Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lorne stood in the shadows by the front wall of the council room, his gaze skipping over the various lords assembled in the rows before the dais. Burchard and Godwin stood on either side of him, both poised for trouble.
Who in that room before him sent the assassin? Lorne searched for any sign of guilt. A shift to the feet or a flick of the eyes.
Perhaps he should be looking for someone who appeared too confident. If one of these lords was plotting to kill his queen, he likely didn’t feel any guilt about it. He would be convinced he was doing what was best for his kingdom. Or at the very least, what was best for himself.
Adeline sat in her throne-like chair on the dais in front of him as a discussion raged across the room. Something about the taxes needed to support the army, and if food that was destined for the army anyway should be taxed or should be considered the tax on farmers in and of itself.
The ebb and flow of the debate was so familiar that Lorne had to work hard to suppress his smile.
He’d sat through many a similar debate among the Lalsacian nobility, although Lalsacia allowed women to inherit noble titles so the council room back home had far more women than the room before him did.
At their heart, Kelverny and Lalsacia weren’t all that different. If only they could end this war, perhaps the two kingdoms could figure out a way to be neighbors instead of warring nations.
Once the discussion finally wound down, Adeline stood. After giving a few comments on how she would take their input under advisement, she swept the room with a hard glance.
Lorne had to work to suppress his smile once again.
With her back ramrod straight and her expression regal, she was the picture of a queen rather than the trembling, fearful person she’d been the night before after the attack.
She would pull this off because she was far stronger than the lords realized.
“As some of you might have heard, last night an assassin broke into my rooms and attempted to kill me and my husband.” Adeline’s posture didn’t shift, her voice didn’t waver.
“As you can see, we are uninjured. The assassin was apprehended and is being held in the dungeon. My guards expect that he will tell the name of the one who hired him shortly.”
Lorne scoured the faces before him once again, looking for a flicker to betray the man who’d hired the assassin.
While that lord would have known last night that his plan had failed, he would’ve had no way of knowing whether the assassin had been killed or captured.
The guards on duty had been ones loyal to Adeline, and Thaddeus had quickly realized the news of the assassin’s death should be kept quiet.
They’d come up with this ruse to flush out the lord who orchestrated the assassination attempt.
Lorne couldn’t see any betrayal on the faces of the lords before him. There was plenty of shifting and murmuring, and the surprise of finding out their queen had nearly been killed was indistinguishable from the surprise of finding out the assassin had been captured.
Would the lord behind this take the bait? Or would he realize this was a trap?
Likely, he wouldn’t go to the dungeon himself to try to kill the assassin. He’d send someone. Probably bribe a guard.
But that guard could be captured and interrogated, and he’d be far easier to break than a semi-professional assassin would have been.
As Adeline turned toward Lorne, her guards closing around her, he stepped forward and held out his arm. He smiled as she took it, her hand light against his sleeve.
He’d originally married her for the sake of peace between their kingdoms. But somewhere along the way, she’d become incredibly precious to him.
And that scared him. What would he be willing to sacrifice for her sake? If he had to pick between her or Lalsacia, what would he choose?
Lorne paced in the tiny dungeon cell that had once been his. At least this time, his hands weren’t shackled, and his ribs were well on their way to healing. He clutched a sword in his hand, waiting.
Emil, Arne, and several of Adeline’s trusted guards waited in the adjoining cells.
Since they hadn’t announced to the lords exactly which cell the supposedly still alive assassin was being held in, they’d set the trap so that it wouldn’t matter which of these cells was opened. They were all poised for an ambush.
Somewhere farther away, a door clanged. Lorne tensed, adjusting his grip on his sword. After the weeks he’d spent in this dungeon, he was intimately familiar with every noise, the way bootsteps echoed in the passages, and the sound of someone halting nearby.
Another door creaked. Not his, but the one next door where Emil was hidden.
“To arms!”
Lorne jumped to his feet and shoved the unlocked door open. The passageway outside was already filling with loyal guards, and he stayed to the side rather than joining the rush.
Another guard was frozen in the doorway of the next cell over, his hand on his sword’s hilt. But with several swords already pressed to his chest, he had no chance of running.
“Harry.” One of Adeline’s guards spat the name. “I should have known you’d be the scum hired for this.”
The captured guard sneered back. At that point, sneering was all he could do.
Lorne eased forward, his movement sending the disloyal guard’s gaze in his direction. “I’m Lorne, prince consort to Queen Adeline. Things will go easier for you if you tell us who hired you.”
“Lalsacian scum.” The captured guard spat a glob of spit, which landed on the blade of one of the swords pressed to his chest. He proceeded to lace a few expletives through his insults about Lorne and Lalsacia.
Arne jabbed the traitorous guard slightly harder with his sword. “Insults and swearing won’t help you.”
The loyal guard who’d spoken before also growled and shoved harder with his sword. “You will tell us one way or another. It’s up to you how much you want it to hurt before you do.”
Lorne didn’t want to order a man tortured the way he and his men had been, but at least this guard would somewhat deserve it for his disloyalty to his queen.
Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. It shouldn’t. This man didn’t seem like he’d hold up under the threat of torture, much less the real thing.
“It was Lord Fellton.” Harry sagged, a desperate edge to his eyes. “He paid me to kill the assassin. He also paid me to let the assassin onto the castle grounds last night.”
Lorne tried not to betray his surprise. He’d really thought the guard would say Lord Sarlon, not Lord Fellton. Although, it probably shouldn’t surprise him that Lord Fellton hired an assassin who wasn’t top-notch and that he’d bribed a guard who would cave under the slightest pressure.
“Thank you for your cooperation.” Lorne gave the disloyal guard a hint of a nod. “It will be taken into consideration when the queen names your sentence. In the meantime, enjoy the hospitality of the dungeon.”
He stepped aside so that the loyal guards could hustle the disloyal one into a cell, shackling his hands and securely locking the door.
Lorne let the clank of the shutting door sink into his bones. Time to tell Adeline that they’d caught at least one of the threats to her.
Adeline stared at the report, which detailed all the evidence found in Lord Fellton’s rooms at the castle and at his estate. There was no question he’d conspired against her and sent that assassin.
Not to mention, she was looking at the proof that the assassin had been sent to kill both her and Lorne.
To think she’d once seriously considered marrying Lord Fellton’s son. He’d even been one of her top two picks. What a fortunate thing it had been that she’d made the somewhat rash decision to marry the lord locked in the dungeon instead.
She would have to convene the council again and hold a trial. It would be quite the production with a lord on trial, especially for treason. Nor was she looking forward to having to deliver sentences for both the guard and Lord Fellton.
A knock sounded on the door before Thaddeus stepped inside.
Adeline sighed and tapped the report. “I’m going to have to order his execution, aren’t I?”
“Most likely, yes.” Thaddeus halted before her desk.
“There are limited options for treason, especially conspiring to kill the monarch. You can’t be lenient on that.
It sets a bad precedent. Banishment might also be an option, but he’d always be out there, even more angry after losing his title and riches. ”
“I was afraid of that.” She really didn’t want to have to give such a verdict.
But it seemed being queen involved doing a lot of things she didn’t want to do.
When she met Thaddeus’s gaze again, she took in the weariness in his eyes. In the weeks since she’d ascended the throne, his hair had gone even more gray, his face more lined. She really ought to find another personal steward. Thaddeus deserved retirement, not the added burdens she placed on him.
Yet there were so few people she trusted, even now. She certainly didn’t trust the man who’d been her grandfather’s steward, nor any of her grandfather’s former staff.
Thaddeus reached into the leather satchel at his side and pulled out a folded and sealed paper. “This arrived by our trusted messenger.”
The reply from Lalsacia.
Adeline’s stomach twisted, and her hands trembled as she took the paper from Thaddeus.
It took her several tries to break the seal.
Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she unfolded it and tried to focus enough to take in the words written there in a firm hand.
The bottom of the page was signed by King Philip of Lalsacia himself.
“The king of Lalsacia is willing to treat in person.” The lift in her chest fell like a stone a moment later. “But he demands the return of the remaining six envoys. Only once we have returned them will he sit down to discuss a peace treaty with me.”
“You still haven’t told him, have you.” Thaddeus spoke the words as a statement, rather than a true question.
She wasn’t sure if he was asking if she’d told the king of Lalsacia about her marriage to Lord Lorne or if she’d told Lorne about her negotiations with the king of Lalsacia.
In the end, it didn’t matter, as the answer to both of those questions was the same. “No.”
Was she making the right choice? And if it was the right choice, then why did her heart hurt so much?