LITMIR.BIZ

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more abrupt with her. He had begun to deploy his little barbed comments against her in public as well as in private. The small courtesies that any woman could expect from her husband were vanishing from her life. In the beginning, he had taken pains to be attentive to her in public, to offer his arm when they walked together, to hand her up into her carriage. Those small graces had vanished now. But last night was the first time that cruelty had replaced them.

      Not even the precious Spice Island scrolls were worth what he had done to her. It was time to end this charade. She had the evidence of his infidelity. It was time to use it to render her marriage contract void.

      The clues were small but plain. The first had come as an invoice mistakenly placed on her desk instead of his. It was for a very expensive lotion, one she knew she had never bought. When she had queried the merchant about it, he had produced a receipt for its delivery, signed in Hest’s hand. She had paid the bill, but kept the papers. In a similar fashion, she had come to discover that Hest was paying the rent on a cottage half a day’s ride from their home in an area of small farms, mostly settled by Three Ships immigrants. And the last was the item she had noticed last night; he wore a ring she had never seen before; she had felt the bite of it as he had gripped her arms so cruelly tight last night. Hest enjoyed jewellery, and often wore rings. But his taste ran to massive worked silver; this ring had been gold, with a tiny stone set in it. She knew with certainty that it was nothing Hest would ever have bought for himself.

      So now she understood. He’d married her only to keep his family content, so that they might show to the world their son’s proper Trader wife. The Finboks would never accept a Three Ships girl into their family, let alone recognize her child as their heir. The lotion, she was sure, had been a gift for his mistress. The ring he now wore was her pledge to him. He was unfaithful. He had broken their contract, and she would use his broken vow as a way to free herself from him.

      She would be poor. There would be a settlement from his family, of course, but she didn’t deceive herself that she could live on it as she did under his roof. She would have to retreat to the little piece of land that had been her dowry. She’d have to live simply. She’d have her work, of course, and—

      The door opened. Sedric entered, laughing about something and speaking over his shoulder to Hest. He turned and saw her and smiled. ‘Alise, good morning!’

      ‘Good morning, Sedric.’ The words came out of her mouth, a reflexive pleasantry.

      Then, as Hest glared at her, annoyed at still finding her at the breakfast table, she heard herself blurt out, ‘You’ve been unfaithful to me. That voids our marriage contract. You can let me go quietly, or I can take this to the Traders’ Council and present my evidence.’

      Sedric had been in the act of seating himself. He dropped abruptly into his chair and stared at her in white-faced horror. She was suddenly ashamed that he had to witness this. ‘You don’t have to stay, Sedric. I’m sorry to make you a party to this.’ She chose formal words but her shaking voice ruined them.

      ‘A party to what?’ Hest demanded. He raised one eyebrow at her. ‘Alise, this is the first I’ve heard of this nonsense, and if you are wise, it will be the last! I see you’ve finished eating. Why don’t you go and leave me in peace!’

      ‘As you left me in peace last night?’ she asked bitterly, pushing the hard words out. ‘I know everything, Hest. I’ve put it all together. Expensive palat lotion. A little cottage in the Three Ships district. That ring you’re wearing. It all fits together.’ She took a breath. ‘You have a Three Ships mistress, don’t you?’

      Sedric made a small scandalized sound as if he gasped for air. But Hest was unfazed. ‘What ring?’ he demanded. ‘Alise, this is all nonsense! You insult us both with these wild accusations.’

      His hands were bare. No matter. ‘The one you wore last night. The little stone on it scratched me. I can show you the mark, if you’d like.’

      ‘I can’t think of anything I’d like less!’ he retorted. He flung himself into a chair at the table and began lifting the covers on the dishes. He scooped up a spoonful of eggs, glared at them, and then splatted them back into the dish. He leaned back in the chair and regarded her. ‘Are you sure you are well?’ He almost sounded concerned for her. ‘You’ve taken an odd collection of small facts and made them lead in a very insulting direction. The ring you saw last night belongs to Sedric. How could you imagine it was mine? He’d left it on the table at the inn. I put it on my hand so it wouldn’t be lost. And I gave it back to him this morning. Are you satisfied? Ask him if you wish.’ He lifted the cover on another dish, muttering, ‘Of all the idiocy. Before breakfast, too.’ He speared several small sausages and shook them off on his plate. Sedric hadn’t moved or spoken. ‘Sedric!’ Hest snapped at him abruptly.

      He startled, gaped at Hest and then turned hastily to Alise. ‘Yes. I bought the ring. And Hest gave it back to me. Yes.’ He looked acutely miserable.

      Hest suddenly relaxed. Nonchalantly, he rang the bell for a servant. When a maid came to the door, he gestured at the table. ‘Bring some hot food. This is disgusting. And make a fresh pot of tea. Sedric, will you have tea?’

      When Sedric just stared at him, Hest snorted in exasperation. ‘Sedric will have tea, also.’ As soon as the door closed behind the maid, Hest spoke to his secretary. ‘Explain the lotion, if you would, Sedric. And my supposed “love cottage”.’

      Sedric looked ill. ‘The palat lotion was a gift.’

      ‘For my mother,’ Hest cut in. ‘And the cottage is a place that Sedric uses, not I. He said he needed some privacy, and I agreed. It seemed a small accommodation to make for him, as well as he has served me. And if he chooses to entertain there, and who he has in to visit him, I consider none of my business. Nor yours, Alise. He’s a man, and a man has needs.’ He bit off a piece of a sausage, chewed and swallowed it. ‘Frankly, I’m shocked at all this. You are my wife. To imagine you shuffling through my papers, digging in the hope of discovering some nasty secret; well, it’s dismaying. What ails you, woman, to even think of such a thing?’

      She found she was trembling. Was it all so easily explained away? Could she be that wrong? ‘You’re a man, too.’ She pointed out in a shaking voice. ‘With needs. Yet you seldom visit me. You ignore me.’

      ‘I’m a busy man, Alise. With concerns much more profound than, well, your carnal desires. Must we speak of this in front of Sedric? If you cannot spare my feelings, can you at least consider his?’

      ‘You have to have someone else. I know you do!’ The words came out of her as a quavering cry.

      ‘You know nothing,’ Hest retorted in sudden disgust. ‘But you shall. Sedric. As Alise has made you a party to our nasty little squabble, I shall avail myself of you. Sit up and tell the truth.’ Hest turned suddenly back to her. ‘You will believe Sedric, won’t you? Even if you consider your wedded husband a lying adulterer.’

      She locked eyes with Sedric. The man was pale. He was breathing audibly, his mouth half ajar. What had ever possessed her, to speak out in front of him that way? What would he think of her now? He had ever been her friend. Could she salvage at least that? ‘He has never lied to me,’ she said. ‘I’ll believe him.’

      ‘Alise, I …’

      ‘Now, quiet, Sedric, until you hear the question.’ Hest put his forearms on the table and leaned on them thoughtfully. His voice was as measured as if he were stating the terms of a contract. ‘Answer my wife truthfully and fully. You are with me almost every hour of my working day and sometimes far into the night. If anyone knows my habits, it’s you. Look at Alise and tell her true: Do I have another woman in my life?’

      ‘I … that is, no. No.’

      ‘Have I ever shown any interest, here in Bingtown or on our trading journeys, in any woman?’

      Sedric’s voice had grown a little stronger. ‘No. Never.’

      ‘There. You see.’ Hest leaned forward to help himself to a slice of fruit-bread. ‘Your

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