Page 119 of Stardust Child

“I still say it don’t make no sense,” he grumbled as they delved further into punctuation. “Doesn’t make sense, I mean. Semi-colons, now?”

“They’re meant to be a longer pause than commas,” she explained. “My mother told me that punctuation shows you how to read the words aloud.”

Frowning, she tried to remember all the various places she had seen semi-colons, to extrapolate a pattern. She was certain there was one, but she had never tried to set down rules before—

“Your Grace,” said Sir Leonin, warning, and Ophele glanced up to see a rider coming up the long drive to the manor on a lathered horse, dressed in a messenger’s blacks.

“Duke Andelin?” he called, and she shook her head, rising from her seat.

“He is away,” she said, with a thrill of trepidation as she spotted the black and silver ribbons on the message. And yes, that was Sir Miche’s seal, an impatient blot, smudged from the stamp being removed too soon.

A message from Aldeburke.

* * *

To Duke Remin of Andelin, at Tresingale Manor in the Duchy of Andelin, from Sir Miche of Harnost, at Aldeburke in the Duchy of Leinbruke

Rem,

Making fantastic progress on the library, especially as there are no Hurrells about to protest. They packed up and left back in August, apparently, with a single carriage and no forwarding address. I’ve sent Darri a message to see if he can turn anything up, as that’s a family I’d prefer to keep my eyes on…

“I didn’t want to wait until it was too late this time,” said Ophele from the other side of the parchment, standing on the step outside Juste’s cottage. Her eyes were wide and frozen, with shadows that had deepened to near-bruises beneath them, her face pale with a strain that had only deepened over the last few weeks.

“I am glad you did,” Juste said reluctantly, re-folding the paper. “I think I had better take this to Edemir, my lady, if you will—”

“Did he mean Sir Darrigault?” Ophele asked in the same breath, looking hopeful. “Is he in the capital? Do you think maybe they went to the capital?”

“—come with me,” Juste finished with a sigh. That was not how he had planned to end that sentence. “Please do not wonder where Sir Darrigault is, Your Grace.”

“I will try,” she said, blinking, and Davi smirked as Juste led the way to the stables, where four horses were shortly saddled to convey them to the storeroom offices.

Edemir was not pleased to be pulled away from his mountains of paper.

“It’s not an emergencyyet,”said Juste, handing over Miche’s message and pulling over a chair for Ophele. “But it would behoove us to prevent it from becoming one.”

Gesturing for Davi to shut the door, he took his own seat. Both door and office were new; until last week, Edemir had kept a common workspace with his secretaries, which would not have done at all for such sensitive conversation. And at that thought, Juste eyed Leonin and Davi for a moment, considering. Loyal men, to be sure, but not yet the hallows of the duchess. Ophele still refused to swear any oaths.

The Duchess of Andelin was another problem altogether.

“There are many things we have not told you, my lady,” Juste began bluntly. “Partly because you are so young, and partly because they are the sort of things most lords prefer to keep from their ladies. Not from any lack of trust or capability in yourself, but because secrets are unquiet things. They need guarding, and we would not wish that burden on you unnecessarily.”

But they had discussed this possibility before Remin left. There was always the chance that something might occur in his absence that required the duchess’s attention, which meant explaining some of the more surreptitious work underway elsewhere.

Opinions had differed as to how much she should be told.

“Likewise, amongst ourselves,” Edemir put in, frowning at the message. “I have all the secrets I want. The more I have to know, the more I have to lie.”

“But there is a secret,” Ophele said, looking between them.

“Darri is in the capital,” Juste answered. “He is one of His Grace’s lesser-known knights, and he can conduct business where Edemir or I would be noticed and remarked upon. And that is why we would prefer no one noted his absence from Tresingale, or wondered where he has gone.”

She nodded, her face solemn.

“Which places him nicely to learn any rumors of exiled noble families,” Juste added. “The Emperor did not spare many for exile after the Conspiracy, and I do not know why he would forgive them now. Would you have any idea, my lady?”

“No. They would never tell me,” Ophele replied, so promptly that Edemir looked over the top of the page. “I mean—because of my mother.”

“Do they have no other family? Acquaintances?” Edemir prodded.

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