Title: A Lady Richly Left
Fandom: The Merchant of Venice
Rating: G
Length: 150
Content notes: No warnings apply
Summary: Portia reflects on puzzles and their solutions



Her father’s will leaves her to the man who can solve a puzzle, like the prize in a pea-and-thimblerigger’s game of Find the Lady. When the right man comes along, she uses her wits to make sure he gets her, as her father might have known she would.

He’d thought it a pity his clever daughter wasn’t a boy. What would he think if he could see her now, in a lawyer’s gown and bands, freeing her husband’s friend and benefactor from Shylock’s knife with a puzzle of her own? Apparently a woman’s wit is good for something after all.

Later, she finds there’s another problem to solve. The ring she gave Bassanio as a wedding-token is back on her finger, given up by her husband as a lawyer’s fee. She’ll give it back to him again, of course, but what it means is a question only time can answer.