‘These aren’t gangsters, Tomas.’
‘Aren’t they? I’m struggling to see much of a difference, save we’ve the law on our side, and that only because we fucking write it.’
‘Aye, well, I wouldn’t know,’ Anne said. She drained her glass and thumped it down on the table. ‘I’m going to bed, Rosie will be waiting up for me.’
I nodded and watched her go, then sat and stared into my glass for a long time. I was right, I knew I was, whatever Bloody Anne might think on the matter. She hadn’t been there, and I had. The Queen’s Men worked exactly like an underworld crew did, and I wasn’t sure what that meant. Perhaps it didn’t mean anything, but they were certainly nothing like I had ever imagined a secret order of the knighthood to be.
Oh, what would I know? I thought. What does a poor commoner like me know about knights and nobles?
I downed my drink and stood up, and made my way somewhat unsteadily through to the common room of the inn. The innkeeper caught my attention just as I was about to start up the stairs.
‘Oh, Sir Tomas?’ he called. ‘I have a letter for you.’
I held out a hand and he passed me the folded and sealed paper, and I carried it up to my room with me. Once there I examined the seal. Some arms I didn’t recognise were sunk deep into thick red wax. I broke it with my thumbnail and unfolded the paper.
It was a society invitation, I realised, the first one I had ever received addressed purely to me and not simply including me as Ailsa’s husband. It was amazing the difference a knighthood made.
Look at me, Ma, I thought. I’m invited to a ball in Dannsburg.
*
‘Oh gods be good, really?’ Ailsa said. ‘Give it to me.’
I frowned and passed her the invitation. It had been pure chance that I happened to encounter her in the house of law the next morning, but as it turned out Our Lady had been smiling on me that day.
I don’t even want to think what would have happened had I been foolish enough to accept that invitation, which, truth be told, I probably would have done otherwise. I greatly dislike balls and society functions even to this day, but something about receiving that invitation in my own name had spoken to my vanity and my pride. Perhaps it had been intended to, I really wouldn’t know.
‘No, absolutely not,’ Ailsa said as she folded the invitation and tucked it into her pouch. ‘The idiot!’
‘Who is he anyway, this Baron Lan Drunov?’
‘No one of any real consequence,’ Ailsa said. ‘He’s quite wealthy but not enough to make up for only being a baron, and no longer young enough to still hope to make a better place for himself in society through a fortunate marriage. No, I think Baron Lan Drunov will remain a bachelor for the rest of his life, which I imagine can now be counted in days.’
I blinked at her in surprise. ‘What? Why?’
‘A ball, Tomas? A ball ? The city is in mourning for our beloved queen and will remain so for quite some time. To throw a ball now, nameday or not, is utter idiocy!’
‘I see,’ I said, and suddenly I did.
In Dannsburg, you show respect to the crown.
Perhaps this Baron Lan Drunov never got that note, but somehow I doubted it.
‘He’s trying to make himself look big,’ I said, and laughed. ‘Only a baron, as you say, and not quite wealthy enough to make up for it, but if he throws the only social function there fucking is this month then he thinks all the people he wishes he could mix with every day will come just for something for do. The tit’s probably invited the fucking Princess Crown Royal.’
I was joking, of course, but the colour visibly drained from Ailsa’s face.
‘Oh, my gods,’ she whispered. ‘You might be right.’
She grabbed my arm and almost dragged me down the corridor and up a flight of stairs to the floor where Vogel’s office was. She knocked once and went in without waiting to be asked.
‘My apologies, Provost Marshal,’ she said as Vogel looked up at us from the stacks of neatly ordered papers on his desk, ‘but I think this might be important.’
She took the invitation out of her pouch and handed it to him.
Vogel scanned the now slightly crumpled paper, and looked up at me. His eyes narrowed.
‘Have you sent a response?’
‘No, sir,’ I said. ‘Not yet.’
‘Good,’ Vogel said. ‘Do you know who else is invited?’
Ailsa cleared her throat. ‘Not yet, sir, but Tomas said, in jest I admit, that Lan Drunov might have sent an invitation to the palace. I fear he may be right.’
I saw Vogel’s jaw twitch, but no more than that.
‘I see,’ he said, after a moment. ‘Well, we have a day ahead of ourselves, if so.’
He dismissed us then, and the two of us took lunch together in the mess at the house of law. I couldn’t help but keep stealing glances at Ailsa while we were eating, remembering the time we had lived together as man and wife in Ellinburg.
Lady, but she was beautiful.
Fool, fool.
‘Did you have a pleasant time with Billy last night?’ I asked at last, for want of anything else to say.
Ailsa smiled at me, that special smile that I thought only I ever saw. The one that actually looked genuine.
I wished I could tell for sure.
Sister Deceit.
Fucking fool.
‘Oh, I did,’ she said. ‘He’s grown so tall, Tomas!’
‘Aye,’ I said, ‘that he has.’
He’d grown gaunt and tight in the face too, the same way Mina had, and overly bright in the eyes, but it seemed Ailsa wasn’t going to mention that.
I wondered if she had even noticed.
The conversation faltered then, until the door opened and Iagin walked in.
‘Seems you were right, Tomas,’ he
