“Oh, so she’s giving you a house now too?” Romyll set his silver cutlery down against the sides of his plate. Displeased beyond reason at Gekaryna’s ‘generosity’. “I ask her... no, I tell her, ‘I want your pay docked,’ and she gives you a house instead? you didn’t work for the dowry, and now you don’t work for your home—this is shameful—is she even charging you rent on it?” His eyes quickly flick between Dyder and Ilsenila.

  “No, she’s not; she doesn’t think—” Dyder begins to respond.

  “She most obviously doesn’t think; handing everything to her personal guard is how you make them lazy; what reason will you have to work if she just spoils you?”

  “By Our Lady, let me finish speaking.” Dyder chooses to ignore his father’s comment on Gekaryna, preferring to stay focused on the topic at hand. “She doesn’t believe it is appropriate to charge us rent when she isn’t charging Viola or the Ulmes.”

  “The fact I can insult Gekaryna in front of you and you don’t even address it shows that you are getting lazy; this will only get worse—you will stop respecting someone if they simply give you everything.” A smug grin grows across Romyll’s face.

  “Why would I stop respecting the woman who puts a roof over my head and pays and feeds me? She hasn’t given you anything—she hasn’t even gotten the chance, and you don’t respect her.” Dyder—and all of his relatives—despise arguing with his father, as, in Romyll’s mind, he is always right; his worldview is the right one. “She has let us use the house out of kindness. There is nothing more to it than that, and it certainly won’t be making me lazy.”

  “You do not need a house; when my brother, your uncle, was head of the King’s guard before Athalric’s passing, he wasn’t given a house on the estate; he only had a single room, just like you should.”

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  Hynewik groans, not wanting to be dragged into this conversation. He sees where his elder brother is coming from, but Romyll’s ignorance of the subtext, being the inability of him and Morgryan to conceive a child, does not help his point. “Athalric had promised us one of the houses when Morgryan and I had a child—he even had it furnished for us. I don’t like being used as an example if you aren’t going to provide context, Romyll. I think what Gekaryna is doing is right; she has done nothing but try to help. She has just as much interest in Dyder’s success as her guard, as you do in him as your son. I worked with Athalric for my whole life, and he was the same way.”

  ?l? stops eating, staring blankly at the chicken and peas on her plate.

  “I’m going to tell you the same thing I told Gekaryna: talk to me about how to raise my son when you have one of your own.” Romyll knows he went too far the moment he finished his thought.

  Morgryan stands from the table, silently dismissing herself, leaving her half-full plate.

  “I’m sorry?” Hynewik raises his eyebrows, glaring daggers at his brother.

  “No, that was too far...” Romyll quickly regains his confidence. “But I’m sure you see the point I am trying to make.”

  “If you weren’t my brother, I wouldn’t even have the courtesy to challenge you to a duel.” Hynewik looks towards the door and takes a deep breath to try to calm himself; he needs to finish the argument so he can go be with Morgryan. “You are trying to raise Dyder the same way Father raised you and his father raised him—to become the captain of the military. Dyder isn’t going to be the captain of the military; he took the position my son would have, and he learned how to do his job from me, not from you—same with all of your sons.” He pauses for a moment, turning his attention from Romyll to Georges. “You have no one to replace you; your sons went into the Queen’s guard. You should pull one of them.” Redirecting his stern gaze to Romyll, he stands. “You need to raise your sons. Have any of them learned anything from you? Dyder is his own man now, and you need to respect that. I need to go be with Morgryan—I cannot believe you said that.”

  The family sits in silence as Hynewik quickly stomps off to the east wing of the manor.

  Georges breaks the silence. “I’ll resign from the guard.”