The Fall of the Kings by Ellen Kushner

Author:Ellen Kushner [Kushner, Ellen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-05-30T06:28:14+00:00

"But Genevieve Randall can?"

Diana drummed her fingers. "It is the woman's right. But for a lord to reject his contracted bride--well, for all of the things that men may do to us with impunity, it should be comforting to know that this is not one of them."

"Hmm." Isabel fiddled with her laces. "I say, do it anyway. What's the worst thing that could happen?"

"For her? It implies that he has found fault with her--judged her and found her wanting somehow. No one else would be in a hurry to offer for her. It could ruin her life. It's an insult, anyway."

"In the old days, it would have meant a swordsman for sure. A challenge to Theron, maybe even to the death. Do the Randalls keep a swordsman?"

"How do I know? They could certainly hire one. But even if they didn't, it would make him look bad. People would start up again talking about how rackety the Campions are, and bringing up old stuff about Katherine, and--and Lady Sophia. The next time Theron picked a bride, the contract would be brutal."

"She must cry off!"

"Why should she? He's a catch."

"Maybe she's really very nice."

"I doubt it," Diana said gloomily. "He's always had aborri' inable taste in women."

Isabel said quietly, "Di. Did you ever wish that you and Theron--"

Diana looked at her sharply. "Of course not."

"Oh. It's just that, that summer we were sixteen, you were on at him all the time, and at home you talked about him."

"Well, what else was there to talk about?" Diana asked fiercely; "Andy's cough? Theron had an interesting life; we didn't." She laid the apple on a plate, cut neatly in quarters. "Meeting Martin was the best thing that ever happened to me. I love banking."

Isabel deemed it wise to change the subject. "By the way," she said, "Mother told me they've invited Jessica to the wed-ding."

"No! She'll never come!"

"Of course she will--if the invitation finds her. She's out there somewhere, on that ship of hers. If anything would bring her home, I'd think it would be the chance to see her brother get married."

In the next room, music began.

Isabel said, "Let's eat."

IT WAS NO GOOD, THERON THOUGHT; WHEREVER HE went it was no good. The things he wanted were all wrong, and he wanted them with a gut-twisting fierceness. He wanted Genevieve for the easing of his body, and because he thought she meant he'd have to give up nothing; instead, he had lost the thing he valued most. Which was Basil.

He had a hazy memory of some kind of quarrel--Basil wanted him to be king, that was it. And he'd been angry because ,he thought Basil didn't understand who he really was. Theron remembered himself as being independent, a scholar, a thinker, even a poet: a man of discriminating tastes. But he was none of those things, now. Basil had been right after all. Basil had told Theron the truth over and over about himself: he was his blood, his blood, and nothing but his blood.

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