food in the Seneschal’s bags was never luxurious, but it wasn’t boiled oats with winter squash, which was most of what they ate now. The oatmeal came from a huge bag the Seneschal had brought; the squash grew from seeds thrown in the midden yard. “Gavin’s in Elban’s study. Gavin’s always in Elban’s study. You know that.”
“Yes. But Gavin wants to kill me.”
With an affectionate smile, Judah said, “He really does. You should probably bring a guard with you when you come.”
“I don’t want to bring a guard. I’m not his enemy.”
“He disagrees.”
“The four of you are as much Elban’s victims as anyone in Highfall.” The Seneschal’s gray eyes had new lines around them. “Surely, after everything that’s happened, none of you can disagree with that.”
“Elban didn’t have me caned. Elban didn’t kill my friend.”
“Neither of which I would have had to do if you’d taken my advice.”
“Advice? Are you referring to when you told me I wasn’t allowed to take—what was your word—lovers? Because that felt more like an order.”
“And is it so hard for you to believe that occasionally, my orders were in your best interest, and not merely designed to make your life horrible?” The Seneschal sounded as tired as Judah felt.
She didn’t care. “Are you going give me the food or not?” He handed her the bag. She peeked inside: bread, a small bottle of what was probably oil, a bundle of greasy paper that held either meat or cheese. Not quite enough to get them through the week to his next visit.
Reading her expression, he said, “Things are still unsettled in the city. Goods are scarce.”
Judah closed the bag. “That’s disgraceful. You should find whoever’s in charge and complain.”
His lips twitched. “It’ll get better.”
“Doubtless,” she said and walked away.
* * *
He didn’t want to kill them. That was what he’d told them a week after the coup: I watched you all grow up from children. I don’t want to see any of you dead. But he’d also told them that Highfall—or rather, New Highfall—was his top priority. He had other things on his mind than them at the moment; they would be allowed to stay in the House through the winter, and beyond that, they would see.
“He can’t leave me alive,” Gavin said as soon as he left. “Or Theron. We’d be rallying points for Elban’s loyalists. And he can’t leave the House just standing here empty.”
But the Seneschal had done exactly that, and none of them knew if Elban even had any loyalists. For four sleepless weeks, they’d listened through the locked door as the House was torn to pieces around them. They hadn’t been given enough water to wash with, and soon their rooms reeked with stale linen and bodies and stress. Judah had started a mental list of tips for being put under house arrest: at the first sign of trouble, make sure you have clean clothes and clean linen. Lay in stocks of water, firewood, nicely perfumed soap, tooth powder; gather foods high in fat and sugar, alcohol and coffee. You will have trouble sleeping and you will have trouble staying awake. Find a deck of cards. Make sure none are missing. You will be bored; you will be very, very bored.
By the time they were released, Judah would have willingly walked to her own execution, as long as she could do it through fresh air, alone. They were on each other’s nerves, all of them. Gavin had lost his father and his empire and had become fixated on Elly, on whether or not the Seneschal would still allow them to marry; she tolerated it as well as she could, but by the time it occurred to him to ask her opinion, her patience was gone. She’d told him that she really didn’t see the point; he had looked stunned, then angry, and snapped that perhaps the point was that they loved each other.
Elly—who, with little else to do, had been drawing as Gavin talked—had put down her pen. “Gavin.” Her blue eyes were hard and the word sounded less like an address than a call to attention. “Your father bought me for you when I was eight years old, just like he’d buy you a pony or a fancy new sword. My father wanted the money, and my mother wanted me away from my brothers, so they sold me like a useless plot of land, and ever since then you’ve worked your way through staff girls and courtiers and anyone