Page 1 of Lily of the Valley

Wolves

"Who is that?" Lily asked, staring down from the balcony into the main courtyard of the palace.

Five figures had arrived, dressed entirely in black and riding dark horses. How very dramatic. They bore no crests, and she hadn't heard a crier announce them, only the horns to signal important visitors had arrived.

Next to her, looking up from the book she was reading, her handmaiden Clarissa wrinkled her nose. "I've no idea. They look like bandits."

Lily set aside the cards she'd been reading through for her speech to open the spring games at the beginning of the month, stood, and gathered her skirts. "I'm going to go see."

"I was just at the good part," Clarissa said with a sigh as she marked her place, tucked the book into a pocket, and followed her.

As they reached the hallway, two more of her four handmaidens joined them: Alice and Penelope. Poor Leigh was still sick. Lily had sat with her last night and read to her for a couple of hours, and managed to get her to drink some tea.

People greeted them as they walked through the halls, but Lily didn't linger to speak with anyone, though a few clearly wanted her to. No, she continued on stubbornly to the receiving hall, where sure enough, the five dark figures had gathered.

She held back to look them over. Five, all men with scruffy beards, dirty clothes, tromping around like this was their palace. Big, every last one, though two were on the lean muscle side rather than the wall of muscle. The one who seemed to be in charge did bear a crest, a gold broach pinned to his left shoulder, though she couldn't make out any details at this distance.

They all bore weapons and weren't listening as the servants tried to tell them that weapons were not allowed on the premises, save those carried by the royal guards.

Time to do her job. Setting her shoulders, lifting her chin, Lily walked briskly down the hall, flanked by her handmaidens. "What is the cause of all this ruckus?" she said in the ringing tones her tutors had drilled into her. A voice that could pierce a crowded room, no matter how large.

All eyes turned to her, including the visitors. The man with the broach watched her like a cat watched a mouse, but if he thought she would be intimidated by such nonsense, he would soon find himself mistaken.

"What is going on here?" she demanded, drawing to a stop at a perfectly appropriate distance of five paces. "Who are you?" The gold broach was of a wolf's head opened on a snarl, and it was only gold plated.

The men stared at her with gross inappropriateness, and the man with the broach lingered on her tiara. She didn't normally wear one in the day to day, but she had an event in a couple of hours that required it, so she'd gone ahead and dressed for it, so she wouldn't have to go back to her room to change.

"Your Highness," Gold Broach finally said. "We are here to speak with High Majesty the King at the request of the Grand Duke."

"I see," Lily replied, not seeing at all. Her father had told her nothing this morning about a group of ruffians coming to see him. What was Ferdinand thinking, inviting men like this into the palace without at least giving her notice? "You'll forgive me if I wait until His Grace arrives to confirm that. Who are you?" She gave a slight upwards jerk of her chin to Clarissa, who immediately went off to find Ferdinand if he wasn't already on his way.

Gold Broach smiled like a hungry wolf. "I'm Richard, Your Highness, Richard Fortley, Captain of the Black Wolves."

Mercenaries? There were mercenaries in her palace? If it wouldn't be such inappropriate behavior for a princess, she would clobber Ferdinand upside the head.

She twitched her fingers ever so slightly, and Penelope slipped away to gather information. Lily knew the mercenaries that ran around the kingdom and the neighboring ones, and she'd never heard of the Black Wolves. They were either a new band still trying to make a name for themselves, or from much further afield, which begged the question why Ferdinand would want them rather than a local group.

The men seemed amused that her handmaidens were departing one by one, but the joke was on them, because Alice was far deadlier than any mercenary.

"Your weapons," she said. "You will remove them. Weapons are not permitted on palace grounds, and we make no exceptions, not even for guests of the Grand Duke. Remove your weapons or you will be removed."

Richard's grin just strengthened. "As you wish, Your Highness." With slow, showy movements, he removed his weapons. His men did the same after a moment, their movements stiffer. Guards stepped forward to take the weapons, clerks nearby cataloguing everything.

"You may retrieve them from the armory on your departure," Lily said, but before she could say anything further, Ferdinand came striding into the receiving hall with Clarissa close behind him. She returned immediately to Lily's side, the brief look on her facing conveying there was much to be said later when it was safe to do so.

Lily watched Ferdinand as he reached them. "Your Grace, I was given no warning about your special guests. Why is that?"

"My apologies, Your Highness, I thought I had done so," Ferdinand said, not even trying to make the lie believable. "Richard is a distant cousin, and I told him he and his men could reside here a few days before they carry onward north." That one wasn't believable either. In fact, it was laughable. Nobody was more pompous about their bloodline than Ferdinand, and he would never tolerate a lowly mercenary besmirching it.

She said nothing, though, only smiled sweetly as a proper princess should. "Very well, then, Your Grace. As you've arrived and can take the matter in hand, I will leave you to it. Are you still attending the meeting in a couple of hours?"

"Of course, Your Highness."

"Good day for now, then." Lily turned, pointedly not bidding farewell to the mercenaries, and left the receiving hall precisely as she'd entered it.

Upstairs, she detoured to her father's offices. "Is His Majesty available to speak with me?"

The guard on duty replied, "I'm afraid not, Your Highness. He's been in a meeting all day, we've hardly seen him."

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