Shalador's Lady

said that since their children were going to starve anyway on the little that was left, they saw no reason to work and sweat in order to feed you.”
    “How dare they!”
    “We tried to keep things contained, but you didn’t answer my letters, and you ignored my pleas for your return. Then Lady Darlena and Lady Sabrina’s Stewards showed up to review the accounts and to personally receive the Queens’ shares of the autumn tithes. They were almost buried under the complaints, pleas, and accusations from both villages.”
    “That’s done,” Kermilla said crossly. “I’m back now, and I’ll fix things with the mighty Queens. What can you give me for income now?”
    “There’s nothing.”
    “Of course there’s something. Household funds. Something. ”
    “There’s nothing.”
    “Don’t you have—”
    He shook his head too quickly. Resentment bubbled up inside her.
    “I’ll see Sabrina tomorrow and fix this,” she said tightly.
    “Tomorrow is the first day of Winsol,” Gallard said. “Except for emergencies, the Queen doesn’t grant audiences during Winsol.”
    “This is an emergency!”
    “No, my dear, it is not. But it is a smear on our reputations that we must all work to overcome. Everything has a price. We acted imprudently, and now we must pay the consequences.”
    It wasn’t a smear on her reputation. Just because her First Circle hadn’t had balls enough to keep things under control didn’t mean she should bear the blame.
    “How soon can the servants open up my side of the house?”
    “You would have to discuss that with Lady Sabrina or her Steward. He closed that side of the house since it wasn’t in use.”
    She wasn’t getting anywhere with him. He wasn’t saying the things he should be saying. “Where is Jhorma?”
    “Jhorma is celebrating Winsol elsewhere this year,” Gallard said. “Since none of us are from Bhak, everyone else is spending Winsol in their home villages. I elected to stay and catch up on paperwork—and to maintain the court’s presence in the village. After darkest night, the Master of the Guard will return, and I’ll go home for a visit.”
    “And what am I supposed to do? My house is closed up, my court is scattered, and no one seems to care that I came back to celebrate the most important holiday with my people!”
    “We didn’t know you were returning. Frankly, Kermilla, we had no reason to believe you would return to Bhak.”
    “Why wouldn’t I return? I rule here.”
    For now.
    She heard the unspoken warning. “I’ve been traveling most of the day, and I’m tired. I’d like to go to my room now. Please arrange to have a carriage for me first thing tomorrow morning to take me to the landing web. I want to talk to Sabrina before she becomes so immersed in frivolity that she forgets her duties as a Queen.”
    Gallard sucked in a breath, but in the end he escorted her to the guest room and said nothing.
    She would talk to Sabrina and get this mess straightened out so that she could enjoy some of Winsol. And she would go home for a few days. She needed to be around people who thought she was wonderful, and she could count on her father to give her enough marks to tide her over.

CHAPTER 33
    KAELEER
    K ermilla stood at the parlor window in her parents’ house and watched the snow fall. It was a roomy house, the kind typically owned by a couple who came from secondary branches of aristo families and wanted to maintain the social connections that would be an asset to their children.
    Social connections were of no use to her right now. At least, not until she managed to get her father alone and talked him into giving her some help.
    She should have left early on the first day of Winsol as she’d intended to do. But she’d wrangled with that thrice-damned butler in order to get access to her clothes—which was insulting beyond words—and then discovered most of the new jewelry and half the new clothes she’d bought before going to Dena Nehele were gone. Not stolen by the servants, as she’d first suspected. No, something even worse. The jewelry that hadn’t been paid for yet had been returned to the jewelers. The dresses and formal gowns that hadn’t been worn had been sent to shops in other Provinces to be sold in order to pay for the clothes she had worn.
    Thank the Darkness she’d had two trunks of autumn and winter clothes sent to her in Dena Nehele. The damn nosy Stewards hadn’t found those clothes and they never would.
    By the