‘And what of Colonel Lan Roskov, the head of the royal bodyguard? What of poor Davik, my own personal secretary? Both seem to have disappeared. What of them?’
‘They will be replaced, Highness,’ Ailsa said, and showed him a smile. ‘All in good time. There is urgent business you need to attend to.’
‘I need to attend to mourning my wife,’ he snapped.
‘Of course, Highness,’ she said, ‘but affairs of state must always come before personal considerations, as I know you well understand. This afternoon the queen’s death will be formally announced to the people. She suffered a seizure of the heart at first light today, most sudden and unexpected. You will at once assume the regency until your daughter is of age to take the throne. Is that clear?’
The prince took another sip of tea, and this time his hand shook enough to spill it onto the lapel of his magnificent crimson coat.
‘My daughter, on the throne,’ he whispered.
Perhaps I was mistaken but for a moment I thought he looked truly scared, even more than he had when he thought I was there to stab him.
‘Of course, Highness,’ I said. ‘She is the direct heir, once she reaches her majority.’
‘Of course,’ he repeated, and there was a note of something like despair in his voice just then. ‘Of course she is.’
‘Where is she?’ Ailsa asked. ‘I need to speak to her.’
‘My daughter is indisposed,’ the prince said.
‘Be that as it may, I still need to see her. I, ah, understand such things, shall we say, as one woman to another.’
‘It’s not her cursed moonblood!’ the prince shouted suddenly, the bowl of tea falling from his hand to spill on the priceless Alarian carpet beneath him. ‘She . . . forgive me. Forgive me, Lady Ailsa. Please, forgive me. I am . . . I am under some strain at the moment.’
He slumped back into his chair and put his head in his hands, and he said nothing more.
‘Of course,’ Ailsa murmured. I shot her a look, but she shook her head a fraction to tell me to hold my peace. ‘I believe I remember the way to the princess’ apartments. We will leave you to compose yourself, Highness, but you will be expected upon the royal balcony at sundown. The people need to see you. The full military dress uniform with medals, I think.’
She turned then and swept out of the room, and I followed behind her.
Something here wasn’t quite right, to speak lightly of it.
*
I waited in the corridor outside the Princess Crown Royal’s personal apartments while Ailsa spoke to her in private, as one woman to another. There were two more of the armed and armoured Palace Guard stationed there as well, and we ignored each other in stoic silence.
The sound of voices floated through the door, but my hearing had been damaged by cannon during the war and I couldn’t make out the words. I could hear Ailsa’s tone, though, smooth and consoling. The other voice was shrill, edged with fury, and I could only assume that was the princess. I had seen her once before, at a court reception, but only from a distance, and I had never before heard her speak.
Ailsa was saying something, but she was interrupted by a shriek of rage and the sound of shattering glass. There was a moment of silence, then the unmistakable crack of someone being slapped very hard. It all went quiet after that.
A minute later Ailsa came back out into the corridor and motioned for me to follow her, her lips set in a thin, hard line. She didn’t speak, and I took the hint and stayed quiet until we were all the way out of the palace and back in her carriage, rolling down the long path to the private gate.
‘Odious child,’ Ailsa said at last.
She rubbed the palm of her right hand and winced.
‘You hit the fucking Princess Crown Royal?’ I whispered.
‘Yes, I did. If someone had done that more often when she was younger we might not be in this mess now.’
I frowned at that. My da had hit me often enough when I was a lad, hit me and worse besides, and all that had done was make me hate him. I don’t hold with hitting children, not unless they’re armed and they’re trying to kill you.
‘What mess is that, then?’
Ailsa made an irritated noise in her throat and turned to look out of the window.
‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Forget I said that.’
That made me frown, but she obviously didn’t want to be drawn on the matter.
‘The royal balcony, what was that about?’ I asked, changing the subject.
‘The Prince Regent needs to be seen by the people, as I told him,’ she said. ‘There is a formal balcony at the front of the palace, overlooking the parade ground. It’s only used for ceremonial occasions, royal namedays and suchlike. Once the announcement of the queen’s death has been made in the streets, the common folk will flock there, to grieve and mourn and more importantly, to be reassured that the reins of the nation are in safe hands. The prince will appear on the balcony and wave and be seen in all his splendour, and the commons will be appeased.’
I thought of the weak-chinned man with the trembling hands who I had been introduced to, and I frowned at her.
‘He’s not actually going to be ruling the country, is he?’
‘Someone has to,’ Ailsa snapped.
‘Aye, of course, but he hardly seems . . . regal.’
‘Of course he doesn’t,’ she said. ‘He’s a weakling and a fool, but what do you suggest, Tomas? We got through the last month by simply pretending that the queen was ill and carrying on as normal, but that was hardly going to do forever. The governing council may look after the day-to-day details of the bureaucracy but they don’t rule
