CHAPTER 31
Katy
H
appy birthday, Axel!” Liesl chirped as she skipped into the breakfast room. A normal lady’s maid wouldn’t join the family for breakfast, but her status as Katy’s sister and Helena’s new best friend gave her access.
Axel rose from his seat, sweeping her one of his flourishing bows. “Why, thank you, dear youngest sister. It gladdens my heart to have warm wishes from you on this glorious day.”
Smothering a smile, Katy reached out a hand and tugged. “Sit down and eat your breakfast.”
“Yes, Mother,” he replied with an impish grin.
She made a face. “Ugh, not to you. I don’t want to be your mother.”
“But in a month or two, you will be someone’s mother.” He picked up his fork but waggled his eyebrows at her instead of spearing any food. “And that someone will give you the delightful opportunity to enjoy a younger version of myself. Or even sweeter, a younger version of you.”
“Or a mix of both.” Liesl smiled innocently as she dropped into her chair and scooted it closer to the table.
The queen sighed. “Heaven help us all.”
Axel’s grin widened, but he dug into his food instead of responding to his mother’s comment.
He was in high spirits: since it was his birthday, they had given his valet and Liesl stern instructions to leave them be that morning.
Instead of him practicing swordplay with Bertram or Katy joining Helena for a little hopelessly mismatched archery, they had slept in and then spent some time in the music room singing his favorite songs.
They had even danced a little, despite Axel’s determination to follow the physician’s advice.
It was ridiculous, since she walked about the castle regularly and used a bow most mornings, but she tried to humor him. Some of the time.
“Did you hear?” Liesl leaned forward in her seat, an eager smile stretching her face. “The kitchen servants were talking about it this morning.”
Helena paused in the middle of taking a bite and lowered her fork. “Servant gossip? They know everything. What’s the news?”
King Steffan continued eating without a sign that anyone had spoken, but Queen Carina shook her head. It was as much of an act as any of Axel’s public faces; though her face was down, her eyes slid sideways, betraying her interest.
“You’ll want to hear this, Axel.” Liesl’s eyes danced. “It involves the theater. The ghost is back!”
The light-hearted smile melted from his face. His expression flickered for a moment, but his knit eyebrows and downturned lips remained. He must have decided that the well-known acts of the ghost justified showing his dismay.
Oblivious, Liesl plunged ahead. “It started with an eerie voice echoing through the building, but they had to cancel last night’s rehearsal because one of the sets was damaged in a fall.
Supposedly, another note was nailed to it, but no one could tell me what it said.
Rumor has it, the ghost is upset that Gunther hasn’t returned to the stage. ”
Katy reached over and set her hand over the fisted one on Axel’s leg. His face remained simply concerned, but the muscles in his arm were tense. He’d been so sure that the theater was safe...and now this.
“The ghost again?” King Steffan growled. “I should have let it stay a burnt-out wreck.”
Did they have to discuss this on Axel’s birthday? And it had started so well.
Grasping for a change of subject, Katy asked, “Liesl, how is Tobias doing?”
“Why ask me?” her sister replied, looking up in surprise.
“You do spend a lot of time with him,” Katy pointed out. She felt Axel’s fist loosen under her hand. “Didn’t you walk in the gardens with him for an hour yesterday?”
“Yes, but that’s because Helena was with us.” Picking up a piece of toast, Liesl bit into it and tilted her head to the side, watching her older sister with a confused expression. “He comes to spend time with her, and I come along to provide a buffer. We just talk.”
Helena looked thoroughly uninterested in the topic of conversation. She scooped up a piece of egg with her fork and turned to the window, her unfocused green eyes staring toward the south.
A smile stole its way across Axel’s face. “Tobias talks? And of what do the two of you speak?”
“Sheep.”
Katy blinked at her, then exchanged a look with Axel, who looked just as lost for words. “Sheep?” For Liesl to talk about sheep wasn’t a surprise, but Tobias?
Nodding her tawny curls, Liesl replied, “He’s very knowledgeable. His family has a flock at their country estate.”
Katy had suspected for some time that Tobias wasn’t as indolent as he appeared, but this information still surprised her. Axel’s layabout friend, a sheep expert?
Axel began to relax into the cheerful state of earlier that morning. The occasional tiny crease between his eyebrows told her that he hadn’t forgotten the trouble at the theater, but at least he was able to push it aside and enjoy his birthday.
After breakfast, Katy and Axel retreated to their study so that he could make a pass at being productive. Liesl stopped by to chat about sheep and wool while Katy processed her reports on the subject.
At some point, Helena poked her head in to request a companion for Tobias’s visit. Katy could see him loitering in the hallway, hands tucked in his waistcoat pockets. His eyes lingered on the pair as they exited the room, but Katy suspected that he was watching the wrong one.
As the day passed, Axel’s smiles grew more relaxed in the way that said he was tense on the inside. Katy understood; her nerves about the evening’s plans had her stomach in knots.
The magic-canceling cuffs had arrived a few days earlier, but the restraints weren’t a guarantee of success. They needed to both find evidence of Lord Ulrich’s wrongdoing and arrest him tonight.
If they arrested him without evidence, he would be on his guard. If he escaped the arrest, he would be in the wind. And that might prove worse than having him on the council and pretending to be loyal.
~
“No, thank you, Luther; I have no interest in dancing at this time.”
The young nobleman eased closer with a winning smile. “But your little friend has taken to the floor with Tobias again. Shouldn’t we keep them company, Princess?”
Helena’s green eyes flashed. “I would prefer to rest. Do not make me say it again.”
“Don’t take it so hard, Luther.” The new speaker, a dark-haired eighteen-year-old in Daric purple, drew Katy’s attention. His eyes sparked with mischief. “Helena is simply frustrated that I came in my brother’s place. Although he is tolerable, she considers me a pesky nuisance.”
As Helena’s flaming eyes turned on him instead, Axel cleared his throat and interjected, “Perhaps you should find your young lady and ask her to dance, Justin. Michael will not be pleased with me if my sister roasts you with the dragon fire in her eyes.”
Sighing, Justin replied, “Lucinda isn’t here. Her grandmother didn’t think it was appropriate for a seventeen-year-old lady to take such a long journey with a prince. Now, if Arabella had come...” He trailed off, gazing wistfully toward home.
Based on Ella’s letter, it had been Michael’s choice to skip his best friend’s birthday ball. It would have been nice to see her, but Katy understood why Ella and her husband had stayed home.
“But Lady Lucinda keeps you out of trouble.” Axel made the comment lightly, his eyes casually scanning the crowd. “Does her grandmother not realize that?”
Justin grinned. “Propriety is very important to the Dowager Countess of Greenwald. I think she foolishly trusts you to keep me in line.”
“That’s like trusting one cat to keep another from eating the canary,” Helena snorted.
An amused smile lifted Katy’s lips as she searched the guests for Otto or Lord Ulrich. Axel placed his right hand on his chest and released a dramatic gasp. “How can you say such things, my dear sister? I am not prone to troublesome pranks.”
“Maybe not, but you’re still as much trouble as he is.”
Axel’s eyebrows twitched toward each other as if he wasn’t sure how to take that comment, but his company smile stayed in place.
“Did your cousin come?” Justin lifted his chin to see over the crowd. “She’s usually good fun, but I haven’t heard her name announced.”
“No.” Helena frowned. “Between her uncle’s murder and the bandit troubling their forests, Marielle decided it would be wiser to stay in Amitié.”
The easygoing smile vanished from Justin’s face. “She’s probably right; we’ve heard that travel isn’t very safe there right now.”
Katy would have joined the discussion, but her cousin’s dark head had finally appeared in the ballroom entrance.
She set a hand on Axel’s upper arm. He glanced down at her, then flicked his eyes to the door.
After a tiny nod to acknowledge the cue, he returned to the conversation. A few minutes later, he turned to her with his serene smile. “How are you faring, my love? The night grows late, and I know that you tire more quickly now.”
Katy pressed the back of her hand to her mouth and indulged in a yawn. “I don’t want to take you from the celebration. It is your birthday, after all.”
“Nonsense. If you are weary, it would be insensitive of me to keep you out for no better reason than my own enjoyment. Besides,” he continued, leaning closer and wiggling his eyebrows, “why ever would you believe that I would prefer to celebrate in the midst of a crowd when I could be celebrating alone with you?”
One would think five and a half years of marriage would make her immune to such comments. Instead, she felt her cheeks heating as Lord Luther performed the stuck-up nobleman equivalent of an eye roll, Helena shook her head, and Justin looked torn between laughing and being nauseated.
Wrapping an arm around Katy’s waist, Axel winked at their little group. “Thank you all for attending my birthday celebrations, but my fair Katrin requires rest, so I must bid you all farewell and good night.”
“I’ll let Liesl know when she gets back,” Helena called after them. Katy acknowledged the comment with a brief wave as Axel hustled her away.
“Should we hurry so much?” Katy asked in a low voice. “Won’t that be suspicious?”
He slowed his pace. “You are right, of course. While I do not see our friend, it would be unwise to rush out, even if we did not leave as soon as the lookout arrived.”
Tugging her to a stop, he lifted her other hand and swayed to the music, leaning his head against hers. Katy let herself sink into the moment, enjoying the warmth of his arm around her waist and the gentle pressure against the top of her head.
It was tempting to stay like this for the rest of the evening, comfortable and safe. But it was an illusion; neither they nor their child would be safe until both Lord Ulrich and Fabian had been dealt with.
“I should whisk you away toward our suite,” Axel murmured into her hair. “It will not aid us to be more tired when we face the night’s adventure.” But he didn’t step away.
Steeling herself, Katy drew back. “You’re right. I think we’ve stalled long enough; it’s time to set the bait.”
“It’s a good thing the cat is in our corner.” Axel clung to her for another moment, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “I don’t think I could put you in that situation otherwise.”
They strolled out to the hallway. A few guests milled about, but the corridors were relatively empty this late at night, even with a ball. The servants that managed the refreshments used different passageways.
As Katy and Axel neared the royal wing, even the guests disappeared.
An occasional guard nodded to them as he passed on his rounds, but otherwise, they were alone, their quiet footfalls muffled by the tapestries hanging on the walls.
Yet every once in a while, the soft sound of another set of footsteps reached Katy’s ears.
She gripped Axel’s hand a little tighter. In the six years since she arrived at the castle, she’d walked back to her room after many a late ball, starting with Axel’s twenty-third birthday. But the deserted halls had never seemed so ominous as they did tonight.
“Excuse me, Your Highnesses.” The voice behind them was quiet, barely audible even in the silence. “May I have a word?”
Coming to a stop in front of a connecting corridor, Axel snaked his arm around Katy’s waist. “Kaspar, good evening.” His voice and smile were cool. “Does your master desire something that cannot wait until the morning?”
Otto sauntered toward them, his hands hidden under the dark cloak draped around his shoulders.
From the way it moved, Katy suspected it was the specially made one that he wore when escorting Axel through the city.
The one lined with chainmail. “He does. You see, there’s something he wants. And he needs your help to get it.”
“Is that so?” Axel crossed his arms and settled his weight on his back leg. Katy knew he was giving her cousin the opportunity to create their distraction, but she reached for him, not wanting him to move away. Something wasn’t right.
“Axel—”
The flickering candlelight from the wall sconces flashed off something at Otto’s waist. Lunging forward, he wrapped an arm around Axel’s shoulders. He locked the prince’s back against his chest, bending him backward.
Axel staggered, grabbing at Otto’s arms and scrambling for balance. This wasn’t quite what they had planned, but—
A dagger appeared at Axel’s neck, and he stopped moving. Katy held her panic in check, fighting to keep her voice level as she met her cousin’s eyes. It’s only for show. It’s only for show. “What is the meaning of this, Kaspar?”
“I should think it was quite clear.” She knew Otto had some acting skill, but the lack of emotion in his voice was chilling. And his blue eyes were just as icy. “I need access to the royal vault. You’re going to give it to me.”