Stranger to the Crown

by Melissa McShane

  “I haven’t done that.”

  “Any kind of peace overture could be read as supplication, particularly by the Ruskalder. And of the three suspects, Lord Harrington has the best resources for making it look like the Ruskalder tried to assassinate you.”

  The idea of Lord Harrington turning on her chilled Elspeth. He wasn’t a friend, necessarily, but he’d always supported her, he’d been honest with her…unless that had been a lie, too. “All right. So at least two of the three are strong possibilities, and Master Withers might have connections we don’t know about. What’s the next step?”

  “Proving or disproving those suppositions.” Faraday came back to sit beside her. “Overthrowing a government, as I’ve said, isn’t something anyone can do alone, or without leaving traces. You will need to investigate each of the three to see if you can find those traces. Connections to disaffected groups, income from hidden sources, links to Ruskalder—not the ambassador—who might be able to make it look like Ruskald wants war.”

  Despair crept over Elspeth. She didn’t want to complain and risk being accused of whining again, but these were all things Faraday did as naturally as breathing, and none of them were things that came naturally to Elspeth North. “I can’t do that personally,” she said instead. “And I know you didn’t either. Who can I trust to find those things out?”

  “My secretary, Miss Ravenscourt,” Faraday said. “She will know which of my agents to involve. And Miss Simkins is a valuable resource.”

  Elspeth felt cold again. “But Lord Harrington arranged for Miss Simkins to be my secretary. If he’s the one, mightn’t he have put her there as his secret agent? She could even have planted that bill of sale in my desk—she’s in and out of my office all the time!”

  Faraday cursed. “You have to establish her innocence,” he said. “Miss Simkins knows too much about your affairs. She could be dangerous to you.”

  “I know. And I have an idea for testing her loyalties.”

  “What’s that?”

  Elspeth shook her head. “If I tell you, you’ll just shout at me. You have to trust me.”

  Faraday’s lips quirked in his familiar half-smile. “I suppose I do.”

  Elspeth sighed. “I wish you weren’t locked up. You’re better at this than I am.”

  “I’d rather be locked up than dead,” Faraday said.

  “That’s true.” Elspeth stood. “Can I do anything for you? Have someone bring you a change of clothes, or shaving tackle…?”

  “They wouldn’t let me have anything remotely considered a weapon, and a change of clothes would just get dirty. But…thank you.”

  “I’ll come back tomorrow night with news.”

  “Your Majesty, that’s not safe for you,” Faraday said, sounding alarmed. “Anyone involved in this plot won’t stop at killing you to preserve the secret.”

  “This plot is meant to end with my death, Mister Faraday. I don’t think I’m in any less danger just because I visit you.” Saying it so casually didn’t make her feel as afraid as she expected. “I’ll be back. And we’ll solve this.”

  Faraday saluted her without rising. “I’ll hold you to that.”

  Elspeth opened the door—that guard probably should have locked her in, for security—and shut it behind her. Security. Now she felt chilled.

  She walked to where the guard sat on his cot, cleaning his fingernails with a sliver of wood. “Excuse me,” she said, “what’s your name?”

  The guard peered up at her. “Travis, your Majesty.”

  First name, or last? It didn’t matter. “Travis, I have some instructions about Mister Faraday. The prisoner I was just here to see? No one is to speak to him or enter his cell unless it’s me or someone carrying this signet. Do you understand?” She held up the ring so its silver caught the lamplight.

  Travis nodded dully. Despair flooded through her. That had not been the nod of someone who was paying attention or who intended to follow through on her orders.

  “Stand up, Travis,” she said, grabbing his collar and hauling on it. He was far too heavy for her to lift, but surprise carried him to his feet. “Now, pay attention. No harm had better come to Mister Faraday while he’s here, understood? That is why no one is to enter his cell or speak to him or even remove him from this place unless…what? Do you remember?”

  Travis nodded. “Unless it’s you or someone bearing your ring, your Majesty.”

  “Right. And you will communicate those orders to the day shift, yes?”

  He nodded again.

  “And this is the important part. If anything does happen to Mister Faraday, if he so much as stubs a toe while he’s in custody, I will make sure none of the guards responsible for his well-being ever work again. That might be because all of you have been executed. Do I make myself clear?”

  Travis’s eyes were so wide the irises were entirely ringed with white. “Yes, your Majesty,” he whispered. “What about the food?”

  “What about it?”

  Travis swallowed. “I mean, you’re worried somebody might want the prisoner dead, right? The food all comes from the commissary kitchen, but it’s all different servants what we don’t usually know. If one o’ them wanted to poison the prisoner—”

  Travis wasn’t as stupid as she’d thought. It frightened her to think how close she’d come to missing something vital. “I’ll send my own people with his meals, and a note signed with my seal. Thank you, Travis. I won’t forget that.”

  Travis relaxed. “I wouldn’t never hurt a prisoner,” he said. “Seen too many of ‘em turn out to go free, and the powerful ones, they don’t forget if a guard puts the boot in. Ain’t smart.”

  “You’re very wise. And one last thing. Don’t explain those orders. If someone comes asking to see Mister Faraday, or wants to take him somewhere, you refer them to me and that’s all.”

  “I got it, your Majesty.” Travis slouched to attention and saluted her as sharply as he was able, which wasn’t very. Elspeth nodded and handed him the lantern.

  At the outer doors, she asked the guards a few questions about their job, and established that guard duty for the outer doors was on a weekly rotation. That meant it was unlikely she could contact every guard who might be on watch outside the cells. Well, she’d done what she could to protect Faraday. Now she needed to work on protecting herself.

  She rose late after a restless night and dressed rapidly, then ate a few bites of food, all her stomach could bear. Without even a second thought, she put on the jade bracelet and spun it around her wrist twice. It no longer mattered who’d given it to her, and she almost hoped no one claimed responsibility for the gift. It was her talisman, and it would give her strength.

  “I would like to see Miss Ravenscourt in my office immediately,” she told Simkins, overriding Simkins’ usual greeting. “You may bring my schedule afterward.”

  Miss Ravenscourt turned out to be unexpectedly young and very attractive, which surprised Elspeth. She’d expected someone more like Simkins, who’d shown the woman in without a hint of complaint. Ravenscourt looked tense and afraid, her eyes red-rimmed as if she’d been crying, her lips thin with the effort of not looking tense and afraid. She didn’t take the seat Elspeth offered.

  “Miss Ravenscourt,” Elspeth began, “you work closely with Mister Faraday, am I right?”

  Ravenscourt nodded. Now she looked thoroughly afraid.

  “You know the accusations leveled against your superior,” Elspeth went on. “I happen to know those accusations are false. I think you do, too.”

  The fear left Ravenscourt’s face, replaced by wary uncertainty. “I don’t know anything,” she said in a faint voice.

  Understanding struck Elspeth. “Miss Ravenscourt,” she said, leaning forward, “I’m quite serious. I think Mister Faraday has been framed. And even if he hadn’t been, I wouldn’t assume you were also responsible. But I need your help. Mister Faraday assures me you are capable of investigating certain people, or at least of knowing w
hich of his agents to use. Is this true?”

  Ravenscourt nodded. She let out a deep breath. “I thought you were going to imprison me, too,” she said, her voice growing stronger. “You mean he didn’t do those things?”

  “Didn’t you believe he was innocent?”

  “I…didn’t know. I believed I would have known it if he was plotting treason. But he’s very good. If he wanted it kept a secret, he might have been able to.”

  That was both good news and bad. Elspeth clung to the good. “So you didn’t see any evidence of the things he was accused of?”

  “No, your Majesty.” Ravenscourt hesitated, then said, “Maybe I shouldn’t say this. I don’t know if it makes him look more guilty, or less. But…”

  “What is it?”

  Ravenscourt ducked her head. “A month ago, when your Majesty was first here…Mister Faraday thought about forging your signature. Not seriously! He was concerned you might…”

  “I understand. He told me what he feared about me and my inexperience.” That conversation felt so far in the past it was like it had happened to two other people. “But we can’t bring that up. It would only make everyone convinced of his guilt.”

  “No, your Majesty. My point is that he made an exact copy of your signature. I couldn’t tell the difference, and I’m trained in handwriting analysis. If he forged that bill of sale, nobody would know it wasn’t you. Including you.”

  It lightened a load she hadn’t known she was carrying. Trusting Faraday was one thing, but being able to prove it… “Miss Ravenscourt, we’ll keep that information in reserve. It might make a difference. For now, it reassures me, so I appreciate you mentioning it. Now, here’s what I want you to do…”

  Ten minutes later, she let Ravenscourt out and said, “Miss Simkins, thank you for your patience. Please come in.”

  Simkins entered and laid the schedule on Elspeth’s desk. “Lord Harrington asked that you call an emergency Council meeting at ten o’clock,” she said. “If you wish to do so, I can move your ten-thirty and eleven o’clock meetings to the afternoon. If not, this afternoon you are scheduled to meet with Mistress Alderly for your monthly report on the palace staff at one-thirty, and with General Beckett at three o’clock.”

  General Beckett? That one was unexpected. She ignored it for the moment. “I would like to meet with the Council at ten, yes,” she said, “but not for the reasons you think. I intend to arrest Lord Harrington for collusion with Mister Faraday at 9:45 this morning.”

  Simkins gasped and touched her throat as if the gasp had surprised her. “Lord Harrington? Your Majesty, surely not!”

  “I’m afraid so, Miss Simkins. Please don’t tell anyone. I don’t want Lord Harrington learning of the arrest and fleeing. You can see why secrecy is important.”

  “Of course, your Majesty.” Simkins’ voice was faint and breathy. “I’ll just…inform the Council of the ten o’clock meeting, then.”

  “Thank you.”

  When Simkins was gone, Elspeth leaned back in her chair and let out a long, deep breath. Then she got up and left her office. If she was wrong, she’d just lost her secretary and might have alienated one of her most powerful supports. But she had an instinct she was right.

  She wandered the north wing for half an hour, startling people with requests for instant updates on whatever they were doing. The responses were so gratifying she resolved to do it again, sometime when she wasn’t just killing time. At 9:38 she returned to her office, but left the door open a crack. Miss Simkins returned at 9:40 and went into her own office, shutting the door. Elspeth didn’t know what to make of that. Was she, or was she not, a weak link?

  At 9:43 Elspeth again left her office and strolled down the corridor to Harrington’s office, and knocked on his door. At his muffled invitation, she entered. Harrington looked up, surprised.

  “Is there something I can help you with, your Majesty?” he asked.

  “I’ve just been thinking about Mister Faraday’s plot,” she said. “Do you think it extended to him orchestrating those assassination attempts?”

  “It would almost have to,” Harrington said. “It’s unlikely there was more than one plot against you. I’m sorry you were so disappointed in him. It was despicable of him to use those assassination attempts to work his way into your confidence.”

  “I agree,” Elspeth said, filing that comment away for later consideration. “I’ll see you at ten.”

  She wandered back to her office and rapped on Simkins’ door. “Please join me in my office,” she said when the door opened.

  Elspeth sat in her chair and waved to Simkins to take the other chair. “Congratulations,” she said. “You passed.”

  “I…I’m not sure I follow, your Majesty,” Simkins said.

  “I’m not arresting Lord Harrington. That was a story I made up to test you. I needed to confirm that you were more loyal to me than to your former superior. If you’d warned him about the imminent arrest, I would have known you weren’t.”

  Simkins’ mouth dropped open. Elspeth had never seen her look so flabbergasted. “Test me? Your Majesty, have I given you reason to doubt my fidelity?”

  “You haven’t,” Elspeth said. “But I can’t take any chances, because more than my life is at stake. Miss Simkins, there is a traitor on the Council, and I need your help to discover who it is.”

  To her surprise, Simkins didn’t look alarmed at this. “You mean someone other than Mister Faraday,” she said. “I suspected as much.”

  “You did? Why is that?”

  Simkins adjusted her spectacles. “Mister Faraday is many things, but disloyal is not one of them. I have observed him over the months I have been in the north wing, first as King Francis’s secretary and then as yours, and his devotion to his job and to the Crown has always been clear. He is also extremely competent. I have no doubt that if he were a traitor, no one would know it until it was too late. And—but that’s unimportant now. My point is that I believed there was something not right about the accusation that landed Mister Faraday in custody.”

  “You’re right. I’ve discussed the situation with him, and we agree that it is likely one of the three people who accused him.”

  “It’s not Master Withers,” Simkins said promptly. “She lives like an ascetic and has no connections with any group who might be capable of overthrowing the government. Even her links to the Scholia are dormant now that she is a Council member. This may be only temporary, but at least for now, her life is completely absorbed by her work in the Finance department.”

  Elspeth blinked. “How do you know all that?”

  Simkins didn’t flinch. “One of my duties is knowing whether those close to your Majesty might be vulnerable to undue influence by outside parties. I had Internal Affairs investigate both Master Keswick and Master Withers when they were appointed to the Council. I apologize if I have overstepped my bounds.”

  “No, not at all. That’s the sort of thing I want to know.” Hope sprang up in Elspeth’s heart, tentative but determined. “What do you know about Lord Harrington and Lady d’Arden? Have either of them done anything suspicious?”

  Simkins shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t continue to watch Council members once they’ve passed the initial vetting.”

  Elspeth swore. Simkins raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. “All right,” Elspeth said. “It’s not Master Withers. She was always last on my list, anyway.”

  “If I may,” Simkins said, “I have recently had great difficulty finding Lady d’Arden to pass on requests or announcements of meetings. She is frequently not in her office, and some discreet inquiries led to the information that she leaves the office for unknown assignations, is gone for some time, and tells no one, even her staff, where she has gone.”

  “That doesn’t have to be suspicious. It could be an affair. She strikes me as a very private person.”

  Simkins shrugged. “That is possible. However, we should consider every likelihood, and one of those is that
she is involved with our group of traitors. She is, after all, the one who discovered the forged bill of sale.”

  “You’re right. I’ll keep that in mind.” Elspeth pushed away from her desk and stood. “I’ll go straight from the Council meeting to dinner, and then I’ll be back here for the afternoon meetings. If Miss Ravenscourt wants to see me, make room for her on the schedule.”

  “Of course.” Simkins made her curtsey and left.

  Elspeth ran her fingers through her hair until she was sure it was standing on end, then vainly combed it back into place. As she walked to the Council chamber, she couldn’t help thinking about the possibility that Lord Harrington or Lady d’Arden were traitors. Or both, she realized. Both didn’t bear thinking about—but she had to, didn’t she? As dramatic as it was, the fate of the country hung on it.

  22

  Faraday looked even more disheveled that night than he had the previous day. With his unshaven face and unbuttoned collar, he looked even more like the disreputable type of gentleman pirate that was a danger to ladies everywhere. Elspeth concealed a grin at the thought.

  “Lord Harrington didn’t do or say anything at the Council meeting to suggest he is our traitor,” she said. “Though there was something earlier today…he said it was unfortunate that you’d faked those assassination attempts to worm your way into my confidence.”

  Faraday looked up at her where she paced across the cell. For her, it was four steps across and back. “Is that odd?”

  “Just that it felt like he wanted to make me trust you even less. Like he didn’t think the accusations of treason were enough. Isn’t that suspicious?”

  “He could have been expressing a natural concern. After all, I did go out of my way to encourage you to lean on me and my investigation.”

  “Because you were trustworthy, not because you were some evil genius bent on sabotaging my reign.” Elspeth paced some more. “I don’t know. I feel I’m grasping at anything that might be evidence.”