“Um.” Helge leaned towards her mother. “You’re telling me Hildegarde wasn’t acting alone? Or she was being pressured by her mother? Or what?”
“Oh, she’s an evil bitch in her own right,” Patricia waved off the question dismissively. “But yes, she was pressured. She and the other ladies of a certain age don’t have the two things that a young and eligible Clan lady can bargain with: they can’t bear world-walkers, and they can no longer carry heavy loads for the family trade. So they must rely on other, more subtle tools to maintain their position. Like their ability to plait the braids, and to do each other favors, by way of their grandchildren. And when my mother was in her thirties—little older than you are now—she was subjected to much pressure.”
“So there’s this conspiracy of old women—” Helge was grasping after the concept—“who can make everyone’s life a misery?”
“Don’t underestimate them,” warned the duchess. “They always win in the end, and you’ll need to make your peace with them sooner or later. I’m unusual, I managed to evade them for more than three decades. But that almost never happens, and even when it does you can’t actually win, because whether you fight them or no, you end up becoming one yourself.” She raised one finger in warning. “You’re relatively safe, kid. You’re too old, too educated, and you’ve got your own power base. As far as I can see they’ve got no reason to meddle with you unless you threaten their honor. Honor is survival here. Don’t ever do that, Miriam—Helge. If you do, they’ll find a way to bring you down. All it takes is leverage, and leverage is the one thing they’ve got.” She smiled thinly. “Think of them as Darwin’s revenge on us, and remember to smile and curtsey when you pass them because until you’ve given them grandchildren they will regard you as an expendable piece to move around the game board. And if you have given them a child, they have a hostage to hold against you.”
“Stross effectively keeps all the the plates spinning that he launched into motion in the first volume of this series…. Stross is having great fun with these books, and it’s contagious.”
—Scifi.com
“The sequel to The Family Trade continues the adventures of Miriam, the high-tech journalist flung into a fantasy world that really does recall the early volumes of Roger Zelazny’s Amber series…. Laugh your way to an ending that clearly promises further enjoyable volumes.”
—Booklist
Tor Books by Charles Stross
The Family Trade
The Hidden Family
The Clan Corporate
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE HIDDEN FAMILY
Copyright © 2005 by Charles Stross
Teaser copyright © 2006 by Charles Stross
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Edited by David G. Hartwell
A Tor Book
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Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-1488-8
The Hidden Family: Book Two of Merchant Princes Page 34