“But, your highness,” Ann whispered. “There has been a—a murder.”
“All the more reason for entertainment on a grand scale. There is nothing that can be done until the culprit is discovered and the danger is past, and Sepic is working diligently on that of course.” He grasped her hand and drew her to her feet. “In the meantime, any one of us might be next! We must live while we are young, Miss Feathers.”
She didn’t seem to know where to look. The prince laughed and guided her to the door. “Come along, Courtenay,” he said with blithe authority. “We will require you to stand about looking grim and reminding us all of our desperation for gaiety. Miss Caulfield, I order you to remain abed four and twenty hours. The bloom in your lovely cheeks must not be made to suffer.” He urged Miss Feathers from the chamber.
Lord Vitor did not follow.
Stomach peculiarly tight, Ravenna jumped up. “I will help.”
He grasped her wrist to stay her. “You will remain here,” he said quietly.
She tugged free and called down the corridor, “Miss Feathers, I hope we can continue our conversation later.” Ann cast a swift glance back, in her eyes a confusion of worry and pleasure.
Ravenna turned to her rescuer. “She encountered Mr. Walsh the night of his death. Just now Prince Sebastiao interrupted her confession to me.”
“Interesting. Her confession could be a distraction or the truth.”
“She seems like an honest person.”
“Nevertheless, I would like you to make an attempt at inspecting the ladies’ clothing, including hers.”
“For blood?”
“For whatever seems amiss. But not until tomorrow. Today you will rest.”
“I don’t need to—”
“The prince commands it. As do I.”
“You have no authority to command me. Neither does he, really. And I will go mad confined to my room when there is so much afoot elsewhere.”
“How would you respond, I wonder, if I cajoled with gentle words of encouragement, assuring you that all will be well in your absence from the party and that your health and welfare are of the utmost importance to us all?”
“I would probably doze off in the middle of your speech.”
A muscle flexed in his jaw, the crease in his right cheek peeking out.
“Come now,” she said. “I am well enough to attend dinner tonight. It was only a—”
“Life-threatening incident.”
“I once oversaw a sennight of lambing while carrying a high fever. I can hold my own.”
“With you convalescing underfoot, however valiantly, I will be . . . distracted.”
“Wear a blindfold.”
“Distracted by the danger you might yet face. Someone wished to drown you.”
A shiver ran through her, but she said, “I cannot imagine why. No one knows I am investigating the murder. No one except you.”
“If I wished you out of my way, I don’t quite see how diving into a freezing river to retrieve you would serve my purpose. I might have avoided pushing you in in the first place.”
“Perhaps you were hoping I would fall ill with a dreadful fever as a consequence of my swim and be rendered insensible.”
“Clearly I was mistaken in that, seeing as now I am wasting precious time attempting to convince you to remain here until tomorrow. Your teeth just clacked together.”
“They did not.”
“They did.”
She glanced with longing at the cup of tea growing cold on the table.
“If I promise to bring you any information I should discover today,” he said, “will you remain in this chamber?”
A thread of chill was still working its way through the marrow in her bones. “All right.”
He nodded and moved to leave.
“Wait. First, tell me what you saw at the river.”
“By the depth and weight of the footprints, the person I glimpsed at the river’s edge could have been a light man or a woman.”
“The prince is not much over my height and he is slender. Perhaps Mr. Anders. Wait a minute. You went outside again already, to study the footprints, while I lounged in a hot bath drinking tea?”
“If you had invited me into the bath I would have gladly delayed the trip outside.”
Her throat clogged. She cleared it awkwardly. “You called me obstinate.”
“I do not recall doing so directly.”
“You implied it. And yet you say outrageous things to me like you want to kiss me and share my bath.”
He crossed his arms over his chest that she had pressed her face into, and leaned a shoulder against the door frame. “What effect, I wonder, do these contrary comments have on the lady?”
“It makes the lady want to box your ears.”
“Hm. Then my work here is done.” He was smiling slightly.
“How did the person that pushed me into the river escape? How did she reach the river without leaving footprints that might have warned us?”
“A path runs along the cemetery to a break in the wall, then down a steep incline to the trees. I had not known of the break in the wall before.”
“I understand better now your wish for me to examine the ladies’ garments. But what of the guards at the door? Wouldn’t they have seen someone access the cemetery?”
“Only one man guarded the door and he followed you beyond the gate until he saw you meet me.”
“During that time my attacker must have left the castle. But what of his return? Her return?”
“The guard knew of only the single exit. He remained with the guards at the gate, waiting for your return.”
She sagged against the doorpost. “The size of Chevriot makes this—”
“Difficult,” he said. “Not impossible. And now you will be well protected.”
“What of you?” she said, not quite able to look at him. “What if the murderer tosses you into a river?”
“I haven’t the skirts to hamper me from swimming ashore, of course,” he said, and the tenor of his voice made her look up into his handsome face. “Do not even think of attempting to protect me.”
She blinked. “I wasn’t—”
“You were.”
“I was not.”
“The prince admires you.”
“What? No he does not. I know you’ve said this to distract me, but I am not an empty-headed female and I will not be distracted.”
“He does nothing for others unless devotion precedes it.”
“Devotion?” she said thinly.
The smile still played about his lips. She could feel them against hers. A devil inside her wished she had given him the opportunity to truly kiss her in the stable. She had never before wanted to kiss a man. Until he had carried her from the river, she had never before wanted to press her face against a man’s chest and disappear into him.
“Impossible,” she said. “I haven’t spoken with him above three times.”
“His passions are often swift. And I have not seen him sober in months.”
She didn’t believe him. No prince, however young and foolish, would choose her as his bride over all the other ladies in the castle. That a nobleman not actually related to her was even speaking with her now was itself a marvel. “Thank you,” she said.
“For giving you hope that you may become a princess?”
“For risking your life to save mine.”
His arms unfolded. For a moment she feared he meant to touch her. “This is unexpected. I had anticipated chastisement.”