Page 10 of Stardust Child

“I don’t know what I think, either.” Remin’s dark head tilted back, looking at the vastness overhead, a night sky so clear that the whole river of galaxies streamed above them, with all the clouds of their currents. “We had clerics in my army. Brothers who treated the wounded and burned the dead. But they never had much to do with me. Usually, they only spoke to Juste.”

“We never had a cleric in Aldeburke,” Ophele said tentatively, a tiny beginning of the truth. It was so hard because she didn’t know what was normal, whether this was outrageous or completely unremarkable.

“That doesn’t surprise me, somehow.” He always looked stern. In the dark, she couldn’t tell if he lookedmorestern. For a long time, they looked into the sky in silence, and even with Remin standing beside her, Ophele felt adrift on the shores of those galaxies, unmoored among the unfathomable stars.

* * *

The Duke of Andelin had no mercy for buttons.

Otherwise, he was perfect. Ophele’s opinion of her husband had shifted somewhat, and now she was firmly convinced that everything before had been a regrettable misunderstanding, and really he was the most amazing man ever to walk the earth. But it had dawned on her, the other day when they were doing laundry, that Remin was terribly hard on clothing. They had just ruined her fifth chemise and Remin was silent and…well, she wouldn’t say a man that big wassulking.

“Maybe the silk is plant-based, instead of animal-based,” she offered hesitantly as they pulled her clothing down from the lines inside the cottage. The Duchess of Andelin’s undergarments could hardly be hung out to dry by the roadside. “Maybe that’s why it doesn’t like that soap.”

“There’s different kinds of silk?” Remin’s voice was flat, but he was trying to sound interested.

“Yes, some kinds are made by insects, and some are plant fiber. Like lotus silk from Bhumi. Maybe one is more brittle than the other, or breaks down when you get it wet? Like spiderwebs,” she said thoughtfully. “Did you ever notice, some spiderwebs will collect morning dew, but others fall apart when they get wet?”

“I had not.” But he glanced down at her, the corner of his mouth twitching. “Did you make a study of spiderwebs, little owl?”

“I always had to watch out for them in Aldeburke. I hate walking into them,” she said with a shudder. “I would be walking through the trees and if I wasn’t careful there would be a sticky web in my face and I didn’t know where the spider was. Yuck.”

That made him smile, and she smiled back, pleased.

“Have you ever heard of alternative methods for cleaning silk?”

“No,” she said, her brow furrowing. “Maybe steaming? The maids sometimes steamed clothes in Aldeburke, but I don’t know how. Or why. I wish we had books. What happened to your jerkin?”

“What?” He looked over as she held up the offending article, pointing to a button dangling by the thinnest of threads. “Oh, put that aside. I’ll do something about it.”

Remin’s ravages were not limited to her chemises, though to be fair, he had tried to be gentle with the latest casualty. He had no regard whatsoever for rips, stains, or loose buttons on his own clothing, and even as Ophele’s wardrobe had improved over the months since her arrival in the valley, his had steadily deteriorated.

Was this her responsibility? It was, wasn’t it? All the other knights had squires and pages that looked after such things, but Remin had neither, and showed no interest in acquiring any. Now that she was looking, she noticed the jerkin he was wearing had a huge tear in the back. Ever since he and his knights had begun training at the barracks every afternoon, his clothes had been taking a beating. And he was the Duke of Andelin, and the handsomest man ever born. He shouldn’t be going about in rags.

“I can fix it,” she said, fighting down nervousness at the prospect. She was determined to be a proper wife for him, even if she had never threaded a needle in her life. How hard could it be to sew a button? “But…do you have a needle and thread? Sir Bram gave me a thimble, but I don’t have anything else…”

If she was honest, she wasn’t sure what to do with the thimble. Remin looked at her for a moment and then pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her.

“I’m sure Guian has needlebooks and such,” he said. “I made you leave your own things behind in Aldeburke, didn’t I? I’m sorry. Do you want to send for them?”

“No, it’s all right,” she said, guiltily aware that he must think she had a fine kit like most noblewomen, with shears with gilded roses on the handles, like Lisabe’s, or the beautiful heartwood box that held Lady Hurrell’s embroidery silk. “It just needs a needle and thread, I think.”

“Duchess Ereguil has some of my mother’s things, now that I think of it.” Remin kissed the top of her head. “She said she was holding them for my wife. I’ll send for them.”

Well, she would have to learn to sew now.

The next day, before she was supposed to tutor Jacot in the cookhouse, Ophele hurried over to Sir Edemir’s offices in the storehouse. Lord Edemir of Trecht, really; second son to the Count of Trecht, but both he and Sir Tounot preferred to style themselves as knights.

“My lady?” he asked as she appeared in the doorway.

“Sir Edemir.” Ophele bobbed her head nervously. She felt she knew him a little better, now that he and Sir Justenin had begun lingering over tales of the Tower and its theories of learning at supper, and making her wish there had been hours,dayseven, for such talk. But here, he might as well have had LORD TRECHT inscribed upon his noble brow. “I…I was wondering…”

His force of secretaries had expanded from two to eight, and all of them were staring at her.

“If…if I wanted books for myself, could I have them?” She made herself say, reddening and hating it. She was sure that Remin’s wife could ask for whatever she wanted, and she could just imagine how Lady Hurrell would say it, with all the icy command of an empress. It only made her feel foolish by comparison.

“Of course.” Sir Edemir took her elbow to nudge her into the hallway and shut the office door behind him, closing away all those staring eyes. “But why wouldn’t you just ask Rem, my lady?”

“I want it to be a surprise. Could you keep it a secret?”

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