Aeva looks out the window at the impossible climb, then back at me. “If you think it best, I will not argue.”
Something inside me relaxes. I had feared she might make light of my concerns or, worse, mock them. Before I can thank her, Charlotte appears in front of me. “I have my knife,” she says. “Tephanie and Tola have been teaching me how to use it.”
As I look down at her, I cannot help but remember how she hesitated in the garden, uncertain if she would follow Pierre or stay with me. I bring my face down closer to hers. “But would you use it against Pierre’s men?”
Charlotte pulls the knife from the silver chain at her waist, studying the point of it. “Yes,” she says at last, a strange light in her eye. “I would.” Her voice is flat, emotionless. Aeva and I exchange glances. Charlotte looks up at me, fully meeting my gaze. “Especially to protect Louise.”
?Chapter 82
e do not need to go anywhere.” Beast’s voice is calm and steadying. It makes me want to scream.
“I’m not going to let them take my sisters. If you will not come with me, we will leave without you.”
“Stop.” He places his large hands on my shoulders, as if holding my body in place will cease my racing thoughts. “Pierre’s lawyer will not take your sisters without the king’s permission, and we do not know yet if he will give it.”
Not wanting him to feel the trembling I cannot control, I shrug his hands off and continue pacing. “He will if the regent has her way. How did I not foresee this unholy alliance?”
“Is it possible she just found him cooling his heels in the gallery and thought to use him to her advantage?”
I snort. “I am not certain she did not reach out to Pierre directly. After all, they conspired once before when the French took Nantes.” I stop pacing and turn on him. “Why do you not think it is so?”
He runs his hand over his head, his eyes bleak. “Because I do not want to believe the regent is that ruthless or evil.” He shakes his head. “She cannot know the truth about the d’Albret household.”
I consider this a moment. “You are likely correct,” I concede grudgingly. “Few paid any heed to the rumors. There is a good chance the tales of his wives’ fates did not make it to the regent’s ears.”
“Do you think it would change the regent’s position if she knew—”
“No. She would not allow herself to believe it—not if it meant seeing me in a different light. Besides, someone gave the assassin the means to navigate the traps set in the forest. It was clear that the lawyer was surprised to see me.”
“So Pierre sent the assassin.” His hands flex, as if longing for a neck to wring.
“Yes. With me out of the way, the legal case is clear-cut, and there is no question a decision would be in Pierre’s favor. It may still be after he speaks with the king. Besides, it will not matter. Pierre has sent his henchmen as well as a lawyer.”
Beast grows utterly still even as I feel his heart begin to beat faster. “How do you know?”
“Because I saw them in the antechamber.”
“How can you be certain they are not simply his travel escort?”
“Because I know them—Yann le Poisson, as cold as the fish he is named for. Maldon the Pious, who plays the penitent after his killing is done. The Marquis—”
“All right. I take your point.” He shakes his head. “It is hard to believe he thinks to simply snatch the girls from the king’s palace.”
“That is precisely what he intends to do if the king’s decision does not go his way.”
“They will at least wait and hear what the king’s decision is before acting, will they not?”
“I believe so. But they did not count on my still being alive. I don’t know how that will affect their plans.”
“Let’s at least wait and see what direction the king is inclined to go in. If he decides in your favor, it will be the highest level of safety and refuge available to you and the girls.”
“If.” It is all I can do not to snarl. “Do you know how many men in positions of power have offered my family protection when we most desperately needed it?” Even as our mothers grew unaccountably ill, or fell down stairs, or had hunting accidents? “None. Not a single one came to our aid or offered us protection.” Even when my true father, Mortain, finally came, it was many years too late, and he was here so briefly that it feels like naught but a dream. A cruel dream that echoed all the cruel dreams that came before. Despair, as insistent as a jilted lover, pulls hard on my sleeve. “There is no reason to believe the king will do so.” Not with the regent whispering in his ear.
Beast steps forward and wraps his enormous arms around me, as if he could reach back through time and spare me from my past. “Except you,” I amend. “You came.”
“But not for you,” he whispers against my hair.
No. For his sister. “Did you know that was when I fell in love with you? When I learned you had come back for Alyse. Besides,” I murmur against his chest, “when it mattered most of all, you did come for me.” The memory of it—of that impossible escape—causes a lump to rise in my throat. Would that such a daring rescue could save us all now. Afraid I will start leaking all over his be-damned shoulder, I push away and resume trying to piece together a strategy. “You did not see how annoyed the king was to be bothered with such things. How baffled he was that his queen had made such a decision without informing him.”
“She made it long before she was queen.”
“He did not give her a chance to explain that.”
“Perhaps that is what she is explaining to him in private.”
“Perhaps.”
“I know the queen will argue on my behalf, but I don’t know that the king will listen. The regent has done all she can to erode any fragile trust that might grow between them. I am no longer certain he will support her simply to favor his new queen.” While the queen is a strong woman, she is not strong enough to grant me this most simple of boons. At least not yet.
“Sybella.” Beast does not try to hug me again but instead takes my hand. “If you run, they will chase you. There is nothing you could do that would more incite the king’s interest and get his blood up.”
He is right. The very fact of having to chase me will guarantee my guilt in his eyes. “I cannot sit here twiddling my thumbs while my sisters’ safety and futures hang in the balance. And Pierre’s men will come for them if the king decides in our favor. Either way, they are at great risk.” I retrieve my hand in order to resume my pacing.
“So what do you always do when faced with a choice of running?”
I stare at him a long moment. “I give Fortune’s wheel a spin and use it to launch a counterattack.”
Beast folds his arms across his chest and leans back against the wall, waiting.