who had kept it in a far more spartan manner – and should have been her father’s.
‘You know why I am here,’ she reminded him, but he was not to be deflected.
‘Your father and I fought like cats in a sack, I know. We were not friends by any definition, or not at the end. We disagreed on everything. If I admit that, Miss Marshwic, you surely must admit that I did not kill him.’
You destroyed him. You did everything you could to ruin and discredit him so as to obtain this post. She said none of it, though. What would it serve? ‘You know why I am here,’ she repeated. ‘Have we not given enough?’
Northway’s lips twisted, and he shrugged. ‘You have heard the news about the war, surely, Miss Marshwic. You have heard that it takes a great many soldiers to secure a country as large as Denland. The broadsheets and the ballad papers are full of such accounts. You must have heard that we need to keep pouring soldiers into Denland until they finally reconsider their warlike and republican ways.’
‘I have not heard that they need my brother, Mr Northway.’
‘Every man from fifteen to fifty so the order runs. One imagines such precise numbers were put in by some poetic-minded clerk, does one not? A little too convenient otherwise.’ He sighed again, the paragon of humanity. ‘What do you want me to say, Miss Marshwic?’
‘That my brother need not go for a soldier,’ she declared outright.
‘Special dispensation, is it?’ He leant back in his chair, putting his hands together as if in prayer. ‘There is such a thing, but not for him.’ As she made to interrupt, his hands stopped her. ‘I have such dispensation, as do some few of my remaining staff who are men. The rest are women, or will be replaced by them. I have no further dispensation to make, Miss Marshwic, and I am not going to commit treason by twisting an order from the King.’ Again she had tried to speak but his words ground over her. ‘Oh, I know what you would say. What view does the King take on embezzlement? On petty bribes and sleights of local justice, and all the other things they say of me in the marketplace? I say to you that he takes a very different view of those things than he does on a man stinting him when his war orders come.’ Without warning, he was standing, leaning over the desk, too close for comfort. ‘What do you want me to say, Miss Marshwic? That I have always done as I wished here in Chalcaster? Consider it said. That the King’s wishes trump my own? That also. That the war fought on the front is not the war reported in the papers, and a near-victorious army does not need so much recharging with raw recruits? There: I’ve said it. I have never lied to you, Miss Marshwic.’
‘The war . . . ?’
‘You are an intelligent woman, Miss Marshwic. You do not need such things stated: you need only to consider matters.’ He left a pause there for her thoughts to drop into, as he sat down. ‘But I fear consideration has not been your strong suit, of late. You storm into my office with all the righteousness of your good family behind you, and you demand. Out of the privilege of bloodline, you demand.’
‘I would entreat . . .’ she found herself saying, disgusted by herself for leaping so quickly to such words, but knowing only that this was surely her chance to save Rodric.
But he had cut her off with a wave of his hand before she could pawn herself. ‘The King demands too,’ he stated flatly. ‘For my part, Miss Marshwic, entreaties from you might suffice, but I could not be moved against the King’s will, even for honey.’ His smile soured as she watched, becoming something venomous. ‘Though you make it easier for me: you give me only vinegar. I would hope you might believe me if I said that I wished matters had not fallen out like this. But I am sure you will ascribe the worst of motivations to me. Let me take the responsibility from you, then. Let me put on the mantle of my office and simply tell you that your brother must take the Red, must go for a soldier. There. It is law now, and cannot be undone.’
She finally stood, and to her horror there was