(A/N: I didn't realise this was going to turn into one of those 'ten thousand words before we get to the banging' fics but here we all are I PROMISE WE'RE GONNA GET THERE)
It is a kind thought, Yusuf thinks as he goes to sleep that night, but it confuses him. If the duke – if Nicolò likes his company enough to say that he might stay, marriage or no, then why not simply marry him? Unless he is in love with someone else? But Yusuf did not come here expecting a romance, and he cannot think that a duke, even one who did not expect to inherit, would have been raised to expect one either.
Maybe Yusuf misinterpreted what he said that first day, and Nicolò had meant that it was a husband he did not want. But nobody else Yusuf has spoken to has implied that, and Lady Nile especially had been frank with him. He does not think she would have left that out. Nile is equally frank the next day when she comes to finds Nicolò in the library. They end up having something of an argument. Yusuf is in a far corner. He knows he should make himself known, but as he is about to step around a bookshelf, the duke says loudly “We have talked about this, Nile!”. Yusuf shuts his mouth and retreats a step or two.
“You can argue with me, but you can’t argue with the numbers,” Nile is saying. “Either you raise taxes, or –”
“What I want you to explain to me is why we are discussing this in the first place! Our coffers should not be in such a poor state.”
“I don’t know.” Nile sounds upset. “I wish I had answers for you. Perhaps you need a better adviser. The records from before – before your mother’s death are not complete. If you had kept on –”
“I needed my own advice, and you are exactly what I need,” Nicolò assures her.
“Then take my advice,” she says, “and go through with this marriage your brother has so conveniently arranged for you.”
“It’s too convenient.”
Yusuf has to stifle a noise at that; too convenient?
“That’s not what you said when he arrived,” Nile says. “You said it was very inconvenient.” She sounds like she’s about to laugh, but her voice sobers. “Do you still really mean to go to the Church?”
The duke doesn’t respond. There’s a swishing sound, as of someone wearing skirts walking impatiently out.
Yusuf retreats back to his far corner and pretends to be very interested in the works of someone called Augustine (he isn’t) until he hears Nicolò leave; it takes a long time. He has to consult his own map to figure out where he’s going now. He’s never had a reason to visit Lady Nile’s office before.
It’s in one of the parts of the palace that is actually reasonably busy, with clerks and the like. Nile looks surprised to see him there, but takes him into her office.
“Do you have questions about what will happen with your dowry?” she says. “Since the marriage hasn’t happened yet –”
“No,” Yusuf says, taking a seat. “I have something to admit: I was in the library just now.”
Nile rubs her temples. “I see. I don’t suppose you’ve had any luck convincing the duke to marry you.”
Yusuf shrugs. “I haven’t really been trying.”
“We need the marriage,” Nile says. “I think you need it, or at least you don’t object. Why is he so –” She breaks off. “That isn’t fair; I know why.”
“The thing is,” Yusuf says. “I heard you complaining about the records. Accounts, I assume.”
“Yes?” Nile sits back and gives him a look that says: continue, but this had better be good.
“One of the reasons I agreed to this marriage,” Yusuf says, “is that the thing I liked about my family’s business was travelling, and the thing my uncle needed was someone to do the accounts. Which I do not enjoy, when it is all my work, but I am good at it. If you want someone to try and decipher why your finances are not as they should be, I can help.”
Nile just blinks at him. “You can draw – Nicolò told me about your map – Andromache says you have some skill with a sword, which from her is high praise, and now you understand accounts? And –” She waves at Yusuf in a gesture he can’t quite interpret. “I am going to lock him in a room with you until he comes to his senses on the matter.”
“Obviously your common sense is much better than his,” Yusuf says cheerfully, to cover his own panic at that summation, “but would you like my assistance, or not?”
“Yes,” Nile says, over the end of his sentence. She rings a bell on her desk. “I hope you didn’t have anything else planned this afternoon.”
*
Yusuf misses the evening meal, and goes to bed after midnight. Then he gets up and starts again. Nile is right there with him, and so are a number of her clerks, fetching the different records as Yusuf hunts down the trail of what is going on here. It’s not just the accounts. To solve the puzzle Yusuf has to ask for things like records of the ships that have come into port, and records of who dwells in the city, as well as the outlying lands.
“Explain this to me,” Nile says at one point. They are sitting together on the floor of her office, surrounded by scrolls and papers.
“It’s like a map,” Yusuf says. “Or a drawing. You start with the rough outlines, and then you have to fill in the fine details. Things spring to your eye that you didn’t notice until the things around them were sketched in. Forgive me, Lady Nile, but surely the duke had a chancellor, or some such. What happened to them?”
“Called away to the prince his brother’s court,” Nile says. “After his mother died. Really his brother should have sent him people back, but he didn’t. Which is one of the reasons I suspect he does not want Nicolò to remain duke here.”
“The thing that is springing to my eye,” Yusuf says, picking up the slate he has made his notes on, “is that this is a busy port, and for a long time – since before the duke became the duke – the coffers of this city have not been enriched as they should be. Some of this is noble families here, which is the sort of thing that is only solved by persuading them it is in their interests to keep less for themselves. And some of it appears to be going to the prince’s court.”
“We have some obligations in that regard,” Nile says, “but not to this extent.” She taps the slate.
“It isn’t coming out where it should,” says Yusuf. “It looks like the mayor and the portmaster…or someone in their offices…do not know where their real allegiance lies. I don’t know if you can call it evasion, under the circumstances…the tariffs and so on are still being collected.”
Nile swears. Yusuf isn’t expecting it.
“Excuse me,” she says. “But that is terrible news. I trust them. I know the duke does, too.”
“The duke may have mentioned,” Yusuf says, “that you considered the portmaster a particular friend.”
“The duke needs to mind his own business,” says Nile. Her face goes soft for a moment, but then hardens. “So I need – he needs – to have some very difficult conversations. But in the short term, that won’t solve our problems, will it?”
“It won’t, if you want to make those repairs,” says Yusuf. “You need a new tax, or a loan, or…”
“Which will not make the great families happy, under the circumstances,” Nile finishes. She frowns at Yusuf. “Can’t you just seduce him? He definitely won’t get an annulment if you do that.”
Yusuf chokes. “I –”
“Never mind,” Nile says, ducking her head. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Ah, never mind,” Yusuf says, for something to say. Then, of course, the duke appears in the door of Nile’s office.
“Nile,” he says. “By now you normally – what is going on here?”
“Map-making,” Yusuf says after Nile doesn’t say anything, willing himself not to blush.
“Your grace,” Nile says, brushing off her skirts and standing up. “We need to talk, urgently.”
FILL: Yusuf/Nicolo - arranged marriage with a twist (6/?)
It is a kind thought, Yusuf thinks as he goes to sleep that night, but it confuses him. If the duke – if Nicolò likes his company enough to say that he might stay, marriage or no, then why not simply marry him? Unless he is in love with someone else? But Yusuf did not come here expecting a romance, and he cannot think that a duke, even one who did not expect to inherit, would have been raised to expect one either.
Maybe Yusuf misinterpreted what he said that first day, and Nicolò had meant that it was a husband he did not want. But nobody else Yusuf has spoken to has implied that, and Lady Nile especially had been frank with him. He does not think she would have left that out.
Nile is equally frank the next day when she comes to finds Nicolò in the library. They end up having something of an argument. Yusuf is in a far corner. He knows he should make himself known, but as he is about to step around a bookshelf, the duke says loudly “We have talked about this, Nile!”. Yusuf shuts his mouth and retreats a step or two.
“You can argue with me, but you can’t argue with the numbers,” Nile is saying. “Either you raise taxes, or –”
“What I want you to explain to me is why we are discussing this in the first place! Our coffers should not be in such a poor state.”
“I don’t know.” Nile sounds upset. “I wish I had answers for you. Perhaps you need a better adviser. The records from before – before your mother’s death are not complete. If you had kept on –”
“I needed my own advice, and you are exactly what I need,” Nicolò assures her.
“Then take my advice,” she says, “and go through with this marriage your brother has so conveniently arranged for you.”
“It’s too convenient.”
Yusuf has to stifle a noise at that; too convenient?
“That’s not what you said when he arrived,” Nile says. “You said it was very inconvenient.” She sounds like she’s about to laugh, but her voice sobers. “Do you still really mean to go to the Church?”
The duke doesn’t respond. There’s a swishing sound, as of someone wearing skirts walking impatiently out.
Yusuf retreats back to his far corner and pretends to be very interested in the works of someone called Augustine (he isn’t) until he hears Nicolò leave; it takes a long time.
He has to consult his own map to figure out where he’s going now. He’s never had a reason to visit Lady Nile’s office before.
It’s in one of the parts of the palace that is actually reasonably busy, with clerks and the like. Nile looks surprised to see him there, but takes him into her office.
“Do you have questions about what will happen with your dowry?” she says. “Since the marriage hasn’t happened yet –”
“No,” Yusuf says, taking a seat. “I have something to admit: I was in the library just now.”
Nile rubs her temples. “I see. I don’t suppose you’ve had any luck convincing the duke to marry you.”
Yusuf shrugs. “I haven’t really been trying.”
“We need the marriage,” Nile says. “I think you need it, or at least you don’t object. Why is he so –” She breaks off. “That isn’t fair; I know why.”
“The thing is,” Yusuf says. “I heard you complaining about the records. Accounts, I assume.”
“Yes?” Nile sits back and gives him a look that says: continue, but this had better be good.
“One of the reasons I agreed to this marriage,” Yusuf says, “is that the thing I liked about my family’s business was travelling, and the thing my uncle needed was someone to do the accounts. Which I do not enjoy, when it is all my work, but I am good at it. If you want someone to try and decipher why your finances are not as they should be, I can help.”
Nile just blinks at him. “You can draw – Nicolò told me about your map – Andromache says you have some skill with a sword, which from her is high praise, and now you understand accounts? And –” She waves at Yusuf in a gesture he can’t quite interpret. “I am going to lock him in a room with you until he comes to his senses on the matter.”
“Obviously your common sense is much better than his,” Yusuf says cheerfully, to cover his own panic at that summation, “but would you like my assistance, or not?”
“Yes,” Nile says, over the end of his sentence. She rings a bell on her desk. “I hope you didn’t have anything else planned this afternoon.”
*
Yusuf misses the evening meal, and goes to bed after midnight. Then he gets up and starts again. Nile is right there with him, and so are a number of her clerks, fetching the different records as Yusuf hunts down the trail of what is going on here. It’s not just the accounts. To solve the puzzle Yusuf has to ask for things like records of the ships that have come into port, and records of who dwells in the city, as well as the outlying lands.
“Explain this to me,” Nile says at one point. They are sitting together on the floor of her office, surrounded by scrolls and papers.
“It’s like a map,” Yusuf says. “Or a drawing. You start with the rough outlines, and then you have to fill in the fine details. Things spring to your eye that you didn’t notice until the things around them were sketched in. Forgive me, Lady Nile, but surely the duke had a chancellor, or some such. What happened to them?”
“Called away to the prince his brother’s court,” Nile says. “After his mother died. Really his brother should have sent him people back, but he didn’t. Which is one of the reasons I suspect he does not want Nicolò to remain duke here.”
“The thing that is springing to my eye,” Yusuf says, picking up the slate he has made his notes on, “is that this is a busy port, and for a long time – since before the duke became the duke – the coffers of this city have not been enriched as they should be. Some of this is noble families here, which is the sort of thing that is only solved by persuading them it is in their interests to keep less for themselves. And some of it appears to be going to the prince’s court.”
“We have some obligations in that regard,” Nile says, “but not to this extent.” She taps the slate.
“It isn’t coming out where it should,” says Yusuf. “It looks like the mayor and the portmaster…or someone in their offices…do not know where their real allegiance lies. I don’t know if you can call it evasion, under the circumstances…the tariffs and so on are still being collected.”
Nile swears. Yusuf isn’t expecting it.
“Excuse me,” she says. “But that is terrible news. I trust them. I know the duke does, too.”
“The duke may have mentioned,” Yusuf says, “that you considered the portmaster a particular friend.”
“The duke needs to mind his own business,” says Nile. Her face goes soft for a moment, but then hardens. “So I need – he needs – to have some very difficult conversations. But in the short term, that won’t solve our problems, will it?”
“It won’t, if you want to make those repairs,” says Yusuf. “You need a new tax, or a loan, or…”
“Which will not make the great families happy, under the circumstances,” Nile finishes. She frowns at Yusuf. “Can’t you just seduce him? He definitely won’t get an annulment if you do that.”
Yusuf chokes. “I –”
“Never mind,” Nile says, ducking her head. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Ah, never mind,” Yusuf says, for something to say. Then, of course, the duke appears in the door of Nile’s office.
“Nile,” he says. “By now you normally – what is going on here?”
“Map-making,” Yusuf says after Nile doesn’t say anything, willing himself not to blush.
“Your grace,” Nile says, brushing off her skirts and standing up. “We need to talk, urgently.”