I crouched, waving Theresa to follow so he wouldn’t look up and see us. We crept forward and watched the pair from between the balcony rails.
“I’m in a hurry, Your Highness.” Annoyance colored Lady Meredith’s tone, but she appeared in the garden, cloaked and hooded.
“Certainly.” Prince Colin spoke too sweetly. “I only wanted to say how glad I am that Tobiah recovered so quickly from his injury. It’s such a relief he’ll be able to take his place as Sovereign of the Indigo Kingdom, at last.”
Meredith dipped into a slight curtsy. “Indeed. I am grateful for his recovery, too.”
“Just like his cousin, James Rayner.”
I imagined Meredith’s thin smile at that; her tone reflected one. “Yes. They do have access to the best physicians, though.”
“I think it’s more than luck or physicians.” Prince Colin began to circle her. “What could have happened? How is Francesca’s side of the family so blessed, I wonder?”
Theresa adjusted the blanket over us, making the wool rustle, but the pair below was too engaged to hear.
“I’m sure you know better than I do, Your Highness, though given how many terrible things have happened to them lately, I’d hesitate to say they are blessed.”
“Hmm. I do have a hypothesis.” Prince Colin pressed his hands behind his back, his chest puffed out.
Part of me wanted to rescue her, but if she needed it, she didn’t show it at all. Meredith hadn’t moved, her cloak spread out around her like a shadow. She was a statue.
“I think it’s that foreign princess. Wilhelmina. She and he are so close. Always sharing some secret. Don’t you think?”
Meredith tilted her head, just a shift in the shadow of her sculpted regality. “I was under the impression they weren’t fond of each other.”
Beneath the blanket, Theresa nudged me, but I didn’t tear my gaze from the two below.
Prince Colin strode deeper into the gardens. “I simply do not trust the princess.” He said it as an announcement. As though anyone would be shocked. “She paraded around in another woman’s identity for months.”
Meredith remained silent.
“She’s lived on the streets for years. What does that do to a young lady? Let alone a princess.” He allowed that to sink in a moment. “It was her man who killed King Terrell. She was responsible for the Inundation, leading the wraith here. And now she keeps that creature she created—with her magic—as a pet. Tell me, why hasn’t she sent it away? Why does she insist on keeping it in the palace?”
“I cannot tell you.” Meredith’s tone was mild, and vaguely annoyed. “And while those things may be true, and those questions are important to ask, none of it signals a dangerous closeness between Princess Wilhelmina and Crown Prince Tobiah. Why would you think they have any kind of relationship?”
There it was. A shred of uncertainty edged the last question.
Prince Colin heard it, too, because he turned and appeared to study her. “This morning. Did you see the looks they exchanged?”
Again, silence from the duchess.
“It’s worth noting, too, that her response to his injury was rather . . . dramatic. Wasn’t it?”
Was it? I closed my eyes for a heartbeat, remembering the attack. Remembering the way I’d felt everything inside of me burst when Tobiah dropped with that bolt inside him.
I shuddered, and Theresa touched my hand.
“I wasn’t there to witness it,” Meredith said. “I saw a commotion too quick to immediately understand, and then the guards were dragging me inside, along with Her Majesty.”
“I see. Then you’ll have to take my word for it.”
Meredith could probably count on one hand the times someone said she’d have to do something.
If I were her, I’d be remembering the morning of Tobiah’s awakening, when she and the queen had walked in to find me already there. And the look Tobiah and I had shared as I descended the steps in the cathedral. And, if she’d seen it, the way he stood close last night, holding me upright after I’d put the building back to sleep.
“More importantly, don’t you think it’s interesting that the same man responsible for the king’s assassination is also responsible for two attempts on your fiancé’s life? And that the assassin works for Wilhelmina?”
He made such compelling arguments. I wouldn’t trust me, either.
“I worry,” Prince Colin continued, “what her influence on Tobiah will be. The grief of losing his father, the near loss of his closest friend and bodyguard, the attack on him, and now the collapse of the cathedral on top of everything?” Prince Colin shook his head, as though honestly uncertain, and honestly concerned.
“Your points are all valid, certainly, but I am not worried about Tobiah’s faithfulness. He is honorable.”