Keldorn caught Anomen’s arm as he was about to leave the dining room. “Stay for a moment, I would like a word with you.”

Grudgingly, Anomen waited until the others had left. “Well, Sir Keldorn? The servants will be wanting to clear the table.”

“I wished to express my condolences,” Keldorn said. “I was unaware of your loss until Lady Patricia mentioned it this afternoon. Are you willing to speak of the circumstances? She had intended to tell me of it this evening, but it seems her own plans have gone somewhat awry.”

Anomen grimaced. Best get it over with as quickly as possible, and he supposed the man did have a right to know, if he was going to be their companion for long. Still, talking of it hurt him more than he cared to admit. Awkwardly he sketched the outlines of the case as they had learned them from Minna and Aegisfield. The paladin’s face grew grimmer and grimmer as he spoke, until it was almost as dour as his own. Anomen didn’t want to discuss his meeting with his father, but Keldorn pressed him until he was forced to explain what his father had demanded.

He saw the older man’s glance, and bridled. He didn’t want to be pitied! What he really wanted was revenge, though he was fighting hard to master his baser feelings. Thank Helm for Patricia’s story and her reassurances that Moira herself would not be pleased by further bloodshed; without them he would surely have gone mad. He both longed and somehow feared to know what had been in her parcel. Had Ajantis declared himself? He was now a full-fledged member of the Order, freed from the restrictions placed upon squires; there would be nothing in their way, unless Patricia herself were under some sort of prohibition. He essayed a question of his own, trying to fish for information about the contents of the mysterious package.

“I did not comply with my father’s demands, Sir Keldorn, and so I am completely outcast from my family. It angers me, yes, but I must learn to strangle my fury as best I may. I am afraid that it threatened to overcome me earlier today, and so I made my departure more abrupt than was courteous to the ladies. I trust they were not overly abusive of my lack of respect? I should have made an appearance in the drawing room, perhaps, but I could not bear much chatter. Yet if they were offended by my absence, I shall apologize.”

Keldorn smiled. “I can assure you that they were most understanding, and you are right about the chatter, especially on Lady Nalia’s part. I believe she half-suspected that Lady Patricia’s parcel contained some avowal of affection from my former pupil! But if so, her hopes were disappointed; there was nothing that could not pass the strictest scrutiny. I’m afraid Nalia’s hopes are doomed to failure; Patricia voluntarily offered me the chance to read the letter, knowing my past association with the man, and I saw nothing out of the ordinary in its contents. If he writes again, as he has promised to do within a tenday, I think Nalia will find she’s making a mountain out of a molehill.”

“Aye, a man would do well to be careful around so young a girl,” Anomen agreed gravely, wondering whether or not to trust his superior’s judgment. Why would Ajantis have reiterated that he would write again in the note enclosed with the package, if he didn’t expect Patricia to derive some private significance from the statement? “She’s at an age where she can think she’s aroused a man’s passion if he has a frog in his throat when he asks her to pass the salt!”

Keldorn chuckled. “I have often wondered, Anomen, whether Lady Trawl’s frequent balls are not rather a trial for you and such other squires as find no charms in the vapid prettiness of the debutante. I was more fortunate in my own younger days; Sir Huorn had no love for Society, and my squire brothers and I never felt obliged to attend any such purely social function. Except, that is, for the months after Delspeth’s Ball.”

Anomen felt a sudden small spark of warmth for the fellow-feeling expressed by his superior. “No, I am not one gifted with a silver tongue to toss off compliments lightly. I am much afraid that none of Sir Ryan’s courtliness has rubbed off, and my sister’s friends always accounted me an awkward fellow.” He veered away sharply from any further mention of Moira. “But was Lady Delspeth such a beauty, then, that her coming-out ball is still a byword?”

“Aye, lad, even such sober and silent men as Sir Huorn were drawn to her flaming red hair like the proverbial moths. Not only had she a great beauty, but a sparkling wit and a joy in living that infected everyone around her. She was trained as a priestess of Sune, but she could as easily have been a favorite of Liira. Her only real flaw was being a bit too unconcerned with serious things, but how much gravity can one expect of a Sunite?” He continued without pausing for an answer to his rhetorical question. “It was a tenday’s wonder and more when she married Gorion Greenmantle and took up the adventuring life. Truly a case of opposites attracting. He wasn’t ugly, mind you, only just as staid as she was ardent. Sir Huorn himself cut a better figure in the drawing room than Gorion. Five years later, she and her parents all died within a matter of months; the rumor was that some wasting disease had claimed them. I’d forgotten about the cousin, and never knew Lady Delspeth had borne a child, as Lady Delcia inherited the Rosehill estate.”

“I wonder what caused her father and cousin to flee Amn,” mused Anomen aloud. “Does it not seem strange that Lady Delaine, in particular, should wish to settle down so far away from Athkatla, and never so much as write her aunt?”

“We do not know what the circumstances of parting were,” Keldorn reminded his junior. “Perhaps Lady Patricia will enlighten us tomorrow. Come now, it is rare for me to have even part of an evening at leisure. Were it not already so late, I would fain return to my own home, but I do not know how early we may be leaving in the morning. I saw that Lady Delcia has an excellent game table on one side of the drawing room. What say you to a game or two of backgammon?”

Anomen shrugged his shoulders. “If you like, though you may find me but a poor opponent. My sister and I usually played cribbage.”

Keldorn’s eyes lit. “Squire Anomen, I’ve not had the indulgence of a hand these past two years. ‘Tis a pity it has fallen out of fashion of late, as it’s one of the few card games designed for two people. There’s a board in the table drawer, and a deck of cards. Come then, and let us go to it!”

Jan and Minsc were already deeply involved in a game of chess when the two men entered the drawing room, and Nalia was studiously poring over some scroll they’d found in the sewers. Lady Delcia had retreated to her room again. As he passed them, Anomen was startled to see that Minsc appeared to be winning the game. Boo was perched on the table in front of the ranger, and he squeaked disapprovingly as Minsc started to place a knight.

“What? Are you sure, Boo?” Another insistent squeak. “Oh, all right.” Minsc chose an alternate position, then let go of the piece. “Boo says checkmate, Jan.”

The gnome threw up his hands in disgust. “I’ve been thwarted by a hamster!” His dark eyes snapped as a sudden idea seemed to occur to him. “You know, Minsc, we ought to put on a show. ‘Boodini the Wonder Rodent!’ I can see it now--- Boo can read people’s letters through the envelopes, and escape from locked metal chests hanging by a thread over a red-hot fire. No high dives into tubs of water, though; my niece Dandelion came to a sad end when she took a dare that she couldn’t ride her griffin under the center arch of a bridge without getting wet. The spectators all agreed that she’d won the bet, but regrettably, there was a ship she didn’t see on the other side, and she and the griffin got all tangled up in the masts and shrouds. Dandy got a rope around her neck and choked to death. Water acts are just not safe.”

Anomen groaned. He hoped he’d be able to drown out the gnome’s stories while they played. That gravelly voice wasn’t going to do much for his ability to count up his hand. Oh, good, they were starting another chess match. Surely that would occupy Jan’s attention. He settled down across from Keldorn at the other table, and lost himself in the intricacies of the game until the candles burned low and they all decided to turn in.