Olivia’s features remained smooth. Utterly unreadable. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the pamphlets,” she muttered under her breath, glancing about at the Queensguard still encircling them. “I just didn’t want to worry you, honest. If you bite your nails any shorter, I’m afraid you’ll start gnawing through your fingers next.”
Seraphina twitched away, burying her hands within the folds of her skirts. “Sir Arkwright? Give me and Mistress Olivia just a moment.” With a tight smile, she promised, “We will not wander off.”
The moment her Queensguard retreated just enough to afford them the illusion of privacy there in the middle of the dimly lit corridor, she rounded on her oldest friend and demanded through clenched teeth, “Now will you stop being cagey for once in your life and tell me what you meant before?”
Olivia finally met her gaze. “I meant that every night at this time, the Crow leaves the palace. He won’t be in his room. Assuming that was where you were originally going.”
A disbelieving huff escaped from her. She wanted to deny it. Of course she hadn’t been going to seeAldric. She had no reason tosee him. There was nothing further they needed to discuss until it was time to solidify plans for Arlund…
“Well, where is he then?” she heard herself asking, even though she didn’t truly care. What did it matter where he went? What he did?
But for some reason, her curiosity gnawed at her, prompting her to press when Olivia didn’t immediately answer. “What could he possibly be doing every night at this hour?”
Her friend crossed her arms over her chest. Arching her eyebrow, she quietly asked, “Do you truly need to ask me what a man would be doing slipping off every night at this hour?”
For the span of several moments, Seraphina just stood there, her mouth flapping open and closed uselessly like a fish out of water. Her thoughts sputtered like a candle’s flame on the verge of being snuffed out at any moment.
She now understood what Olivia was trying to tell her.
But she didn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe it.
Obviously intent on driving the point home, her friend muttered with a clinical matter-of-factness, “He goes to visit with a woman. She has a little cottage in the woods within the King’s Forest.”
Every night, Aldric went to see a woman. A woman with a cottage.
Suddenly, the air within the hall was too close. Too thick. Seraphina struggled to draw in a proper breath. She wanted to laugh. The idea was absurd. So terriblyabsurd.
But for once, Olivia wasn’t laughing. She was merely staring at her again.
Entirely too aware of her Queensguard standing nearby, no doubt eavesdropping, she lowered her voice to a mere hiss and asked, “Are you trying to tell me that Aldric Hargrave keeps a mistress?Aldric Hargrave.” A disbelieving laugh escaped from her throat at last. “And within riding distance of my palace, no less?”
Without so much as a blink, Olivia quietly confirmed, “That is precisely what I am trying to tell you, yes.”
No. That was impossible. It didn’t make sense.
He hated her. He seemed to hate all women.
“But he has barely been in Elmoria for any time at all,” she protested aloud, gesturing vaguely while her mind whirred, trying to think of how many weeks had passed since he first arrived at court. “When would he even have had an occasion to…tomeetsomeone?”
Someone else. That is what she had almost said, but she snuffed out that final word before it could skip off her tongue. She was nothing to the Crow. He was nothing to her. They were merely allies. Engaged for politics alone.
Breathing out a quiet sigh through her nose, Olivia took a single step closer and whispered directly against her ear, “He brought her with him, Sera. She came with him on the ship from Drakmor.”
Time seemed to slow as the implication of Olivia’s words crashed down over her. A mistress. The Crow had amistress. He had brought her with him from Drakmor.
Her mouth ran dry. Her stomach twisted. “But that would mean—”
“She has been here the whole time, yes,” Olivia confirmed quietly. Reluctantly. Her friend clearly didn’t relish sharing this startling news with her.
Especially when the other woman whispered, “And she must have been with you at the summit on Nerina Reef, too.”
Chapter nine
Olivia
Guilt knifed her heart like a hot blade as she watched Seraphina storm away from her in a swirl of dark blue velvet and wounded pride, finally heading in the direction of the chapel.
She hadn’t wanted to tell her like this. She had even dared to hope the topic would never need to be broached. Who cared what the Crow did in his spare time? This wasn’t a love match. His extramarital activities didn’t matter.
