‘You flatter me, Lord Astwick,’ Katherine hummed, taking a number of cards out of the fan in her hand and giving them to the administrator. It was the morning, but wine had been flowing liberally in the carriage from Bourrac to Souchon, and considering it was only William and Katherine, there was nobody to tell her how unbecoming it was to appear before the King of Massouron intoxicated.
‘I don’t know how you do it,’ he replied, gratefully accepting his loss, ‘For you to always win at any card game I teach you.’
Katherine beamed. ‘The divine right to rule perhaps translates to cards as well,’ she said.
‘That may as well be,’ he said. He was focused on his hand, what card could possibly save his sorry position. ‘I spoke with Walter the other day.’
‘Oh,’ said Katherine. ‘I constantly forget he is technically your footman, so I consider it strange when you speak among yourselves. Well, do tell.’
‘Do you recall the pair of them were out drinking together one night?’ he asked. ‘From what I was told, Sir Henry wasn’t looking to come home again.’
Katherine rolled her eyes. ‘And somehow, he did. You’re becoming another Harcourt, Will, and I won’t have it. What I do as a person, things that have no bearing on the state, are my business alone. I thought you understood.’
‘I do, my lady, I just…’ he scraped his throat, ‘I find it a strange that he is the last bastion of your old life. You’d imagine a Dolcotshire knight would not last in Norbury Castle.’
She chuckled. ‘I don’t think, aside from my retinue that contains Walter, and I guess by association yourself now too, people really know about Henry’s place at court. Am I wrong?’
He had said too much and instead played one of his cards. ‘Of course it doesn’t concern me, my lady, but I’d find it troubling if this ends up being a problem for you or any future children. I know Harcourt would tell you the same if he knew it, and the only reason I don’t let him, is because I’d rather he doesn’t know it.’
‘Normally being less nosy does not give you a pass to extract information from one of my favourites to badmouth another.’ Katherine raised her brows. ‘I’m considering now that this may be the only reason you’ve asked to share the carriage with me. Perhaps I’ll ask Walter not to speak with you anymore.’
William frowned. Katherine had been queen over a year by that point, and in their first year as queen and adviser, William had heard little in the way of disagreements. Where other advisers were let down softly, William generally succeeded in his efforts to get his way.
‘Your Majesty… Walter is my footman,’ he said. ‘I loan him to you against no fee at all, but he is from my land and therefore mine. He answers to me.’
‘Does he?’ she asked. ‘Personally, I have never had trouble with Walter not answering to me. But if you so desire, I can make him swear fealty to me the same way as your great friend Henry has done. I’ll knight him and he’ll be formalised as my lapdog, bedwarmer, whatever you lot try to call him. That’ll be his title. Would that please you, Lord Astwick? Perhaps in due time, he will indeed replace Henry in my affections. Who’s to say? I am aware he sleeps around, if that was the whole intent of this. But you know that so do I, and so does my betrothed.’
He looked down at Katherine’s dainty hands clutching the cards like her life depended on it. ‘I would gladly see Walter’s title change,’ he said feebly.
‘I will not see to your bragging about having my ear just because you were born in the same shithole as Walter and somehow inheriting the barony, please,’ Katherine said. ‘What I tell Walter, what he sits in on because of his position in my camarilla, is for his ears. If he tells you, I suppose you will have to scold him for it. This is what loyalty entails. Please, let us not argue. Do not tell me which of my lovers to remove from court, which ones to promote or demote, which ones to take or let go. It is my business and I shall see to it. I wish for us to play cards now.’
‘Yes, my lady,’ he said with a nod, letting go of the last shreds of the false idea that William had Katherine’s ear for any other reason but chance and undue flattery.
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They arrived in Souchon shortly and the palace gardens were aflutter with music, an excitable crowd, and the first clinking of glasses. Katherine opened the blinds of the carriage to see that old, familiar sight: Souchon Palace on its gentle hill, its banners flapping in the wind, and behind each window, a fortune of newly purchased furniture. The only constant of Souchon Palace was its adaptability to the latest fashions both in what was expected for the courtiers to wear, as well as the opulence of the decor.
‘Each time we ride here, I wish for nothing more than a crossbow,’ she said offhandedly.
William chuckled. ‘You are more like Henri than you imagine,’ he replied. ‘Perhaps we will all have to eat our words about your future heirs’ legitimacy when they have all the excited cruelty of both the Massouric and the Ilworthian equivalent of the trait.’
‘Not because I’d like them to die,’ Katherine added. ‘It just happens to be necessary for me to anticipate a sane life.’
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He pursed his lips. If he had said anything further, he could have already anticipated Katherine’s answer, and it would not be a positive one affirming the need of his presence or even his life.
Luckily, they reached the gate of the palace without any need to talk, and were let through the gate at once. The carriage stopped by the façade of the palace, and a number of servants came to open the little doors.
Katherine gazed out over the crowd with boredom and annoyance, especially when she saw that it was not Henri or even Louise greeting her, but Theo, who was somehow still secretary of state after Henri promoted all of his friends to the most prestigious positions in court.
‘Your Majesty,’ he said and bowed. ‘Welcome home.’
‘Theo,’ she replied offhandedly as she took his hand to help her descend the steps. ‘I don’t appreciate you calling this place my home, you know that.’
His face softened into a smile and he took Katherine’s shoulder with the had that had helped her. ‘A queen is home wherever she rules. Take it as a compliment,’ he whispered.
‘Well, good to see you,’ she said with a sigh, and after she had sufficiently scared Theo with her disapproving gaze, he noticed that it averted to just to his side.
In a split second, her face turned from annoyed to interested. Theo turned to see what she was looking at, and noticed a man making his way through the crowd impatiently. In the moment that he had, he did not recognise him, and when he reached the precipice of the crowd, just on the other side of a patch of grass, Theo saw the glint of his pistol as he drew it from his scabbard.
He took aim at once.
‘Guards!’ Theo hollered.
Theo quickly drew Katherine to him and turned away from the attacker, hoping to brace himself against impact or await the guards’ reaction. There was no way for them to run, there would be agonisingly long seconds between their decision to run, and their safety.
The next moment, he yelped in pain.
The following, two armed figures had brought the attacker down.
As Theo gauged their safety, he relinquished Katherine and took a step back. Her neck and shoulder were covered in his, but there was no wound. He gasped at the knowledge he had not helped her, and then, woozy from the attack, saw his own upper arm and shoulder, where he had held Katherine during the attack.
He grimaced and grasped at his shoulder, flinching again on the impact of his hand. He wanted to swear or curse, but kept his resolve to appear unshaken.
‘Oh my goodness, Lord Theo,’ said William, who had scurried out of the carriage just after the attack. ‘Let me walk you to—’
‘There’s no need, for I feel fine,’ Theo said with surprising calm, then leaned into him and whispered. ‘I hope you know that this should have been you, you miscreant.’
He turned on his heels to the guards who had overpowered the attacker, taken his arquebus and were searching him for other weapons. On a dark blue cloak, he bore a peculiar cloak pin. Katherine, shivering from the intensity but unharmed despite all appearances, displaying only Theo’s blood, looked sheepishly at the sight.
‘Say,’ she said, shaking with adrenaline, ‘That looks a lot like our cloak pin.’
‘You don’t know this man?’ Theo asked.
Katherine shook her head slowly, watching him as he stared right back at her while the guards jostled him. ‘Never seen this man in my life.’
‘Hm.’
‘Thank you, by the way,’ she said at last, reaching for his shoulder but ultimately withdrawing her hand. ‘This could’ve been the end for me.’
‘The fucker couldn’t even aim,’ Theo said coolly. ‘This should’ve been the end for me, given how much of a chance he had.’
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Richard held the cloak pin between his thumb and forefinger and used his other hand to spin it. His brows were knitted and he sat at the table with Harcourt, Theo, Louise and Katherine. Theo’s shoulder and arm were bandaged but beginning already to bleed through, and Katherine had changed, though still had the orange-red cast of blood on her decolletage.
It took all his might not to start with I told you so.
‘First of all,’ he said instead, ‘I would like to thank Theo here for his self-sacrifice. From what I heard, arriving five minutes after the fact for Lady Katherine rode with Lord William… you had your back turned to the assassin. Quite brave, I say.’
‘It was hardly an intentional sacrifice,’ Theo said. ‘I am grateful to have been of such tremendous help to you lot, but do not expect me to do it again.’
Louise nodded. ‘You are a man of politics, not some human shield. Let it be clear even now I am no longer in power.’
‘Fully understood,’ Richard said. ‘In fact, we would prefer it if a situation such as this never arose — we at this point wish to learn about how this man was led into the palace in the first place. After that, I will let you know how we, too, can be blamed.’
Louise looked at her hands which lay on the table, balled into firsts but still relaxed. ‘It was the cloak pin,’ she confirmed. ‘Our guards have been trained on finding simple ways of identifying members of court. One of the key ways in which you have historically been recognised is your pin.’
Harcourt huffed. ‘We changed it some months ago for this exact reason. We told you.’
‘In between then and now, there ascended a monarch in Massouron, so apologies for the tardiness,’ Louise said. ‘We were busy otherwise. It seemed you hardly made a fuss about it either.’
Katherine was staring at the grain of the wood, wishing the minutes would pass already until they got to the execution of the assassin. It was quiet briefly, and she withdrew within herself again.
‘I say, it is time we arrest Lord William,’ declared Harcourt.
All eyes went to him. A great unspoken suspicion had been spoken.
‘Agree,’ Richard said calmly. ‘I don’t know how else this —’ he pointed at the pin, ‘— could have ended up on that man’s cloak.’
Louise looked at Theo. ‘William was in the carriage with her, but had not come out at the time of the attempted attack,’ he said.
‘I wouldn’t go so far as to call that suspicious,’ Katherine intervened. ‘Often when I exit a carriage, the person by my side only gets out by the stables. It is customary not to have my light stolen by some random courtier.’
‘Fine,’ he said, reaching over his shoulder to support the bones that had been shaken by the attack.
Harcourt leaned in. ‘If you decide in favour, Lady Katherine, we can have him arrested when we get out of this door. Both him and the attacker can be questioned. We’ll have an opportunity to at least consider the possibility that this could have come from him.’
Katherine was at a crossroads. She looked over all the faces: Richard’s greatly expectant face, Theo’s pained face, Harcourt’s concern, Louise’s tinge of indifference. She wondered how she herself would have looked to them. William had asked her to relinquish Henry — the same Henry who had proven himself to be a great companion. All because he had her ear.
‘Arrest him,’ she ruled. ‘Investigate him. If not for complicity in this attempt, the sale of royal property. I wonder what will come up. Ask for our shadowmen to be brought to Massouron. That is, Lady Louise, if we may borrow some space in a dungeon somewhere…’
‘Anything,’ she said, ‘For my dear niece.’