Father does not reply. From the way Lord Gargaron smooths a hand over the last dispatch on the desk, rather in the way I imagine a man strokes a reluctant lover’s skin, I realize that Father has not been invited to speak. He is obliged to listen, just as I am.
“It is a great expense to elevate a man of ordinary birth from a captain’s rank to that of general.”
Father sucks in a breath as hard as if he has been punched in the gut. Impulsively I take a step forward with the ridiculous thought that I can somehow protect him from the very reward he must have dreamed of achieving all his life.
Lord Gargaron’s gaze flashes up. The look he gives me stops me like a door slammed in my face.
“First, your financial affairs must be disentangled from those of Ottonor’s heirs before the creditors descend. This must be accomplished at the same time your household scrupulously observes all the proper mourning rituals so your low birth is never a reason for suspicion.”
He has arranged the papers into three stacks. One is the household financial records. One he has already pushed aside as of no interest to him. He keeps a hand open and flat atop the third stack. From this distance I cannot read the words but by the shape of them I can guess it is the careful record Father keeps of his day-to-day service, everything he has seen and done while at war.
“Second, a general must have a proper wife. Not this infamous concubine. She is tempting in the way Efean women can be. How much more so she must have been twenty years ago, fresh and ripe and young. But you are no longer a young man. A young man’s toys and pets must be put aside if a man has ambition. Do you have ambition, Captain?”
“To put aside my… my…” Father will not insult her by calling her his concubine, and he cannot call her his wife. “She is a woman, not a pet or a toy.”
The thin smile I so dislike creeps onto Gargaron’s thin lips. I want to scrub its foul kiss off my skin.
“Good Goat, man! How you struggle! Let me be plain. I can offer you a generalship in the Eastern Reach if you agree to marry my niece and enter my sponsorship with no encumbrances.”
“Your niece?” Father sounds dumbstruck.
I am sure I have misheard. But Lord Gargaron goes on quite matter-of-factly.
“She is a lovely girl, unusually intelligent and showing an astute grasp of financial matters, like her grandmother.”
“I beg your pardon, my lord, but I must ask why a highborn woman with royal lineage would be willing to marry a man like myself?”
“Ah.” Lord Gargaron pushes the third stack of paper out of the way and pulls to him a bright blue butterfly mask. It is the only ornament Father keeps in his study, set on his desk to remind him of my mother. He didn’t burn it, even though he was supposed to. “My niece was married two years ago. There was an unpleasant parting of the ways and some unkindly gossip within the court. Not to put too fine a point on it, Captain, but among the matchmakers of the court she is now tainted goods. No lord will marry her, and as you know by law only a married woman can conduct business. By this means I crush two birds with one stone. She will gain the legal standing she needs to continue in the family business, and you will gain the respectability and connection you need to make your way as a general.”
“To gain this exceptional reward I must put aside the woman I have lived with for the last twenty years. What if she gives birth to a boy?”
“What if she does? Such a boy cannot legally inherit from you regardless. You can sire another son but this is the only chance you will ever receive to burnish your fame and reputation by being henceforth known and obeyed as General Esladas.”
I wait for Father to shout Lord Gargaron down, to proclaim his undying loyalty to Mother and his daughters. I wait for him to claim us as the only legacy he cares about.
Father says nothing.
Gargaron is the one who speaks. “There would be one other stipulation. I want your daughter.”
Father cracks. He takes an aggressive step forward, then stops himself. “How can I expect to maintain an honorable standing at court if it becomes commonly known that one of my daughters is being used as another man’s concubine? You cannot demand this of my honor.”
“Concubine? Ah, you mean the pretty one. She is an attractive morsel, to be sure. But I mean the one who runs the Fives.”
The simple words choke me.
Did Kalliarkos confess the whole after telling me he would keep my secret?
But it is too late now to hide the truth I have kept from Father for so long.
Unaccountably, Father laughs. “None of my daughters runs the Fives, my lord. A man of my rank and position could never permit that.”
