the blaze to add yet more [ELEPHANT details] to the carved legs.

Her father gestured to a different server and their glasses were filled again with the deep amber scotch. Elmery tucked another kernel of guilt away; deep beneath the unsteady waves in her stomach.

“What were we discussing?” Eli asked.

“Wolves,” Lyona answered, reaching for her glass. “It’s still early for them to be travelling. Has the hunting been good, this year?”

Though Eli left a pointed silence to weigh on Devin, he indulged his daughter,

“It would appear so.”

“These will be the same men to raise their guns protecting the village, I expect.”

“I’m sure the other lords will defend their manors and ladies, both. You’ve no reason to fret.”

“I’m not concerned for my safety, father.”

“Then, what is concerning you?”

Lyona swirled the contents of her glass at length before she answered.

“Elmery wasn’t well received while we were away. They don’t consider her to a noble woman nor, I fear, a lady. Clearly marriage will not be enough to make her proper,” her eyes move briefly towards Devin’s chair, “so I am merely asking myself what might be done.”

“And your thoughts are with the village?”

“It is possible Elmery might find a way to ingratiate herself to the community. Offer a serving beyond their future landlady-”

“That role will never fall to her.”

Eli was clear enough that Elmery and Lyona, both, risked turning to him.

When he continued to nurse his drink, Lyona studied the sharp planes of his face.

“She might ingratiate herself to me, then.”

“Through your tenants?” Dark eyes rose, taking the whole room in with a single sweep, “No. Elmery is learning all she needs to be a dutiful sister. Educated on her place for your sake, daughter.”

Fighting a flicker in her eyebrows, Elmery took a deep drink from her glass.

Lyona’s nail found the edge of her glass and traced it as the quiet settled. When they were under its bow again, Devin tried to muse,

“It is an interesting question, miss Lyona. What use a sorcerer may be to the world, outside of philosophy or the academic.”

“He is no use beyond his work as lord and father. Sorcery may be the thinker’s pursuit, but it belongs in a man’s study. Not in his work. Not at his table.”

“Devin wouldn’t mean to suggest otherwise,” Lyona urged, softly.

“Dwell all you like, son, while you may. But, a time fast approaches when you will all assume your rightful place. You will put aside lesser trifles and rise to the work of governance and charity.”

“Of course, sir.”

“And you, daughter,” Eli raised his hand and towards Elmery. “Remember this girl is future aid and company for you. Act now or she will be a shadow on your children, on your marriage, as she has been on your youth.”

When Lyona’s chin wouldn’t rise up from her chest, Elmery looked at her.

Her cheeks burned under her father’s words and Devin’s paling expression. She let the glass rest against her stomach.

“Please excuse me.”

Lyona pushed back her chair but went still when Eli observed, “Your glass is full.”

Slowly, she looked up from the nicked varnish of the table. She took her drink and got to her feet, reaching for Elmery’s hand and guiding it towards her.

Their eyes didn’t meet until every drop of Lyona’s whisky had been poured into Elmery’s glass.

The air was tart; stinging against their eyes.

Lyona let go of Elmery and set down her glass,

“Father?”

“Be excused.”

Devin’s chair scraped as he leaped up onto his feet; formalities dragging him up to mark Lyona’s first steps away from them all.

They watched her retreating back until the door closed behind her.

After a breath, Devin started, “My lord-”

“I leave her to you.”

Eli’s words pricked at their chests, but his dismissal was iron. When reluctance threatened to become disobedience, Elmery held out a hand for Devin’s glass.

His eyes were loud when he passed her the last finger of his drink and watched her pour it into her share. Elmery drank the full measure without stopping; her cheeks wet as she drained the [ELEPHANT mossy drink].

Forcing a grimace into a smile, Elmery dipped a curtsy.

“As you wish, father.” She set both glasses down together and in the flash before she strode away from the table, saw the ghost of Devin’s smile.

It was enough.