Chapter Text
“I’m too young and inexperienced to be training master, you know that!” Alexander of Tirragen didn’t entirely believe what he was hearing.
“I know. But I need someone from a conservative family, who will nevertheless train any girls who decide knighthood is for them and convince their families.”
“And there’s no-one else you trust to do that?”
“Not without concessions he doesn’t want to make,” Duke Roger said. He’d come to Jon’s office with his former squire.
“And you’re prepared to pay for it with an inexperienced training master?”
“An inexperienced training master who is sufficiently aware of his inexperience to seek advice, certainly. No one is ready when they begin." Jonathan's last sentence was at least as much about himself as about his friend.
“May I take a day to think?”
“Take a week. And if you do decide to take the post, think about the people you’d want advice from. Get some actual conservatives on that list and make a proper advisory council, if you want.”
Sir Alexander bowed to his King and left to find Duke Gareth. He wasn’t in his own office, but that of his son. “Your Grace,” Alex said, bowing properly to the Duke.
“Sir Alexander,” Duke Gareth nodded. “I take it you’ve been asked?”
Alex nodded. “I don’t think I’m ready.”
“Do you think you’re close?”
Alex thought about it.
In the silence, Duke Gareth spoke again. “No one is really ready when they begin a new phase of life. I wasn’t ready when I became training master, or the prime minister.”
Jon said much the same, Alex though. “You weren’t?”
“No, I learned on the job. You’ll have the benefit of learning on the job and from me, if you seek me out.”
“Would you … would you stay a bit longer? With me as your assistant, before I take the post properly?”
Sir Gareth the younger spoke first. “Father, if I may?” The Duke nodded to his son. “That sounds rather like the way I’m transitioning into my post, but with a more formal title than ‘helping my father out.’”
“All right,” Duke Gareth said. “Start shadowing me now, with the pages and squires. I’ll formally take you on as my assistant as soon as Jonathan agrees. From the first annual exams after that, they’re yours.”
Alexander of Tirragen smiled. “Thank you, your Grace.”