Being short meant young to them. Closer to Ger's age than his own eighteen. For some reason the older Countess started shaking and pointed a bony finger at him.
“Lies.” She said softly. “There is no heir to Lairdgren. Burks only child in line for it died years ago. I should know. After all, Laurali was my daughter too.”
Tor blinked and stared at the crazy old woman for a second. After a bit the woman corrected herself.
“Well, step-daughter, her own mother died during childbirth, but still, she was as close to being my own flesh as possible. When that Austran killed her… Well, that's part of why I turned out the whole of County Cannor's forces for the war. Laurali will not go unavenged!”
Looking down at the lovely white linen table cloth Tor felt the blood rush from his face. He hadn't known of course, about any of this. Burks had sent his mother into hiding and never even told Mary, who considered herself true family, that she was alive at all? Not even after the whole thing had been uncovered nearly a year before? Gods. So now Tor had to explain it all to her?
Well, that was fair.
Just like his mother too, dumping all the unpleasant tasks on a boy. Taking a deep breath he decided to do just that, since Mary Cannor deserved to know as much as anyone in the world, and spoke uninterrupted for nearly five minutes, the woman shaking and finally tears coming down her face. When he ended the story he expected her to storm out, probably taking the kids with her.
Who could blame her? Insane or not, and Tor was starting to think she was closer to high strung than crazy, someone should have told her. It also shouldn't have had to be him. Seriously, he was so going to have to talk to his mother about it. Count Lairdgren too. Him first probably. You didn't do things like that to people!
Instead of going wild and trying to hit him or even screaming, though he was braced for it, the woman walked around the table slowly, her steps making just the faintest clicks on the hard marble under her leather soles. When she got to him the woman swallowed and slowly, almost as if wary herself, pulled him into a gentle hug.
“Laurali's alive? And… I have grandchildren?” She whispered in his ear.
Tor nodded and said yes. He left out exactly how many grandchildren, not wanting to overwhelm the poor woman. There were eleven of them.
Blood relative or not, if the woman had grieved for his mother, thinking her dead for years and called her daughter, that counted, right? Apparently it did to Mary Cannor, since she didn't let go.
Chapter Two
Tor discovered two things about Mary Cannor very quickly. The first was that she had a kind of off-putting body odor. That was probably due to the fact that she'd spent the last week riding in one form of carriage or another without stopping for anything. Awful things, carriages. Slow and bumpy rides at the best of time, probably a lot worse on the unkempt roads between the major cities. Plus hot in the spring and summer when you got near the Capital. The second thing was that she might be crazy, but that didn't mean stupid at all. She'd come for the kids, true, they were her heirs and family, her great nephew and niece, but also to try and score some better weapons for her forces. She almost instantly tried to get Tor to agree to make some for her people for free.
Before he could agree, since, obviously he was going to help out family that way, Gerald stood and cleared his throat.
“Aunt Mary?” He sounded tentative, but by calling attention to himself he almost instantly found himself wrapped in the much taller woman’s arms. He did a credible job of hugging her back at least, even if she did smell.
“Um, sorry, I was going to say that there's a waiting list for things from Master Tor. He put me in charge of scheduling and, well, I've decided that the counties around Ward need to be provisioned first. That means Printer, Morris and Callwood. Then other people who might be attacked by Austra or the Ward's directly. After that, well, since Cannor is sending all their forces to fight, we need to get them in too, but Master Tor can only do so much work in a day…” After he spoke he looked down, then, without anyone saying anything his eyes popped open wide and he gulped, looking directly at Tor, seeming a little scared suddenly.
Tor just shrugged. It was a plan and when he stopped to consider it, one that made sense. Better than his just doing what everyone asked, which had been the previous idea. Ward was his major concern at the moment too after all. Down the table Holly agreed vocally, letting them all know that it sounded like a good idea, even if she did benefit from it directly. From the other end of the table Rich cleared his throat.
“Indeed. Don't forget the kingdom in there though Squire Gerald. Oh, that reminds me. Would you Gerald Negev Cannor and you Gemma Negev Cannor, both please rise?” Smiling the King walked around the table, coming to them, and having them kneel. The words were familiar to Tor, basically telling them that they were good people and great things were expected from them. The — or else — was implied.
“Arise Sir Gerald, Sir Gemma.” A large hand had been placed on each of their heads with a big smile, even though the King had to go to one knee himself to reach that low in a dignified manner. They all stood.
“Sir Gerald.” Tor said softly. “Sir Gemma.”
That was the one weird thing about all this. When a woman became a Knight, she was called “sir” not lady. The same was true for a Squire, though after the first ceremony the sir didn't get used at all, they were just Squire whoever and that generally only when being introduced to someone new, with a full explanation of their situations. The King stood and spun on Tor.
“I know this may seem a little odd, but your assistant isn't going to be your Squire, Tor. Instead I'm putting him with Sir Kolbrin. The truth is, you just don't have time, or need, for a real Squire. Squire Gemma…” The King chuckled. “Karina, you asked to do the honors…”
The Princess rose and walked around the table not stopping until she reached Trice.
“Lady Patricia Alyson Morgan, Ducherina third, please rise.” She said it with such a serious tone that Trice’s eyes went wide. Probably scared that Karina was going to lop off the other arm. Fair enough. Even if it had been for her own good, that kind of thing had to leave scars. Trice managed to find her feet though.
“Please kneel…” The little ceremony took longer, because there was a listing of deeds needed for a Knight. You only needed three, which Patricia had, even though it was news to Tor. The first one listed, everyone knew. She'd heroically saved them all not a week before. Hard to miss that.
The next Tor suspected, but hadn't known for certain. She had, under orders from the King himself, sacrificed her love, him, he realized instantly, to infiltrate the Ward estate and seek evidence on them. Apparently calling him names in public counted as heroic now. Hearing it said out loud made him cringe.
Then his stomach and heart fell horribly, a deep plummet that made him wonder if things inside him had actually come loose for a moment. After all, he'd nearly killed her for that, for hurting him, and built a weapon that probably shouldn't exist to take out almost everyone else too, after hearing her malign him in a restaurant about nine months before, or was it less? Tor didn't even know what day or month it was to tell the truth. His head hung a little thinking about it. About Trice.
She'd been ordered to say those things by the King? Probably forbidden to tell him either, so that it would all look real. God. Why? Taking a deep breath Tor turned to stare at the King, who at least had the grace to look embarrassed. Connie looked down too. She knew the whole time? All that, the hurt he'd felt, the pain, his anger and tearing himself apart over it for most of a year and she knew? But… She was supposed to like him.
The last deed was about something that he'd never even heard of, saving some woman's life. The name wasn't familiar at all, Deborah Harding? It meant nothing. Something about a waterfall?
Looking at Rolph, Tor realized something then, his friend, his best friend in the whole world, had known. It was there in his eyes, the shamed look on his face. How long? Across the table Varley looked down after catching his eye. Her too? Gods, had everyone known the whole time?
Probably not, Rolph wasn't such a good actor that he could have hidden it from him, not at the restaurant or in the days after. Was he? Tor started to shake with rage. Next to him Ger went pale and suddenly skipped back, pulling Gemma and Mary away with him and, rather wisely, triggering his shield at the same time.
“Please rise, Sir Patricia!” Karina, down the table a ways said loudly. Just to be cute she tapped Trice on the nose. “Bodabink- you're a Knight!”
Everyone not staring at him and moving back, laughed.
