When Rosamund opened the door to her family home, she found Catherine Howe, her head covered by a dark hood.
“Is the maid here already?” Catherine asked as Rosamund motioned for her to come inside.
“She is. Though we didn’t expect you to be so quick.”
Catherine took her hood down and shook out her pretty brown-gold curls. “When someone asks for information from the Howe spies, it is never long in coming.”
“Very well,” said Rosamund. “Bess is waiting down this way.”
They had taken only a few steps when three little girls ran squealing past, batting at each other with small wooden swords, and knocked Catherine up against the wall. They were so frenzied and focused on their battle play that they clogged the narrow hall, and Rosamund had to scoop up the smallest one and put her on her shoulders in order to let them pass.
“My apologies,” Rosamund said, and then laughed as the little girl beat her about the head with the wooden sword butt. “It is often this way in an Antere house.”
Catherine squinted up at the little girl as she bashed Rosamund’s skull. “Doesn’t that hurt?”
“A little.” Rosamund reached up and prodded the child in the ribs until she surrendered in peals of laughter. Once they cleared the hall, the girl slipped down and tore off in the other direction to rejoin the game. Rosamund gestured through a doorway. Inside, Bess was already waiting, seated at a table before a bottle of whiskey and three cups.
“Shouldn’t you close the door?” Catherine asked, looking behind them.
“Are you so afraid of a few little warriors?” Rosamund chuckled. “Never mind about the door. My mother is resting and my brothers are deep into a card game in the kitchen with their wives. And besides, all are loyal.”
“To you or to the queen?”
“To both,” Rosamund said, her voice sharp. “So we may speak freely.”
“Sit, Catherine,” Bess said, and poured her a cup. “Take some to ease your nerves. Or would you prefer wine?”
Rosamund placed her hand on Bess’s shoulder and planted her in her chair. “You sit. You are not a serving maid here, Bess, but a member of a ring of spies.”
Bess exhaled and pressed her cheek against the warrior’s fingers. “I know that. But we should still make her feel at ease. She is quite distressed.”
“I’ve noticed.” Every candle in the room had been burning higher since Catherine entered. And having known Catherine since even before her time on the Black Council, Rosamund knew that her talent was for the element of earth. She must be nervous indeed to affect the flames so.
“Come now, Catherine. You can’t have found anything that troubling over the course of so few days!”
Catherine’s lips pressed together. “But I have. And it was not only over the last few days. My spies have been moving for months.”
“Months?” Bess gasped. “But why?”
“We elementals are better at detecting shifting sentiments upon the air,” Catherine replied. “Since I came to the Black Council, I have always kept a bird or two circling. I would always know what is being said of the queen.”
Rosamund drank and refilled her cup. “And what is being said?”
“At first, that the queen was frivolous. Changeable. That she did not listen to her advisers, which in truth, she does not often.”
“The queen follows her own mind,” Rosamund snapped.
“Yes. In everything. And it has not gone unnoticed. The people, and the Black Council, have become accustomed to war queens, who command raids and battle and leave the governance to those better suited to it. Elsabet has taken some of that back.”
“Is that not her right as queen?” Bess asked.
“Whether it is her right or not, it has embittered the council. I suspect that someone has been planting rumors amongst the people of the queen’s foolishness. I even suspect that the king-consort may have a role to play, driving her to jealous outbursts in public.”
“To what end?” Rosamund asked. “To make her unpopular?”
“To undermine her. I do not know, truly, what their aims are. But I fear for the queen’s reputation and the recklessness of those whom I suspect.”
“Out with it, then. Whom do you suspect?”
Catherine’s delicate features pinched together. Her complexion was just a bit too tan to ever show a flush, but had she been only a little lighter, Rosamund was sure her whole face would have appeared bright red. “I am using measured words,” she said, speaking slowly as if Rosamund were hard of understanding, “because I am not sure. But if I am right, then I am also sure that there is no limit to how far these people will go.”
“What people?” Bess leaned forward and grasped Catherine by the hands. When Catherine still hesitated, Rosamund slammed her fist down, rattling the cups.
“What people? Enough games. We came to you. You know we can be trusted.”
Catherine drained her whiskey and set the empty cup aside. “Last night, two of my spies were in the king-consort’s party of an evening.”
Bess’s eyes widened. “Your spies lay with the king-consort?”
“Many of my spies have lain with the king-consort,” Catherine said. “I keep many comely spies.”
“Unimportant,” said Rosamund. “What did they see?”
“They retired with him in an inn, seemingly for the night. Once there, he proceeded to get them more and more intoxicated on ale until they fell asleep. One of them awoke when he crept from the room, and followed him.”
“Where did he go?”
“Not far. Another room. The girl was able to spy inside and able to listen. According to her, what was taking place inside the room was unmistakable.” Catherine paused so the three of them could trade sour expressions. “She waited, hidden, until nearly dawn, when the king-consort and his paramour left. The woman was dressed commonly, but my girl swears that beneath the common serving clothes was none other than Francesca Arron.”
Bess sank back in her chair. “A member of her own Black Council.”
Rosamund sank back as well and ran her hand roughly across her face. “And a foolish member at that. Francesca Arron will lose her head for this and for what? A good-looking boy?”
Bess’s eyes widened. “Rosamund, you don’t think that Elsabet will have her executed?”
“Francesca is a member of her own Black Council, as you said. The queen cannot let it stand.”
“Unless it could be kept secret—quiet—if perhaps Francesca would beg forgiveness and swear to stay away from the king-consort—”
“You are both missing the point!” Catherine Howe pushed away from the table, and every candle flared. “If Francesca Arron is involved, it is not about one good-looking boy! She is only using him to further her own ends!”
“And what would those be?” Bess asked.
“I do not know,” Catherine replied gravely.
“It doesn’t matter.” Rosamund poured whiskey up to the rim of her cup. “Elsabet is the Queen Crowned, and there is nothing Francesca Arron or anyone else can do about that. And whatever her plans may have been, we have found her out. We’ll go to Elsabet. Surround her with loyalists. You and I, Bess and Gilbert. And I will be ready to arrest Francesca as soon as our queen gives the order.”
Catherine looked at Rosamund curiously. “You are Elsabet’s friend. Are you not afraid?”
Rosamund bared her teeth and snorted. “What is there to fear? She’s the queen. It’s not as if they can kill her.”