Prince of Secrets and Shadows

by C. S. Johnson

  Ferdy had thrown that in my face before, and as I watched Karl for a negative reaction, I suddenly wondered if that was what the note truly said.

  No, Ferdy would not have lied about that.

  He was too pleased at his cleverness, that he had told me the truth without me realizing it.

  Before I could say something else, Karl’s fists clenched at his side. “I did not realize that footmen could be bribed so easily. You are correct. I was called to go and extract him from another potential scandal.”

  “I am sorry for my curiosity,” I said once more, noting his frustration. “I did not mean to make you upset. I would prefer to have no lies between us.”

  Outside my room, I could hear Lady POW approaching, and I was relieved my time alone with Karl was nearly over. As much as I was excited to learn what I could, there was still nothing to prove that he was behind the attack on Prague Castle—at least, not that I could see.

  “It is understandable that you are curious.” Karl gave me a hardened look. “And I am happy to satisfy your need for answers, so long as your loyalty is to me.”

  He certainly did not look happy. My earlier concerns resurfaced in my stomach, and I felt it twist into more uncomfortable contortions. Had I just risked Karl’s favor, in order to find out about Ferdy?

  “Of course my loyalty is to you,” I lied. “I did not mean to cause trouble. What a burden you must bear over this. After all, you are an honorable man.”

  If my flattery was excessive, Karl did not seem to notice. He took my pity in stride, only nodding. “Thank you. Ferdinand has long been a thorn in my side. Maybe it is good you know about him. There are not many I can admit my frustrations to when it comes to him.”

  “If he is as deplorable as you say, I can certainly sympathize.”

  “It is not just his personal choices, Ella. It is his whole approach to life. When one is blessed with privilege and opportunity, one is responsible for the betterment of other people.”

  At his remark, I was intrigued enough to risk a daring question. “Even if the people don’t want it?”

  “Of course,” Karl said. “It is the best way to ensure only good choices are made. When there are too many options, a man chooses whatever one benefits himself first. What of others? Ferdinand believes that freedom matters more than order, nobility, and education. His own choices in these matters have led to his life of chaos, a disregard for the Bohemian aristocracy, and a disdain for the knowledge found in the best universities.”

  He sighed. “It is better that those who know best lead the way, even if compulsion is necessary. This is the only way for civilization to progress.”

  As Karl stood there, I felt a little afraid of him. He was a proud man, and he would not take being found a fool lightly. I did not know how he would react in discovering I was attempting to use him to find connections between several recent murders and an ongoing political coup.

  It would be even worse when he realized I was in love with his brother.

  “Here is the tea, Eleanora,” Lady Penelope called, entering the room with Jaqueline close behind her. Thankfully, Karl quickly resumed his respectful demeanor.

  “Thank you, Grandmother,” I called, straightening up against the couch. “Would you like a cup, too, Karl—I mean, Mr. Marcelin?”

  I gave him a sheepish look as I said his name. It was proof enough that I was becoming closer to him. He gave me a small smile before he shook his head. Behind me, Lady POW frowned. She seemed to understand I did not find out anything relating to our mission.

  It was hard to feel bad about that. I did want to find a way to trap Lord Maximillian. We needed to understand his role and Karl was our best lead. But just as Karl felt some relief in confiding to me the truth, however reluctantly, I was pleased to hear Ferdy was alive and well, even if he was annoying his brother.

  “I must decline for now, Madame. I believe I must be going. I have numerous meetings to attend today, some of which I have forgotten. But I would love to call upon you in the near future.” Karl’s hand tightened in mine almost painfully, and I knew he was looking for reassurance from me that I would receive him again.

  I gave him a brilliant but false smile back. “I would certainly hope so.”

  “Would you be well enough to attend a concert this week, my lady?”

  I glanced over at Lady POW, looking for her permission. I already knew she would want me to go, but I was still disappointed when she nodded her approval.

  “A concert would be lovely, though I regret we will not be able to dance.” I gave him a small, modest smile. “It would be an honor to join you, sir.”

  “Thank you. I will send out the formal invitations after the arrangements are made,” Karl promised before he turned to Lady Penelope. “A pleasure, as always, Madame.”

  “I will see you out,” Lady Penelope offered.

  Jaqueline handed me a cup of tea as Karl gave me one last lingering gaze. I smiled brightly at him as he left, pretending to believe a lifetime of bliss was before us.

  The bliss only came when he was gone.

  “Well, miss?” Jaqueline asked. Her eyes, a light mix of green and brown, glittered with excitement. “Were you able to find out his secrets?”

  “No,” I said, thinking of Karl briefly before turning my thoughts to Ferdy. “But I at least had him admit to a few of them.”

  Lady Penelope poured her own cup of tea. “Well, then, tell me what you learned. I hope you didn’t disappoint me.”

  I sipped my tea carefully, hiding a snort of laughter. I was already a disappointment. While I wanted to redeem myself to Lady POW, I knew I could not do it at the expense of Ferdy’s safety, and I was not willing to lose Ben over it.

  I stirred the spoon in my tea slowly. I decided I could keep Lady Penelope distracted while I tried to fix everything.

  So I gave her a short summary of what had transpired between Karl and me—leaving out any mention of Ferdy. At the end, I was surprised to see Lady Penelope smile.

  “Excellent,” she said. “We can expect to see him more in the near future. And in the meantime, he sounds like he genuinely likes you.”

  “He barely knows me.”

  “He knows about Ben,” Lady Penelope pointed out. “And there is no telling what Teresa Marie might have told him. Nobody can give you information like a scorned rival.”

  “That still doesn’t mean much.” I sniffed, thinking of Lady Teresa Marie, Lord Maximillian’s spoiled daughter. It was not hard to picture her, shaking her amber locks back from her young face.

  One of the conditions of Karl getting financial support from Lord Maximillian had been agreeing to marry her. Karl was not interested in that, even though he wanted the support for the Minister-President position. Lady Teresa Marie, who had been previously set up to marry Alex, was not happy the secret heir to the Bohemian throne had turned her down.

  She was especially not happy he had snubbed her in favor of me, especially since I was Lady Cecilia’s stepdaughter and former servant.

  “Ben is not a dark secret of our family,” I said. “There’s a perfectly good reason he is not moving in Society. He has chosen to stay away because of his leg. And he seems to be good at working for the Order.”

  “Amir has been doing well with him.”

  I was glad to hear her compliment both Amir and Ben. My brother’s progress meant a lot to him, and it was nice to see Lady POW held Amir in high esteem, even if they could not entirely trust each other.

  “One hopes,” Lady Penelope murmured, “that you will one day do as well with Harshad.”

  I nearly dropped my tea, cut deeply at her sudden derision.

  She excused herself before I could say anything in return.

  As she marched away from me, I glared at her back, hoping she would be able to feel my displeasure. “One hopes that one day I will be able to prove you wrong,” I muttered, knowing she was unable to hear me.

  *8*

  ◊

  The r
est of the week passed uneventfully, as if it was allowing me time to recover from Karl’s visit. After he left, I did not think much of anything again, allowing myself to fall into a daily routine of working instead of waiting. Ben was still avoiding me, Amir was never around, and Harshad was his usual quiet self. Lady Penelope was moody and distant, and I did not know whether I preferred her that way or not.

  Days later, I was lying on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, when I finally decided I had waited long enough.

  Previously, after working with Ben and Harshad, I would retire to my room, throw myself onto my pillows, and allow rest to come. My body screamed for relief, and sleep was usually kind enough to answer it at the end of each day.

  Until now.

  There was a sadness inside of me, one I both recognized and did not recognize. I could have blamed Karl for my troubles, but I decided more responsibility belonged to Lady POW. She had interrupted my session with Harshad earlier, barging into the room only to announce Karl’s formal invitation had arrived.

  “Karl Marcelin has sent a personal invitation for you,” Lady Penelope told me. “He requests your attendance at a concert at the Stavovské divadlo tomorrow night.”

  “Why is it such big news?” I asked, using her arrival as an excuse to catch my breath—for all the good it did. As if he knew, Harshad motioned for me to finish the various fighting sequences before giving Lady Penelope my full attention. “He said he was going to send out an invitation.”

  “That was two days ago.” She emphasized the words carefully and slowly, as if I was struggling to learn a new language or understand basic arithmetic.

  When I frowned and kept punching the bag in front of me, she only sighed.

  “You still don’t know much about Society, do you?” Lady POW shook her head. “If his interest in you wanes, we will have a harder time finding information. There is also the matter of your reputation.”

  I stopped moving as Harshad gave me a nod of approval. I was finished with his assigned work. “I don’t care about that.”

  “You might want to. The Stavovské divadlo, the Estates Theatre, is hosting a special concert to celebrate the new year. If Karl shows up with you, especially for your triumphant return to Society, he will be showing the people that Prague can return from disaster. He will be seen as an inspiration, and he can use that to transform into a leader.”

  “I think you are giving him too much credit. I can’t imagine why that would be inspiring.” I wiped the dripping sweat off my forehead with the leather of my stealth habit’s small skirt. “But it will be nice to get out of the manor.”

  Even if I have to join Karl for the evening.

  “I will send out your acceptance and get Marguerite to prepare your dress at once,” Lady Penelope said, already skipping out the door.

  Once she was gone, Ben snorted. “She sure can be frustrating at times.”

  “I know.” I gave Ben a smile, but he ignored me and went back to working on another round of fighting sequences. I looked over at Harshad.

  He wore his usual unreadable face, the stoic expression more enigmatic than ever as he turned away from me, looking toward the window. Harshad was content to ignore Lady Penelope, and at the time, I wished I could, too.

  Hours had passed since then, but my sadness only increased. I glanced over at the drawer where Ferdy’s combs and my parents’ heirlooms were tucked away.

  I missed him.

  I missed all of them.

  My life was very different from the previous year. Last Christmas, Ben and I had been ordered to help Cecilia prepare for an extravagant dinner for several of our rich neighbors. I was certain that, while she believed Alex’s marriage arrangements were settled, she was hoping to find someone for Prissy to marry, too.

  At the last moment, a large winter storm had come over the area, and no one was able to come. Rather than allow the staff to celebrate the holidays, we were ordered to throw out the food and stay in our rooms.

  But despite Cecilia’s anger, Betsy and Mavis, my closest friends, had made little gifts for me and Ben. We celebrated together in the barn. It was freezing but huddled around the fire, we were content. Ben and I took turns reading from the books I had pilfered from the library, and Betsy, at Ben’s prodding, brought us food she had saved from being thrown out.

  This year, Betsy and Mavis were gone, Ben was ignoring me, and I spent my free time working with Harshad and pretending to read. I barely noticed the cold winter days as snow began to fall and accumulate.

  I am alone.

  I wondered, briefly, what Ferdy would think of me if he saw me at that moment. At the thought of his gloating, or more likely the thought of his sympathy, I sat up.

  There was no reason I had to lie here and wait for things to happen, I decided. It was time to go and make things right, starting with Ben.

  Squaring my shoulders, I made my way out of my room and headed toward Ben’s. My brother had ignored me for long enough. I had apologized and given him some time alone, and he was still begrudgingly diffident.

  Thankfully, we had a mission, just as Amir and Lady POW did, and if he would not reconcile with me in one area of our lives, he would still work with me on another. I could certainly force him using that leverage.

  Still, I said a silent, desperate prayer as I knocked on his door.

  “I’m coming!” he called enthusiastically.

  I was about to tell him it was me when he opened the door. His excitement faded at once. “What are you doing here?”

  “Who did you expect?” I pushed past him, walking into the room.

  Before I could press for an answer, Ben groaned.

  “Why are you here?”

  I gave him my best smile. “I have a favor to ask of you, brácha.”

  “My answer is no.”

  “I didn’t even tell you what I wanted,” I objected.

  “I know you, Nora. I’m not helping you go see Ferdy.” He crossed his arms. He narrowed his eyes at me; his black eye, still slightly puffy, made his acerbic expression more comical than aggravating. “I’m a cripple, not your caretaker.”

  “You’re both,” I snapped back before I remembered I was here to make amends. I did not appreciate his attitude, but we were not going to be able to get along if I reciprocated.

  “I’m sorry.” I took a deep breath. “I came here to say I’m sorry, about everything. I was upset the other week, and you were right. I still ... I still don’t want to think about Ferdy.”

  “Then why do you want to go see him?” Ben asked.

  “I’m not here to go see him. I wanted to go to the Cabal. I thought if we can go see Clavan and Eliezer, we might be able to find a lead on where Cecilia and everyone else is.”

  “I’ve already been there a few times. I didn’t learn anything. Why don’t you go with Amir, since you’re his favorite now?”

  “His favorite?” I paused for a moment, and then I shook my head. “That’s not true, and Amir is friends with both of us. Even if it was true, that has nothing to do with this.”

  “So you say.” Ben rolled his eyes. “Either way, I’m not going with you.”

  “It’s been a few weeks,” I pressed. “Surely there’s something new for us to find. Come on, please? I’m tired of just training. You’ve been able to see our friends there and I haven’t, and we do need to find out what we can. Even if we don’t find anything, we can at least say we tried.”

  There was a long minute of silence before Ben softened and sighed, ever so slightly. “Harshad will be upset if we are tired in the morning.”

  “Maybe Clavan can give us some tea to take home.” I smiled brightly. “I know you want to find Betsy and Mavis as much as I do. I’m worried, especially since they disappeared with Alex. There is no telling what happened to them with him around.”

  “That is true. I haven’t thought about what might have happened to Alex.” He shook his head. “I’ll go with you, but you have to follow my lead. If we do run into Fe
rdy while we’re out, I don’t want you causing trouble.”

  “Me?” I laughed. “You were the one who looked like you wanted to kill him the other day.”

  “He hurt you.”

  Ben’s voice was conflicted, and I paused. All of my life, my brother had been the one to protect me. Even though I knew he was angry at me, I knew he would have felt responsible for my pain—even if it had nothing to do with him and everything to do with a roguish prince.

  “That doesn’t matter now,” I said quietly. “Betsy and Mavis, Tulia, and the others all need our help. And as for Ferdy ... I don’t think we will have to worry about him at the Cabal.”

  “Why?” Ben asked.

  Amir had warned me Lady POW was pressuring Ben for my secrets, but it would have been amusing to tell him that Ferdy was Karl’s younger brother, playing the part of the good prince with his family for the holidays, instead of running around Prague dressed like a pauper. I could picture Ben’s reaction—the initial shock, the eventual anger, and then the list of questions I would not be able to answer.

  The thought of those questions, and the certainty of my complete humiliation, prevented me from saying anything.

  Instead, I turned toward a window. “It’s cold outside. He’s probably not going to be walking out in the winter this late at night.”

  Ben’s gaze followed mine, where the ground was still sprinkled with a small layer of white powder. “You have a point, but you could just as easily be wrong. What if we do run into him?”

  If Ferdy did dare to show his face to me, knowing my heart was tender and my mission was dangerous, I would likely kill him out of frustration. I might have wanted him, but I still wanted him to be safe more.

  I did not tell Ben what I was thinking. Instead, I shrugged. “Thanks to all of Harshad’s training, I can take care of him.”

  When Ben laughed, even though it was a small one, I knew I had won.

  “I don’t want to tell Lady POW about this,” I added, as Ben reached for his shoes.

  “You might as well tell her,” Ben said. “She finds things out anyway. Remember how she caught us coming back from the Cabal last time?”