She pulled out a handkerchief and blew her nose. She wasn’t going to cry about it, she wasn’t. She was angry.
“Who prepared the milk?” he asked when she had mastered herself.
She gave him a bleak look. “Me. I heated it myself, and took it up to him. Not one other person touched it, or touched the cup after I washed it.”
He frowned. “So how did they do it?”
“He’d poisoned the entire jug of milk. One of the servants put some in her tea. She was very sick, but she’d used just a few drops of milk, not a whole cup.” She shuddered and wrapped her arms around her body. “He didn’t care how many people he killed, as long as Nicky died, too.”
“Count Anton?”
“Yes, he is next in line for the throne after Nicky.”
Mrs. Barrow clicked her tongue. “Such wanton wickedness!”
Callie nodded. “He is truly evil.”
“So that’s when you ran.”
“Yes, I’d thought of escaping for some time, but when that happened, I knew I had to act.”
“You didn’t try to have Count Anton arrested?” Gabe asked.
She threw up her hands. “Of course I did. I told Count Zabor—Uncle Otto—he is uncle to both my husband and Count Anton, and currently the regent, ruling on Nicky’s behalf until Nicky turns eighteen.”
She threw up her hands in frustration. “Uncle Otto thinks I am just a silly woman. He thinks I mollycoddle Nicky too much, and ‘worry my little head over nothing.’” She mimicked his voice. “It makes me so angry the way they all think they know better.”
“Who do you mean by ‘they’?”
She bared her teeth at him. “Men, of course.”
“Of course. I suppose you showed them the poisoned milk.”
“No, because when the kitchen maid got sick, the other servants threw the bad milk out. I couldn’t prove anything. And though I knew it was Count Anton, he wasn’t even in the palace at the time. Besides, poison is such an unlikely weapon for him to use. He’s known and feared for his ungovernable temper…”
She shrugged and mimicked, “‘Milk goes off sometimes, and people get sick, Princess. And young pups taken too soon from their mother can die. That is sad, Princess, but it’s life.’”
She looked at him and added fiercely, “But the puppy wasnottoo young to leave its mother. And the milkwaspoisoned. So, yes, I will run and run and run, if it will keep my son alive. What other choice do I have?”
“You can’t keep running. Count Anton must be stopped.”
She nodded. “Yes, I know I should shoot him, but I don’t think Icankill a man in cold blood. If he was attacking Nicky, I could, of course, but—”
His lips twitched. “That’s not what I meant.”
“You mean I could pay someone to kill him? I know, but that would make me just as wicked as Count Anton. And I don’t want my son to have a murderess for a mother.” She frowned and looked at him indignantly. “Besides, I don’t want tobea murderess.”
“I’m very glad to hear it,” he said, amused. “And don’t look at me like that, I didn’t suggest you should murder anyone.”
“Then what did you mean?”
He gave her a long look. “I have a plan,” he began.
“And we’ve gotdozensof leeches!” the crown prince of Zindaria announced from the door. “And some of them are still on me!” A wide grin split his face. Mud and water dripped from him. He was utterly filthy, and as happy as she’d seen him for…ever.
“Nicky, look at you!” Callie exclaimed. “I thought Tibby—”
Tibby stepped into the doorway. Mud and water dripped from her. She, too, was utterly filthy. “I tried to stop him falling in, I truly did. But I slipped.” She met Callie’s eye and started giggling. “I’ve never been so dirty in my life.”
