The Artist’s Masquerade

by Antonia Aquilante

  He was just as fascinated watching the princes. They orbited each other, but not in a way that made either of them seem weak, and they touched often, almost constantly, just little touches that spoke of support and connection.

  Maybe leaning on someone he loved wasn’t something he should fear.

  “Captain Loriot, do we have their locations?”

  Prince Philip’s voice pulled Flavian from his musings with an almost physical jerk. He glanced around the room, but only Cathal was looking at him. Flavian smiled to try to allay the concern he saw there.

  “Yes, Your Highness,” the captain answered.

  They had spent quite a while discussing where to take their prisoners once they were apprehended while the captain had set in motion the process of quietly finding out where Velia, Willem, Zelina, and Cathal’s father were. Philip was adamant that no one find out what they were doing because he didn’t want anyone warned.

  “Lady Velia and her aunt are here in the palace with Princess Elodie and your aunt, the duchess,” Captain Loriot, a serious-looking man with a military bearing, continued. “Her daughters are also with them.”

  Prince Philip leaned back in his chair. “I would rather not take them out of such a large group if we can avoid it. No matter what we say, someone will let something slip before we’re ready for anything to be known.”

  “You mean Elodie might let something slip without realizing what she was doing,” Cathal said. No one argued with him.

  “Which brings up another matter,” Etan added from where he leaned against Prince Amory’s desk next to Cathal. Prince Amory had moved from the arm of his husband’s chair to perch on the edge of Prince Philip’s desk.

  “We’re going to have to talk to Elodie.” Prince Philip seemed less than thrilled by the prospect.

  “She’s spent a lot of time with Velia. We need to know what they’ve talked about, what Velia may have asked her, and what she may have told Velia without realizing,” Prince Amory said, his voice not without sympathy.

  “I know.” Prince Philip sighed. “We’ll deal with that after we have them. Where are they in the palace?”

  “They’re on the east terrace overlooking the rose garden. I’ve posted guards to watch them discreetly. We’ll know if any of them leave,” the captain answered.

  “And Willem?” Prince Amory asked.

  “In the palace library with his secretary. He’s been there since just after midday. Duke Umber is in his home in Jumelle,” the captain added without being asked. “We’ve been told he has an engagement this evening.”

  Prince Philip drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, his eyes staring at nothing. “All right. Take Willem first. As much as I hate to do it, pull Velia and Zelina out of the party on the terrace—be calm about it. At the same time, send men for Umber and sequester him in his home. I don’t want him to have contact with anyone until he’s been questioned by Marcus.”

  “He isn’t going to like it,” Etan remarked, and from what Flavian had seen of Etan and Cathal’s father, he had to agree. The duke was a man of strong opinions, to put it mildly.

  “Nothing to be done about that,” Prince Philip answered. “I dearly hope the questioning will come to nothing, and his annoyance will be the only issue we have to deal with.”

  “Does Marcus have his men ready to search their things as soon as we have them all in custody?” Prince Amory asked, pulling them back to the subject at hand.

  “Yes, Your Highness.”

  Prince Philip nodded in response to the captain. “Good. I want everything searched thoroughly.”

  “Yes, Your Highness.”

  “Report back when you have everyone in custody.”

  Captain Loriot bowed himself out of the room, leaving them all to wait once more. Flavian could see it had to be timed well. Prince Philip didn’t want anyone warned—neither the people they were taking into custody nor the other spies in the city. If the spies didn’t yet know that some of their number had been found out, the princes didn’t want to change that. So there had been discussions of the difficulties of taking Velia and the others out of the palace without anyone seeing them. But plans had been made, and they just needed to wait.

  Cathal sat with Flavian and took one of the hands Flavian still gripped his sketchbook with in both of his. “All right?”

  Flavian nodded. “You?”

  “Yes.”

  “Flavian.” Prince Amory’s voice drew Flavian’s attention across the room.

  “Yes, Your Highness?”

  “We’ll have a couple of the maids move your things to a different set of rooms later today. We’d like you to stay at the palace as our guest while the situation is resolved.” Amory’s eyes twinkled with something mischievous, and he glanced at Cathal. “Though I’m not certain that’s a problem at this point.”

  Flavian hoped he wasn’t blushing at the gentle teasing; he never blushed, but there was something about what Prince Amory implied—not the physical relationship between Flavian and Cathal but the emotional one. “Thank you for your hospitality, Your Highness.”

  “Flavian, you don’t have to continue your act if you don’t want to,” Prince Philip said. “Unless you feel it’s too dangerous for you still, you’re welcome to let Lady Flavia go and be yourself again.”

  “And know that we won’t let anyone take you back to Ardunn if you don’t want to go,” Prince Amory added.

  Flavian opened his mouth to reply, but absolutely nothing came out. He’d never expected the princes to make such a promise to him, someone who had deceived them and who was closely linked to a person who had been spying on them for months.

  Cathal squeezed Flavian’s hand firmly, drawing his attention. “Not just them, Flavian,” Cathal said. His voice was quiet, but Flavian knew everyone else in the silent room could hear him and Cathal had to know too. “I’m not going to let anyone take you away either. I’m not letting you go.”

  Cathal’s words did nothing at all to help Flavian’s predicament. Yes, Cathal had told Flavian he loved him, but that was before Flavian told them about Velia. He wouldn’t have blamed anyone for suspecting Flavian by association. But to have their trust….

  And he couldn’t just let himself accept what they offered him.

  He shook his head. “You can’t promise that.”

  Cathal’s fingers tightened around his again. “I know we can’t promise that nothing will happen to you.”

  “It’s not that.” Flavian looked from Cathal to the princes. “It’s too dangerous. Too much of a risk for you. For Tournai. The emperor may never stop looking for me, and when he finds out you have me here, it’s only going to give him an excuse to come after Tournai.”

  “It sounds as if the emperor already has an interest in Tournai, and did long before you ever came here,” Etan said in a low murmur that everyone could hear in the quiet room.

  Prince Philip nodded. “The emperor has never needed an excuse to attack a country he wants to add to his empire. Not that I know of.”

  Flavian nodded, responding to the implied question. No, the emperor never gave reasons in his press to conquer all the countries to his east. He just attacked.

  “Yes, he’s interested in Tournai, and yes, you would be another factor in his desire to conquer our country, but he may never find out you’re here. Ardunn is a long way away,” Philip said. “He may be interested in Tournai, but he hasn’t attacked us. He’s sent spies to try to find our weaknesses. There are a lot of barriers to a successful attack on Tournai, and I don’t get the impression the emperor likes to lose.”

  Flavian knew that much about the emperor, and Prince Philip was correct about the difficulties in waging war on Tournai. Impassable mountains separated the eastern half of the continent from the west, and even if Ardunn found a way across, there were countries between the mountains and Tournai that wouldn’t take kindly to the emperor’s tactics, some of them far stronger than the smaller countries Ardunn had already rolled over. Pr
obably why the emperor had sent spies here, looking for weaknesses, perhaps even looking to subvert the government. If Ardunn gained a foothold in Tournai, it could use it as a base for the whole side of the continent.

  Prince Philip seemed to watch Flavian work everything out in his head, which was a slow process since Flavian was neither a soldier nor a strategist. “He may want Tournai, but he’s hesitant to attack us,” the prince said. “It could be the geographic difficulties. It could be the legends that surround Tournai.”

  The legends would give the emperor pause, and give him another reason to try to find the truth before attacking. Tournai was a small country that had survived and prospered for a long time. “I can see that, but none of it means he won’t attack Tournai and try to get me back.”

  “Nothing is certain, Flavian, but the emperor is sending spies instead of armies. I assume his armies are tied up in keeping the peace in Ardunn and carrying out his conquests to the east. You may know better.”

  Flavian nodded grudgingly. “No, you’re right. And Ardunn still doesn’t have a strong navy.” Which came from being a mostly landlocked country. For the sheer size of Ardunn, the emperor had only managed to conquer a short stretch of inhospitable coastline for himself so far.

  “Well, then. Ardunn will wage war on us at the emperor’s will, but you won’t be the reason, and we will be on guard. I think there’s a far higher probability at this point that he might try to kidnap you if he finds out where you are. Which we can also be on guard for.” Prince Philip glances around at the others. “I’m taking this as an acceptable risk. We won’t let them take you back.”

  Flavian sat, speechless again as the prince finished speaking, shocked again that the princes would make such a promise to him.

  “All right?” Cathal asked into the lingering silence.

  Flavian nodded. He thought it might actually be all right too, or at least, it would be.

  IF CATHAL had thought the previous days were tiring, he hadn’t known what tiring was. The days following Velia’s capture showed him the true definition of the word. The royal guard implemented their plan smoothly, taking Velia, Willem, and Zelina into custody and sequestering Father in a suite of rooms in his home, all without undue attention.

  After Velia and her aunt were taken from the terrace, Elodie and Cathal’s mother and sisters descended upon the princes’ study. Elodie was the most vocal, as always, but Mother piped up when Philip explained that Father was being held as well. The room became very loud, very quickly with all of the women talking over each other trying to get answers.

  Cathal had to help Philip calm them all down, but he glanced at Flavian first. When the group of women had flooded the office, Flavian had backed farther into the corner, probably to keep from being noticed, and Cathal was glad to see Amory leading Flavian out of the room through the door into the rest of Philip and Amory’s suite. Flavian caught his eye and flashed a quick smile, mouthing “good luck” before he disappeared through the door.

  It was enough to make Cathal smile, to cause a little bubble of delight in what was otherwise a difficult day. What would be a difficult several days to come, if not more than that. But somehow, knowing that Flavian was there for him, even if just with a smile and a few words, made it easier to turn back to his mother and sisters and begin to unravel the strands of the tangle.

  Cathal was not involved in questioning his father. As much as he wanted to confront Father, Cathal knew his presence would only hinder the questioning. Philip offered to allow him to skip the others as well, but Cathal wouldn’t shirk his responsibilities.

  Velia’s aunt was bewildered, honestly so. The woman had no idea what her niece had been sent to Tournai to do and tearfully denied that Velia could be a spy. Cathal wasn’t surprised by that, but they couldn’t afford to discount anything. Zelina’s maid had been taken into custody as well, but Cathal left her questioning to Marcus. She seemed terrified, but they could take no chances.

  Cathal did take part in Velia’s questioning, observing Marcus as he fired questions at Velia, trying to get answers. Velia refused to be ruffled and gave them nothing.

  “We know,” Cathal said after a long while watching the fruitless questioning. “We know what you are and why you’re here.”

  “I don’t understand. Of course you know why I’m here. I’m here to marry you.”

  “Don’t play innocent,” he snapped out. “Yes, you came to marry me, but only in order to spy for Ardunn. To infiltrate the royal family, to cultivate your influence with us. So you could send back information about Tournai to your emperor. Any of this sounding familiar?”

  “Not at all.” She was entirely calm, not even blinking at Cathal’s summary of her plan. But it was a performance. Flavian’s drawing and the image of Velia’s true self were seared into Cathal’s memory.

  “If you persist in denying what we already know, you’ll only make it worse for yourself and everyone who came here with you.” With that, he saw a flicker of something in her eyes. He wondered who worried her. Her aunt and uncle? Flavian?

  “Everyone with me?” she asked.

  “Yes. Did you think we would only question you? We have to ascertain who is working with you.” He watched her closely. “Who else is involved?”

  “I still want to know why you think I’m involved with something like this, let alone anyone else.” She tilted her chin up just slightly. “I’m cousin to the emperor. I’m not some common spy, and I don’t see why you persist in saying I am.”

  “I don’t believe you’re in any way common, but you are a spy.” He leaned toward her over the table separating them. “And I will keep questioning you and your companions until I know everything—your accomplices, your contacts. Every detail of your mission here and the information you were sent to discover.”

  Velia just stared at him, her gaze level and blank.

  “She’s admitting nothing,” Cathal told Philip that evening as they shared a drink before dinner. “But she’s playing the whole thing too cool. A version of her aunt’s reaction would have served her better—a few tears, some shock, confusion. Instead, she’s calm, even haughty at times.”

  “What does she think that will accomplish?” Philip asked, his relaxed posture as he lounged in the corner of the couch at odds with the sharp expression in his eyes.

  “Not a clue.” He sipped plaire as he thought about how to say the next part. “It’s almost as if she’s trying to divert attention from herself, to make us suspect someone else if she can’t make us think the whole idea is ludicrous.”

  “Which she can’t. Who is she trying to implicate?”

  “She isn’t naming names, but she keeps making veiled comments. Perhaps her uncle, but from what little he’s let slip, we can infer that while Willem probably knew of the plan, he wasn’t the leader. Perhaps even Flavian.”

  “Really?” Philip’s surprise was more than evident. “With their friendship….”

  “I know. And she hasn’t said anything explicit. In fact, I thought I saw some concern in her eyes when I mentioned questioning the others.”

  “She doesn’t know we don’t have Flavian imprisoned.”

  “No, she doesn’t. None of them do, and I thought it best to leave it that way.”

  “I agree. We’ll keep at them. We need to know more, including the identity of the other spy in Jumelle.”

  Cathal nodded. “We will.”

  “What will you tell Flavian?” Philip asked after a moment.

  “Everything, if you’ll let me. He won’t think kindly of me for trying to spare him.”

  “Tell him. I have a feeling he’ll be a member of the family soon. Officially, that is. Unofficially, it seems he’s one already.”

  Cathal glanced away from Philip’s too-knowing gaze.

  “Cathal.” Philip paused until Cathal looked back at him. “Are you happy?”

  “With Flavian? Yes, very much. He’s infuriating but really quite wonderful.”

  Phili
p laughed along with Cathal. “Good. All I’ve wanted is for you to be happy.”

  “Thank you, Philip.”

  “I look forward to getting to know him better. I’m glad the two of you are joining us for dinner tonight.”

  “Thank you for inviting us. Flavian should be here by now, shouldn’t he?” He glanced back toward the door as if expecting Flavian to appear.

  “He and Amory were out today obtaining some things for Flavian’s wardrobe since it seems he was unable to bring many of his own clothes with him.”

  Flavian, after some thought, had decided to end his masquerade. While Cathal worried about the danger, he knew Flavian would be far happier as himself than as Flavia. Cathal vowed he would keep Flavian safe.

  “They returned later than they’d planned. Amory is changing now. I assume Flavian is doing the same,” Philip continued. “They should be along soon.”

  Amory emerged from the bedchamber he shared with Philip a few moments later as Cathal and Philip continued to discuss the problem of the spies. Philip stood to greet Amory and pour him a drink. As they exchanged whispered words and a brief kiss, Flavian arrived. Cathal froze, his breath catching at his first sight of Flavian.

  He’d seen Flavian without the gowns before, even in men’s clothing, but it was different. Flavian had apparently visited a barber in addition to a tailor, because his chin-length locks had been cut, the tousled red-gold waves much shorter. The shorter hair emphasized the slight delicacy of Flavian’s features, the wideness of his eyes. Cathal let his gaze travel over the rest of Flavian, taking in his new appearance—or his normal appearance, really.

  Lean legs were encased in close-fitting gray breeches and a slender body was covered by a snug blue jacket decorated with silvery gray embroidery that fastened up the front, its short sleeves letting the wider sleeves of his white shirt show beneath. The style was not something Cathal had seen before so he assumed the jacket had come from Ardunn with Flavian. It highlighted the lines of Flavian’s body, the sleek muscles, the long limbs.