Lora of Two Worlds

The Countess's court sat at the back of the house, but it connected directly to the Count's quarters at the front.

Both ends of the garden were enclosed by covered galleries, and each gallery enclosed a little garden with a pair of swans. The pair in the back, sibling birds, devoted and inseparable, had been there five years and never mated.

The Count had asked the man who'd gifted them, traced it back to the swan-keeper, who'd finally admitted, sheepishly, that the two were from the same clutch, brother and sister.

The gifter, ashamed, had brought another pair, hoping the siblings would each take a new mate. But swans mate for life. Once they'd bonded, that was it.

The sibling pair wouldn't even look at the newcomers. So the household had let them be.

When Carl and Lora stepped onto the gallery, the swans came flapping toward them. Lora had never seen them before, last time, they'd been off foraging at the lily pond.

"Oh, they're gorgeous!"

Carl, remembering his sister had lost her memory, explained: "The pair back here are siblings. Mother's forecourt has a pair that's a true couple."

"Siblings? So they've never laid eggs?"

"Hey, how did you know? They've never hatched a single chick."

"Babies from siblings tend to have defects, the family flaws get amplified. Even cats and dogs don't naturally avoid inbreeding. Swans knowing to steer clear, that's remarkable."

Carl laughed: "Lil, with a head like yours, you don't seem to have the forgetting sickness. More like a cracked nut, the kernel's popped out!"

They entered the court. The maids at the door went in to announce them. By the time they stepped inside, the maids, even Rosa and Azalea, the Countess's own attendants, had bowed themselves out and shut both the chamber door and the court gate behind them.

"Carl, kneel."

The Countess's face held no trace of a smile. Carl had never seen her like this. Bewildered, he walked forward and knelt before her.

"Mother, what's happened? Why is he kneeling?"

Lora caught her mother's sleeve. The Countess didn't look at her. She addressed Carl:

"Carl, at your age, behaving like this. Mother asks you: what did you do last night that you shouldn't have?"

"Last night? Last night I was with Roland, intercepting rebels. I didn't do... anything..."

He remembered the confrontation on the gate tower with Brendan. His head dropped. He hadn't told a soul, certainly not Father. Brendan was just hungry for glory. He wouldn't have meant any real harm. If Father found out, Brendan was dead.

Had Mother found out?

"Remembered now? You'd do something that disgraces the family name and act like nothing happened?"

The Countess, reading his face, wanted to slap him. She pulled a pomander from her sleeve-pouch and threw it at his feet:

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"See for yourself. What do you have to say? If this got out, how would House Odenheim hold its head up in Lohenheim?"

Lora picked up the pendant. The tassel was prettily knotted, with a small amber disc in the center. The original Lora would have recognized it, she'd meant to make a new tassel for Carl, and Grace Venn had offered to take the disc and help. But Lora didn't remember. Mother and Carl both did.

"Mother, where did you get this? Last year's tassel broke. Lil took it, she never gave it back. But this has nothing to do with last night. I kept it quiet because I was afraid you and Father would be angry "

"Kept it quiet!" The Countess heard the words "kept it quiet" and her last doubt dissolved. She snatched the horsehair whisk from the scroll-stand and brought it down on Carl:

"So it's yours! And you'd push the blame onto Lil! You gave it to Grace Venn, that's a secret token between a man and a maid! If you hadn't had carnal knowledge of her, how would she know about the mole on the back of your neck?"

Grace Venn?!

Lora grabbed her mother's arm:

"Mother, there has to be a mistake! The one who pushed me into the river was Grace Venn. My brother was out all night fighting rebels, he wouldn't be hard up enough to touch her!"

"Pushed you into the river?"

It was the Countess's turn to be stunned. No one had told her. Carl stood, and together he and Lora helped their mother to the daybed.

"Mother, what exactly happened? I've never been alone with Grace Venn. I only saw her a few times when she came to the house to call on Lil. The Yorvik Liaison Office was raided last night, the Venn women are all confined there. How did you see her?"

"Rosa!"

Rosa pushed the door open: "My lady?"

"Bring the gown she took off."

Rosa returned with a gown over her arm. The Countess had ordered it burned, but the young lords had arrived in time, so Rosa had stashed it in the inner room.

It was a pink gown, decent quality. When Rosa shook it out, Lora's eyes went wide, it was torn. Whoever had done it had been rough.

The Countess had calmed. She said:

"Grace Venn came in disguise. She found Nurse Quinn and begged Nurse Quinn to bring her to me, to plead for her life.

She opened the cloak she'd wrapped around herself, and underneath was this torn gown. She said: last night, Lord Carl searched the Liaison Office. In the rear courtyard, he found her, and said, 'If someone else is going to have you, it might as well be me.' He dragged her into a room that had already been searched..."

Under the law of the realm, for treason: the house is attainted and forfeited. The men are put to death. The women are sent to drudge in the royal palace, or bound into service in great houses. The worst, sent to a state brothel.

"Mother! Do you really think your own son could do that? Even if she weren't the one who tried to kill Lil, could I?"

Carl was nearly out of his mind.

Lora frowned: "Mother, what did you plan to do for her?"

That snapped the Countess awake. She pushed at Carl's arm:

"Quick, send someone after my carriage! I put her and her mother in my carriage and sent them out of the city!"

There was no "planning" about it, she'd already done it.

Grace Venn was cunning. She knew that the best person to go to was a mother who never left the house and doted on her youngest son.

With the pomander and the mole, a detail the original Lora had once mentioned in jest, the Countess had no choice but to believe.

Because the Countess wanted to hush it up before the Count found out. Her first instinct was to smooth it over.

And the Countess was kindhearted. She was royal kin. She'd seen too many men attainted and their women suffer.

The husband sins, what fault is the wife's?

Grace was Lora's friend. And now her own son had allegedly ruined her. On top of that, Grace had come begging for two lives, her own and her mother's. Clearly she was a devoted daughter.

The Countess had fallen hook, line, and sinker.

Carl ran out. The Countess looked at her daughter, at a loss:

"Lil, I didn't know she'd done that to you..."

"Mother, this isn't entirely your fault. Aprille was only found yesterday. We hid her to keep from tipping our hand. Before that it was all guesswork. Aprille confirmed it was Grace who pushed me, we just hadn't had time to tell you yet."

She turned to Rosa: "Go find Alvin. Have him bring Nurse Quinn back. That woman's tongue is loose, she could bring the whole house down."

She told her mother what she'd overheard at the lily pond.

The Countess was sick with regret.

If Nurse Quinn hadn't been there, spicing up the tale, "charity is penance for your son," "what if she's carrying Carl's child, that's three lives saved", she'd never have been so rash.

If only they could catch her in time.

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