‘You’re right,’ I said at last.
‘Of course I am,’ she said. ‘Now, I have to go to the palace and smooth the waters with the Prince Consort. Come with me?’
‘What for?’
‘You should meet him. He’s about to become the regent, which makes him king in all but name. For a year or so, anyway, until the princess comes of age. The crown at least should know its most loyal servants, even if nobody else does.’
‘Aye, that makes sense.’
I had to allow that it did, for all that I would have preferred to return to the Bountiful Harvest and catch up on some much-needed sleep. That or find a bottle of brandy and drink myself unconscious. After the night we’d had I wasn’t sure which I wanted more, but it seemed neither of those things were an option that morning.
Ailsa’s carriage was waiting for her outside the house of law, and one of her footmen stood up smartly and opened the door for us when he saw us coming. I vaguely remembered him from the summer I had spent living in her house here the previous year, although I had forgotten his name. I had no doubt that he would remember me too, but he was wise and he gave no sign of it.
‘Where to, ma’am?’ he asked once we had taken our seats inside.
‘The palace,’ she said. ‘The private gate.’
‘Ma’am,’ he said, and went to speak to the coachman.
A moment later we were moving, the horses’ hooves beating a steady rhythm on the cobbles. It was strange to be there again, seated beside Ailsa in her carriage as though no hard words had ever passed between us. I cleared my throat, searching for something to say.
‘It’s not far, we’ll be there soon,’ Ailsa said.
I knew that, obviously. It came to me then that she might be finding the two of us working together as awkward as I was, and that surprised me.
Perhaps the lioness wasn’t completely made of stone after all.
*
We approached the palace from a different direction than usual, not coming down the great mall that led to the main entrance but along another street that I didn’t know. There was a small gatehouse at the end of it, but there were still eight of the Palace Guard on duty there. They wore heavy plate half-armour under their red surcoats, and they had halberds in their hands and long war swords hanging at their belts. These were proper soldiers, not green boys, hard-faced and watchful. I wondered where they had been the night the queen was killed, but of course that was done with now and I didn’t think further questions about the matter would have been wise.
Their sergeant came to the carriage, and Ailsa spoke briefly to him, and that was enough. It seemed her face was known, which I supposed made sense given the amount of time she seemed to have been spending in the palace of late.
‘This is my husband, Tomas Piety,’ she introduced me. ‘Treat him as you would me.’
She was still acknowledging me as her husband, then, which was something of a surprise.
‘Ma’am,’ the sergeant said, and gave me a nod of respect. ‘Sir.’
This one obviously understood how things worked, and that was good.
‘Never use the main entrance if you can avoid it,’ Ailsa advised me, as the carriage rolled through the gates. ‘There are too many eyes there, and our comings and goings should be as unremarked as possible.’
‘Aye, I know how to sneak about,’ I said.
‘Not in Dannsburg, you don’t,’ Ailsa said. ‘That guard sergeant is on my payroll, but I know for a fact that at least one of his men is on Lord Vogel’s. In Dannsburg everyone is watched, Tomas. Even us. Perhaps especially us.’
‘I heard you the first time,’ I said.
Ailsa showed me a cold smile. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘I do believe you’re starting to understand how this works.’
I thought I was too, and I wasn’t sure that I liked it.
Chapter 10
The Prince Consort, soon to become the reigning Prince Regent, was a tall man in his late middle years. He was balding and weak-chinned, and he sported a huge moustache which did nothing to disguise either of those things.
He received us in a private drawing room in his own personal apartments within the palace, attended only by a steward, three footmen and four of the Palace Guard. Of the Princess Crown Royal there was no sign.
‘Your Highness,’ Ailsa said, as she dropped him a low curtsey. ‘May I present my husband and colleague, Father Tomas Piety.’
I bowed and waited for the prince to speak.
He took a sip from the bowl of tea he held and regarded us over the rim. His hand was trembling slightly, I noticed, and I suspected that more of the tea ended up in his moustache than his mouth.
‘Your colleague in what way, Lady Ailsa?’
‘He too carries the warrant.’
‘I see.’ He glanced at the steward and raised a finger. ‘Go away, all of you.’
The steward and the footmen dutifully left the room. The guards didn’t. It came to me then that they weren’t there to protect him so much as to enforce his house arrest. That meant that they were ours, then, or at least they were Vogel’s.
He waited until the door closed behind the steward before he turned and looked at me for the first time.
‘Are you here to kill me, Father Tomas?’
I glanced at the guardsmen, standing with their backs to the wall of the drawing room. None of them had so much as moved at the suggestion, and I suspected that even if I had been there to stab him, none of them would have tried to stop me.
‘Absolutely not, Highness,’ I assured him. ‘The tragic matter of Her Majesty’s death has been
