perhaps-and that’s not a promise-we can arrange something less professional. If you’ve managed to clear your name by then.”
“Are you this hard to get for all your patients?”
She laughed and tossed that bothersome lock of hair from her face. “Mr. LaCrosse, I work around eligible young men every day, and you’ve gotten farther than any of them ever has.”
“She’s right,” Gillian said calmly, and we both looked up in surprise. He still had his back to us.
“Besides,” Iris continued, “no one in Grand Bruan would have dared punch Dave Agravaine in the face, even though he’s needed it for a long time. I admire that, and I like you. You’re funny.”
She paused, and her voice took on a low, sultry quality I recognized, although it never failed to surprise me a little when it was directed at me. She leaned even closer and said too quietly for Gillian to hear, “Tomorrow, we’ll see what happens. For tonight-”
She touched her lips to mine. I followed her lead and kept it soft, gentle, respectful. No tongues. But she did nip my bottom lip a little as she drew back.
“-I prescribe bed rest and sweet dreams.”
My own voice was a little ragged, and not from pain. “I always do what the doctor orders.”
“Then do one more thing for me. Even with Tom here on your side, watch your back. There are a lot of secrets in Grand Bruan, and you may trip over others without meaning to. Some people might go to extremes to keep things hidden that have nothing to do with Patrice’s murder, on the off chance you might expose them by accident.”
I would’ve agreed to anything after that kiss, so I had no problem saying, “Thanks. I’ll be careful.”
SEVEN
But I wasn’t. When she left, I sighed with almost teenage happiness, which lasted precisely as long as it took Gillian to uncuff himself and remanacle me. “You,” I said, “are a mood-killer.”
“Duty before pleasure.”
“That’s why I’m my own boss,” I muttered. I poured myself another drink. My arm had begun to ache almost up to the elbow.
To my surprise, Gillian poured himself a drink as well. He raised it in salute, then tossed it back in one gulp. “Have you got any questions for me?”
“I will. I assume if you thought you knew anything, you’d have volunteered it by now.”
“True. Like you, I’m still collecting information and considering how it fits together. It’s a bit disconcerting to be plotted against.”
“Even for a Knight of the Double Tarn?”
He smiled for real. “Don’t believe everything you hear in those ballads. Remember how the queen said I was knighted on her wedding day?”
I nodded.
“What she didn’t mention was that I was barely fifteen. I’d lived a sheltered life on a windy piece of rock out in the northern sea. I knew the skills of arms because we had nothing else to do. But I’d never faced a real opponent determined to kill me until Marcus came recruiting.”
“How did he convince you? Appeal to your patriotism?”
For the first time, Gillian presented a genuine, full-face smile. “Remember, he wasn’t much older than me. He convinced me that girls would like my scars.”
I laughed and gestured at the tapestries decorating the room. “You seem to have risen to the challenge. Was he right about the girls?”
Gillian’s smile turned wistful. “Let’s just say he was, and leave it at that.”
Since he was being so open all of a sudden, I pressed forward. “So tell me, straight up: Do you think the queen tried to kill you? Or have you killed?”
“I don’t know.” He pondered for a long moment. “Do you know why we’re called the Knights of the Double Tarn?”
I shook my head.
“The next-to-last battle of the wars of unification took place on a narrow isthmus between two tarns. Do you know what a tarn is?”
Again I shook my head.
“It’s a lake that’s deceptively deeper than it should be. Some are claimed to be bottomless. And they have currents at different depths that often go in opposite directions. At any rate, when we’d won, Cameron Kern declared that our brotherhood of arms needed a name and chose that.”
I waited. Gillian wasn’t a man to be rushed, and if I prodded him, he might drop the whole thing.
“The tarn is a good representation of Grand Bruan society as well. It looks placid from the outside, but it’s made up of levels and currents that often run in opposing directions and at cross-purposes. I have tried to stay above these considerations and simply do my duty, but even that can generate unseen conflicts.”
I risked a comment. “It’s hard to imagine you and Dave Agravaine in the same organization.”
“I agree with you,” he said with another little smile.
“So you believe you might’ve inadvertently antagonized the queen?”
“That’s what I’m trying to decide. She and I have never been close, but since her marriage we are family, and I’ve respected that.”
He looked off into one of the tapestries, and I chanced another question. “Are the rumors about the queen and Elliot Spears true?”
He did not look at me. “Only the two of them know the answer to that.”
“What do you think?”
His gaze returned to me, and the little glimmer of candor vanished. “I think it’s time for you to be sequestered somewhere else.”
Visions of dungeons and torture implements filled my head. “I can sit quietly in the corner, if you’re tired of talking to me.”
“I don’t mean a cell. This castle has plenty of secure rooms that are quite comfortable, and Sir Robert ordered one readied for you. I’ll go see if it’s done.” He went to the door and paused before opening it. “If I reach any conclusions about today’s events, or if any useful information comes my way, I’ll pass it along.”
“Thanks.”
“In return, I’d like your word that you won’t try to escape.”
“Sure,” I said.
“That was fast. Do you always give your word so casually?”
“Nothing casual about it. Even if I got out of the castle, I’d still have to get off the island. I believe in luck, but not in miracles.”
“I see. Well… enjoy your drinks, and I’ll return shortly.”
He closed the door, and the bolt slid into place. I took another sip of my drink and shook my head. The man had to be the straightest arrow in the quiver, all right.
I paced around the room some more, pondering what Gillian had told me. Well, trying to ponder it. The promise in Iris Gladstone’s kiss kept intruding, so I finally gave up. I leaned back against the one tapestry-covered wall and let myself fantasize.
And promptly fell into the open doorway hidden behind it.
When I got free of the heavy cloth, I saw that the short passage ended at a stairwell that led both up and down, and women’s voices came from beneath me. They spoke in whispers, but the tone was unmistakably urgent. I gathered the manacle chains in my hands to silence them, tiptoed down the dark stone stairs, and stopped when the words became clear.
“I cannot allow this, Your Majesty!” one woman hissed.
The answering voice was unmistakably Queen Jennifer Drake’s. “Are you pulling rank on me, Rebecca?”
The girl Rebecca, the same one who’d been so snotty to Kay and me earlier, snapped, “Rank isn’t important.
