This has been difficult - we are not dealing with a deranged creature like Fax here, and although there were physical punishments on Pern - exile or shunning - one person's word without judge and jury in a court of law must always be a balance of judgement. I hope this meets with everyone's approval.
12.8.198
Irilia and Avenil came into the room escorted by the Headwoman Lavand. They were dressed in girls' clothing again, but Lord Viril spluttered with rage when he saw his daughter's hair, cut short and dyed.
"What - what - who did that?"
Lord Runanan inclined his head to Irilia.
"You have made serious charges, and claimed justice from the Weyrleader, lady Irilia. We must know if the things you allege are proven."
"Do you want me to submit to an examination here in this room, my lord? The Headwoman has examined me, with the healer Sharama, and they are satisfied."
Lord Runanan studied her, and H'ric saw she was taut with nerves and anger. This would take careful handling, he thought, if he was not to have both girls break down in front of the Lord Holders.
"We will accept their word," Lord Runanan said. "Do you agree, my lords?"
Lord Cantin nodded, and Lord Runanan looked at Lord Viril.
"Well, my lord? Do you require further examination?"
"I daresay she cries rape now, when she has been found out," he replied cruelly.
"It is not for the son of a minor holding to despoil a lady of the Hold," Lord Nathin said angrily. "Did you have a marriage planned for the lady?"
"No."
"What were you plans, then? To leave her there all her life?"
Lord Viril shrugged and looked away from them.
"Her mother was mad," he muttered. "How could I know the taint would not carry on in her? Could I offer any man a girl whose mother screamed and raved and tore out her own hair?"
There was a shocked murmur around the room, and Irilia took a pace forward.
"My mother suffered from headaches, debilitating headaches, all her life!" she said angrily. "They grew much worse after I was born, she told me, and there were times she could not bear the pain and tried to give herself other pain to relieve it! Darkened rooms, and muffled sounds were all she could bear at the best of times!"
"Headaches? All women have headaches," Lord Viril said dismissively. "I claimed back part of the settlements I had made, when I found out the extent of her madness! Her father paid me, and said she had always been a sickly child."
"And yet he forced her into marriage with you?" Lord Cantin asked with dislike in his voice. "I never met the lady, but I understand she married you at a very young age."
"Sixteen," Lord Viril muttered. Lord Runanan stared at him in shock and looked at Irilia.
"How old was your mother when she died, my dear?"
"Under thirty, my lord," she replied.
"And how did she die?" Jiverny asked gently. "You merely said she died when you were eleven - do you know how she died?"
"She committed suicide," Lord Viril said loudly. "Or else the girl killed her!"
Irilia turned and looked at him, her lip curling.
"I wish I could have helped her, many, many times I wished it," she said. "She burned her hand, and the healer brought fellis juice against the pain. Mother asked for a hot bath, and drank all the fellis juice, and opened her wrists in the bath. I found her," she added, and the ache of loss and grief in her voice was still raw enough for H'ric and Jiverny, empathic people, to give a low moan of grief for the girl.
"She burned her hand?" Lavand asked. "How did that happen when she was an invalid?"
Irilia shook her head.
"She was active enough to rise and dress every day, Headwoman. Only when the headaches were at their most severe, would she stay in bed day and night. I think - I think - she burned her hand deliberately to get the fellis juice, because that was the only occasion anyone brought medicine to our rooms."
Lavand nodded as if satisfied, and H'ric cleared his throat.
"Your father the Lord Viril placed you in a foster home at the age of eleven? That is quite old for fostering, even for a Holder's daughter, is it not? Lord Runanan?"
"By eleven I would expect a Holder's daughter to be learning how to run a household, and to be a part of that household," he said carefully. "After all, within four or five years, she might be betrothed, or married, and in her husband's family home."
"But you, Lord Viril, placed her with a minor holder - ah - B'rnel - place them over there, if you please."
The three men who had been brought in, protesting, were placed where the Lord Holders could see them. They appeared prosperous, with good clothing, and the likeness between two of them showed them father and son.
"Holder Dinad, your son Dadin, and your man Ronad, I believe?" H'ric asked. The three men nodded, nervously looking around at the four Lord Holders, and at B'rnel once again at the door.
"Aye, that's our names," the youngest of them said. "What is this? We were snatched, father and I, from our business around our hold. My lord Viril?"
The Lord Holder shrugged and indicated H'ric.
"This man - the Weyrleader - wants to question you about the girl Irilia I placed in your fostering."
Holder Dinad stared at the two girls.
"Avenil? And - is that you, Irilia? What's going on - you were never given permit to leave the hold, young woman!"
"When did you miss her?" H'ric asked, and Dinad scowled at him.
"I don't count people in and out of their tasks! I assumed she was working in one of the outside barns, so I didn't demand her presence at the dining table. Not that it's a pleasure to have her there, nasty sour-faced girl that she is."
"The lady Irilia, who is, I remind you, the eldest, and at present the only, daughter of the Lord Holder of Bitra, has asked me to champion her against you and yours," H'ric continued. "She claims you abused her during all the time she was with you, and your son Dadin deflowered her."
Dinad stared at him, and around at the people in the room.
"I'm known to have a firm hand with fosterlings," he said. "Lord Viril knows I've knocked many a nephew of his into shape over the years. I admit I don't foster that many girls, but the treatment's the same. Hard work, plain food, and no frills. There's nothing wrong with that regime."
"And the beatings and abuse? Do they come with the territory?" H'ric asked.
"She's making it up," Dinad said angrily. "Stupid mopish creature. She had her own bedroom, which is a luxury in my house!"
"Making it all the easier, one suspects, for your son to attack her," H'ric replied at once, glaring at Dadin who looked away. Dinad turned to look at him, and then at Ronad who shrugged and also would not meet his gaze.
"Is that true?" Dinad asked his son. "I never gave permit for the girl to be touched! The lord Viril never indicated he wanted her wed, or giving birth, and I certainly don't want you mixed up with a girl whose mother was mad."
"Did Lord Viril tell you she was mad?"
"Yes he did. He said I was to take care of the girl, and if she showed any signs, he'd come and take her away and deal with it."
"What did you think he meant by that?"
"I don't know! Lock her up, I suppose? He might have thrust her out of the Hold any time these five Turns, to live holdless, or again - "
He broke off, shrugging and H'ric made a note on the pad in front of him.
"So you clearly thought you had her in your care - such as it was - for her whole life. That does not explain your ill-treatment, nor that of your son."
He turned to face Dadin.
"Did you deflower the lady Irilia? Believing her to be of no worth on the marriage market and, presumably, an easy mark?"
The young man flushed scarlet, and then the colour ebbed to leave his face a shiny dough-coloured mask.
"I never touched her," he muttered, then repeated it more loudly. "I never touched her! She's as mad as they said, to accuse an innocent man! I daresay she flipped her skirts at all the drudges, who's to know?"
"She claims it was you," H'ric reminded him. "You deny it?"
"Totally!"
"Avenil, did the lady Irilia confide in you after she was attacked?" H'ric asked, and the hold girl nodded.
"She came to me, and I did what I could to stop the bleeding and - and - things - he'd done to her - we thought of going to holder Dinad, but it wouldn't have done any good."
"Did anyone else know of this attack?"
"One of the drudges helped us," Avenil admitted. "I needed hot water, and she was suspicious of anyone taking hot water during the day - it wasn't allowed - not even for washing. She helped us. She was going to confront Dadin, but like us, she realised it would be useless."
H'ric looked at the young man, who was starting to look uneasy.
"And who did you boast to, young man? I presume you couldn't keep such a secret to yourself? Did you tell Ronad, and is that why he tried it on when he found the lady Irilia in the Weyr's lower caverns?"
"I never - I didn't attack her - Ronad - tell them!"
Ronad stared at the young man, and then around at the Lord Holders and the Weyrleaders.
"What'll you do to him?" he asked.
"The lady Irilia will be given all her dowry money, and a safe place to live," H'ric replied. "I have no interest in seeing a man hanged, although that young man richly deserves it."
"So she won't be around the hold no more? She won't be spreading any lies about us?"
"What she chooses to tell anyone is her own responsibility. With her dowry money the lady Irilia can make a new start wherever she wants."
"I don't have that kind of money!" Lord Viril snapped. "Her mother's dowry is long spent!"
"Lord Runanan?"
"The daughter of a Lord Holder has certain aspirations," he replied. "Bitra is quite a small place, but I would be pleased, with Lord Nathin and Lord Cantin's help, to adjudge an amount for a dowry."
Lord Viril sprang to his feet, and seemed about to launch himself at Lord Runanan, then controlled himself, swaying, gripping his chair, spluttering with rage, his face an unhealthy puce.
"B'rnel, a glass of water for Lord Viril," Jiverny said, and B'rnel leaned around the door to give the order.
"Sit down, my lord," Jiverny continued. "You are being given a way out of this, unless you wish to cry out on the Weyrleader in single combat? Or any of you others of his Hold?"
Dadin took a physical step backwards, shaking his head.
"If we get shot of her, that's good enough for me," he said hastily. "Father?"
Dinad scowled at him.
"I'll deal with you when we get home," he said in a malevolent whisper. "I don't want the girl on my hold any longer, that's for definite sure."
H'ric turned to Irilia.
"This is not the best conclusion for you, my dear," he said gently. "There is your word against his, and although there can be no doubt you were attacked, it would be hard to prove?"
She nodded slowly, watching her father sip at the water. His face regained some colour as he drew deeper breaths.
"I would welcome the money I would expect as a dowry, Weyrleader," she said at last. "That money, and the chest of stitched goods I made during my incarceration at the Hold, and the things I owned at holder Dinad's place, to be brought to me here until I make a decision on my life's course. I intend never to return to Bitra."
H'ric nodded, glancing around at the other Lord Holders. Lord Runanan still looked as if he wanted to argue the point, but Lord Nathin shrugged.
"It is one word against another, as you say, Weyrleader, and although I am convinced in my own mind that the culprit stands over there, apart from Shunning, I see no other way around this, beyond a punishment in monetary worth to the Lord Holder."
"You cannot punish me that way, when the fault, if any, lies in a worthless holder's son!"
"We leave it to you to mete out your own judgement on that," Lord Nathin said at once, and Lord Viril glared at his holder who suddenly realised, from the expression on his face, that he would be in debt to his Lord Holder lifelong.
"Very well," H'ric said. "I judge the lady Irilia to be the wronged party, and reparation is to be made to her by the Lord Holder Viril, in the sum of her expected dowry, and her goods, to be brought, untouched and undamaged, to the Weyr as soon as they can be assembled. I will send my Wingsecond B'rnel to collect each and every detail of the lady's possessions, and if she finds anything missing I will collect its worth from all of you."
He stared around the room, and the Lord Holders were nodding. H'ric signed his name on the notes he had made, and handed them around to be countersigned, and Jiverny went across to the two girls.
"You have done splendidly," she said softly. "Come away now, and rest yourselves - Avenil - will you accompany the lady Irilia for the present?"
"Yes, m'lady, I'll look after her until we're set on course again. Come now, Irry, and let's be having your name put on that cup, eh? Seeing as you won it fair and square!"