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would return quietly to her tasks as soon as she sensed he had
run out of ideas of what to say to her. He had the feeling he
should try a different approach. He tried idle observations and
even questions about irrelevant topics like music or plays, but
these topics yielded the same result: responses that were short and
to the point, with no indication of being relevant to affairs in
the castle.
    Finally, he decided to take the direct
approach and simply ask her.
    "Myriel," he asked on the fourth morning she
arrived, "I'm running out of ideas on how to improve my knowledge
on affairs of state...do you happen to have any ideas?"
    She answered him as promptly as ever, but
instead of a polite answer, he got a polite question. "What sort of
things do you want to learn, my lord?"
    "Well..." he thought it over, remembering the
topics he'd felt particularly ill-prepared for. "Local politics,
agriculture...and maybe history would be good places to start."
    She looked thoughtful for a moment as she
considered his question. "I believe there are several books like
that in the Duchess's private library," she answered, as she took a
rag from a large pocket and starting in on dusting the vases on the
mantelpiece. "I've only seen the titles briefly myself, but as her
son, I'm sure you'd have permission to peruse them. Have you taken
a look at any?"
    It was only the lightness of her tone that
stopped him from feeling frustrated and rebuked. When she said it
like that, it seemed odd that he hadn't thought of something like
that before.
    "You're right," he said pleasantly, "that's a
good idea. Thanks, Myriel."
    She smiled at him over her shoulder, still
dusting. "My pleasure, my lord."
    After that, he took to asking Myriel's advice
whenever he got the chance. It was awkward at first, both for him
and from what he could tell for her as well, but her responses
slowly got more detailed and open-ended, and he soon started
learning to ask better questions.
    He took to going to the Duchess's library for
an hour or two a day; as Myriel had expected, he had full access as
her son. When the guards had come to perform their evening rounds,
they had been perfectly cordial when they found him starting to nod
off over a book on agriculture. Dorran took to bringing a volume or
two back to his room at a time, and would occasionally discuss
their content with Myriel. She claimed that she had never spent
much time reading, but she always seemed to know far more about
anything he decided to study than he could learn from a simple
book. He didn’t want to admit it to himself but he always felt as
though he had a more solid grip of the material after discussing it
with her.
    He also found himself enjoying her company
for other reasons. For instance, he hadn't realized quite how
annoying some of the female servants were at first, but it had
slowly dawned on him exactly how many of them were trying out their
feminine wiles on him. It was quiet and subtle but the more he paid
attention the more obvious it was. Thea demanded decorum among her
personal attendants but; like most rules they could be pushed to
the edge of breaking as long as you were careful. He could still
feel some of them watching him out of the corners of their eyes,
smiling winningly at him and throwing him charming looks whenever
they could. He often couldn't tell whether it was ambition or the
shortage of young men in the area around the castle that drove
them, though he suspected the latter. Either way the more aware he
became of the fact the more uncomfortable they made him feel.
    He was used to the women from the barracks
they were generally more interested in their fighting skills than
anything else, though they would complain amongst themselves about
the lack of proper males without caring if they were overheard. It
was a little off-putting from time to time, but in the end it
wasn't too hard for him to accept that they would want to talk
about something that was troubling them. He'd even had