Called to Account by J.S. Mawdsley

Author:J.S. Mawdsley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: court intrigue, romantasy, political fantasy
Publisher: J.S. Mawdsley
Published: 2024-07-24T00:00:00+00:00

ROHESIA SENT A NOTE that reached him while he soaked in his bath. She would be in her rooms the rest of the afternoon until supper and would be happy to see him at any point once he was ready for company. While he ate a hasty snack of bread, cheese, and cold meat, he sent a reply that he would call on her within the hour.

When he arrived, Presley found Queen Rohesia had been placed in the finest of the palace’s guest suites, the one, in fact, King Edwin himself would occupy if he had come. How different from the glorified servants’ quarters Presley knew she had occupied with Alice, her niece, Helena, and a governess for years of house arrest during the war.

Now she was seated on a soft couch of fine linen, behind her a broad writing desk well-stocked with stationery and inks, a tray of sparkling glassware on the carved walnut table in front of her. She looked like the queen she was, surrounded by the best the palace had to offer, wearing a gown of blue silk shown to excellent advantage by her upright frame. Rohesia Sigor was a regal woman, and it gladdened his heart to see her looking so here in the kingdom from which she had spent too long in exile.

Beside her in a wide armchair sat Lawrence, her brother, the Earl of Hyrne, former Captain General of Myrcia, and a man Presley knew all too well. They had met decades ago when Lawrence squired as a teenager to Duke Brandon Dryhten in Leornian and Presley served as Brandon’s treasurer. The duke, being a thoughtful mentor, wanted to prepare Lawrence not only for martial activities, but for the challenges that awaited him when he became earl. To that end, Presley was tasked with teaching Lawrence the principles of estate management. Lawrence had proved a terrible student of finance. And given the fact he had been an unmitigated disaster as captain general, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on more than one occasion, he had not learned his martial lessons from Duke Brandon, either.

Lawrence did manage to elicit some sympathy from Presley by virtue of having spent five years in the Wealdan Castle dungeon after being captured at the Battle of Erstenwell. He was as thin now as Presley had ever seen him, and looked older than Presley, despite being more than a decade younger. The Gramirens had not been kind, and no level of incompetence deserved the treatment he had suffered all those years.

Beside him on a sturdy chair with silver and blue cushions sat a man Presley did not know well, but immediately recognized. He was Sir Franklin Porcher, a native of Rawdon, who had survived even worse than Lawrence at the hands of the Gramirens, particularly Queen Muriel. His history was complicated—his grandparents had been good friends of Muriel and Lukas Ostensen’s parents, so he’d squired with Duke Lukas, who eventually became Broderick Gramiren’s captain general. Although the bond

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