Chapter 20: The Trust

Matthias's POV

The council hall filled by half past nine.

I had asked for every family to be there, and the eldest had seen to it.

The Brandauer foremen sat on the left in their good jackets.

The Reinholt cousins who had stayed in Baltimore sat on the right, and none of them looked at anybody.

My own men filled the back, eighteen of them with green rings, and my steward stood at my shoulder with the papers.

I wore my arm in the sling because the doctor had made me, and my ring on the hand that still worked.

I watched the doors.

They were heavy oak, and they had not opened since the clerk shut them.

"Mr. Kell," the eldest said at ten. "The council is ready."

I looked at the doors one more time.

Then I stood.

"I'll be short," I said.

"Ninety years ago my grandfather bought the Kell berths with money he did not earn."

"Every Kell since has held them by keeping others out."

"That is a speech," the eldest said.

"It's the only one I have."

A Kell man in the third row shifted, and I did not look at him.

"My wife was taken on the road to her wedding," I said.

"I knew it would happen, and I let it."

"She told me I used her. She is right."

Nobody spoke.

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