Page 109 of Stardust Child

“We’ll get more brocades,” she said, trying to be reassuring. He was in for a lot of heartache if he mourned every casualty of Remin’s wardrobe.

Watching as he rapidly restored order to the rest of the closet, Ophele chewed her lip. He did seem to know his business well, and she thought it would be very difficult to pretend to be…troubled in this way, but his sincerity posed nearly as great a problem as potential deception. She had planned to have a talk with him about the necessity of protecting Remin’s things, but would he even be able to understand it?

“Magne,” she said, bending to try and catch his eye. “Magne, there is another very important thing you must do. You want to keep His Grace’s things nice, don’t you?”

“Yes, very nice,” he agreed. He was focused intensely on another jerkin, which had a huge blue splotch on the back.

“Magne, there are people that might want to ruin His Grace’s things.” She felt foolish, trying to say it so seriously, especially when the chief hazard to Remin’s clothes was Remin. “They might try to spill things on them, or put nasty things in the pockets, or even stick pins in them. That’s why no one but you, His Grace, and me are allowed in this room. No one else.”

“No one else can come in?” he asked, awed at the unexpected honor.

“That’s right. If you see anyone here, you must tell me right away. Sometimes I will come and check myself,” she added on sudden inspiration, and plunged her hands recklessly into the clothing, wringing startled protests from Adelan and Davi. “Like this. So, if someone did something bad to His Grace’s clothing, I would find it first. And if it hurt me or made me sick, that would beterrible.”

“Terrible,” Magne breathed. There was absolutely nothing in those round blue eyes to rouse suspicion.

But how could sheknow?How well had Duke Ereguil known the Marquis Charval? Even if Magne was the sweet old man he appeared to be, how hard would it be for someone to deceive him? It seemed to her all too easy for someone to slip a poisoned pin into one of Remin’s shirts, or put some foul powder in a pocket.

“Yes, terrible,” she said, watching him from the corner of her eye as she ran her fingers down the back of a doublet. “I’m the Emperor’s daughter. My blood is sacred. So, if I were to be hurt by something in here, that would be a crime against the stars.”

“The Divinity. I know the Divinity,” Magne agreed, nodding rapidly. “He’s sacred, we have to bow and saybe blessed under the stars.My lady is the Divinity’s daughter? Star child?”

“Y-Yes, I am,” she said, very uncomfortable as he promptly prostrated himself face down on the floor. “So—so you must be very careful to protect His Grace’s things. I don’t want him to be hurt, so you never know when I might come and check myself. All right?”

“Yes. No one else can come in,” Magne said. “Only His Grace, me, and the star lady.”

“Yes. That’s right. Get up, please,” she said, her hands fluttering with distress. She was a bastard, no one should be bowing to her.

“My lady,” Sir Leonin burst out, as if he could no longer contain himself. “I do not believe His Grace would approve…”

“I have charge of this house,” she said stubbornly. And Remin wasn’t here to stop her, anyway. “Please warn the other servants as well, Adelan, and any new ones that arrive. I drink everything His Grace drinks. I eat everything he eats. I touch everything he touches. Sometimes I like to try on his boots.”

“I…will let them know, my lady,” said Adelan, who was clearly having complicated feelings about this.

But Ophele was pleased with the notion. She would keep the keys to Remin’s wardrobe herself and examine every single object Magne put inside it, and she had managed to issue this warning without being at all cruel or threatening to the poor, simple man.

Might there not be other ways to exploit it? The back of her mind chewed thoughtfully on the idea as she went about her other errands, collecting books from Sir Edemir and a basket of cookies from Wen, who she was consulting about preparations for Remin’s birthday. He would be twenty-five in less than a month, despite all the Emperor’s best efforts, and she was planning the celebration with her customary level of careful thought.

She had never given anyone a party before.

And now she had something else she could give him, too. Something real that onlyshecould do, turning the speck of stardust in her shameful blood into a shield. Her father hadn’t thought ofthat,had he? He had just been trying to insult Remin when he gave her away. But she was still his daughter, a child of the stars, and if anyone hurt her while they were trying to harm Remin, it was a sacrilege that merited death.

Could she tell that to the Emperor, somehow? Lost in these pleasant fantasies, Ophele left Brambles to his own devices as they turned toward the manor.Dear Father,she would write, in the first letter she had ever written to him.I don’t know if you heard, but earlier this year, in Granholme, in the duchy of Firkane, one of your messengers…

No, she couldn’t say that, that was a blatant accusation.

…in Granholme, someone attempted to assassinate my husband, the Duke of Andelin. It was only by luck that I myself was not harmed, and now I am afraid it could happen again, as I am always with His Grace and there is nothing that touches him that does not also touch me…

Oh, that was elegant. Would Sir Justenin send such a letter, if she wrote it? Or Sir Edemir? Maybe she should be more explicit…

“My lady.” Sir Leonin spurred his horse beside her, interrupting this delightful daydream. She had known he was just waiting for the right moment to protest; it had been building all day like a thunderstorm. “I must ask you reconsider what you said earlier. His Grace would never want you to endanger yourself on his behalf.”

“No, I won’t,” she said mulishly. “It’s already true, I do drink everything he drinks and I manage all his things. Now they know I know it, that’s all.”

“Forgive me, but that is not the same as deliberately risking yourself,” he said, enunciating every syllable. “There would be a furor through the Empire if a Daughter of the Stars were harmed. The Emperor would turn the valley upside down.”

“Then he shouldn’t send any assassins,” Ophele retorted.

“That is whatweare for, Your Grace,” Sir Leonin replied, with maddening calm. “You are his lady, his duchess, and a princess besides. You cannot be his shield, your sacred blood—”

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