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woman who would, had Victor not conquered her land, have been the Queen of Sandsedge. She
traveled to Buckkeep in much trepidation, fearing to go, but fearing more the consequences to her people
if she appealed to them to hide her. When she arrived, she was both amazed and somewhat chagrined
that Victor intended to use her not as a servant but as a tutor to his children, that they might learn both the
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language and customs of her folk. When she asked him why he chose to have them learn of her folk's
ways, he replied, A ruler must be of all his people, for one can only rule what one knows. Later she
became the willing wife of his eldest son and took the name Queen Graciousness at her coronation.
I awoke to sunlight in my face. Someone had entered my chamber and opened the window shutters to
the day. A basin, cloth, and jug of water had been left on top of the chest. I was grateful for them, but not
even washing my face refreshed me. Sleep had left me sodden and I recall feeling uneasy that someone
could enter my chamber and move freely about without awakening me.
As I had guessed, the window looked out over the sea, but I didn't have much time to devote to the
view. A glance at the sun told me that I had overslept. I flung on my clothes and hastened down to the
stables without pausing for breakfast.
But Burrich had little time for me that morning. Get back up to the keep, he advised me. Mistress Hasty
already sent Brant down here to look for you. She's to measure you for clothing. Best go find her
quickly; she lives up to her name, and won't appreciate your upsetting her morning routine.
My trot back up to the keep reawakened all my aches of the day before. Much as I dreaded seeking
out this Mistress Hasty and being measured for clothing I was certain I didn't need, I was relieved not to
be on horseback again this morning.
After querying my way up from the kitchens, I finally found Mistress Hasty in a room several doors
down from my bedchamber. I paused shyly in the door and peered in. Three tall windows were flooding
the room with sunlight and a mild salt breeze. Baskets of yam and dyed wool were stacked against one
wall, while a tall shelf on another wall held a rainbow of cloth goods. Two young women were talking
over a loom, and in the far corner a lad not much older than I was rocking to the gentle pace of a
spinning wheel. I had no doubt that the woman with her broad back to me was Mistress Hasty.
The two young women noticed me and paused in their conversation. Mistress Hasty turned to see where
they stared, and a moment later I was in her clutches. She didn't bother with names or explaining what
she was about. I found myself up on a stool, being turned and measured and hummed over, with no
regard for my dignity or indeed my humanity. She disparaged my clothes to the young women, remarked
very calmly that I quite reminded her of young Chivalry, and that my measurements and coloring were
much the same as his had been when he was my age. She then demanded their opinions as she held up
bolts of different goods against me.
That one, said one of the loom women. That blue quite flatters his darkness. It would have looked well
on his father. Quite a mercy that Patience never has to see the boy. Chivalry's stamp is much too plain on
his face to leave her any pride at all.
And as I stood there, draped in wool goods, I heard for the first time what every other person in
Buckkeep knew full well. The weaving women discussed in detail how the word of my existence had
reached Buckkeep and Patience long before my father could tell her himself, and of the deep anguish it
caused her. For Patience was barren, and though Chivalry had never spoken a word against her, all
guessed how difficult it must be for an heir such as he to have no child to eventually assume his title.
Patience took my existence as the ultimate rebuke, and her health, never sound after so many
miscarriages, completely broke along with her spirit. It was for her sake as well as for propriety that
Chivalry had given up his throne and taken his invalid wife back to the warm and gentle lands that were
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her home province. Word was that they lived well and comfortably there, that Patience's health was
slowly mending, and that Chivalry, substantially quieter a man than he had been before, was gradually
learning stewardship of his vineyard-rich valley. A pity that Patience blamed Burrich as well for Chivalry's
lapse in morals, and had declared she could no longer abide the sight of the man. For between the injury
to his leg and Chivalry's abandonment of him, old Burrich just wasn't the man he had been. Was a time
when no woman of the keep walked quickly past him; to catch his eye was to make yourself the envy of
nearly anyone old enough to wear skirts. And now? Old Burrich, they called him, and him still in his
prime. And so unfair, as if any manservant had any say over what his master did. But it was all to the
good anyway, they supposed. And didn't Verity, after all, make a much better king-in-waiting than had
Chivalry? So rigorously noble was Chivalry that he made all others feel slatternly and stingy in his
presence; he'd never allowed himself a moment's respite from what was right, and while he was too
chivalrous to sneer at those who did, one always had the feeling that his perfect behavior was a silent
reproach to those with less self-discipline. Ah, but then here was the bastard, now, though, after all those
years, and well, here was the proof that he hadn't been the man he'd pretended to be. Verity, now there
was a man among men, a king folk could look to and see as royalty. He rode hard, and soldiered
alongside his men, and if he was occasionally drunk or had at times been less than discreet, well, he
owned up to it, honest as his name. Folk could understand a man like that, and follow him.
To all this I listened avidly, if mutely, while several fabrics were held against me, debated, and selected. I
gained a much deeper understanding of why the keep children left me to play alone. If the women
considered that I might have thoughts or feelings about their conversation, they showed no sign of it. The
only remark I remember Mistress Hasty making to me specifically was that I should take greater care in
washing my neck. Then Mistress Hasty shooed me from the room as if I were an annoying chicken, and I
found myself finally heading to the kitchens for some food. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]