"My father was executed for his crimes…"
Hugo's words rippled through the Great Hall like a stone cast in water, and each ripple washed over the audience with a different kind of shock.
The death of a baron was a notable event. Just as every baron of the march had made their way to Lothian for Marquis Bors' funeral, almost every baron would have made the trip to Hanrahan to pay their respects to Ian Hanrahan and to attend the coronation of his successor. Even those barons who didn't attend would, at a minimum, send their heir or perhaps their wife with a retinue of knights in order to pay proper respects.
To hear that Baron Ian had died was a shock to many, whether they considered themselves his allies or his adversaries in the politics of the Lothian Court, and it was even more shocking to men like Telent Rundel who had considered Ian Hanrahan to be a friend in addition to being his neighbor.
