The current situation, as it pertained to the throne, was something Wendel would have heard about at school and through Whateley. I’m sure Wendel’s mind conjured images of Ern’s death and my five-day slumber. I’d told everyone to handle the topic with subtlety and to keep the details about Ern’s passing as vague as possible.
“Well, okay then,” said Wendel. “I’d figured as much when His Highness just casually turned up here. Whateley, help out however you can, please. Geoff, I assume that was your intent from the start, so I need not say anything, I suppose?”
Whateley bowed reverently to the family’s future lord. Geoff replied with a resolute nod. I was impressed. Circumstances being what they were, I’d expected Wendel to demand an explanation—after all, he’d been left entirely out of the loop while the rest of the household ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. But instead, he was broad-minded enough to simply turn to the family steward and ask that I get the support I need.
Children are not always as childish as we adults assume...
Or perhaps it’s just that adults underestimate them, and so their growth comes as more of a surprise than it should. Either way, I’ll have to sit down with Emil sometime soon for a serious discussion.
“Do as you like,” said Wendel, an easy smile on his face. “Should the family fall while we reside here in the capital, I’ll simply do whatever it takes to rebuild it.”
“Does he remind you of someone, Whateley?” I asked.
“The margrave, yes,” he replied, coughing.
“That cough has lingered for quite some time,” I said. “I’m sure with my fever, you’ve been overworking yourself again. I want you to get some rest.”
“Don’t mind me. I’m well aware I’m not as sprightly as I once was, and I have younger people doing all my running around for me.”
For Whateley, the joy of the work came in seeing the boys grow with each passing day.
“While there’s more I’d like to ask about, I think that’s enough for now,” said Wendel. “And it just gives me more to look forward to, like the story behind this bird here.”
“Thank you, Wendel.”
“As long as you’re healthy and well, it’s fine. Oh, and as for you and His Highness...”
“Master Wendel, let us not forget the art of subtlety,” said Whateley.
“A tale for another time, then,” said Wendel after a pause. “Well, I guess I’ll get back to it.”
Blacky was still staring intensely at Black Bird as Wendel carried him away with an easy grace.
“Charlot has my little black bird in her sights. I do wish Wendel would have taken her with him too.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on your avian friend.”
“But it sleeps the sleep of the pure. I wonder if it even knows the cats see it as prey?”
The bird was small enough to fit snugly into the palm of my hand. As a little experiment, I squeezed it between both hands. The bird simply grew thin, as though it were made of rubber, and did not look as if it were suffering in the slightest—rather, it just went right on sleeping. Even when I had it squeezed into a long, thin shape, it still didn’t wake. I began to doubt that the bird even had any internal organs at all. It was also just utterly defenseless. It looked like it would lose to any and every attack, regardless of where they came from.
I was curious about the bird, but I was curious about other things too—including everything that had occurred whilst I was asleep.
“I’m feeling a little under the weather,” I said. “Geoff, would you mind arranging for a doctor to visit?”
“Shouldn’t you rest, my lady?”
“I’d like to get up to speed with things first. I don’t have to worry about overexerting myself if all I have to do is listen.”
The first order of business was the state of our trade partnerships. We wanted our spice business moving along as soon as possible, as we’d put some of our people on it.
“A great many have requested meetings with you,” reported Whateley, “most of them people who have heard the rumors about you. We turned most of them down, given your current condition, but some of them we cannot deny outright.”
“Then I’ll meet with the necessary people just as soon as I’ve recovered. I trust you to handle the finer details.”
“Leave it to Martina and me.”
“Let her handle it on her own. She’s lived in the capital a long while, and she knows the names of the important families—she won’t err in this matter, I’m certain. She can submit a draft list to me, and you can give it a final check once I’ve weighed in on it, Whateley. I’m sure somebody will be free by the time we’re done, so put it in the hands of one of your aides.”
It was about time we hired a head secretary who could handle the same responsibilities as Whateley, and I wondered if we could find somebody appropriate now that our name carried more significant clout. Geoff was helping out where he could, but he wasn’t the sort we could easily send into business meetings.
“I do wish we could bring someone over from Falkrum, but unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury...” muttered Whateley.
Two of Whateley’s trusted aides, Aubin and Barraque, were both in Falkrum at present, but they, too, were in the process of hiring and increasing our manpower. We wanted their assistance, but we couldn’t take the situation in Falkrum lightly either.
We were still actively looking for suitable hires, but rumors were going around that we had crushed Hugo & Co., and many turned our offers down. While it was true that not everyone believed the rumors that were circulating, the truth of the matter was that the people we wanted kept on ending up elsewhere. It was likely that some of our competitors, having seen our sudden growth, were making things difficult for us.