“No, I don’t. Unless Prince Reynauld himself has been going around poisoning people against him, I have no reason to believe anyone else but the Earl of Southbury is behind this.”
Now that was a thought.Prince Reynauld himself. Jade hadn’t considered the prospect before, but the man had made it clear he wasn’t above killing people he deemed a threat to his rule—namely, his promise to carry on the practice of eliminating magic-wielders.
Marguerite picked up her cup again. Thunder boomed outside. “I doubt anyone else who’s still living has such a threat from Marchand, so it’s no surprise he’s not in anyone’s sights. I imagine many people think my father responsible.”
Jade’s heart pounded like the hooves of a galloping horse against hard-packed earth. Marguerite had all but provided her the opportunity to ask about it. As Marguerite took a sip of tea, Jade asked, “Why is that?”
“He’s rich, he’s powerful, he’s abrasive,” Marguerite answered with a shrug. “He’s used to getting what he wants, and what he’s tried to do so far in pursuit of the throne hasn’t worked. But he wouldn’t start going around killing people.”
The trick here was to tread lightly. Even if Marguerite had said she supported Arabella, she likely wouldn’t appreciate accusations about her father.
“But if what he’s tried hasn’t worked, what might he do differently?” Jade fixed her face into an expression of casual curiosity and asked with a lightness to her voice that implied she was only mildly invested. The question was a bit of a reach, but she had to try something.
Marguerite stiffened and wetted her lips before again placing her teacup on the table. She then folded her hands in her lap and turned to face Jade. In her eyes, Jade saw Marguerite’s mind whirring. She was choosing her words carefully.
“My father has alternative means to aid him as he seeks the throne.” Her voice came out flatter than before. She was on the defensive. Whether she assumed ulterior motives from Jade or simply sought to keep her father’s secrets wasn’t clear.
Jade couldn’t push further without making herself suspicious, so she redirected her line of questioning. She grabbed a cake from a plate on the table to add an air of indifference to her behavior. “But you support Arabella, yes? That’s what you said at the masquerade.”
With a tilt of her head, Marguerite slowly faced Jade. “I like you, Elena. I’ve believed you were a kindred spirit since the moment I met you. But nothing I say to you can make its way back to Alanna, or any of the extended royal family, for that matter.”
Jade answered with a quick shake of her head, her heart hammering. “Of course not.”
Marguerite straightened, her face losing its usual mask of insouciance and hardening into something Jade had not seen before. The Marguerite Jade had known sloughed off like a snake shedding its skin, revealing a different person underneath.
The pounding of rain on the windows almost drowned out Marguerite’s words. “Then I’ll tell you that I am not on Arabella’s side. I support my father, of course. His methods may be a touch unseemly at times, but with the end of the king’s line and the truth of my father’s claim, I believe the rule should be his.”
Jade forced herself not to react. Marguerite’s sudden transformation, her revelation...what other secrets was she keeping?
“But Arabella—”
“Arabella is playing us all for fools.” The bite in Marguerite’s tone was venomous. “I have no reason to believe she would have stooped so low as to have her competitors and their supporters killed—it’s not in her nature. But she isn’t as compassionate and magnanimous as she’s led on.”
A crack of lightning lit the room with a flash. The way the light flared highlighted Marguerite’s features, making her resemble Lord Grannam more than Jade had ever noticed before.
“How so?” Jade asked before taking a bite of cake, but her mouth was so dry that the fluffy dessert was more akin to a gag.
“She says she wants to bring an end to the practice of eliminating magic-wielders, but I’m certain it’s only a tactic. She’s never cared about protecting them before. I’m nearly positive she’s using it to gain the support of magic-wielders, to have them on her side, even if it does spark controversy.
“I even asked her about it. All she said was that she uncovered something that happened within our family eleven years ago and it changed her views on the matter. When I further questioned her about what it was, she refused to tell me. She said no one could know yet.” Marguerite scoffedand rolled her eyes. “A convenient excuse. Simply a way for her to get away with her lies.”
Jade tried to even out her breathing and took another sip of tea to wash down the paste that had been her cake. She didn’t want to believe Arabella could have been using the stance as a tactic. She couldn’t. She would need someone on her side whenever she had worked her way to grand general.
It wholly contradicted what she had witnessed at the dinner party, from both Arabella and Marguerite. Perhaps Marguerite was biased, and it was affecting her judgment.
Then an image of Arabella’s handwriting came to Jade’s mind, a letter she’d seen in that very palace only weeks before.
In the letter, she had expressed her sentiments about the practice of killing magic-wielders and told Grannam she discovered something her father had been responsible for eleven years ago. Either she wasn’t lying or she had been especially careful to tell the same story to both uncle and cousin. But it was quite a specific reason to change her views on the established practice.
Which was exactly why Jade needed to find out what Arabella had discovered.
This was her own lead, and she would follow up on it. No Matherson, no Devereaux, no Nicolas. It would be a way to prove that Jade wasn’t only as good as the information others gave her, that she hadn’t relied solely on other people to get her to where she was. Her talent, skills, and hard work had carried her thus far and would continue to do so.
“It’s a shame, really,” Jade said after she’d finally cleared her mouth of food. “I thought she would make an excellent queen.” Though some of truth filled her words, she tried to play it up as though it was a passing thought. She sighed with a dramatic raise and lowering of her shoulders. “I suppose it doesn’t matter in the end. The most likely scenario would be for Prince Reynauld to assume the throne, as expected, and all of this will have been for naught.”
Marguerite hummed. “I suppose we’ll see,” she said, then took another sip of tea as thunder rumbled beyond.
Jade eyed Marguerite over the rim of her cup, relaxing her expression before Lord Grannam’s daughter noticed anything unusual. Then she took another cake as Marguerite changed the subject to the opera and what she had loved about it.
