My use of her name froze her. Even as she struggled to mouth the question, how did I know her name, I dissipated from her dream into my own wakefulness. I shifted on my hard bed, and briefly opened my eyes to the now-familiar blackness of my servant’s chamber. ‘No, Nettle. You won’t.’ I spoke the words aloud, reassuring myself that they were true. But I had not slept well the rest of the night.

And so the two of us, Dutiful and I, faced one another blearily over the table in the Skill tower the next dawn. It was dawn in name only. The winter sky outside the tower window was black, and the candles on our table reached vainly towards the darkness in the corners of the room. I had kindled a fire in the hearth, but it had not yet taken the edge off the chill. ‘Is there anything so miserable as being sleepy and cold at the same time?’ I asked him rhetorically.

He sighed, and I had the feeling he had not even heard my question. The one he asked me sent a different sort of chill up my back. ‘Have you ever used the Skill to make someone forget something?’

‘I… no. No, I’ve never done anything like that.’ Then, dreading the answer, ‘Why do you ask?’

He heaved an even deeper sigh. ‘Because if it could be used that way, it could make my life much simpler right now. I fear that I… I said something last night, to someone, never intending that… I didn’t even mean it that way, but she…’ He faltered to a halt, looking miserable.

‘Start at the beginning,’ I suggested.

He took a deep breath, then puffed it out, exasperated with himself. ‘Civil and I were playing Stones and—‘

‘Stones?’ I interrupted him.

He sighed again. ‘I made myself a game-cloth and playing pieces. I thought I could get better at it by playing against someone besides you-’

I strangled back an objection. Was there any reason why he should not introduce his friends to the game? None that I could think of. Yet it disgruntled me.

‘I had played a game or two with Civil, which he lost. As he should and did expect to, for no one plays a game well the first few times one is shown it. But he had declared he had had enough of it for now, that it was not the sort of game he relished, and he got up from the table and went over to the hearth to talk to someone else. Well, Lady Vance had been watching us play earlier in the evening, and had said she wanted to learn, but we were in the midst of the game then, so there had been no place for her. But she had been standing by our table, watching us play, and when Civil left, instead of following him as I thought she would, for she had seemed very attentive to him, she sat down in his place. I had been putting the cloth and pieces away, but she reached over and seized my hand and commanded that I should set the game out afresh, for now it was her turn.’

‘Lady Vance?’

‘Oh, you wouldn’t have met her. She’s, let me see, about seventeen and she’s quite nice. Her full name is Advantage, but she thinks it’s too long. She’s very friendly and tells funny stories and, well, I don’t know, she’s just more comfortable to be around than most girls. She doesn’t always seem to be, you know, so aware that she is a girl. She acts just like anybody else. Lord Shemshy of Shoaks is her uncle.’ He shrugged a shoulder, dismissing my concern over who she was. ‘Anyway, she wanted to play, and even when I warned her that she’d likely lose the first few games, she said she didn’t care, that in fact if I would play her five straight games, she’d wager she’d win at least two of them. One of her friends overheard that and came close to the table, and asked what the wager was on the bet. And Lady Vance said that if she won, she wanted me to go riding with her on the morrow — that’s today — and that if won, well, I could name my own stakes. And the way she said it was, well, daring me to make her bet something that might he a bit, well, improper or…’

‘Like a kiss,’ I suggested, my heart sinking. ‘Or something of that sort.’

‘You know I wouldn’t go that far!’

‘So how far did you go?’ Did Chade know anything of this? Or Kettricken? How late last night had it happened? And how much wine had been involved?

‘I said if she lost, she had to bring breakfast for Civil and me to Mirror Hall and serve it to us herself, owning up that what had been said earlier was true, that Stones is not a game that a girl can master.’

‘What? Dutiful, this game was taught to me by a woman!’

‘Well—’ He had the grace to look uncomfortable. ‘I didn’t know that. You had said it was part of your Skill-training. I thought my father had taught it to you. So… wait. Then a woman helped train you in the Skill? I’d thought it had only been my father who taught you.’

I cursed my carelessness. ‘Leave that,’ I commanded him crossly. ‘Finish your story.’

He snorted, and gave me a glance that promised he’d come hack to his question later. ‘Very well. And besides, it wasn’t me who said that to Elliania, it was Civil, and—‘

‘Said what to Elliania.’ Dread clutched at me.

‘That it wasn’t a game for a girl’s mind. Civil said it to her. Civil and I were playing, and she came up and said that she’d like to learn. But… well, Civil doesn’t like Elliania much. He says she is just like Sydel, that girl who insulted him and trampled his feelings, that Elliania is only interested in making a good match. So. He doesn’t like her to stand near us when we talk or are playing games of chance.’ He flinched before my scowl, and added grumpily, ‘Well, she’s not like Lady Vance. Elliania is always being a girl, she’s always so aware of what are proper manners and what courtesies are due between folk. She’s so correct that she’s always wrong. If you see what I mean?’

‘It sounds to me as if she is a foreigner at the court, intent on complying with our customs. But go on with the story.’

‘Well. Civil knows that about her, that she always strives to be absolutely correct in her manners. So he knew that the fastest way to be rid of her was to tell her that in the Six Duchies, Stones was considered a man’s occupation. He explained it to her in a way that seemed like he was being kind, but at the same time it was horribly funny, in a cruel sort of way, because she doesn’t know our language or our customs well enough to realize how ridiculous his excuse was… Don’t look at me like that, Tom. I didn’t do it. And once he had begun to do it, there was no way I could put a stop to it without making it worse. So. Anyway. He had told her that the Stone game wasn’t for girls, and Elliania had left us and gone off to stand near her uncle’s shoulder. He was playing toss-bones with her father, at a table on the other side of the hall. So. She wasn’t anywhere near us when Lady Vance sat down. Well. I set up the game and we began to play. The first two games went exactly as I had supposed they would. On the third game, I made a silly mistake, and she won. The fourth game, I won. And now — I think I deserve credit for this — halfway through the fifth game, I realized how it might be seen as improper when she lost if she actually did come to serve breakfast to Civil and me. I mean, even Duke Shemshy might see it as an insult, his niece acting as a servant to us, even if it didn’t bother Elliania or mother. So. I decided it might be better to let her win. I’d still have to take her riding, but I could make sure there were others with us, perhaps even Elliania.’

‘So you let her win.’ I said the words heavily.

‘Yes. I did. And by then, because she had been quite excited when she won the third game, laughing and shouting and calling out to all that she had bested me, well, by then there was quite a group of people gathered around us, watching us play. So, when she won the final game, she was crowing over her victory, and one of her friends said to me, “Well, my lord, it seems you were badly mistaken earlier when you said this was not a game a girl could master.” And I said… “I only meant to be clever, Tom, I swear, not to offer insult.” I said—’