Yes, she is having a hard time living in the same house with Jayson, knowing what he did. I can scarcely imagine what Bet would be thinking about going to Rance’s funeral. It would be incredibly hard for me not to jump up during the eulogy and go “that man is a child rapist and dick and deserves his death, quit pretending we’ll all miss him.” But of course that would cause a scene and one that she wouldn’t put her mother or her brother through.

I’m glad you noticed that Bet and her behavior is all a little skewed, it will be important here in a couple of posts. (And somewhat later as well.)

Jayson very well might have survived Josh trying to kill him. And then things would suck all the more in Casa de Carico… Poor Josh would have thrown his life away for nada and Bet would have to face Jayson on her own. Which, given everything–would not be easy, to say the very least…

But as much as we all wish Jayson were sharing that box with Rance, I would rather Josh didn’t have to throw his life away to get it.

I’ve got plans for a dress rather like this one for later. But yeah, it is not the time in her life, nor the place, for such a dress. I had intended to do a little more about the dress, (Back when I wasn’t intending to have Josh decide that he was going to toss killing their father onto the table.) However, she does end up wearing it anyway in the funeral shots because it was the one I had for her.

Thanks, Winter!

However, in the case of Rance, the king wears mourning whenever one of his council members dies, when the council was small, the king knew everyone on it very well, so a death would be personal. Hector, unfortunately, doesn’t get to know all of his counsel members personally. (Not that he’s missing a damned thing when it comes to people like Rance–and if he knew Jayson better…) When the king wears mourning, the nobility wears mourning or looks like a jerk.

So even the people who knew Rance and hated his guts wear mourning until after the funeral, because unless the person who died is actually a close personal friend or relative, the king ends “official” mourning for the court after the funeral or one week, whichever period is longer.

Within the families mourning is expected for longer. Immediate family mourns for one year. (Unless of course the widow chooses to extend the mourning period for longer.) Extended family doesn’t have to be in mourning longer than court mourning, but most extended family does do mourning for about a quarter or twelve week period, out of respect for the family.

Other than in a “everybody is probably distantly related somehow” way, no, the Finessas aren’t related to the Rances. The Fitz-Chivalrys are, however, via Kathrine. Rance is a not too-distant cousin. (I promise there are some awesome Gwynedds left! I love the Gwynedds and it seems a pity that the ones we’ve met are–not a very good representative example. Firth, who was briefly mentioned in Tougher Than the Rest, for example, is an awesome old man and a Gwynedd.) Kathrine is probably also related to the Rances via Adelina, because her mother was Reman and Adelina is Reman and the Remans (at least at this juncture) are, well rather like the Dovians in how closely they’re related.

And when we see the Fitz-Chivalrys next, in either the next post or the one after, (I have the funeral shot, but I am sort of thinking I may just use it as flashbacks and move on with the actual plot. I think it would be hard for me to write it. Especially right now.) they will be in extended mourning because Kathrine is definitely the type to do that.

But to get back to the point at hand, no, the black is not helping Bet heal. Why would anyone at all be missing Rance and why should they have to pretend they are? He was a jackass who raped children, including, quite possibly, his own brother and referred to them as broken toys. And Bet’s smart enough to see that. And going by her own personal experiences with a father who is fucked in the head, she can’t imagine that Rance’s own family would love him and miss him anymore than she will miss him.

There is the question of where would Bet and Josh go? Their close friends, as you’ve pointed out, are all people that Jayson knows. I’m pretty sure that Squeak would help them. He’s equal in rank to Jayson and the first cousin of the king and his wife is first cousin of the queen. Jayson couldn’t touch Squeak, if he ever even figured out that Sqeak was the one to help them. He, after all, has Hector’s entire network of agents at his disposal, pretty much to help them with. But I don’t know that they would realize that Squeak could or would help.

Even most of the Finessa children don’t know who or what Squeak really is. (Charlie has a fairly good guess, but mostly because Charlie is as observant as his father is. But he hasn’t even told his twin about it. And he and Severus are very close.)

Darin and Annette would be good second bets. And ones who might occur to them before Squeak would. Darin has resources through Reggie, who’d probably help just to put a finger in Jayson’s eye. But I’m not sure that leaving would actually help. It certainly wouldn’t help River Sulis. *sigh*

Thanks, Van!

Even sharing the house with Jayson is a bad enough thought. Having to attend that monster’s funeral and put on fake emotions is unbearable. It’s interesting to see how Bet’s trauma is manifesting itself – it’s her usual strength and bravery, but twisted and not quite right. If Josh can see Bet through this, she may be even more dangerous to Jayson and his cohorts for the experience.

My gut says that Jayson would have found some way to survive Josh’s suicide attack. No-one gets to be that brand of evil without having more than the usual compliment of senses and intuition.

I kind of wish Josh and Bet would just up and leave, maybe leaving some sort of cryptic note implicating Jayson. But where would they go? They have friends, but those friends have parents who are not out of Jayson’s reach and probably would feel obliged to hand them over again. Probably Darin is the only one they could count on for sure if they left. And possibly Annette, if she could somehow keep Lyssa out of the whole mess.

Here’s hoping that Jayson falls into Rance’s grave and that no one notices before they lower the coffin and start shovelling.