She Knows

For the next few days Isaac was going to the castle every morning, and while this wasn't the best of things for Isaac, for Renard this actually gave him an opportunity to start working on his own task.

Except... the lady just had way too many papers.

This was the third day that Renard had gotten the opportunity to rifle through Lady Dandridge's study while she was off at the castle, and he still wasn't any closer to finding the slave papers. Each day he had spent at least a few hours (interspersed throughout the day), looking through the lady's study, and he certainly hadn't realized just how daunting of a task this would be when he first agreed to it. He'd expected to spend an afternoon looking through these drawers but when he'd opened the first one it was jam packed full of things. There was no way that all nobles had as many documents as Mae did! Renard could barely even think of many times that he'd witnessed other nobles interacting with paper unless it was a letter for someone they were flirting with!

Mae though... It was as if Mae kept every little piece of information that came her way. She had important letters in her files, she had reports of how her facilities were doing, she had statistics for both the mines and the various people she governed, she had a ton of maps of places that she was associated with, she had lists of people with basic information on them along with whatever notes she had to add, she even kept whatever threats or grievances might've been sent to her.

What Renard couldn't seem to find though were documents of possession: the deed to the house and her land, the papers for her slaves, or her right to the mines. It was strange to think that in Mae's mind, the slave papers were just as important to her as all the rest of her property. It was rather flattering to be thought of so highly, especially for the Terra Kingdom, but it certainly was making his task of finding said documents particularly difficult.

He couldn't just skip bits of the cabinets either because while Mae did clearly have an organizational system, she didn't label it even remotely. Renard wondered if that was mostly done to try and prevent snooping like Renard was doing. Someone who was looking into the cabinets for only a short period of time would never be able to find anything. After all, it had taken Renard 3 days of spending multiple hours of sifting to actually be nearing the end of these papers.

Horribly tempted to just skip the last little bit, because there was absolutely no way it was going to have what they were looking for, Renard let out a disgruntled sigh before continuing his fine sifting. If he was going to do this then he was going to do it the whole way through, not leave it hanging when he had so little left. Quietly grumbling to himself about how paranoid the lady was (though honestly, it was for good reason), large script on one of the last pages caught his eye.

He'd spent enough time looking through the lady's documents to be able to recognize the woman's handwriting at a glance: her writing tended to be small, and it had good emphasis while still being flowy and beautiful. It was always very neat and readable, but here was the lady's handwriting, still beautiful and neat but this time very large. That was definitely highly unusual.

Unable to help himself, he pulled it out a little so that he could read the page.

"You won't find what you're looking for here. In the 2nd drawer at the back though, you will find something of interest.

Take this paper out along with the one you find and get rid of them: I do not need a copy of either."

The blood in his veins turned to ice as he read the words on the page, and immediately after finishing it Renard looked around himself rather furtively. How could she possibly know?! Renard had been careful to only come in at least an hour after the lady left the household, usually even longer than that! Had one of the female slaves noticed him come in and mentioned his presence to the lady? He was pretty sure he hadn't been seen by them either though, and even if he had... They would have no idea what it was that he was looking for. Maybe the guards then...? But no... He had been working to avoid their eyes as well...

Was this a trap? An attempt on Mae's part to not only punish him for snooping but also to find out what it was that he was looking for?

He turned his eyes towards the second drawer, though as he did they narrowed in suspicion. He was playing a dangerous game here, and he knew it. Mae had killed a would be assassin by having tricks up her sleeve, and as much as he may like to think he was clever, he knew that Mae far surpassed what he thought of himself. Would she ever want him dead for snooping through the files in her study though...?

He found it hard to swallow as a lump formed in his throat because he just didn't know the answer to that question.

Even despite the cold sweat that he was in now, he felt drawn towards that drawer. What if she actually did have a document that she wanted to show him? With an almost trembling hand, Renard held his breath as he slowly pulled open the drawer in question. His face was actually quite far away from the drawer though, so for a few moments he simply stared at the wood of the drawer as he strained his ears to listen for anything even remotely out of the ordinary. A full minute ticked by before he slowly moved his head forward to get a look in.

It looked like a bunch of papers. Just like usual.

A wave of relaxation rolled through him, but for a moment he considered finding something to reach into the drawer and grab the paper for him instead of using his hand. In the end, he decided that if Mae actually wanted him dead he probably would be dead already, so very tentatively, he moved the papers forward so that he could slide out the last sheet of paper.

There was nothing strange about it, it looked like a regular old sheet of parchment with words on it. Letting out a deep breath of relief now that he'd successfully gotten his quarry, he quickly closed the drawer to be done with it for good before examining the paper in his hand. As his eyes skimmed through the first lines of text his brow furrowed a bit because he was almost positive that this hadn't been in the drawer the first time he looked through it. He would've paused to get a better look at it if it had.

Mae Dandridge's Last Will and Testament.

Once again nervously looking around himself, he really felt like he was doing something wrong by looking at this. Mae had actually given him a message personally though, and to even think of defying her words sent chills up his spine. She'd never expressly said anything against looking in her study, so it hadn't felt so bad when he first started this chore, but now that she clearly knew that he'd been in here he felt like a child under the scolding eye of his mother. Somehow Mae could see the room, and he couldn't help looking around the study again, as if he would be able to find just how it was that she knew what happened here when she went away.

She'd always had a reputation for knowing about everything that went on in her own house, but Renard had always thought that meant the broad strokes. Basically she was able to make inferences by watching them go about their days. This though... This was beyond simply seeing them during the day. Somehow she knew what they did even when she wasn't around, knew what they did in their more private moments... It was more than a little nerve-wracking; just where were her eyes?

Of course, his search turned up fruitless, and he almost reluctantly turned back to the paper in his hands.

It wasn't a pleasant read, really, it had been written in the official style which was full of obtuse language and some almost backwards grammar. Still, Renard was able to gather the gist of the document: in the event of Mae's death she'd highlighted 3 major things to happen. The first was that her wealth and estate would go to her daughter, not her daughter's husband should she have one. If, however, Raine was not around, then control of the Dandridge household would pass to a name that Renard didn't recognize. It certainly wasn't a Dandridge relative though, and that was probably all that mattered. The second point regarded where Raine should go in the event that Mae died before her: Raine was to be transferred over to Jiera's care until she came of age, then it'd be up to Raine to decide where and what she wanted to do. The third major thing had to do with the slaves of the household. Referencing them all by their official bill of sale, she stated that should anything happen to her, that all of them become Raine's slaves. If Raine was dead though, they would be given a choice: a modest sum to be able to live on for the remainder of their years in freedom, or to go to the Dominion to live under Jiera. There would be no splitting them up unless they chose to be, that point was very clear.

There was more to the will, dealing with the finer details of her house (the lady was always very thorough), but honestly, those didn't really matter that much. Slowly bringing the paper down from his face, he leaned heavily against the lady's desk. Without a doubt then, she knew exactly what it was that Renard had been looking for, and he wasn't sure how he felt about this paper in his hands. On one hand, if he'd have found the slave papers, it would've been so nice to finally be the master of his own fate. On the other hand though, this paper made it clear that he didn't need to worry about it. Even though they were just slaves, Mae still cared about their well-being enough to think to provide for them in the event of her death. She really did think of everything, didn't she?

It was comforting, but at the same time it also further proved just how futile anything on their part was.

Gripping the papers in his hand a little tightly, causing them to crumple a bit, he soon caught himself and smoothed over the pieces. What was he getting so irritated over? This was all good news, ultimately. No matter what happened to the lady they would continue to be provided for. Still, the feeling of impotence remained, and it was not a pleasant one.

The lady had said to get rid of these papers, and Renard would, but first he was going to show them to Isaac. It just felt right to show him the actual documents to tell him exactly what happened in this room.

Giving one last sweep of the lady's study, Renard pushed off the desk and made a rather quick exit of it. He couldn't help but wonder though: was the whole house as closely watched as her study was?

… He really didn't want to think about that.