Lucien ran a hand over his face, blowing out a noisy breath. “Insanity, to sum it up in a word. We were just leaving a restaurant, having had lunch together, and were headed back into work. Four people jumped us as I handed Helena up into her carriage. I fought them off, and Dame Verd managed to knock off the man trying to seize the reins. It was a pitched battle. We lost two of them, but the remaining abductors were knocked out in the process of the fight. We’ve brought them both here.”
I opened my mouth to say, well, something, at any rate, when I heard the noisy footsteps of a man running from behind me. I turned, anticipating James, and was proven right in a second. He flew through the door, almost needing to skid to a halt on the carpet, and didn’t stop until he had his arms around Helena. She hugged him back, her fear visible. For her brother, she’d let her guard down, it seemed.
“You’re okay?”
“Not harmed,” she promised him, her whisper low against his shoulder. “Lucien and my knights drove them off.”
“For which I’m profoundly thankful.” Sitting back, he looked her over carefully. “How are you otherwise?”
“Mad I didn’t get a hit in.”
Now why wasn’t I surprised by her answer? Helena was no pushover.
“What happened?” James demanded.
Lucien gave him the same quick summary he’d just given me. While he did so, I thought of an immediate follow-up question. Several, really. “Who attacked? Did you recognize anyone?”
“That’s the thing.” Helena looked both vexed and perplexed. “I recognized at least one person as being Princess Valentina’s footman.”
The whosit?
It was such a strange answer, it took me a long second to wrap my head around what she’d said. Why him? “I must assume he did so under her orders, but why?”
“We’re also very confused,” Lucien growled. “Wasn’t she on a ship heading home?”
“We actually got a report saying she hadn’t made it back yet.” I felt the inevitable headache arrive. Anytime Victor or Valentina entered the conversation, a headache always appeared. “I swear to you, she boarded the ship, but she must have turned it around at some point.”
James rubbed his forehead. “Although that doesn’t answer why. Why target you? You’ve never done anything to her directly that I know of? Aside from that pettiness you and Edwin cooked up.”
“Aside from that, I haven’t. At least, nothing to warrant this.” Helena spread her hands in a shrug. “I don’t know either. Unless she meant to get me as leverage against you? I’m the easiest one to snatch. Royce is surrounded by people and neck-deep in a hospital lab most of the time. You’re even more protected.”
“It could be.” James frowned even harder, and I could tell he was thinking this through carefully. “I’m still puzzled, though. Why now? After she’s left? Or was this something she set up ahead of time and it’s only now playing out? No, that makes even less sense. I’m not even sure if the why matters right now. If she’s really the one behind the attempt, and I see no reason to not leap to this conclusion, then we’re on the brink of war with Ascor from her actions alone. I do not want a war, but we must stop her somehow.”
Ye little gods, a war? No, thank you. That would be a horrible way to start off our reign. We were just now climbing back up to a place of true peace and stability!
“You said both of them were knocked out?” James barely waited for their nods before turning his head and calling, “Dame Verd, can you escort one of them in here? I want to question him.”
She popped her head in to answer. “We’ve kept them nearby, Your Majesty. I’ll fetch one immediately.”
“My thanks.”
A war… Was that why Valentina had truly come, to start a war? Surely not. We’d not provoked Ascor in any manner. A war didn’t make any sense.
Wait a damn minute.
What if the reason was something else? What if the abduction attempt was retaliation? For kicking Valentina out, for denying her James. We knew how petty she could be, how low she would sink. She knew Helena and James were close. She couldn’t easily reach me, but Helena wasn’t even in the palace most of the time. She was taking over James’s company, so she was outside the palace and therefore easier to access.
If she was capable of this kind of pettiness, then we’d need to react appropriately. But the overall picture didn’t look good, and my instincts said something was off here. First Victor disappeared, Helena was almost abducted, and no one had any idea where Valentina even was—something bigger was going on.
But what?
Dame Verd reentered, the would-be abductor in tow. He was strangely docile, not fighting her at all as she pulled him into the room. His hands were cuffed in front of him, but he moved like a man going on a stroll. What was this?
James stood as the man was ushered in, his eyes growing steadily wider. I’d never seen him so stunned, and it conversely worried me. What about this man had prompted such a reaction?
In a strangled tone, James uttered, “Fuuuuuck.”
I couldn’t take the suspense anymore and stood next to him, resisting the urge to shake answers from him. “What?”
