A Mary Hunt Interlude

Mary Hunt hexed adulthood and the myriad pointless things it had started throwing at her to keep her away from her dear Katarina. May it be consumed by the abyss!

After graduating from the Academy, she had thought things would go back to being how they had been before. Attending parties with Lady Katarina, visiting her at her manor, doing gardening together, keeping The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance away from her and subtly undermining the competition as she finally made her dear Katarina aware of her love so they could run off to another country together far away from all this…

Then they had graduated and everything had changed. Her dear Katarina had left and comeback with a cousin, then had decided to become a knight of all things. Her dear Katarina, who would never hurt a fly and was kind and friendly to everyone around her, a knight! One of those big, loud, violent maniacs who always went around armed, seemingly a heartbeat away from going around rolling into every pot near them, deadly killers of the kingdom's enemies… no, she couldn't imagine her dear Katarina becoming such a thing!

Yet, she had chosen to persist, despite how horribly she had looked when Mary had first seen her outside of her training. She had looked much better subsequently, but who knows what sort of painful torments Campbell was subjecting her to, sight unseen? Dear little Shana always assured Mary that Katarina was well during their lessons together, and she hadn't the heart to think her cute little student (!-!-!-!-!) a liar but…

Mary Hunt was an adult and everything had gone wrong. Her dear Katarina was secluded, only allowed to see people on special days. Even though Mary went to Maria's house every week to teach Shana, she had never actually seen her dear Katarina unless it was a so-called 'free day' which were seemingly no longer as plentiful as they had been before. Even Sophia, who was there every day now, didn't actually get to see her dear Katarina except at a distance from the window when she was out helping the children tend the fields in the late afternoon. Every time Sophia had tried to go out to join in, Maria had been there to intercept her, telling her to do her paperwork…

According to her spies, however, she wasn't the only one so tormented. Keith spent most of his days in Morpork Duchy, assisting the duke or occasionally escorting his cousin to events. The few times he went to Maria's, it had been to spar or to pick up cakes she'd baked for him, where the closest he'd come in contact to his sister was speaking to Anne to relay messages and mail. The princes were mostly stuck in the castle, doing their part to set up the International Assembly, and of course there had been the lovely revelation of Duchess Claes' decree to The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance, which still made her happy every time she thought of it… Nicol was with them, as busy as ever assisting his father in assisting the king.

Mary herself was busy, as much as she didn't want to be. In addition to her weekly lessons with her cute little student (!-!-!-!-!), she had work to do for House Hunt. Her father was busy at the palace doing his own part, and her eldest sister was assisting. That left her, as the most accomplished socialite of her generation, to maintain their profile in the many parties being held by, admittedly, the people not important enough to be busy, keeping her father abreast of the nonsense people were getting up to. Without her dear Katarina in any of those parties, she was able to go in fashionably late, make a splash and an impression, collect information from her spies and informants and get information only she could, then be out again in two hours.

She was able to do up to four, sometimes five parties a day sometimes before needing to come home. Her other two older sisters were barely competent to keep the manor and estate running, and she had to take care of her own garden because she had made it clear she would horribly murder anyone who touched her garden. The servants still whispered in hushed tones about the gardener that had been hired to tend her garden without her permission. He had disappeared the day after Mary had found out, and no one had ever heard of him again…

Every time she heard that story, Mary had to resist the urge to start laughing. Like she would actually do something to Master Tom! Honestly, she'd been glad for the help that day. She had to wonder if the old man had done it on purpose. Katarina said he'd been an old friend of her grandfather's and everyone knew the old Duke Claes had been steeped in cunning.

Still, this meant she had a lot of things to occupy her time, and she honestly didn't remember being this busy before the Academy…

Breakfast was muted in the Hunt manor. Mary rarely spoke, because she didn't have anything to say to her sisters beyond polite pleasantries. While they were no longer so deliberately unpleasant to her, there was no closeness. They were at best civil acquaintances who were living in the same house and related by blood. The best she could say about them was they weren't The ADVERSARY And Enemy Of The Alliance. She was slightly closer to her father, who treated her like a daughter now, though sometimes Mary wondered darkly how much of that was because of her influence and her engagement.

The door opened, and their butler Whitaker came in with the morning's correspondence. "You have an invitation, my lord," the butler said, but he skipped around from the head of the table and held out the little tray with the correspondence out to Mary. Her father gave an exasperated sigh, but didn't object as Mary picked up the envelope.

Her eyes widened, and she had to suppress a grin as she recognized the Claes crest on the wax seal. After instinctively checking for poison needles in the wax and poison powders in the envelope—forgers were a thing—she eagerly unfolded the invitation, ignoring the way her sister Margaretha leaned over to try to read over her shoulder.

"The Duchess Claes is hosting a little gathering in a few days, father," Mary said. "I'll send her your regrets at being too busy to attend, shall I?"

Her father, who'd perked up at the mention of a gathering, slumped down. "I'm not that busy," he said plaintively. "I'm sure I can find a little time."

"No, no, you're much too busy," Mary said ruthlessly lest he forget who was in charge. "You wouldn't want people to think you're some useless, corrupt, leeching Marquis, do you?"

"S-surely one party wouldn't be enough to make me seem like that…?"

"No, you're much too busy," Mary pressed on, and he sighed. "But don't worry, I'll be sure to represent our House to our best advantage."

"Eh? We're not going?" her sister Margaretha said.

"We want to go too!" her sister Charlotte said.

Mary made a show of thinking about it. "Eh? But you're not very experienced at dealing with people so highly ranked…"

"Well, this is a good time to get experience at it!" Charlotte said plaintively.

"Please don't just leave me at home again," Margaretha practically cried. "I want to go out and do things too!"

Mary hummed, but she supposed her sisters had been properly behaved lately… well, why not. "Oh, very well. I will indulge you. You may come with me."

""Thank you Mary!""

"She's the youngest…" Lilia sighed.

"What was that, paperworker? You wanted to stay at home and do accounts?"

"No, no, I'm just amazed at how capable you are little sister, please don't make me stay at home!"

Really, revenge was so sweet.

"Mother's having a party?" her squire (!-!-!) said as Maria conveyed the details of the invitation.

"Yes," Maria said. "We will both be attending, as will Rafael. I believe this is an opportunity for you to present yourself and put your etiquette training to use."

A few months ago, the notion would have made her squire nervous. Now, however, she looked… determined. "I'll need to polish my sword. it's getting scuffed up from practice."

The old Katarina wouldn't have worried about the scuffs because only the pommel and hilt would be visible.

Maria nodded. "I will inspect your gear before we leave. In the meantime, I have something for you. You remember I how I borrowed your… throwing snake?"

Katarina nodded, looking curious.

Maria held up a box. It was a plain but sturdy box, with a strong lock and handle, the kind that could be used for years and slowly get beat up. "Open it," she said.

"Ooh, present!" Katarina chirped. She held it up, not seeming to notice the weight, held it up to her ear and shook it. "What is it, what is it?"

"Open it and find out," Maia said dryly.

Eagerly, Katarina supported it in one hand and opened the box with the other. She looked inside and a befuddled look came over her face. "Oh, it's very nice! It's… It's… what is it?"

Maria gestured towards a nearby outdoor table with some jugs of water and wooden cups. Her squire carried the box there, still in one hand, and lay the box down with a heavy thump. Then she started taking out the things inside.

A hinged mold, as if for making oversized balls of shot.

A small crucible, with tongs specifically sized to hold it.

A small hammer and a hardened chisel.

A small metal tripod for the crucible.

Several small ingots of lead, as well as round lead balls.

A reinforced leather belt pouch.

Maria sighed and slapped her squire's hands away before Katarina put any of that last in her mouth. "No my squire, that's lead, it's bad for you."

"Oh, it's not candy? Uh, what is it then?"

Maria picked up one of the lead balls. "This," she said, "is exactly the same weight as your throwing snake."

Katarina blinked, then picked up a ball herself. "Huh, it is," she said as she hefted in in her hand, tossing it up a little and catching it. "Smaller, though."

Maria nodded. "Can you throw it?"

Katarina blinked, and realization shone on her face. She slipped the lead ball into the pocket she kept her pocket snake, taking out the snake and putting it on the table. The draw was awkward, but the toss was smooth and she seemed to hit whatever imaginary target she was aiming for.

"Oh, that was easy to throw," Katarina said. "But who do we know that's afraid of little metal balls?"

Maria blinked. "What?"

"Well, there are people afraid of snakes, so they'll be scared if a snake was thrown in their face, but I don't think many people are afraid of metal balls."

Maria sighed. "I think having a metal ball thrown in their face will be scary enough. What if it hits an eye?"

"Ah, good point! But, isn't this dangerous?"

"Like your sword," Maria said.

"That's different! I'm a trained swordy person who knows how to handle dangerous swords so that no one gets hurt!"

"Well, then you'll just have to train to throw dangerous balls until no one gets hurt."

"Eh… but wouldn't not throwing them be the best way to keep people from being hurt?"

"I suppose you'll have to use your best judgement, my squire," Maria said. "Now, let me show you how to use this to make more lead shot…"