House Harkonnen by Frank Herbert

Author:Frank Herbert [Herbert, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

-DUKE LETO ATREIDES

ONE EVENING, Duke Leto and his concubine had been shouting at one another for more than an hour, and Thufir Hawat was troubled. He stood in the ducal wing, just down the hall from the closed door of Leto’s bedroom. If either of them emerged, Hawat could slip down one of the side passageways that honeycombed the Castle. No one knew the back corridors and secret ways better than the Mentat.

Something crashed in the bedroom. Kailea’s voice rose over the Duke’s deeper, equally furious tones. Hawat didn’t hear everything they said … nor did he need to. As Security Commander, he was responsible for the Duke’s personal well-being. He didn’t want to intrude, but in the present atmosphere his primary concern was the potential for violence between Leto and his concubine.

The Duke shouted, exasperated, “I don’t intend to spend my life arguing with you about what cannot be changed.”

“Then why don’t you just have Victor and me killed? That would be your best solution. Or send us away to a place where you don’t have to think about us — like you did to your mother.”

Hawat couldn’t hear Leto’s response, but he understood all too well why the young Duke had banished Lady Helena.

“You’re no longer the man I fell in love with, Leto,” Kailea continued. “It’s Jessica, isn’t it? Has the witch seduced you yet?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. In the year and a half she’s been with us I’ve never visited her bed once — though I have every right to do so.”

Several moments of silence ensued. The Mentat waited in a state of tension.

Kailea finally said with a sarcastic sigh, “Same old refrain. Keeping Jessica here is just politics. Refusing to marry me is just politics. Hiding your involvement with Rhombur and the rebels on Ix is just politics. I’m sick of your politics. You’re as much a schemer as any in the Imperium.”

“I’m not a schemer. It’s my enemies who plot against me.”

“The words of a true paranoid. Now I understand why you haven’t married me and made Victor your rightful heir. It’s a Harkonnen plot.”

Leto’s reasonable tones slipped into open rage. “I never promised you marriage, Kailea, but for your sake I never even took another concubine.”

“What does it matter, if I’m never to be your wife?” Choking laughter punctuated the scorn in Kailea’s words. “Your ‘faithfulness’ is one more show you put on to appear honorable — just politics.”

Leto sucked in a sharp breath, as if the words had been a physical blow. “Perhaps you’re right,” he agreed in a voice as icy as a Lankiveil winter. “Why did I bother?” The bedroom door slammed open, and Hawat melted into the shadows. “I am neither your pet, nor a fool, Kailea — I am the Duke.”

Leto strode down the hallway, muttering and cursing. Behind the partially open door, Kailea began sobbing. Soon she would call Chiara, and the plump old woman would comfort her through the long night.

Remaining out of sight, Hawat followed his

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