Her Rightful Place

45: The Informant

"What a day," the Duke of Pelanshire mutters to himself as he walks down a corridor of Cloiche Fuar, bound for his chambers after several wearisome hours of rescuing servants from the Queen's wrath and meeting with Prince Xavier and his Royal Advisors about enhancing security for the Midsummer's Eve Ball. After the incident with the Khandazarian emissaries (who, miraculously, have not yet died from Queen Bêtel's interrogation tactics), they are determined to do everything in their power to prevent a similar incident from interfering with the Midsummer's Eve Ball and the royal betrothal arrangements they hope to solidify during those festivities. Determining how best to assure that the Midsummer's Eve Ball is safe from Khandazarian interference, however, has proved a complicated and contentious conundrum indeed, not least because the Queen insists on firing and replacing various Royal Guards on a regular basis. Jerôme and Xavier recognize that this difficulty is their fault, brought about by their efforts to release servants from Queen Bêtel's wrongful harsh treatment, but they are loath to forgo their good works, even for a temporary and worthy cause.

"If we stop releasing servants from her prisons, we will quickly run out of staff to run the household and complete necessary preparations for the Midsummer's Eve Ball, which would render our efforts to increase security for that event utterly useless," Prince Xavier argued in the meeting with the Royal Advisers. He is not wrong; as the Midsummer's Eve Ball approaches, Queen Bêtel has become more and more volatile and choleric, sometimes imprisoning as many as thirty servants in a single afternoon. The Royal Advisers hemmed and hawed at this information, but they stopped bringing up placing a moratorium on servant rescues after that.

If only there was something we could do to convince the Queen to place a moratorium on servant imprisonment and Royal Guard termination until after the Ball, Jerôme muses, not for the first time. Of course, even suggesting such a thing would be ridiculous; as soon as the Queen caught wind of it, she would most likely put Jerôme himself behind bars or in some torture device. At that point, there would be no telling whether anyone, even Prince Xavier, could rescue him, and Xavier has more than enough on his plate without having his best friend in such dire straits. No, there's no use even considering such a thing. We'll have to come up with some other solution—

Jerôme's caravan of thought abruptly clatters to a halt as he opens the door of the antechamber he shares with the Prince to find a man who could be his own twin lounging in his chair and contemplating the flames dancing in the fireplace. The Duke of Pelanshire softly closes and locks the door before addressing his double, who does not seem to have noticed his entrance.

"Léandre?" Jerôme breathes, hardly daring to believe his eyes. The man in the chair looks up at him, completely unruffled, and rises to his feet.

"A pleasure to see you again, brother," Léandre responds in the confident, slightly dry tone that is characteristic of the Duke of Pelanshire.

"While I admit it is good to see you, after so many years, I must ask what you are doing here. If the Queen learns of your presence, you will be imprisoned and tortured, at the very least," the Duke chides. Léandre, who is indeed Jerôme's older brother, had been banished from Mordalce in the second year of Queen Bêtel's reign as sole ruler of the country; he had been accused of plotting to assassinate her and place Xavier on the throne, but no proof could be found of his guilt. Their father went completely white-headed trying to exonerate his eldest son in the Queen's eyes, but only succeeded in commuting Léandre's punishment from execution to banishment. Léandre went to Claiamean, a kingdom across the Sea of Shaedhaire from Mordalce, and shortly thereafter their father followed, having abdicated his dukedom in favor of Jerôme—who was not quite twelve at the time—and accepted the Mordalcean ambassadorship to Claiamean. Jerôme has not seen either of them since.