punish her. Nothing Helspeth did could ingratiate her. Not that she tried to win them over. She had to work to mask her loathing.
The rest of the party were all one family. Harmer Schmitt. His wife Greta. Their daughter Grunhilde and three sons: Hansel, Fulk, and Fritz. The boys were named for Harmer's favorite emperors, the girl for Greta's great-aunt. Grunhilde was sixteen. And not attractive. The boys were sixteen, fourteen, and nine. Hansel was Grunhilde's twin. Not identical, of course, but every bit as homely as his sister.
The Schmitts were quietly sympathetic toward the Princess Apparent but dared not show it. It was a flawed sympathy, anyway, based more in dislike of the harpies assigned to be Helspeth's warders: the Dowager Grafina Ilse-Janna fon Wistrcz, the harridan mother of the Graf fon Wistrcz, and Dame Karelina fon Tyre, spouse of the Grand Admiral. Neither woman ever liked Helspeth. Both hated her now. It was her fault they had to chaperone her here in her rustic hell. The women hated one another as well, and had done so for fifty years. Both were petty and spiteful and had been chosen because they could be counted on to take it out on Helspeth.
Each had her own small household follow her. Just people enough to maintain her in reduced misery. The Schmitts were supposed to maintain Helspeth but often worked for her keepers instead. They put in long hours but failed to make the tower fit for human habitation. Then the heavy snows came. Never warm, never properly fed, Helspeth became gaunt, subject to fits of the shakes and prolonged periods of withdrawal.
She did not expect to see the coming spring.
She wrote letters to the Empress but they came out almost illegible. Not that there was any point to pleading. There was no one to carry the letters away. Even had she been able to get them past Tooth and Fang, as she thought of those horrid old women.
She had felt alone and been afraid in Plemenza. But in Plemenza she had had Algres Drear. She had no bodyguards here, nor any patient ear to bend. Captain Drear had been sent east, to a garrison ever threatened by pagan savages. The other Braunsknechts had been scattered elsewhere. And the girl who was the author of their distress still did not grasp what she had done to earn such draconian retribution.
Ferris Renfrow arrived during a snowstorm. He did nothing to conceal his horror. Saying little, he went out again. He returned with the entire population of Runjan. He started giving orders.
Dame Karelina challenged him. 'This isn't any business of yours!' Voice heavy with scorn. Though her own antecedents were questionable.
Renfrow stared into her eyes. She wavered, but only momentarily. She was the wife of the Grand Admiral.
Renfrow said, 'Pick up a tool and help. Or go away. If you insist on being part of the problem you'll be corrected with the rest of the problem.'
Dowager Grafina fon Wistrcz got hold of the Dame's arm and dragged her away. Still within earshot, Ilse- Janna snarled, 'Don't cross Ferris Renfrow! Ever! No good comes to anyone who does that! No telling why he's here. But he will go away.'
Renfrow said, 'He'll go away. But he won't forget what he's seen.'
The villagers got a blazing fire going. Greta Schmitt brought a blanket. She placed it around Helspeth's shoulders, settled the girl close to the fire.
Renfrow stalked around, tossing off orders. Villagers went to work improving and weatherproofing. A single hour's work provided a dramatic improvement.
'Schmitt. Show me the account books.' He knew exactly where the harridans would be vulnerable.
Warmth penetrated Helspeth deeply enough for her shakes to subside into an intermittent problem. She surfaced in the present reality for moments at a time. She recognized Ferris Renfrow. And experienced a flood of joy and hope so profound that she plunged into unstoppable crying.
'Schmitt's woman. Stay close to the Princess.'
Elsewhere, Dame fon Tyre tried to bully her own small household into evicting Ferris Renfrow from the tower. She refused to hear warnings from the Dowager Grafina. Her people did not. They knew the Renfrow reputation. That had been dark and deadly since long before the accession of Emperor Johannes.
The Grand Admiral's wife had lived fifty-eight sheltered years. She had known little but her own indulgences until Empress Katrin, in a moment of high pique, rid herself of an annoyance by ordering the woman to Runjan to babysit her sister. Making Runjan a cauldron of rustic exile.
In one day's time Renfrow's will made the ground floor of the tower over into what it should have become with Helspeth's arrival. Helspeth stopped shaking before the villagers went away. She regained her composure. Softly voiced, she told Renfrow, 'Thank you.'
'You're welcome, Princess. You are the heir of empire. What they were doing is unconscionable.' He said no more. Helspeth began to understand how deep her danger had been. And might be once Renfrow went away again.
Renfrow told her, 'You won't be comfortable, here. You can't be the Helspeth Ege you were before your brother died. But no one will try to make you die by natural causes anymore, either.'
Helspeth lost control of her bladder.
Renfrow told her, 'I promised your father.'
She pulled the blanket around her again and stared into the flames, wanting to go away again. Hansel Schmitt brought more wood. He seemed obsequious. The way people do who want not to be noticed by someone held in high terror.
'Helspeth. Listen. You
Greta Schmitt brought hot broth. Helspeth responded to the aroma with more enthusiasm than she did Ferris Renfrow's voice. Renfrow said, 'I'll take some of that myself.'
The Schmitt woman's lips tightened and lost color but she held Ferris Renfrow in no less high terror than did her son. When she brought the broth for Renfrow he slipped her a small purse. 'Tell no one. Use it on the Princess's behalf. And keep a close account. You may keep a fourth for yourself.' He looked her straight in the eye. 'Tell no one. Not either of those hags. Not your husband. Not the Princess herself. Understand?' Greta nodded.
In a voice barely audible, Helspeth told Renfrow, 'I'm listening. Thank you. For coming.'
'I repay my debts. And I do what serves the Empire. Letting the heir to the ermine be murdered by neglect is not in that interest.'
Helspeth eased her grip on her blanket. The ache went out of her fingers almost immediately. The fire had begun to have an effect. At last.
'Listen closely. Your life will improve going forward. But you must not attract attention. Be pliant. Do as you're told. Offer no offense, however unreasonable the dons at Alten Weinberg become. Be your sister's strongest supporter, regardless of your private opinion. Her reign won't be one of the memorable ones. Unless she surrenders to the Council Advisory or she goes completely mad. Which could happen.'
She murmured, 'Greta put something in the broth.'
'Are you listening?'
'I'm listening.'
'Good. I'm hoping you've learned something. The lesson being that a princess's actions directly impact many other people.'
Tears slid from the corners of Helspeth's eyes as Renfrow reviewed the current situation of her Braunsknecht lifeguards and Lady Hilda Daedal, whose husband had required her to go into a convent. 'This doesn't make sense. I didn't do anything wrong.'
'Why are you here, then?'
'But…'
'You knew you'd irritate people in Alten Weinberg. Admit it. You could've saved everyone misery by staying in Plemenza while your hired men dealt with the monster. They would've censured you for employing foreigners but you'd still be there. However, you wanted to tweak their noses. In fact, you scared hell out of powerful people who saw way too much Johannes Blackboots in Hansel's youngest daughter.'
'I know, Ferris. I know. I've thought about that so much.'
'On the good news side, you won't be marrying anytime soon. If that's a positive.'
'I'm not going to get married, ever.'
Renfrow smiled. 'As may be. But one more reason you're in bad odor is, your adventure cheapened you as
