Assassin's Apprentice

Another man would have gone off to the kitchens or the baths after hearing my summarized version of everything that had gone on in his absence. But Burrich insisted on walking through his stables, stopping here to chat with a groom and there to speak softly to a horse. When he came to the lady's old palfrey, he stopped. He looked at the horse for a few minutes in silence.

"I trained this beast," he said abruptly, and at his voice the horse turned in the stall to face him and whickered softly. "Silk," he said softly, and stroked the soft nose. He sighed suddenly. "So the Lady Patience is here. Has she seen you yet?"

Now there was a question difficult to answer. A thousand thoughts collided in my head at once. The Lady Patience, my father's wife, and by many accounts, the one most responsible for my father's withdrawal from the court and from me. That was who I had been chatting with in the kitchen, and drunkenly saluting. That was who had quizzed me this morning on my education. To Burrich I muttered, "Not formally. But we've met."

He surprised me by laughing. "Your face is a picture, Fitz. I can see she hasn't changed much, just by your reaction. The first time I met her was in her father's orchard. She was sitting up in a tree. She demanded that I remove a splinter from her foot, and took her shoe and stocking off right there so I could do it. Right there in front of me. And she had no idea at all of who I was. Nor I, her. I thought she was a lady's maid. That was years ago, of course, and even a few years before my prince met her. I suppose I wasn't much older than you are now." He paused, and his face softened. "And she had a wretched little dog she always carried about with her in a basket. It was always wheezing and retching up wads of its own fur. Its name was Featherduster." He paused a moment, and smiled almost fondly. "What a thing to remember, after all these years."

"Did she like you when she first met you?" I asked tactlessly.

Burrich looked at me and his eyes became opaque, the man disappearing behind the gaze. "Better than she does now," he said abruptly. "But that's of small import. Let's hear it, Fitz. What does she think of you?"

Now there was another question. I plunged into an accounting of our meetings, glossing over details as much as I dared. I was halfway through my garden encounter when Burrich held up a hand.

"Stop," he said quietly.

I fell silent.

"When you cut pieces out of the truth to avoid looking like a fool, you end up sounding like a moron instead. Let's start again."

So I did, and spared him nothing, of either my behavior or the lady's comments. When I was finished, I waited for his judgment. Instead, he reached out and stroked the palfrey's nose. "Some things are changed by time," he said at last. "And others are not." He sighed. "Well, Fitz, you have a way of presenting yourself to the very people you should most ardently avoid. I am sure there will be consequences from this, but I have not the slightest idea what they will be. That being so, there's no point to worrying. Let's see the rat dog's pups. You say she had six?"

"And all survived," I said proudly, for the bitch had a history of difficult whelping.

"Let's just hope we do as well for ourselves," Burrich muttered as we walked through the stables, but when I glanced up at him, surprised, he seemed not to have been talking to me at all.

"I'd have thought you'd have the good sense to avoid her," Chade grumbled at me.

It was not the greeting I had looked for after more than two months' absence from his chambers. "I didn't know it was the Lady Patience. I'm surprised there was not gossip about her arrival."

"She strenuously objects to gossip," Chade informed me. He sat in his chair before the small fire in the fireplace. Chade's chambers were chilly, and he was ever vulnerable to cold. He looked weary as well tonight, worn by whatever he had been doing in the weeks since I'd last seen him. His hands, especially, looked old, bony and lumpy about the knuckles. He took a sip of his wine and continued. "And she has her eccentric little ways of dealing with those who talk about her behind her back. She has always insisted on privacy for herself. It is one reason she would have made a very poor queen. Not that Chivalry cared. That was a marriage he made for himself rather than for politics. I think it was the first major disappointment he dealt his father. After that, nothing he did ever completely pleased Shrewd."

I sat still as a mouse. Slink came and perched on my knee. It was rare to hear Chade so talkative, especially about matters relating to the royal family. I scarcely breathed for fear of interrupting him.