Thrifty Man

Go back the other way: Trying to Kiss

Illumina felt the Margrave watching her as they made their way through the pass leading up to the Loro Highlands; at least that is what the people of the lowlands called them. To the Loro, they were the Winter Lands, 'winter' because it was where the Loro spent the cold months of the year. The country higher up in the mountains, the true highlands, the Loro referred to as the Summer Lands as the Loro spent their summers high up in the mountains feeding their animals, leaving just a few people to tend the fields in the Winter Lands.

The people who spent the summer up in the mountains returned in the autumn and helped with the harvest and the hard work of the end of the year. Winter was a time for travel, getting together with other people, for singing and dancing and, in the past, a time for raiding, especially the people of the lowlands.

There was still something of the raider in the Margrave and he felt it unnatural to be traveling in the height of autumn when there was work to be done. He had only consented to the trip to the city because the Queen had promised him the Prince. Evidently, she was afraid of what would become of him if he remained much longer in the King's City, on the fringes of the circles of power, close enough to be a threat to some but not close enough to be able to protect himself. So the Queen sent him away.

For a time, the Margrave had believed there was some catch involved. He could not understand why the Prince would be given into his power. Having seen him, he understood. The King had taken him to one side before they left and told him, "Make him or break him, he's useless to me as he is. Worse than useless, he is a menace and will be done away with if he cannot change." It was obvious that the King and Queen had quite different agendas in the matter but there happened to be a coincidence between the measures they saw as expedient.

All this the Margrave had discussed with Illumina at various times on the journey. She knew he watched her, waiting to see what she might make of the Prince. The Loro women were very free in their relationships with men. It was expected that a woman would seek someone as a match, looking to temperament, wealth and influence, appearance being a secondary issue. Alliances between families through marriage were significant and their significance was drilled into both boys and girls from an early age. The boys and girls were expected to make the final choice but at the same time expected to make a sensible one.

Illumina knew the Margrave watched her, seeing what her choice would be. She sat next to him late on the first night up in the Winter Lands. He put his arm round her and asked "Well?" Just the one word, with little or no intonation, they both knew perfectly well what the question was.

"Well father, what do you expect? I understand the opportunity he offers but to ally ourselves with an incompetent will only weaken us. If he came to power, he would quickly lose it, either by losing his head or by becoming someone's puppet. I have considered that I could be the puppeteer. Whoever played that puppet would have to pull many strings besides just his and I doubt I could gather them all into my hands before someone cut them, or took them from me or simply destroyed me. Once we were seen as allied with a failure we would find it hard to put that perception behind us. As matters stand, I say we leave him alone, if he survives the winter we send him home again. If he does not, no one will be able to say his blood is on our hands as we have nothing to gain by seeing him dead."

They sat together in a companionable silence for a while just staring at the fire. She laughed, "That old king's not as stupid as he looks. He knows you. He knows you won't let an opportunity slip if you can possibly help it. And you're a thrifty man, you hate to see anything go to waste, especially another human being. I don't think you've given up on the Prince yet. What are you going to do?" Again they sat for a while looking at the fire. The Margrave seemed perfectly relaxed, Illumina was noticeably anxious. "I suppose it's up to me. I don't know what to do with him." She laughed again, almost nervously, "He's so awful and Nina seems so attached to him. I don't understand why. I think we have to get him out of this group, away from the people who have seen him on the journey. He's done so much damage to himself that it's hard to see how he can recover and remain in their company. What if I persuade Nina to make a winter journey back to her home in the Summer Country and take the Prince and I with?"

The Margrave was doubtful about his ability to survive the high country in the winter but agreed that he could not stay with the people who had witnessed his humiliation on the journey home. He turned to Illumina, holding her away from him, looking at her. "It's up to you. If you think it can be done, by all means do it. If it comes to taking any risks to save his neck, don't do it. If Nina goes after him, don't make the mistake of going after her because it would amount to the same thing."

They talked a while and Illumina said goodnight going off to sleep, thinking of the winter journey up to the Land of the Summer. It would be dangerous; winter travel was always dangerous, dangerous but beautiful. They would travel by dog sleigh, skis and snow shoes. The dogs were wonderful, savage creatures, half hound, half wolf. They would hunt as they traveled, staying with the local people as well as camping out in the snow. Illumina imagined a party of no more than five or six people, Nina, herself, the Prince and two or three others that she could trust to look after the Prince and be discrete about anything ridiculous he might do on the trip.

She wondered if he could ski, probably not, still he could be expected to use snow shoes and they could put him in a sled for any downhill runs. The only real question was how to put it to Nina given the latest encounter between them. Illumina wasn't sure Nina would even talk to her. Still she did not feel that any bridges had been irreparably burnt, at least not from her side. She laughed, reflecting she was like her father not given to seeing anything go to waste, so she wasn't about to give up on her relationship with Nina. Smiling to herself, Illumina turned on her side and went to sleep.

To follow this thread in the story go to: What it Would Mean

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