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Rohesia was still in a daze with Alice in her arms when Joanna came into the little sitting room of their apartment, Helena tottering at her side. Joanna had on a thick robe, with actual shoes peeking out from under her nightgown. In spite of the late hour, she appeared wide awake.
“What was all the noise?” Joanna asked. “It’s not like you to have late night visitors.”
“Oh! It was—” Alice began, but Rohesia squeezed the breath out of her so that she couldn’t complete the sentence.
“There has been some sort of disturbance in the palace tonight,” Rohesia said as evenly as she might. “Please take Helena back to bed and settle in yourself. I will tuck Alice into my own bed, and then
go see what is the matter, precisely.
“I can go, instead, if your majesty wishes it.”
Rohesia was torn. She worried about leaving Alice with Joanna in the apartment, even after a few
quick words explaining that Alice must not reveal that she had seen her brother and Caedmon. But she also needed to find out for herself if Edwin had gotten away and if anyone had seen him.
The decision was taken from her when the door to the apartment burst open with such force, she expected it might bounce off its hinges. Five men in Gramiren livery entered, two with swords drawn, the other three brandishing terrifying poleaxes. One of the swordsmen stepped forward. He had long, dark hair pulled neatly back at the nape of his neck, and a livid scar on his right cheek that reminded Rohesia of a checkmark. She did not make it a habit of conversing with the Gramiren soldiers camped in Rawdon, but she recognized Captain Sir Oliver George, commander of the company here.
Sir Oliver bowed to her after quickly scanning the room and sheathing his sword. The other four men still stood very much at the ready. When he saw Alice shaking at Rohesia’s side, he frowned. “My apologies, your majesty, your royal highness. I did not mean to frighten anyone, but a most serious report has reached me, and I’m afraid I will have to ask your majesty to come with me for questioning.”
“Questions? Why, Sir Oliver, I am quite certain I know nothing about any ‘report.’ But there has been a great deal of commotion, which has awakened my daughter and niece. More than anything, I would like to get them tucked safely back into bed.”
“Lady Spurling can surely see to that,” Sir Oliver answered.
His smile was not unkind, and he had never shown a penchant for cruelty. And yet, Rohesia did not want to leave her daughter or answer this man’s questions.
“I really must insist, your majesty,” he added. “Their graces are down in the royal study.”
Rohesia instantly realized that she was needed far more urgently in the study. Earstien only knew what Aldrick and Rachel might say, might already have said. She would have to trust that Alice understood not to mention Edwin, or that Joanna truly was on their side.
“Of course,” Rohesia said, pulling her robe more firmly around her. “Anything I might be able to do to aid you and their graces.”
As she was escorted downstairs, Rohesia tried to piece together what she knew, what she might conceal, and who could have alerted the Gramiren troops to Edwin’s presence. She knew very little for certain. But she suspected Edwin and Caedmon must have escaped, or Sir Oliver would have mentioned their capture. As for what she might conceal, well, she would simply lie, assuming Aldrick and Rachel had been smart enough to do the same. If the three of them insisted that they knew nothing, then nothing could be proven. As for who had tried to have Edwin captured—
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Aldrick shouted when one of the guards with Rohesia kicked open the library door. “Are you all intentionally trying to destroy my home?”
The guard looked surprisingly sheepish. “Door upstairs burned me. Not taking that chance again.”
Rohesia remembered Caedmon’s spells and decided that some story of teaching Alice thermodynamic principles late at night when they assumed no one would be touching the doorknob would have to do. The story struck her as so ridiculous, though, that she prayed no other mention would be made of it.
“If you would all like to sit, we can get started,” Sir Oliver said.
“Oh? I can sit? In my own fucking house? How magnanimous of you.” With that tirade out of his system, Aldrick flopped on a sofa next to the fire. “What in the Void is this all about anyway? You’re interrupting my drinking. Actually, Rachel, bring me my wineglass before you sit down.”
Rohesia had no way of knowing if Aldrick had done so intentionally to signal her that he had said nothing so far, but she appreciated this hint. Unless, of course, it was a trap he and Sir Oliver had agreed to, hoping to catch her in a lie. The question was: would Aldrick try to turn Edwin over to the Gramirens? He had told her Edwin was expected only minutes before he arrived. She had assumed Aldrick told her as soon as he knew, but perhaps he had been planning an elaborate scheme with Sir Oliver, and Edwin and Caedmon had simply been lucky in their escape.
Rohesia settled into a chair where she could watch both Aldrick’s and Sir Oliver’s reactions. “I would also like to know what has happened. I am not used to being dragged away from my daughter and niece in the middle of the night.”
Aldrick had his head back, an arm flung across his eyes. It made it impossible for her to read his reaction, but at least Sir Oliver could not read it, either. Sir Oliver appeared very grave.
“I received a note.” Sir Oliver took a scrap of parchment from his pocket and waved it too quickly for Rohesia to get a good look at it. “It said that the pretender, Edwin Sigor, was in the palace. Naturally, we came to investigate.”
“And you’ve found shit,” Aldrick said. He seemed about to launch into more, but Rachel pressed his wineglass into his hand. It might have only been the flickering firelight, but Rohesia thought his hand trembled.
“My son!” Rohesia said, hoping the shock she tried to put in her voice sounded genuine. “My son was here? Where? What has happened to him?”
Sir Oliver stared hard at her, surely trying to read her for falseness. She held very still, and eventually,
he sighed and shrugged. “That is what I must determine, your majesty. We have yet to find absolute proof that he was here, and if so, where he has gone now. Of course, it is every Myrcian’s duty to attempt to capture the pretender if they see him. The punishment for aiding him would be severe.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing he was never here,” Aldrick snapped.
“What other evidence do you have besides the note?” asked Rachel.
“My men found two locals knights with a sleigh on the beach,” Sir Oliver explained. “They could give no good account of themselves and are in the dungeon being questioned by my sergeant.”
The two men must be the Porchers Caedmon had briefly mentioned to Edwin before whisking him away. Were they involved? What would they tell under interrogation? Were they, perhaps, the authors of the note and this trip to the dungeon was merely theater for her benefit? Edgar had always spoken well of the Porcher family, but that was an older generation. Who knew what these younger Porchers might be like.
“If they make a mess in my dungeon, I damned well expect them to clean it up,” said Aldrick. “Don’t think I’ll ask my servants to clean up your bloodstains.”
Rohesia shivered, the idea of the Porchers, if innocent, being tortured for Edwin’s sake difficult to bear. Of course, she would undergo any torture for him, but she was his mother. Those men had a mother of their own who did not deserve to have her sons mutilated by the troops of the foul usurper.
“I will find the truth,” Sir Oliver answered, quite calmly and reasonably. Were it not for the fact he was trying to find her son and was serving the Gramirens, Rohesia could rather like him. “If the three of you could please tell me if you have seen Edwin Sigor tonight or had any contact with him, I would appreciate it.”
Aldrick huffed. “Honestly, it’s been so many years since I’ve seen that kid, I’m not sure I would even recognize him. Is he a blond, Rohesia? I seem to remember a little towheaded child running around the beach about a decade ago.”
“Edwin is a brunette,” she softly corrected. She had briefly thought about agreeing with Aldrick so as to have Sir Oliver’s forces searching for a blond boy. But Sir Oliver had likely seen a portrait and would know she was lying.
“See? I don’t even remember that much.”
“And you, your grace?” asked Sir Oliver.
Rachel sat up straighter and scowled, as usual. “Why would I hear from а disgraced child?”
Finally, Sir Oliver looked at Rohesia and waited for her answer.
“I suspect you are not a father, Sir Oliver. If you can believe that if I saw my child after three years apart, I would not still be holding him, then you are no parent.”
He nodded. “Very well then. I will continue my investigation. This will include questioning all members of your household guard and staff, your grace.”
“Finster’s balls! Someone plays a prank on you, and you turn my home inside out.”
Undaunted by Aldrick’s outburst, Sir Oliver went on. “Please remember that if you learn any new information about this incident, it is your duty, as subjects of the true king, Broderick Gramiren, to report it to me.” He bowed to Aldrick and Rachel on the sofa, and then to Rohesia, before leaving the study.
“Fucking hell,” Aldrick whispered as soon as the door closed. He drained his wineglass and passed it to Rachel. “Get me another. No, fuck that. I had the whiskey out earlier. Three glasses. Thank Earstien I had time to shove those in my bottom drawer before anyone made it in here and I had to explain that. Fill those all up.”
Rachel frowned at Rohesia, as though she didn’t see why the prisoner should partake in whiskey. Normally, Rohesia would decline the drink, but she rather felt as though she could use it tonight.
“So, it wasn’t you?” Rohesia could not help asking.
Aldrick would have had the best opportunity to alert the Gramirens to Edwin’s presence, and he was just stupid enough to think Broderick would thank him for his service. But Rohesia had known Aldrick a long time—since they were at school together. She had even thought herself in love with him long, long ago. She did not think he was an accomplished enough actor to look genuinely affronted when she posed this question.
“Are you insane?” Aldrick hissed. “Admit to Broderick Gramiren and his ballbuster wife I had Edwin Sigor in my palace and then let him get away? I’d like to have more children, thank you very much.”
Rohesia had to concede this was an excellent point. Even if Aldrick turned Edwin over, how could he explain to Broderick that he had connections to rebel elements? There could be no explanation good enough to satisfy Broderick.
“You will please forgive me, but I felt as if I had to ask.” Rohesia accepted a glass with a splash of whiskey from Rachel, whose expression clearly indicated that she did not agree that Rohesia had needed to ask. “So, who do you think sent the note?”
“Maybe one of those men in the dungeon,” Rachel said, settling back on to the sofa with Aldrick, both of them sipping much fuller glasses of whiskey. “Did you know Sir Franklin was Duke Lukas Ostensen’s squire?”
Aldrick shrugged as he took a deep drink. “But he’s in Flora’s household now and Flora’s decided that Broderick’s dick isn’t what it used to be. Do you think he can’t get it up anymore?”
“From what I understand,” Rohesia said, ignoring Aldrick’s crass question, which she assumed was
rhetorical, anyway, “the elder Porchers, the famous Quin and Gloria my husband knew well, were friends with Lukas’s parents. They may have assumed their old friends raised decent children when Sir Franklin was sent to squire.”
“Why they sent him isn’t as important as the fact he spent his formative years with Broderick’s righthand man,” growled Rachel.
Rohesia did not want to concede this point, although she well knew that for many men, the bond with the man they served as squire could be stronger than that to family or sovereign. “How long has Sir Franklin been back in Rawdon?”
“He came for Seefest and never left,” Rachel said, but she also shrugged. “That means nothing though. Staying with family for two months in winter instead of traveling is normal. I’m sure Flora can manage without one knight.”
“But if he’s staying with his brother and father, surely he’s on Edwin’s side,” Rohesia said, hoping her logic was true. “They have always supported Edwin. They even left Newshire to serve under the Duke of Keelshire at the siege of Leornian.”
Her excellent reasoning was out of her mouth before she realized that she ought not to have spoken. Sir Franklin’s father and brother had served at the siege under Duke Herbert Cuthing of Keelshire because their duke, the late Duke Jeffrey of Newshire, had put his troops under his son’s control—under Aldrick’s control. And Aldrick had refused to come.
“Who knows,” Aldrick snapped, draining his whiskey in the pause. “Does it even matter? Edwin’s gone. It makes no difference who wrote the note to Sir Oliver. I’m going to bed.”
Rohesia remained seated for a moment, thinking Aldrick would most certainly care if this had happened to one of his children.
“You can’t stay here after we leave,” Rachel hissed, her arm linked through Aldrick’s. “You need to return to your rooms. And may I suggest you think about how your being here has put my family at risk.”
Rohesia set her barely touched whisky on a table next to her chair, wishing she could argue with Rachel, but it was difficult for her to blame the woman for hating circumstances beyond her control. “Good night.”
Back in her apartment, Joanna was still awake. She had changed out of her shoes and into slippers. Otherwise, she looked much as she had when Rohesia had left the girls with her.
“Is it true, your majesty?” Joanna asked from her chair, not bothering to get up.
“Is what true?” Rohesia asked in turn. She longed to collapse, the exhaustion of the long night catching up with her. But if she sat, she might give Joanna the impression she wished for a long conversation, so she remained on her weary feet.
“That King Edwin was here. I saw you talking to a man and a boy before I came out of the bedroom. Was that boy your son?”
“Who told you King Edwin was suspected of being at the palace?”
“Does that matter? I saw you with two strange men in your apartments. If I told the duke and duchess or Sir Oliver, that alone would have you in a world of trouble.”
“I thought you said you supported both my son and me.”
Joanna growled, clearly frustrated with being questioned, which made Rohesia want to question the girl all the more.
“Kindly tell me who informed you of the rumor my son was here tonight.”
“Sir Russell, one of his grace’s retinue. We’re sort of friends.” She sighed and threw her hands in the air. “He likes me, I think he’s nice enough, in his way, so he tells me things he thinks will impress me. Before I came up to bed, he said he had special duty on the beach, because if the duke wasn’t full of shit—his wording, not mine—the pretender boy king would be visiting his mama. You and Alice were both out, so I assumed it was true. When I heard you come up here with him, I stayed as quiet as I could until all hell broke loose.”
The story sounded plausible enough. Rohesia had seen Sir Russell gazing at Joanna more than once. This, of course, also meant the four men on the beach who had met Edwin’s sleigh were all suspects. And any girls the other three might have tried to impress. The list of those who might have tried to betray her son was growing depressingly long.
“And when I said I could tell the duke and duchess or Sir Oliver about your guests, I meant I could but I haven’t. So, that’s proof you can trust me,” Joanna grumbled.
Rohesia took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes. “I would appreciate very much if you would continue not to mention to anyone what you saw in this apartment should you be questioned about it.”
“Of course, your majesty. I said you could trust me, and I meant it.”
“Very good. Good night, Lady Joanna.”
“Good night, your majesty.”