Laiya, Lan’s mother, was built like Tellan, and wore her hair up and beneath a wool cap that should have hidden her loveliness but did not. She would have caught The Acana’s eye as surely as she’d caught The Maben’s.
Whatever Tellan had told her mother about Fen, her mother chose not to speak of it, or of Lan, to Fen directly, and called Fen by his name, although her lips quirked whenever the others called him the Flower. Her days were busy, spent walking from one corner of the solid stone keep to another to see to issues and the needs of the people within its thick walls, or to consult with those who came with news from the rest of the territory. Lan had entrusted his mother to the running of the keep and the territory, and no one, not even the remaining members of the Maben, openly disputed her right to do it.
The holding was small compared to what Fen had known, but it had stood through many winters and might stand for many more, though no Maben ruled it now. He supposed, in a sense, Lan was of the Maben, but he had not been given the name so under ordinary circumstances he would never have ruled. Heni could have, but apparently their father was foolish in many ways and had never favored her either, although he had at least claimed her.
Those of the Maben who hadn’t been killed defending their once-Earl didn’t seem interested in challenging Lan. They stayed out on their small properties, without the money or time to raise any force that might conceivably shove Lan from this place, and the guards in the keep itself seemed to prefer the leadership of the Wild Dog and his family. Lan had also filled their ranks with those he had known in his younger years or who had fought with him.
A few of the Maben had stayed in the holding, mostly the younger ones and the very old, all of them here by Lan’s mercy. Fen didn’t think the younger ones cared much as it did not overly affect their lives, and the older ones mostly kept to themselves.
He had regularly encountered only one, the former Maben’s aunt, who had once had a fine hand with a needle, and who tolerated Fen sitting with her before a fire while he worked. Fen asked her about Maben traditions and history, and what she didn’t know, he discovered in the small collection of scrolls and bound books in the rooms where The Maben had once received important visitors.
He wondered if Lan had ever been in that room, and if so, doubted his memories of it were pleasant ones. But if Lan retained this territory for himself, he would need somewhere to meet people.
Since it had windows and decent light, as well as a large fireplace, Fen cleaned it out and straightened the scrolls enough to show space on the shelves. Tellan saw him at work, and then over the next few days, chairs and cushions were carried in, and more rugs, until Fen sat, still shivering but smiling, in front of a roaring fire as he embroidered and Tellan played with Heni and Maril’s daughter on the floor.
Laiya joined them not long after that. She did not have much time to sit during the days, but enjoyed tea while watching the little one, and suggested a playmate for her since one of the cooks had a child about her age. Once, she sat forward, and Fen had thought she’d been about to speak to him, but then a visitor had arrived and she had been called away.
In the second month, Fen was still cold, and not even staying bent over his work could keep him from fretting when the storms worsened and no messages of any kind came from the South or even from elsewhere in Maben territory.
That meant trouble, it seemed, and Tellan and Lan’s mother and many servants went down into the cellars to account for things and what might be spared, and then, when the storms cleared for a time, they dressed in layers upon layers of thick winter clothing and went out to see where help was needed.
Too many of those of the Maben did not do this, Fen noticed, and understood why even The Maben’s own guards had sided with Lan.
Since those of the Maben did nothing, and some servants and older Maben would not listen to Maril, who was not noble, Fen went to the kitchens in Laiya’s absence. He suspected those in the kitchen had heard the songs about him from the looks they gave him, but they answered his questions readily, and had soup and bread waiting for Tellan and Laiya when they returned. They also served a soup of mainly thin broth and bread crusts to the Maben still in the keep.
Lan would see the others fed first, and those out in the winter weather had more need of filling meals than the nobles behind the keep’s walls.
A few of those nobles came down to request better food, full of sharp words for Lan’s mother until they saw it was Fen waiting for them. He wondered if they’d heard the songs too, and what they took away from lyrics about Fen in Lan’s arms that would make them go quiet and return to their rooms.
Tellan found the whole incident funny. Before Laiya could say anything, Fen apologized for stepping into her role while she was gone, though it had needed to be done.
She ought to have help. A Head of House to assist her in the running of the keep so she could focus on the running of the territory in Lan’s place.
Laiya had only studied him, and thanked him, and called him Flower for the first time.
Fen wanted to talk to Lan about it, and obviously couldn’t. So he relayed the matter to the furs on his bed—Lan’s bed, because that was surely where Tellan had put him.
This sort of peace was confusing, Fen told a Lan who wasn’t there, and imagined Lan listening and then asking, only lightly teasing him, if Fen had plotted around that yet.
Fen supposed he should.
Vyloria, the once-Maben’s aunt, had not come down to complain with the others. She had, however, given Fen a stern glance before sitting across from him while he picked out stitches in a design he didn’t like. Fen had thought she might yell and had gone still, watching even his hands to ensure no trembling. But after a glare, Vyloria had settled, and begun to talk of future winter visits that might be required from those in the holding of the Earl, and how Laiya should never have gone out there in the place of a Maben.
Lan’s rule here hadn’t changed her life much, although she must have been frightened when Lan first rose up from the morra. So many feared what the Wild Dog might do, but that was because they assumed he would act like the Earls, and there were Earls in the past who might have slain everyone in the keep upon taking it.
Beyond that, it didn’t seem to matter even to other nobles who was in charge, as long as everything was run well and the one in power was not like The Acana. But in holdings where the head of the family was allowed to do as they pleased and was accountable to no one, someone like The Acana would always appear.
Tellan would comment that Fen thought too much if he told her that. Lan might agree. Lan might also think Fen was right.Smart flower, he would say, orGood cub. Or he would be silent and his gaze would leave Fen hot and unable to look back at him if others were near.
Fen shouldn’t think of it now. He told himself that often, although the thoughts found him at night.
Lan shouldn’t have left his mother here alone. That was something for Fen to worry that was not battles and blood far from him. Laiya was strong, but she was surrounded by nobles who might have witnessed The Maben abandoning her. They might be cruel. Fen’s family would have been. Yet, even with that, she saw to running the holding and the lands outside it, and kept others fed, and even made sure the former Maben in his tower was cared for, although she did not visit him.
No one did. Not even Vyloria.
“It must be hard for her. For Laiya,” Fen said at last in response to another of Vylora’s stories of how Maben of the past had acted. “She is doing the work of many, including the work of The Maben, when there are plenty of Maben around. It shouldn’t be only you who remembers how an Earl and an Earl’s family should behave.”
Vyloria did not answer him until three days later.
