The Wandering Harlot (The Marie Series) Read Free Page B

glanced at the part that guaranteed his daughter’s virtue and virginity, something he could attest to without any qualms as his daughter had always been a good child. In addition, Wina had watched like a hawk to make sure no man had approached her too closely.
    Master Matthis admiringly patted his future son-in-law on the shoulder. “Excellent! If you have no objection, we can sign the contracts at once.”
    “It would be a pleasure.” Counselor Rupert bowed and spread out both copies in front of Master Matthis, who beckoned to his secretary sitting silently in a dark corner of the room. Linhard was a tall, haggard man with thin, light blond hair, a narrow face, and sharp features; his devotion to his employer seemed almost obsequious. But Master Matthis didn’t notice and thought very highly of him.
    The secretary bowed to Master Matthis and hurried to the office. Shortly after, he returned with a small tray on which he had placed a silver inkpot, a container of quills, a small knife, and some sealing wax.
    Master Matthis picked up one of the quills, shaved it to a fine point, and dipped it in the inkpot. He glanced once more at the most important passages of the marriage proposal and signed his name on the parchment. Heating the sealing wax over a candle, he dripped the wax onto the document beneath his signature, then pressed it with his signet ring.
    Linhard now handed the tray with the writing utensils to Counselor Rupert who then applied his own seal to the contract and passed it on to the other men to verify and sign.
    Amazed, Master Jörg stared at the document. The bride’s rich dowry was described piece by piece, followed by a listing of her father’s assets that would be hers upon her father’s death. At last he thought he’d solved the riddle of why the esteemed son of one of the mightiest noble families was wooing a girl whose grandfather had fled to the city as a bondservant and only later, through hard work and a favorable marriage, had acquired wealth.
    Master Matthis watched his old friends as they read the document, and he took great satisfaction at their stunned expressions. Members of well-placed families had never viewed either him or his father, Richard, as their equals, but rather saw them as runaway slaves who were merely tolerated in the city despite their growing wealth. Richard Schärer had succeeded in amassing a fortune despite local opposition, and Matthis had increased it almost tenfold. Today, Matthis had finally outdone them all, and even the patricians of Constance would be envious of his son-in-law.
    Matthis Schärer remembered how the nobleman had asked for his daughter’s hand. At first Matthis had thought it was a bad joke. But Counselor Rupert had courteously reminded him that no one else in Constance or anywhere for many miles around could offer such a generous dowry for his daughter.
    Jörg cleared his throat and turned to Rupert. “Excuse me for asking, Counselor, but I would be interested to know why your father didn’t have you trained in the knightly arts, as is customary in noble circles, but instead made you a man of books.”
    Rupert’s narrow lips broadened into a hint of a smile. “I was very frail as a child and not suited for training as a fighter, so my father judged it better to train me as his secretary and later have me study law.”
    It was apparent that the men were thinking that most illegitimate children of noblemen weren’t given such preferential treatment, so Rupert had to be special. The counselor enjoyed their admiration even though it served as a painful reminder of his past.
    From the time of Rupert’s birth, Heinrich von Keilburg had taken no interest in him, and so he spent his unhappy childhood living in a remote, drafty corner of the castle with the servants. Only after the castle chaplain had reported to the count what a good head his bastard son had on his shoulders did his life change. Heinrich sent him to the Waldkron monastery, whose