She sobbed out her misery, her fears, her certainty that nothing would ever come right. “The children—they’ll starve—who’ll take the land? And the farms—what will I do? Salvon knew it all; he worked so hard for us—”

“My lady, listen to me,” Kieri said when the fit seemed like to go on another turn of the glass. “Your children will not go hungry, nor your house be taken away … I promise you, as I promised him—”

“Do you…” A gulp and cough interrupted that. “Do you really mean … you’ll help?”

“Yes,” Kieri said. “A king keeps his promises, and I have promised. Before a witness here—” He glanced at Arian’s Squire, who spoke up on cue.

“I witness the king’s promise,” she said. “Now, Lady Tolmaric—”

“You should not go in yet,” Kieri said. “It would distress you—and where are the children?” He knew that one son and two daughters had come, as wide-eyed and shy as their mother.

“At—at the house. This—this lady, this Squire said the queen had sent word, so I would not hear it from gossip, but I do not listen to gossip, sir king, truly I don’t. And she said I should wait, but I could not, I must come, he was my husband. Oh—” She broke into sobs again. “Oh, what will I do?”

“You will listen to me,” Kieri said with more force. Her mouth opened, and she stared but was quiet. “Listen carefully now. A dangerous being killed him, and the killing defaced him. What was done to his body was evil. You should not go in now but wait until those whose business it is have sewn him into a shroud for burial.”

“But I must see his face one more time—must kiss his hands, his feet—”

“No, you must not. Remember his face as it was. Hold that memory and do not degrade it with how he now appears.”

Her eyes were wide, fixed on his. “But … it is what a wife should do … it is what his mother did when his father died. What my mother did…”

“Yes, if his death was natural. This is not. Trust me, your king, to know what is best. You will have enough distress when you see him in the shroud, for the evil that was done distorted what was left. You must not remember him as he is now.”

“Then what—how long—?”

“Your children need you. Do you have servants in the house where you are?”

“N-no. It is not our house; we paid to use one for three hands of days. No need for servants; I can cook as well as any.”