Heroes Return by Moira J. Moore Read Free Book Online Page B

He reminded her of her errors.
    “What do you want?” Taro demanded.
    “Are you not going to offer me a seat?”
    “No.”
    She sat down anyway. “Do grow up, Shintaro.”
    Telling another adult to grow up was one of the most obnoxious things a person could say. In my opinion, the people who said such things were those suffering from the greatest lack of maturity.
    “I have work to do, Your Grace, which is something you would know nothing about. A transfer means a lot of paperwork. Say what you came to say.”
    “You think I know nothing of responsibilities? Who do you think managed this estate before your brother?”
    “My father.”
    “Sometimes, my dear boy, you are so delightfully naive.” She nodded at me. “Send your little friend away.”
    “This is Dunleavy’s room. If anyone is going to leave, it’s going to be you.”
    “Actually, I don’t mind—” I really had no problem with leaving, I had no interest in what the Dowager had to say, but before I could get the words out, Taro shot me a filthy glare. So I sat down.
    “You’re always so melodramatic, Shintaro.” His mother sighed. “I merely wished to inform you of all that has been going on in Flown Raven.”
    “Fiona has been keeping me informed.”
    “I have no doubt she has been. And that’s part of the problem. She hasn’t exactly been fitting in here. Has she told you that?”
    “She has said everything is going well and that the only flaw in her ice is you.”
    “I don’t doubt that is the way she feels. She thought she could fly into the ancient seat, having never been here, and order everyone about with no understanding of their character and no willingness to learn from those of us with years of experience.”
    “Your Grace, with the way you treat people, a drowning man wouldn’t take a rope from you.”
    “Such a man would be an idiot, wouldn’t he?”
    Aye, he would be. I had to give her that. Good advice should be considered no matter what the source.
    Was Fiona the sort to blunder around blindly in a new place? I had no idea. She had struck me as sensible, but I barely knew her.
    I knew the Dowager only slightly more, but she had never struck me as particularly intelligent. She was just mean. And I would wager she never bothered to learn about people before ordering them about. She’d certainly never bothered to learn anything about me.
    She probably resented Fiona because the current Duchess wouldn’t let the Dowager walk all over her.
    “Fiona is not as well liked as she might have led you to believe,” the Dowager went on with a certain banked glee. “The people here don’t take to strangers. They’re used to having our family hold the title, and Fiona is disturbing all of them, but she ignores their concerns. It is more than two years that she has been here, but she’s not finding her feet and the people are suffering for it.”
    “Even if that were true,” said Taro, “it has nothing to do with me. I’m just the Source posted here. Politics and money are none of my business.”
    “It’s so embarrassing that my one remaining child is so ignorant,” the Dowager said, her exasperation clear. “You haven’t been just a Source since your brother died. That you seduced the Empress into allowing you to abjure your title won’t change the fact that you should be holding this duchy and protecting the interests of these people. It’s what you were born to do.”
    “It was not,” Taro retorted. “Nor was it what I was raised to do. You made sure of that.”
    “Stop being so childish.”
    Could she just stop with the insults? I wasn’t comfortable with how badly I wanted to slap her.
    “No,” was all Taro said.
    She sniffed. “As I was saying, Fiona has not won the trust or respect of the people, and she has offended His Imperial Majesty greatly.”
    “He was demanding taxes he had no right to ask for.”
    “Others were more politically astute and met his demands, and they are now the better for it.