A comment was asking how Clair and Arianna would manage the new responsibilities of the region. Well... that's another story - literally. There are two novels which follow this one, and which have their own story arcs. Arianna's work with the wider politics she is interested in is further developed as background in those stories.
I can't believe this is the penultimate chapter. I am going to be so emotional when I go to post the last one!
*****
Clair came into the sitting-room, walked to the fireplace and pulled a series of horrible faces, writhing his thin mouth about and screwing up his slanted eyes. He jumped up and down on the hearthrug a few times. Arianna, who had come straight through after dinner, rolled around in her armchair with laughter.
"What is it now?" she asked.
"Those
bloody
First Sietter officers," he complained, going to sit in his chair. He put a hand down to caress his old hunting hound's ears then he looked sad. She had gone during the winter, poor old thing. Not before her time but he missed her.
Now that he was Lord van Sietter he was obliged to have the ceremonial troop trailing about with him. He refused to move into Palladia Arventa, instead he sold it to his brother by marriage el Jien van Iarve, to use for merchants' conferences. This annoyed the King and the Privy Council very much since it was better situated than the court for meetings with those involved in trade. In their pique they offered much more to Arianna, Hanya and the merchants than they had intended. Clair tried hard to give Hanya the Palladia but Arianna insisted he accept a price that reflected its full monetary worth and made him send all the money to Lord Pava's young widow in Vilandia, in addition to the jewels and monies as laid out in her marriage papers.
Clair refurbished the old troop barracks at Castle Sietter for First Sietter. They were a great nuisance. It was their duty to follow Clair and Arianna and ensure their safety at all times but Clair felt it was ridiculous for them to insist on accompanying him to inspect the pigs and cows on the farm or the airing of the bedding in the kitchen gardens and to stand in a massed rank about him while he collected the boys from school.
Besides her philosophical objections to them as a pacifist, Arianna complained that the officers gossiped and giggled outside the library and that their weapons were hung in a way that made them jingle at the slightest movement, making it difficult for her and her students to concentrate.
The officers were always wanting to come and sit at high table for dinner, too, instead of in their mess. They had fomented an absurd rivalry with the Castle Guard so that the guards tried to make Captain Jien go and sit on high table with them when all he wanted at the end of a long working day was to sit with his husband the kennelmaster in the main dining hall. Clair completely banned them from coming into the family quarters, he said they could waste their time securing them from the passages by the dining hall.
"What now?" Arianna asked Clair, the laughter still lurking in the dimple in her chin.
"Such nonsense, forget it," he grumbled. "Come and play chess."
"Yes, alright," she said. She got up and reached up to the mantelpiece, to re-arrange yet again the gold-edged pink card inviting them to witness
the bestowal of Dame Anastelle Yrai on Lieutenant-Lord Hanya el Jien van Iarve, formerly of First Iarve
. This time she placed it carefully to the side of the mantelpiece, leaning it on a star-engraved glass full of coloured marbles, alongside the gold-flecked pink invitation to witness
the bestowal of Lady Sevianne el Jien van Iarve on Lieutenant-Lord Volka el Darien van Trattai of First Trattai
and the very elegant pink invitation with an abstract gold spray across one corner inviting them to witness
the bestowal of Captain Hanya Lein of Sixth H'las on Major General-Sir Dar Vaie of the offices of the strategic staff in Arventa
. Beside the wedding invitation cards stood a sketch of Hanyan's father, her husband's lover, which she had suggested they should frame and put up there.
Clair crossed the room in the sunny summer evening light falling through the long windows. He fetched the chess set and began putting out the board and pieces on the table by the windows.
It was a set Arianna had bought him for his birthday, made by one of the Namoon School. All the pawns on one side were broken bits of an ordinary peasant's eating bowl. On the other side, the pawns were small pebbles of the kind poor children collect in Soomara to play a local game. Most of the other pieces were also rubbish from a trash heap (carefully cleaned) except the Kings and Queens which were angular figurines of gold and silver with three or four jewelled eyes each. It was a symbolic representation of the extremes of poverty and wealth. Arianna said that at the least of it the price she had to pay for such a pile of garbage had meant that one Namoon School artist and her family would never live in poverty again. Clair adored it.
The windows were open, a soft breeze drifted in past the pink curtains with the scent of roses and lilies on it. It crossed Clair's mind that the curtains were faded and he should think about replacing them, maybe the carpet too. That would no doubt be high entertainment for the First Sietter officers, to go round the furnishing warehouse down in the town choosing matching fabrics. He went to fetch himself a bowl of brandy and Arianna a bowl of Graiel.
The sitting-room door opened and Petra the footman wheeled himself in and put two small plates piled with tiny pasties on the table. "Dar has made these snacks for the Guard who are having a card party," he said. "He thought you would like some too."
"Prithou thank him," Arianna said, resting her hand momentarily on his shoulder. He smiled a shy acknowledgement up at her before he wheeled himself out of the room. She was so elegant and charming in a blue silk dress that flattered the curves of her beautiful body and picked up the colour of her eyes.
As she went to sit down in the sunshine, round the corner of the table from Clair, Arianna tucked a curl of his beautifully cut longish hair around his ear and felt the tickle of an earring on her hand. She looked and laughed to see that he had pinched one of her sapphire betrothal set to wear in his ear. She sat down where she could lift her head and see the flowers nodding in the warm evening air outside. Clair let her take the 'white' pieces. (After some argument and a protracted correspondence with the artist who returned irritating enigmatic answers to their question, they came to an agreement that the pawns made from a broken bowl were 'white'.)
