Free All Fall Down by Christine Pope Page A

leave this place whenever I chose, or that people such as Raifal and myself had no rights under Selddish law. It had been foolish for me to try to save him. There was nothing I could do for either of us.  
    “And if I dismiss Dorus, what then?” Lord Shaine asked suddenly, startling me. “Would you offer to assist Merime and Ourrel? Do you know anything of how a great house is run?”
    I stared at him for moment, hardly comprehending what it was he had just suggested. Then I said, “I’m afraid I do not, my lord. But I am a quick learner.”
    “Why does that not surprise me?” He regarded me for a moment, and I found myself wondering exactly how it was he had broken his nose. Certainly if I had had the task of setting it, I would have done a much better job. But oddly enough, I found that I liked its off-center appearance. It gave his face a character I found interesting.  
      “You won’t regret this, my lord,” I said then, for I could see the concern begin to creep over his features.
    “Oh, I think I will regret it a good deal, Merys.”  
    It was the first time I had ever heard him call me by my given name without the title of “Mistress” preceding it. I decided to take the new informality as a good sign.
    “However,” he went on, “neither will I condone that sort of behavior in my house. There have been…rumors…over the years, but no one ever had the courage to accuse him directly.”
    “You knew?” I asked, feeling the anger begin to rise in me once again.
    “I said there were rumors. Nothing definite, nothing brought directly to my attention. I do nothing without good reason, Merys. That includes dismissing a long-time servitor without evidence or cause.”
    “But you will do it now,” I said, my tone firm, unquestioning.
    “But I will do it now.” He looked away from me then, as he watched the flames in the hearth leap for a space. “For some odd reason, I trust you. I don’t believe that you would have come to me with this if you hadn’t been certain.”
    “Oh, I was certain,” I said, and shivered a bit. Unfortunately, I had seen this sort of thing before, although the last time was at the household of a baron in my own kingdom, and the victim a girl barely twelve years old. The horror of that situation had compounded itself when the girl found herself pregnant and tried to get rid of the child herself. I had been able to keep her from bleeding to death, but I knew that she would never bear another child. Whether that was a blessing or not, I would never know. As soon as she was well, the girl had been sent on to another household, and the entire scandal hushed up. The situation had sickened me, as it would have anyone with the slightest sensibilities, but since the girl had been removed from her predator, there had been very little else I could do.  
    But seeing it here once again, and with no chance of saving Raifal but ridding Lord Shaine’s household of Dorus, I had known what must be done. That Lord Shaine was man enough to remedy the situation without blaming the boy or even me for being the bearer of bad news spoke volumes about who he was, and he was raised in my estimation all the more for doing so.  
    His keen eyes had apparently caught my shudder, for he asked, his tone gentler this time, “You have seen this sort of thing before?”
    “Yes, my lord. A girl of twelve. She conceived a child and tried to rid herself of it. She almost died.”
    “Thank the gods at least we did not have that to contend with here,” he said, and his tone sounded very weary. Then he went on, “It appears we have much to do. Send Ourrel to me. I will have him fetch Dorus. Probably it is better that he know as little of your role in this as possible.”
    “Thank you, my lord,” I replied, thinking of Dorus’ narrow dark eyes and the evil glance he had given Elissa and me when he had first seen us in Myalme. At the time I had worried merely that he had unwholesome designs on either or