He Drank, and Saw the Spider by Alex Bledsoe

Author:Alex Bledsoe [Bledsoe, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy
ISBN: 9780765334145
Amazon: 0765334143
Goodreads: 17910103
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2013-12-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter

SIXTEEN

It wasn’t a marathon battle, and I did little but lie back and enjoy it, but it certainly helped me shake off the last of the hangover. And as Liz rose back into my field of vision, hair tousled and with a knowing half smile, I felt the kind of assurance in her affection that allowed me to relax and think about my erstwhile case.

“You’re already working again, aren’t you?” she said.

“It’s no reflection on you, I promise. Two minutes ago, you had my full attention.”

“Uh-huh. Any ideas?”

“Not yet. Still mulling.”

She climbed off the bed. “Well, I’m going to get ready while you mull. It takes a lady longer to get beautiful than it does a man to get dashing.” She opened the curtain, and what I saw revealed in the late-afternoon light completely refuted her argument.

I tried to focus on the case, on Isadora’s mysterious origin, but my brain wouldn’t cooperate. Instead, for whatever reason— maybe it was seeing Beatrice’s ferocious maternal loyalty, or lying in a bed so reminiscent of those in my own childhood home—I thought about my mom, Lady Caroline, the Baroness LaCrosse.

Like Beatrice, she’d been the oldest daughter of a rich Arentian, and thus knew both the value of money, and its ultimate worthlessness. She never worried about what things cost, but she did insist on value for the gold, and woe to anyone, merchant or noble, who tried to cheat or shortchange her. As her only child, I absorbed a lot of her attitudes toward things, and even the rigorous training my father insisted on was unable to change what had become my core values. As I approached middle age, I became more and more thankful for that.

She was the steady wind to my dad’s raging gales, and the one person he never tried to bully or impress. Tall, spare, elegant, and very intelligent, she ran the day-to-day workings of our estate with an ease that belied its complexity.

She had dark brown hair that, as soon as she could each day, came out of its elaborate public coif and fell in brushed waves around her shoulders. When she saw me, her face would light up, even if I was being dragged by the ear after doing something ill-advised. Old Wentrobe, the king’s chamberlain and principal bane of my existence back then, considered me a lost cause before I’d gotten out of diapers. He bemoaned my influence on my best friend, the crown prince Philip, and when I got older made no secret of his disapproval after I started courting Phil’s sister Janet.

When Mom learned about the relationship, she took me aside for a walk in the family orchards. It was a beautiful spring day, and the white blossoms glowed in the sunlight. Backlit bees swarmed the flowers, but they seemed to know better than to pester Mom.

“So you have a girlfriend,” she said.

“Uh . . .”

“It’s okay, son, you don’t have to pretend. You’re fourteen, it’s normal to start liking girls at this age. Certainly I can’t fault your taste; Princess Janet is a beautiful and intelligent girl.

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