Masquerades - Kate Novak [156]
"Miss Winterhart is better suited to her new post, I think," Thistle commented.
"Miss Winterhart tells me you visited Lord Dhostar yesterday afternoon, again without an escort," the halfling retorted.
"She followed me again? Of all the nerve! I want you to dismiss her at once."
"No, Lady, I will not," Olive replied. Before the girl could protest, the halfling pressed on with an explanation. "I authorized Miss Winterhart to follow you. I couldn't care less about your courtship of Victor Dhostar, but if you're attacked by Night Masks, there must be someone present to defend you. I'm sure Lord Victor would agree with me that your safety is more important than your privacy."
"Yes, he probably would," Thistle agreed, her tone soft- ening at Olive's assessment of the croamarkh. "He cares about me. Oh, Olive, he's so wonderful. I wish grandmother were here. She would be so happy for me. I know she'd approve of my supporting him, don't you think?"
"That all depends," Olive replied. "Your grandmother was the most dignified lady I ever met. I think she hoped you would be like her. Are you offering this support in a dignified fashion or like a schoolgirl?"
Thistle straightened her back as if her grandmother had just chastised her for poor posture. "Of course I will offer my support in a dignified fashion," she insisted.
"Good," Olive replied, "because however wonderful he may be, Victor Dhostar is still the head of a rival house. What was that thing your grandmother used to say about marrying into rival houses?"
" 'You can marry into them, but don't offer to cover their losses,' " Thistle replied. "Olive, Lord Victor doesn't need my money, but if he did I would give it to him because I know he would use it for the good of all Westgate."
Olive tchedjust as Lady Nettel might have done.
"Don't you halflings have any sense of romance?" Thistle snapped with annoyance.
"Sense and romance," Olive sniffed. "Now there are two words that definitely don't go together."
Thistle harrumphed and stormed off the veranda, just as she had the day before, leaving Olive in complete possession of her breakfast.
*****
After assigning duty rosters to the newly trained guards, Olive spent the rest of the day in her room, strumming nervously on her yarting. Try as she might, she could not shake off a sense of impending doom she had, not for herself but for Thistle Thalavar. The halfling was racking her brain trying to figure what Victor Dhostar's game was. Thistle was a good match for any noble in the city, but men like Dhostar didn't care about making a good match, Olive realized. They cared only about power.
Jamal came calling on Olive at Castle Thalavar shortly after sunset. "There's something very strange going on," the actress reported. "Kel says there are all sorts of Night Masks out tonight. He followed a pair of them down to Castle Vhammos. He says he thinks they're all holding some sort of war council."
Olive set down her yarting and began strapping on her scabbard. At that moment, Miss Winterhart burst into the room. The younger halfling was dressed all in leather and armed for combat with a human-sized sword strapped across her back in the fashion of warriors of the north.
"Lady Thistle has gone to Castle Vhammos," Winterhart reported, "but I didn't dare approach too closely. The guards are letting all sorts of unsavory types enter, but I do not think they will let a halfling pass. I know another way in. Follow me."
Winterhart turned about and strode off with Olive and Jamal dashing after her. The younger halfling led them to her quarters in the lower regions of the castle. Olive was just wondering if there was some secret passageway Lady Nettel had neglected to mention when Winterhart plunged, like a diver into a pond, into the mirror hanging on her wall.
Olive's startled reflection rippled for a moment and then was still. "I'm probably going to regret this," the older halfling whispered just before she stepped into the darkness of the mirror.