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This piece runs to 4,260 words and I hope that you enjoy it.  (I have no idea how it got that long!)

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Umbrial
Onnaday, 3 Deichen, 1893 C.E.

Tallaig Nearabhaign had not been expecting a telegraph from Tlemutsiko just yet, he had not been expecting two, and he had not been expecting any on this subject. He was expecting to hear shortly that his middle sister, Anadrasata Nearabhigan, was beginning her journey home. That notification would sensibly be sent by telegraph because there was no guarantee that a letter would travel the width of the Circle Sea any faster than his sister could make the journey herself. He had not expected to be warned to expect a request for permission to marry his sister and ward.

Anadrasata's message was very much to the point:

AM IN EXPECTATION OF RECEIVING A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL STOP THE GENTLEMAN IS LORD ELNAITH BH SEDLOIT STOP PLAN TO ACCEPT STOP PLEASE GRANT YOUR PERMISSION AND BLESSING STOP THANK YOU STOP

The message from his mother's oldest male cousin, Ghrus Forbaign, was rather longer, but also to the point:

ALL HERE EXPECTING ANADRASATA TO RECEIVE A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL STOP MOTHER ASSURES ME ALL PROPER STAGES AND FORMS HAVE BEEN FOLLOWED STOP MY SOURCES CONFIRM HE IS WHO AND WHAT HE CLAIMS TO BE STOP LORD ELNAITH BH SEDLOIT STOP A YOUNGER SON OF THE MARQUESS OF AIPHAINGATE STOP WITHOUT EXPECTATION OF TITULAR OR FINANCIAL OR REAL PROPERTY INHERITANCE STOP TEN YEAR VETERAN OF IMPERIAL ARMY WITH FINAL RANK OF MAJOR STOP QUALIFIED RECOGNISED AND RESPECTED IMPERIAL LEGAL PRACTITIONER STOP GENTLEMAN OF THE IMPERIAL BEDCHAMBER AT LARGE STOP TOLD ME ALMOST EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID ABOUT THE FINANCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF YOUR SISTER STOP IN YOUR POSITION OR IF SHE WAS MY WARD I WOULD GRANT PERMISSION FOR THE MARRIAGE STOP I ALSO BELIEVE HE WILL MAKE HER A GOOD HUSBAND STOP

Tallaig knew himself well enough to know that he was going to need time to think about this change in his sister's circumstances. It seemed that she was not falling into the arms of an imposter or fraud, because his mother's cousin and Anadrasata's host was quite clear that he had verified the man's identity. The only problem was that it did seem too good to be true and that made Tallaig wary. An Imperial kinsman meeting his frankly provincial sister in her dowdy clothes and deciding to marry her seemed highly unlikely. The fact that she was, in fact, a substantial heiress did make her a desirable marital target for any younger son without his own money, and Tallaig could only hope that Anadrasata hadn't been trailing tales of her fortune behind her all the way around the Circle Sea. Except, she couldn't have been doing that because she wouldn't have heard about her inheritance until she reached Tlemutsiko, when their cousin would have passed Tallaig's message on to her. How would she have met Lord Elnaith, and how did he know about her inheritance? Unless, he had heard about it from Anadrasata before repeating the information to their cousin? He already had questions that hadn't been relevant when their sister Anna got engaged, and Tallaig suspected that he was going to look back on that experience as having been uncomplicated.

He put the messages in a drawer of his desk and locked it, then put the key in a waistcoat pocket because that way news of Anadrasata's raised hopes wasn't going to become prematurely widely known. Then Tallaig went to his library to consult a peerage reference.

Umbrial
Thuwnday, 4 Deichen, 1893 C.E.

Locking the messages in his desk proved to have been a good idea when Tallaig Nearabhaign's mother swept into study after the footman who had come to tell him that she had called and was waiting in the parlor for him. Tallaig recognised this tactic - his mother wanted him off balance and to be able to see what he was working on. It had probably been appropriate behaviour when he was a schoolboy, but he'd moved beyond that before his father had died. Not that far beyond it, if he was truthful with himself.

She cast a supercilious eye over the papers and ledger on the desktop before him. "Doing the household accounts?" she asked. "Isn't that a job for the butler or the housekeeper? A gentleman has people to do the entries for him, he only needs to check them." She sat in the chair opposite him without giving him the opportunity for him to greet her or invite her to sit. "We might as well talk in here, to avoid any other callers just walking in on us in the drawing room."

Tallaig turned to the footman and instructed him that that tea tray was to be brought to the study instead of the drawing room, then turned his attention back to his mother, bowed and said, "Good afternoon, Mother. It's nice to see you too." He neatly stacked his papers, put them to the side of his desk with his closed ledger on top of it, then asked, "What is it that you wish to discuss?"

"This nonsense about Anadrasata living with you when she returns. An unmarried gel's place is with her mother." She folded her gloved hands in her lap, settled back in her chair and looked at him expectantly.

"Anadrasata is almost twenty-five, so I don't think that we can continue to accuse her of girlhood, Mother. Besides, I hold that the place of an unmarried woman who is still under a guardianship is under the direct protection of her guardian." He paused and added, "Particularly when said mother has made no attempt to help her find a suitable husband or prepare her to take her place in the level of society into which she was born." An observer would have noted a distinct similarity in the two gazes locked across that desk.

Mrs Nearabhaign broke first and visibly bridled. "I don't know how you can say that. I taught her how to run a household. I take her out to gatherings with my friends and have her help me entertain them when they visit me."

"You had her act as your unpaid housekeeper and companion," observed her son. "When her allowance was a third of the household's income, you didn't allow her pin money of her own and made her keep to an impossibly tight budget for your requirements. I see no material way in which she would be better off living with you than in my household or, indeed, a household of her own."

The butler entered with the tea tray at that moment, and several minutes were taken up with arranging it on the desk between mother and son. Once tea and biscuits were in front of both the Nearabhaigns and the door had closed behind the departing butler, Mrs Nearabhaign snapped, "If she marries, then you'll never recover that trust fund of hers."

Tallaig sipped his tea and replied, "But we both know that it was never my money to recover, don't we, Mother? I only came to that knowledge very recently, but you've always known that it was never Father's money." He sipped his tea contemplatively again and went on, "If you had simply explained to me that the trust fund was set up by Father's great-uncle and not by Father, that would have dealt with my rather adolescent grudge and resentment towards my sister. Instead, you chose to incite me." He drank again.

"That money should have gone to you, if not to your father," snapped back his mother. "Once Anadrasata was born and proved to be a girl, then that contract should have been ripped up and old Anadras should have made you or your father his heir. Leaving so much to that girl was a stupid idea."

"One thing I'm not clear on," commented Tallaig as he picked up an oatmeal biscuit, "is why great-great-uncle didn't marry and have children of his own. He knew he was a man of considerable assets - I mean, what Father was able to do with his inheritance as the minor heir shows that. He used what he did inherit from Great-great-uncle to double your jointure and my other sisters' doweries, so why wait until you and Father were having children to do anything about choosing an heir?"

Mrs Nearabhaign drank half a cup of tea in one swallow and corrected sharply, "He was married and they had children. His wife died a little after your father and I were married, I heard that she was young enough to be his daughter. They'd had two sons and both of them died when your father was about fifteen. Drowned in mud up near Satdrel, I believe. He could have remarried and tried for more children, but I don't believe he attempted to find a second wife. I," she drank a little more tea, "was happy to have my husband and our son after him inherit that fortune."

"You can't be happy for Anadrasata?" Tallaig took a bite of the biscuit and began chewing, leaving it up to his mother to fill the silence.

"She's supposed to be my help and support in my old age," snapped back his mother. "My needs are important too. If she takes control of her allowance, then that would curtail my ability to carry out my charity work. Besides, would anyone worth having want to marry Anadrasata?"

"Not the way you have presented her to the world," acknowledged her son, "but there are many younger sons of good family with no means of their own. I expect a reasonable number of them would be prepared to change their family name in order to marry an heiress. Wouldn't surprise me if some of them would be eager change their family allegiance."

"As I said," replied his mother, "anyone of worth." She gave him a hard look, and added, "You're keeping something from me."

"I'm keeping a great many things from you, Mother," admitted Tallaig smoothly. "Any number of agricultural concerns regarding my estates. My concerns about the last few garments I received from my tailor. Who I talk with at my club. My interests in horseflesh. Can you say that you have any interest in any of those things?"

"Something you know I'd be interested in," she said accusingly. "I'll find out eventually, so why not just tell me now?"

"Mother," he replied calmly, teacup held in mid-air for the moment, "I'm sure that there are many things I haven't told you that you would be interested in. I have no intention of doing so because not only did you spend time teaching me that immediate gratification isn't good for one, but I don't have the time and inclination to list every little thing about my doings that I haven't told you since we split households." He drank some of the tea and put the cup back on its matching saucer. "Much as you seem to enjoy our circular and repeated arguments about Anadrasata's future, I don't, and I am not going to indulge you today. Instead, why don't you tell me about your social activities since we last met?" He gave her a singularly sweet smile and ate another biscuit.

His mother left twenty minutes later, soothed and disgruntled in equal parts, and Tallaig got on with his work.

Much later that evening he received a note from Saidaikha Lhadraist, a member of the Imperial Adjutant's Office who he had come to know while helping the junior official speak with a number of elderly ladies who had been victims of a fraud, asking him to make time to meet with himself and a colleague on a family matter the next day. He sent back a note agreeing to the request and suggesting the eleventh hour of the morning. Aside from wondering what it could be about, he went on with his evening. He did, however, give instructions that he was to be woken in good time to be ready for this new appointment.

Umbrial
Brogaiday, 5 Deichen, 1893 C.E.

Promptly at the eleventh hour of the morning, Tallaig's butler admitted two gentlemen to the house, took their names and hats, observed that they were expected and conducted them to his employer's study. He then knocked on the door and opened it to announce, "Mr Rhuhurht bh'Dhoinh and Mr Saidaikh Lhadraist to see you, sir." The gentlemen were then ushered into the study, and the butler was sent to see that the tea tray would be forth coming.

"Mr Nearabhaign," began Mr Lhadraist, "may I introduce my colleague, Mr Rhuhurht bh'Dhoinh? He has particularly asked to meet you." He turned to the other man and continued, "Mr bh'Dhoinh this is Mr Tallaig Nearabhaign."

The two men bowed to each other and exchanged cards. Mr bh'Dhoinh plucked his from a silver card case that he pulled from a pocket in his feather-patterned, red waistcoat. Tallaig produced his from the horn card case that he carried in his own waistcoat pocket. On glancing at the pasteboard card he'd been handed, Tallaig commented, "Imperial auditor? Is this about that fraud business?" His gaze and questioning look went from one guest to the other.

"Yes, I am an auditor for the Imperial Exchequer," replied Mr bh'Dhoinh, "but I am here on a personal matter. One of my cousins, Lord Elnaith bh'Sedloit, has asked me to represent him in asking your permission to marry your ward and younger sister, Miss Anadrasata Nearabhigan. He cannot be here himself because he is currently in Tlemutsiko, as is your sister."

"I have been told that my sister is in expectation of a proposal," said Tallaig. "My impression was that she was trying not to be presumptuous in the message that she sent me."

"My cousin has advised me that he has offered for the lady and been accepted," answered Mr bh'Dhoinh. "Aside from wishing to conduct himself properly in this matter, my cousin sent me to reassure you that he is who he says he is. I asked Mr Lhadraist, whom I have worked with on several matters, to introduce me so that you could be assured that I am, in turn, who I say I am. Neither of us imagine that you would put your sister in the care of a man whose credentials you have not established."

At this point, the butler knocked on the door and then ushered in a housemaid who was carrying a tea tray with cups and plates for three. Tallaig indicated the low table surrounded by chairs and a sofa in front of the room's fireplace, and the two servants worked together to arrange the comestibles, crockery, and silverware before withdrawing from the room. Tallaig then asked his guests to sit. Mr Lhadraist offered to leave, but both the other gentlemen insisted that he stay, so he took a seat on the sofa after the other two had taken chairs opposite each other across the table.

After Tallaig had ascertained how his guests took their tea and poured out, he was offering Mr bh'Dhoinh a plate of shortbread biscuits when he asked, "So, how did your cousin come to meet my sister?"

"Entirely by design," admitted Lord Elnaith's cousin as he took a biscuit from the leaf decorated plate. "He intercepted her on her way north from Glastriel and scraped an acquaintance with her while they were aboard ship. Various persons answerable to the Throne," he gestured vaguely in the air with the biscuit, "were concerned that a lady was being sent alone to stay with a family that chose to be against us in the Southwestern War of Secession. A family who are strongly suspected of actually betraying the Empire and committing treason during that episode. Suspicions were held that a long term plot was being laid or enacted, and so an investigation was undertaken." He ate half the biscuit while both listeners took a moment to order their thoughts.

Tallaig carefully asked, "Are we under suspicion for treason?"

Mr bh'Dhoin went on, "Lord Elnaith was quickly convinced that if there was a plot, your sister didn't know about it. He and various others independently concluded that if a plot to create an enemy agent was being enacted from the Imperial side of things, then your sister wouldn't have been sent off on her own in first class - it draws too much attention."

Tallaig flushed and said, "I acted on my mother's advice. I realise now that she had an ulterior motive."

Mr bh'Dhoin gave an acknowledging nod and went on, "What he did realise was that your sister believed two contradictory things about her situation, so he had some investigations carried out. I was consulted because I know where to look for the requisite paperwork." He added reflectively, "I am not entirely certain that we identified all the assets administered on your sister's behalf by her trustees."

"Ah. So, you were the person who'd called on the documents just before us when my brother-in-law was looking into Anadrasata's affairs for me." Tallaig was pleased that a minor mystery had been solved.

"Not me," Mr bh'Dhoin waved a hand deprecatingly. "One of Lord Elnaith's clerks. He has an office staff because he does run what is effectively a mobile legal practice. Why didn't you just approach your sister's trustees for clarification of her situation?"

Tallaig flushed. "When I believed that my sister's trust fund came from our father, my nose was out of joint that he had invested so much money in her, more than he left me, when I was his principal heir. I made myself rather obnoxious trying to rearrange things so that I had control of that money." He sighed. "Truthfully, that was only a month or so ago. I like to think I've done a lot of growing up recently."

Mr Lhadraist, a slice of fruit cake on the small plate in his hand, asked delicately, "Surely your mother knew where your sister's money came from? Why didn't she correct your misapprehension years ago?"

"That is the question," answered Tallaig. "I suspect her of trying to keep my sister under her thumb for her own purposes, which if they aren't nefarious, are certainly self-serving." He turned back to Mr bh'Dhoin, "So why does your cousin, a nobleman and an Imperial kinsman, want to marry my sister?"

Mr bh'Dhoin sighed. "He's a younger son of a peer, the fond enough uncle of the small herd of children his sisters and his older brothers have produced, and she is a lady whom he esteems who is also a considerable heiress. He admires her character, which is something that he has made clear to me in his instructions. It helps that she is not a young miss of seventeen or eighteen, because he is almost forty. A fifteen year age gap isn't ideal, but a twenty year age gap would be worse."

"Not what I would want for any of my sisters," agreed Tallaig. "Has he considered the issue of her being an official offshoot?"

"He has," confirmed Mr bh'Dhoin before drinking more of his tea. "He intends to petition the Emperor for permission to pass his prefix on to his children, and if that is granted to take the name bh'Nearabhigan himself. He said, and I quote, “There are rather a lot of bh'Sedloits so it's not as if I would be endangering the family name."

"I see," said Tallaig. "That would give my sister, her future children, and we, her family, the benefits of his connections, would it not?"

"It would," replied Mr bh'Dhoin. "It would indeed. As the head of Nearabhaign family, that may be a consideration for you."

"In fact, I would be doing all of us a disservice if I refused my consent." Tallaig drank some of his own tea. "Does Lord Elnaith's family have a problem with our lack of consequence?"

"His parents, the Marquess and Marchioness, are delighted that their son has attracted the esteem, if not the affections, of a young lady from a family of long term good standing who is the principal heir of a personal friend of the late Emperor, the current Emperor's grandfather." Mr bh'Dhoin picked up his biscuit again, "One of the reasons I was sent to request your consent to the match is that as I am a happily married man with an occupied nursery, I am not going to try to persuade you that I would make a better match for your sister. Some of our mutual cousins might be less circumspect - we can be quite competitive."

While Mr bh'Dhoin enjoyed his shortbread, Tallaig and Mr Lhadraist considered the idea that Anadrasata was so eligible that Imperial kinsmen might try to snaffle her hand in marriage from under their titled cousin's nose. Mr Lhadraist, who had never met her, imagined a charming lady, neat in her person, and with a soft voice and gentle smile, while Tallaig struggled to imagine the dowdily dressed, and alternatively cowed and resentful sister of his recent memory attracting a potential husband through her personal qualities. Qualities that this Lord Elnaith apparently admired. He did not voice this opinion.

What he did say was, "Given that I am not my sister's trustee or aware of the extent of the assets held in trust for her, I am unable to negotiate her marriage settlements with you."

"I understand." Mr bh'Dhoin took a mouthful of tea. "Assuming the match has your approval, I would appreciate it if you could give me a letter of introduction to her trustees, so they are...informed of the situation. I believe my cousin wants to discuss what they both want the settlements to achieve with your sister before the contract negotiations occur."

"I think that we have established that I would be foolish to withhold my consent," replied Tallaig, "and so I give it. Particularly as my guardianship over her ends in a little over two months. The other issue to consider is planning the wedding. Normally, my wife and mother would consult the wishes of the bride, the groom, and important members of both families, and make the arrangements. However, I am not married and, given our mother's apparent attitude towards my middle sister, it might be best if she's not directly involved in the matter."

Mr bh'Dhoin smiled brightly and replied, "I think we can help with that. Some of our...more prominent relatives have staff who organise big events for them and the rest of the family often borrow them for things like weddings and funerals. The family is so large, far flung, and with so many moving individuals at any one time, that it's useful to have someone who understands travel times, logistics and long distance communications, and has experience arranging accommodations and catering for large numbers of people involved in the planning and leadup to these things."

Tallaig felt himself relax a little. "That would be very helpful, thank you. Do you need separate introduction letters for each of the trustees? Also, how and when do we announce the marriage?"

"One letter for the entire board of trustees should be enough," replied Mr bh'Bhoin easily. "For some reason a visit from an Imperial Auditor of any type seems to make bankers and their like a little unsettled." He added, "Hopefully your sister's trustees won't be so unsettled that they arouse my professional interest. As for announcing things, I suggest asking my cousin and your sister what they want to do first. After all, no-one has to say anything at all until the banns are called and the wedding invitations go out, and banns can be avoided if you use a special license. Many people, including some of my exalted cousins, don't make any announcements until after the wedding has taken place."

"I'll write you that letter of introduction now," said Tallaig easily. "Please finish your tea and eat a few more biscuits. Will you need the directions of their places of business too?"

"Yes, please," replied Mr bh'Dhoin as he considered the plate of fruit cake. "I don't know Umbrial at all, yet, and I understand that our friend Mr Lhadraist here might not yet know them or their places of business."

When Tallaig returned to the table, the written letter and the list of names and addresses in hand, he resumed his seat saying, "Mr Mhargaign is the senior trustee of the five, at least partly because he is the last of them personally selected and appointed by our great-great-uncle. He keeps business offices on the corner of Aikhail Street and Scrivener's Lane, just back up Aikhail Street from Market Square."

Mr bh'Dhoin accepted the papers as Tallaig passed them to him, the asked, "So, is this a respectable business address?"

"Yes," Tallaig confirmed with a nod. "The Town Hall is on Market Square. Market Square and Aikhail Street are where you'll find most of the banks a prudent man would care to deal with. Aikhail Street is the middle of the three streets between Market and Guild Squares, and those streets are where most of the legal practitioners and men of business with the gentry for clients have their offices. The Inspectorate's offices here are at the opposite end of Scrivener's Lane to Mr Mhargaign's office."

"Most respectable," agreed Mr bh'Dhoin. "Thank you for your time today, and I hope we meet again at the wedding celebrations, if not sooner."

With that the gentlemen made their farewells, and the visitors departed.

Tallaig Nearabhaign sat down at his desk again, this time to draft two telegraphs to Tlemutsiko.