“Why?”
Roo turned on his wife and his face hardened into a mask of outrage. “Why!” he shouted. The baby began to cry at the loud noise. “Do you think I intend to live the rest of my life in this tiny hovel your father was satisfied with? I’m going to buy us a town house across from Barret’s! It’s three stories tall and has room for a large garden . . . .” He shook his head and took a deep breath. “I’m going to buy a country house as well. I’m going to own horses and dogs and hunt with the nobility.”
As he spoke, his anger faded and a strange dizziness overtook him. He reached out and gripped the doorjamb. “I need to eat something.”
He turned and mounted the stairs while Karli tried to quiet the crying Abigail. “Mary!” shouted Roo. “I need a tub of hot water, now!”
As Roo vanished up the stairs, Karli ignored the tear running down her cheek as she said, “Hush, my love. Your father loves you.”
The music filled the night. Roo stood at the door, wearing the finest clothing he could buy. He greeted each guest as they arrived and he was the man of the hour.
Every merchant of worth and importance was in attendance, and many nobles who had come as friends of friends. The new house was turned out and decorated and filled with the finest furniture that money could buy. It was clear to anyone who paused to consider, a man of consequence had taken up residence across the street from Barret’s Coffee House.
Karli stood next to her husband, wearing a gown that had cost more gold than she could believe, but trying to look as if she wore such raiment every day. She glanced at the stairway, wondering bow her daughter fared, for she was upstairs in a very noisy house and she was teething. Mary was nearby, but Karli didn’t trust anyone to look after her daughter.
It had taken months to find the owner of the house, negotiate a price, fit it up, and move in. Karli had insisted they keep the old house she had grown up in, and Roo hadn’t been willing to argue with her. After the dust had settled on his manipulation of the grain trade in the city, he turned out to be worth far more than even he had dreamed possible. When the last ship had returned from the Free Cities, the net worth of the Bitter Sea Trading and Holding Company wasn’t in excess of three million gold pieces, it was closer to seven million—for the locusts had spread to the Far Coast and Yabon, and grain prices were at a record high. Additionally, several of the businesses they had acquired had proven quite lucrative, showing a quick profit as soon as Roo and his partners had taken control.
Now Roo knew he was a man of importance, as the great and near-great of the city came to his home to pay their respects. Roo felt as if his chest would burst when a cadre of horsemen rode up before a carriage and from the vehicle Dash, his brother Jimmy, and their father and mother emerged. Behind it came another carriage, bearing the crest of Krondor, and coming to visit his house were the Duke and Duchess of the city. Even those who attended out of curiosity, those cynical souls who judged Roo the current favorite, a man likely to be forgotten in a year, were impressed as the most powerful lord after the king came to call.
Dash entered and smiled at Roo as he took his hand, shook it, then kissed Karli’s. Turning, he said, “May I present my brother, James? We call him Jimmy so as not to confuse him with Grandfather.”
Roo grinned as he shook hands with Dash’s older brother. They were attempting to keep secret the fact they had, indeed, met before, and that Jimmy was helping his brother to make Roo a very powerful man. Behind them came a man who could be no one else but their father, the resemblance was so strong. Dash said, “This is my father, Arutha, Lord Vencar, Earl of the Court.”
Roo bowed slightly and said, “My lord, it is an honor to welcome you to my home. May I present my wife?” He introduced Karli and then was introduced in turn to Elena, Dash and Jimmy’s mother. The handsome woman said, “We are pleased you asked us to attend, Mr. Avery. We are pleased our son has discovered a legitimate interest”—she glanced at Dash—“for a change.” Her slight accent betrayed her Roldem origins.
Behind them came Duke James and the Duchess Gamina, whom Roo welcomed warmly. Gamina said, “I am more pleased than you can imagine to see you in such surroundings, Mr. Avery, given the grim circumstances of our last meeting.”
Roo said, “That makes two of us, my lady.”
James leaned over and said in Roo’s ear, “Remember, thou art but mortal, Roo.”