Season of the Raven (A Servant of the Crown Mystery Book 1) by Denise Domning

when you first addressed me to protest the deodand, I suspected you had yet to grasp your father's passing, for it seemed you did not mourn him at all."
    "Did it?" Stephen replied, bracing his forearms on his thighs. His gaze drifted back to his clasped hands. "I'm not surprised that it might have seemed that way. God knows I was furious at my father when I arrived home this morning. I hated him for shaming us and our name yet one more time."
    He glanced sidelong at Faucon. "To fall into his own race and die because of drink! You don't know what it's like living with someone like him. Clear-headed one minute, with great plans for the future. A few hours later, he's besotted and raging, saying things to folk or about folk that make them hate him, me and our trade."
    That made Faucon's lips twist into a tight smile. If only he didn't know a man of that sort. "Do you think your sire is the only one in the world who behaves this way?"
    Stephen offered him a wry and ragged grin, then released another slow breath. "I suppose not. Now that I know my father's death came at the hands of another and not because of his love for ale, a hole has opened in my heart just as was done to him. I am missing him already."
    "Can you think of anyone who might want to kill your sire?" Faucon asked.
    "Better to ask me who didn't wish to kill him," the new miller retorted with a scornful snort. "I doubt there's a man here today who would say he liked my father." That teased nods and mutters of agreement out of some of the men standing near him.
    "My father was not a pleasant man. He was quick to anger and brutal with his fists. And as fast as he was to strike out, he was just as slow to forgive."
    Stephen shot Faucon another look, this one sharp and swift. "Because of that, there'll be those who'll say Halbert Miller was a thief. Don't believe them. I vow to you, my father never took so much as a single corn that belonged to another. He didn't need to cheat to make a profit here, not as hard as he worked. Although it's true he wasn't born to milling, instead came to it through marriage to my mother, he loved this mill, every bit of it, from the constant rumble of the turning stone to sweeping up the last of the grain dust at the end of a day."
    With that, Stephen straightened on the barrel and raised his gaze to meet Faucon's. "But none of that answers your question. If I can imagine many men who might have wished my father dead, I can think of no man who would have been moved to actually end his life."
    "What of a woman? What of Agnes, his wife? You have accused her of his death once today," Faucon reminded gently.
    Stephen's eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened. "All I can say about her is that she'd best be gone from my home before I have to go within doors. I don't care what it takes to be rid of her, she had just better be gone." As hard as his expression was, his voice lacked any of the bluster Faucon had heard when he first arrived at the mill.
    "Do you rescind your charge of murder against your stepmother, then?" Faucon persisted. "If so, why did you accuse her at all?"
    "Because I would have killed him if he treated me the way he treated her," Stephen said simply. "As hard as my father was on me, he was harder still on Alf, and hardest yet on that woman. I don't understand why she married him in the first place. Mary save me, but I don't even know why he took another wife. After my mother died, my father was content to let 'Wina, my wife," Stephen offered in explanation, "care for us and our home. Then, of a sudden two months ago, he travels to Stanrudde and comes back with that woman, returning already wedded and bedded without me knowing a thing of it beforehand. He didn't even tell me he intended to marry." The pain of his father's betrayal filled Stephen's voice and gaze.
    Faucon shrugged. "Perhaps he missed having a woman in his bed?"
    "Him?" Stephen said in scorn. "There hasn't been a time when he didn't have access to a woman when he