Cry for the Wolf, Chapter 6. by Richard Walker

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She considered the gifts she had sent, including those to the wives and children of those whose cooperation she needed. She tucked her petition under her arm and rummaged in her purse a moment, pulling forth a small sheaf of scrawled pieces of parchment. She shuffled and juggled them and somehow separated the list she sought from her court papers, though she ended up sitting next the usher on the bench by the door. She smiled at his startled look and he relaxed and reclaimed his normal, half-bored, half-dazed, expression.
Paying closest attention to the list Fossen had provided, she flummed through the various orders, receipts of payment, and verifications of deliveries that had been trickling into her hands for the past couple of weeks, comparing and confirming names. Most recently, she had sent larks, eels, and barrels of good ale from the forest estates to the ministers and secretaries of the chancery of the cathedral Fathers, tracked down fine embroidered kidskin gloves from the Low Countries for the principle household officers of each of the Fathers, and donated a full acre of wood from her private park to the use of the temple for new buildings and maintenance to further her cause, and a great number of other items to other functionaries. Omnia pro pecunia facta sunt, bitter-hearted idealists carped, "everything is done for money," but that wasn't so to Rhiarra's mind, it was just the way things got done. One had to prove one's friendly intentions and willingness to lend a hand where a hand would be helpful to those who were, in turn, in a position to give aid in furthering one's own causes.
The bailiff came out and spoke to the ushers and a few more were conducted into the Chamber of the Holy Fathers. She suddenly felt she had to do something more but knew that, for the moment, it was far too late. If she were lucky, she might get another chance to smooth things over and achieve the mandate of the Church that she so ardently sought. There just wasn't any time for her to think! She knew well that the two weeks she had been working towards this audience was scant time indeed to try to swing the kind of influence she needed for success. Indeed, she felt the very haste of her movements and urgency of her need working against her. She stood up again, hands full of papers, and started pacing again. She stared a moment at Fossen and Father Albinus before she recognized them and realized that they had been standing there waiting for her to take note. Father Albinus silently put his hand forward for her papers, smiling at her obvious state. While he reviewed the legal papers, Mother Olivia arrived, and she and Fossen helped Rhiarra review her strategy to date. It didn't help. The bailiff had emerged again and the ushers took in another party.
"What is missing? What have I forgotten?" It was already mid fore-noon, and her belly was hollow from a too-light and too-hurried fast broken on yesterday's bread and a half a muffin and a mug of too sweet tea and too-sharp k'iaid spice with the clerk.