If you ever do something as stupid as this again, Ill have your status as a knight taken from you as a disgrace, Godwin said. It was the worst thing he could think of when it came to Rodry, and the message of it certainly seemed to hit home. For now, step back out of my sight, before I lose my temper the way you always seem to.

He could see Rodry reddening, and he thought that his son might stay and argue, but he seemed to think better of it. Instead, he turned on his heel and stalked from the hall. Maybe he was capable of learning something after all. He sat back on a throne made of hard, dark, unyielding wood, waiting to see who would come forward next, if anyone would dare, given that he still had anger lingering after rebuking his son.

Finnal, his soon to be son-in-law, filled the void, stepping forward smoothly and giving a bow that was even smoother.

Your majesty, he said. Forgive me, but given how disrupted things have been with the wedding preparations, my family feels that I should make one or two… requests.

His family, which meant Duke Viris, who still stood there smiling in the background, calm as a heron standing above a river waiting to see what he could grab. He was a man who never seemed to be directly responsible for anything, but always seemed to just be there, slightly out of reach of any blame.

What requests? Godwin asked.

Finnal stepped forward to hand him a rolled length of parchment. Even that was well done, because it meant that he would never have to read out the demands within the parchment himself.

They were demands; very subtle ones, but demands nonetheless. Where before, the lands offered as a dowry had run to just short of several villages, now, the revised suggestion was that it should include them. There was more money, of course, because inevitably there would be more money, but the real gains of it were hidden away, spread across an extra fishing vessel here, a tithe from a mill there. None of it looked very much, and if Godwin were openly outraged by it, he would probably look like a miser, but when you added it together, it was a definite increase.

This is not what our families have already agreed, he pointed out.

Finnal offered another of those elegant bows. My father is a big believer that an agreement can always be… renegotiated. Besides, that was before other circumstances came to light, my king.

What other circumstances? Godwin demanded.

The risk of scale sickness within a family always makes it harder to marry into, Finnal said. He sounded apologetic about it, but Godwin didnt believe that tone for a moment. Was this why his father had stood there and had another noble bring Nerras sickness into the light? For a renegotiation?