Shadow Over Kiriath (29 page)
“And so she shall,” Abramm said.
“I spent the morning in a new study cubicle at the University library,” Madeleine said as Haldon’s eyes went doubtfully to the maid’s clothing she was wearing. “Since I’ve had a problem with being harassed—yesterday someone even stole some of my materials—I’m trying to keep a low profile.”
He didn’t look convinced but claimed he understood.
“I’ll go to her at once.” She started to pass in front of Abramm, then stopped to lay a hand on his arm. “You will put a guard on this room?”
“I said I would,” he murmured.
“I mean right now. In all the confusion, it would be easy for someone—”
“Don’t worry about it, milady. Now, you’d better go before Jared gets back here with Blackwell.”
She continued to look up at him, and as he met her gaze he felt a cold weight descend upon his heart.
I didn’t think it would be so soon
.
“Neither did I,” she whispered, startling him with the realization that once again he’d spoken his thoughts without meaning to. But then she was striding past him, heading for the bedchamber door. Barely had she disappeared through it when Jared did indeed return, Blackwell on his heels.
Maddie hurried up the long marble stair to the Ivory Apartments in the west wing where her sister, Briellen, had been quartered. Already courtiers cluttered the stairway, chattering excitedly about the new arrival, noticing Maddie only after she had pressed by them. She had taken the back way from the royal apartments to her own rooms, where she’d exchanged her servant’s outfit for the gown she now wore.
The corridor at the head of the stair was packed with people. She felt their eyes upon her as she hurried between them, and heard their snide comments, but for once they barely registered. She was still reeling from the shock of learning Briellen was actually here.
Haldon’s announcement had hit her like a blow to the chest. Her ears had started roaring and she’d sagged against the library table, finally slithering into the chair beside it. As Abramm’s voice rumbled at the edge of her perception, she’d urged herself to stand and go out there while it was only Haldon. Bree would need to see a friendly face at the end of her long and anxious journey, and Maddie knew as well as anyone how hostile this court could be. With Leyton gone missing that duty fell to her.
But at first all she had wanted was to crawl into some hole until she could feel her body again.
“Will I like her, Mad?”
How could he ask her that? How could he?!
Because he has no idea how you feel, that’s how, and you should be thankful
.
But still it had been hard to answer. Her throat had swelled up and she’d struggled to get out the words . . .
“Everyone likes Briellen . . .”
And she’d been right: it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. He would marry her because he had to. Because they needed the treaty. Briellen’s secret journey said that more convincingly than ever.
And so at last she’d pulled herself together and stepped through the enspelled doorway to stand at Abramm’s side and face Haldon’s inevitable shock and evil suspicions. At least she had confidence in his ability to keep his mouth shut and could hope the story wouldn’t be all over the palace before she even reached her own quarters.
The Ivory Apartments’ tall paneled door was opened for her by Will Ames, he of Abramm’s personal guard, allowing her to slip into a lofty sitting chamber beyond, while the courtiers outside strained for a glimpse inside.
Gold-gilt ivory wallpaper swirled across walls behind large gold-framed portraits of Kiriathan queens. A rug of pink-rose motif against gray and mauve stretched beneath a scattering of chairs and divans, also in mauve. Two servants were lugging a small trunk into the bedchamber, from which she heard Briellen’s voice, sharp with that imperious edge it got when she was tired and things weren’t going well. As she instructed them where to place it, Maddie almost turned and fled, certain that the moment Briellen glanced at her, she would guess Maddie’s awful secret. Her older sister might tend toward self-absorption, but that very flaw produced in her a hypersensitivity to the actions, words, and expressions of others. Particularly as they affected her own situation. And while it was one thing to laugh about ridiculous rumors, it would be quite another to learn they might have some basis in truth.
But she hadn’t come here just to run away, and she’d had to deal with Briellen all her life. A few more minutes weren’t going to make a difference, and there was no reason to think Briellen would read her that easily. It was guilt that made her feel so exposed. Drawing a deep breath, she strode on.
Briellen Donavan stood in the midst of the bedchamber, cautioning the servants to have care as they lowered the trunk to the floor. Bags and boxes littered the floor around her, and a mingle of cast-off garments—cloaks, hats, blankets—piled the bed behind her. She wore a gown of fine tan-colored wool slashed with panels of forest green silk. Her golden hair was piled atop her head in a billowing cloud, looser than she liked it and frayed around the edges from her travels, the strain of which showed in the dullness of her porcelain pale skin and the dark smudges beneath her startling sky-blue eyes.
As Maddie stopped inside the door, Briellen waved a hand at her and told her to see that water be heated for a bath, then broke off to reprimand one of the servants who had, despite her instructions, dropped the trunk. Midstream, she broke off that, too, and turned again to Maddie, her eyes widening. “Madeleine? Good heavens, girl! I thought you were one of the servants. We’re going to have to deal with your wardrobe, I see. . . .” She opened wide her arms. “Come and give me a hug. It’s good to finally see a friendly face around here.”
Reluctantly Maddie came forward to embrace her sister. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. I just learned you were here.”
“Just learned?” Briellen drew back from her. “I’ve been here over an hour! And where is Leyton?”
“I don’t know. But we just heard yesterday that you’d crossed the Rhivaald. No one expected you to be here this soon.”
“But I sent
word
. Last night just after we set up camp. A special rider.”
Camp?
Briellen was camping? That more than anything attested to the urgency and the importance of Briellen’s mission.
“So far as I know he never arrived,” Maddie said.
“Or if he did, his message wasn’t brought to the right places.” Briellen rolled her eyes. “Right. What am I thinking? I’m in Kiriath, after all. Someone probably
wanted
to embarrass me.” She turned to one of her servants and sent the girl out for bath water.
“Well, not anyone associated with the king,” Maddie assured her.
A slight frown creased her sister’s brow. “I suppose not. If it weren’t for Count Byron I might still be standing on the front step.” The frown deepened. “Where were you, anyway? They said you couldn’t be found, but I can’t see how that is possible.”
“You know I’ve always been good at slipping away when I want to.”
Briellen frowned at her. “Why would you need to slip away here?”
Maddie told her about her research and the problem with someone taking her notes.
“So you were at the University,” Briellen said. “In the library. Not with Abramm.”
Maddie hoped her flinch of surprise didn’t show. “Why would I have been with Abramm?”
Briellen flung up a hand. “Well, I don’t know. They say you two have become quite close, and he was apparently missing, too. Supposed to have gone riding this morning, then changed his mind at the last minute and returned to his apartments. Not long after that they couldn’t find him.” She stepped aside as a pair of servants came in with pails of bath water, passing between the two women and on into the adjoining, tile-walled bath chamber. When her gaze came back to Maddie, it was sharp with something that looked very much like suspicion. “I also overheard the servants talking. Apparently you were seen both entering and exiting his apartments during the same time period. Disguised as a servant, they said.”
There was no way Maddie could stop the blood from draining out of her face, nor her mouth from falling open. She had been right to fear the tale would spread fast, it seemed. But who was responsible? Not Haldon, certainly. Nor the members of Abramm’s guard. . . . So it must have been someone in the antechamber she’d passed through in hopes of going unnoticed in the stream of other menials serving the royal residence.
She realized suddenly that Briellen’s sharp expression had turned to one of gray-faced shock. “It’s
true
?”
Too late to deny it now. Anyway, she preferred not to lie. “I was there, yes, but—”
“Hagin’s beard, Maddie!” Bree jerked away from her, only to whirl sharply back. “Have you lost your mind? Seducing your own sister’s fiancé?”
“I wasn’t—”
“They said you’ve been seeing him for months.” Her voice began to rise. “That you had near free rein of his apartments. They even said you may be carrying his bastard!”
“I’m
not
! Plagues, Bree, calm down. You of all people should know how vicious the gossips can be. They hate me precisely
because
I’ve been standing in for you, and many of them think Abramm should marry one of their own.” She lowered her voice. “There are women in this court who would like nothing more than to see this treaty destroyed.”
Briellen had her arms folded across her chest. “You just admitted to being in his chambers, Madeleine.”
“Yes, but not for that. I told you, I’m researching Kiriathan history. I only went there because I needed some materials from his library and, as you yourself pointed out, he was supposed to be out riding.”
“And you had to dress up as a servant to do this?”
“I was hoping to
deflect
the gossip, not fuel it. I didn’t think anyone would notice me.” But someone had. The one who’d stolen her book and map, perhaps? The one who already knew of the hidden library?
Briellen still looked unconvinced.
“I swear to you, Bree. There is nothing like that between us.”
“So you don’t have feelings for him?”
Maddie drew a deep breath and let it out. “We’re friends.”
Certainly that’s the case as far as he’s concerned
.
The crease was back between Briellen’s brows, and Maddie feared that her attempt to evade the question had only succeeded in answering it. She sighed. “Oh, Bree . . . what difference does it make? Even aside from the immorality of what is being suggested—do you really think I would do such a thing to you? To Papa and Leyton? To all of Chesedh?”
Briellen only stared at her, that half frown on her face, suspicion simmering in her eyes.
Maddie exhaled in exasperation. “You can’t seriously be regarding me as your competition, can you? I swear, all I am to him is a researcher. One he often finds pushy, intrusive, and irritating.”
That finally seemed to break the ice. Briellen snorted ironically. “Well, I, of all people, know how irritating you can be.”
Maddie refrained from saying she often had similar thoughts about Briellen and shook her head again. “The moment he sees you, Bree, I’ve no doubt he’ll be smitten like all the others.”
At this, the last vestiges of hurt and suspicion vanished, and a smile twitched her sister’s perfect lips. “You think so?”
Maddie rolled her eyes. “You don’t?”
The smile gave way to a relieved sigh, followed by an impulsive, repentant hug. “I’m sorry for doubting you, Mad. It was just . . . to be hit with it first thing.” She spun away chuckling. “I have to admit, I did find the notion of you as a king’s paramour hard to imagine. And now that I think about it, this whole misadventure is so typical.” She shook her head. “Will you ever grow up, girl? You know when you’re royalty you can’t do anything in a palace without someone seeing you. Even the mice watch and whisper.”
Maddie didn’t bother to inform her that for most of her life she’d done plenty of things people hadn’t seen, even when she did them in plain sight. It was only her ties to Abramm and Briellen that drew the attention to her now. Ties that very soon now—hopefully today—would be broken, leaving her free to retire to the solitude of her library cubicle and her books, where she would lose herself in unraveling the workings of the guardstars and the regalia.
The mantel clock struck the half hour, drawing Briellen around with a sudden new concern. “Where
is
Leyton?”
“He must’ve gone out riding,” Maddie said. But she, too, was growing restless. She’d planned to stay only long enough for Leyton to take her place. Having narrowly escaped one disaster, she wanted to be gone before Briellen dragged her into this afternoon’s proceedings. With most of her ladies apparently still on the road, she seemed to have almost no attendants, which made Maddie very uneasy. The last place in the world she wanted to be was at Briellen’s side when Abramm got his first look at her.
“Can’t they send someone out for him?” Briellen asked.
“I could go, if you like.”
Briellen waved a pale hand. “Don’t be silly. I need you here. I’m set to meet the king at four o’clock, which doesn’t give us much time.”
“Us?”
Briellen ignored the question, turning to the two gowns her maids had just laid out on the bed, one silver, one burgundy and lace. “I haven’t decided which dress I should wear and I was counting on his advice.” She gestured at the gowns. “What do you think? Should it be the silver or the burgundy?” She picked up the latter and pressed it to her body, holding the bodice up to her neck. “I’d like to wear the burgundy, but I fear it might be too frivolous for the occasion.”
Indeed, it was a frothy thing. “Why do you ask me?” Maddie demanded crankily. “You know I pay little attention to that sort of thing.”
“Yes, but . . .”
“It’s got to be the silver, my dear,” said a familiar male voice. “If he is the king of Light, you must be the radiant queen.”
They turned to find their brother standing just inside the door, handing his gloves off to one of the servants as another took his cloak.
“Leyton!” Briellen flew across the room into his arms, and he spun her around, just as he had done since they were children.
