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able to produce medical records proving she was clean.
Ren suspected that the truth was that many families were jockeying for a royal
match of their own, and only used Kij s possible infection as a cruel,
convenient snub.
When we marry Jerin
, Ren thought, those families will be regretting their heartless rebuffs
.
Auntie Ren! Eldie shouted again, bouncing up and down on the railing in
excitement. Look, I lost my top teeth! She grinned, showing off the gap
between her canine teeth.
I see! You re bigger every time I see you! Look at you. How old are you now?
Ten?
No, five! her niece giggled.
I ll be six at summer s peak! Auntie Ren, can I come and see the youngest
today?
Kij s youngest sisters were in their teens, leaving Eldie without anyone to
play with except her slightly older aunts. A sad way to grow up; Kij must have
been crazy with grief.
Summer Court opens today! Ren called back. Zelie and the others have to
attend. Tomorrow?
Perhaps. Kij told them both. We re scheduled to continue upriver to home
tomorrow if today goes smoothly.
Odelia came out of her cabin, wondering whom Ren was shouting at. There were
greetings exchanged at full volume, the missing teeth were displayed, and then
the two great ships parted. Ren s tucked in close to the landing, while
Kij s with Eldie blowing a farewell on the steam whistle moved on upriver to
find a berth.
We could have missed the morning session and bathed like civilized women at
the palace, Odelia complained as the carriage pulled away from the docks.
Ren glowered, picking up the case binder. Focus, Odelia, focus.
Odelia ignored her binder, choosing instead to rest her head, eyes closed,
against the padded wall of the carriage. I m focused on a hot bath and a meal
prepared by Cook.
Ren shook her head, scanning the cases they were to judge. The first one made
her curse, startling her sister. Raven! At her call, her captain pulled her
horse alongside of the carriage window. Someone has shuffled the caseload. 1
left instructions that the Wakecliff inheritance wasn t to be tried until we
returned home. We weren t expected to make this morning, so it shouldn t be
first case up.
I ll look into it while you re in court. Raven s look turned dark.
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Ren slumped back in the carriage, raging at this new miscarriage of justice.
The opening day s schedule
would have been posted in the
Herald a week ago. By the laws protecting civil rights, once made public, a
hearing time couldn t be changed, even by the royal judges. This guaranteed
that a hearing couldn t be moved to a time unknown to the claimants.
The Baroness Wakecliff family had managed the impossible this winter:
fifty-eight members, from great-grandmothers down to infant granddaughters,
had all died within one season. Not all at once, which actually would have
been more understandable, but here and there in escalating tragedy. The first
ten or so had been drowned in a midwinter shipwreck. Then a fire ripped
through the nursery wing late at night;
twenty-three mothers and sisters, all under the age of ten, died in their
beds. A half-dozen adults, one of them a beloved newly wedded husband, died of
burns and smoke inhalation suffered while trying to reach the children. Rev
Wakecliff had died trying to give birth to a dead baby boy. Kareem Wakecliff
committed suicide when she learned of all four tragedies in a single day.
Eldest Wakecliff took to drinking heavily, and died of alcohol poisoning after
a carriage accident, claiming another six Wakecliffs, triggered a binge.
Ren wasn t sure how the other ten had died. It little mattered; by then all
the women of childbearing years and younger had already been killed. The
Wakecliff family was dead long before the last member took her final breath.
Had any member survived, however. Ren would have been spared trying to
determine who received the inheritance today.
While there were no clear heirs to the great Wakecliff fortunes, three
powerful families had issued nebulous claims. Ren had planned to carefully
study all claims prior to hearing the case. Someone, however, had juggled the
docket.
The royal carriage pulled up to the front of the courthouse. They were last to
arrive, the normal confusion of coaches already cleared. As usual. Raven
entered the building at a stride that was nearly a run. four of Ren s
traveling guard half a pace behind their captain. The rest of the guard stood
anxious for a signal that the foyer was clear, and then opened the carriage
door.
They swept into the courthouse, flanked all around by the guards, through the
foyers. Raven was at the courtroom doors, waiting. Just as Ren and Odelia
reached them. Raven swung open the double doors.
Normally the room seemed to be built on too ponderous a scale, as if the plan
of the architect had been to crush the handful of participants by sheer height
and breadth of marble. This was the first time Ren had seen a sea of humanity
reduce the room to almost claustrophobic size. Almost every noble house Mother
Elder, Eldest, elder sisters sat in attendance, completely screening the
massive marble columns and walls.
Trini sat in Elder Judge position, her mouth moving, but her voice, which
barely carried to the back of the room when it was empty, couldn t be heard.
Lylia perched on the edge of her throne beside Trim s, eyes eager. In the
royal box overlooking the judges thrones and the speaker s floor, their
youngest sisters, Zelie, Quin, Nora, Mira, and Selina, watched over what
someday would be their duty to uphold.
Trini spoke again, whatever she was saying lost in the surflike roar of
voices.
Lylia nearly quivered with the tension in her, and then shouted, Silence! The
court is now in session!
Bailiff! Call the first case!
That s it, Lylia, Odelia murmured fondly as silence fell. Give them hell.
The bailiff came from her alcove to the center of the speaker s floor. She
cleared her throat, opened her
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mouth to call the first case, and then caught sight of Ren and Odelia.
All rise for Their Royal Highnesses, Princess Renn-sellaer and Princess
Odelia!
They started forward into stunned silence. Then with a renewed roar, the
observers came to their feet, clapping.
Clap
, Ren thought, but some of you bitches are very unhappy to see us
.
Trini and Lylia stood too, not applauding, but their relief plain to read.
Trini sidestepped to her normal position and Ren took the throne of the Elder
Judge. She made no signal to silence the crowd, taking the opportunity to scan
the gathered nobles, wondering which of them had changed the docket and why.
There were three noble families, all baronesses with massive estates of their
own, who had semivalid claims: Dunwood, Lethridge, and Stonevale. The network
of marriages, however, extended those three by five- or sixfold, evidenced by
the number of women crammed into the courtroom. Whichever family snared the
vast estate would need trusted adults to immediately take control of the
far-flung shipping fleet, manage the extensive vineyards, oversee the tenant
farms, and repair the half-burnt Wakecliff
Manor. The heirs would turn to their sisters-in-law, who would in turn lean on
their sisters-in-law.
Most likely, every woman present had a vested interest in the outcome. Any one
of them could have moved the case forward.
Slowly the cheering of Ren and Odelia s appearance lessened and then died to a
soft murmur of whispered comments between family members.
Ren nodded to the bailiff.
This court is now in session. In her clear, carrying alto, the bailiff
announced the first case. Now judging on the orphaned estate of family
Wakecliff, all lands, furnishings, and moneys herein. All petitioned
claimants, make yourself be known.
There was a brief, undignified scramble as claimants made unseemly haste to be
first to make their case.
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