The midwife eeled back into the bedroom, hiding all but a glimpse of Samlane’s
face. The lampstand beside the bed gave her flesh a yellow cast. The bar thudded
back in place almost as soon as the door closed.
Regli grabbed Samlor’s arm. ‘But what did she want?’ he demanded.
Samlor shook his arm free. ‘Ask her, if you think it’s any of your business,’ he
said. ‘I’m in no humour to chatter.’ Then he was out of the room and already
past the servant who should have escorted him down the staircase to the front
door.
Mernorad blinked. ‘Certainly a surly brute,’ he said. ‘Not at all fit for polite
company.’
For once it was Regli who was reasonable. ‘Oh, that’s to be expected,’ he said.
‘In Cirdon, the nobility always prided itself on being useless – which is why
Cirdon is part of the Rankan Empire and not the reverse. It must have bothered
him very much when he had to go into trade himself or starve with the rest of
his family.’ Regli cleared his throat, then patted his left palm with the quirt.
‘That of course explains his hostility towards Samlane and the absurd-‘
‘Yes; quite absurd,’ Mernorad agreed hastily.
‘-absurd charges he levelled at her,’ the young noble continued. ‘Just
bitterness, even though he himself had preserved her from the, oh, as he saw it,
lowering to which he had been subjected. Actually, I have considerable mining
and trading interests myself, besides my – very real – duties here to the
State.’
The diversion had settled Regli’s mind only briefly. He resumed his pacing, the
shuffle of his slippers and his occasional snappish comments being almost the