Chapter 9: The Inspector

The Imperial Inspector arrived six days later in a closed carriage with a clerk, a wax tablet, and an opinion.

He was a thin man with ink on his cuffs.

He inspected the Keep's chimneys, the Duchess's study, and the Duchess's own bedchamber, which he pronounced "unslept in."

"Unslept in," he repeated, tapping his tablet. "The Crown must be sure, Your Grace, that the household of the Duke is a household."

"The Duchess sleeps in the east tower," Eskil said, "because I asked that she be given quiet."

"The law of the Empire does not recognize quiet."

"Then the law is a fool."

"The law is the law," said the Inspector mildly.

"I will require that the Duchess's bed be moved into the Duke's chamber for the length of my visit, and that my clerk sit outside the door at night."

Thessaly folded her hands.

"A week?"

"Until I am satisfied."

Eskil opened his mouth, and she touched his sleeve.

"Agreed," she said. "As the clause allows. It is a request, and I am answering it."

She did not look at him.

That night, the Duke's chamber was a stone room with a vast hearth, a bed the size of a small boat.

A bearskin on the floor.

The clerk's chair scraped outside the door and settled.

Thessaly stood in her nightgown with a wrap over it, and Eskil stood by the window in his shirt with his back to her.

"I will take the floor," he said.

"It is a stone floor."

"I have slept on worse."

"You have a fever-scar on your shoulder from the last time you did," she said.