“No, you go on. I need some good honest labor to clear my head tonight.”
The boy was silent for a long moment, which was fair given that Georgie was not one for menial tasks, but then he said, “My thanks, my lord. God bless you and King William!”
“God bless,” Georgie muttered, watching the boy disappear andthen stepping into the stall where James was hidden. “Where have you bloody been, Jamie? Everyone thinks that you were killed in the Blackreaches after you went running off alone like a madman.”
It seemed that, for better or worse, Lestara had kept the truth that he was alive close.
“I was captured by the Beast,” James replied. “Imprisoned in the Furnace.”
“My God!” Georgie gave a slow shake of his head, and then his eyes brightened. “It was you who killed that one-balled menace, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, during my escape.”
“But where have you been since? You’ve been gone for a long time.”
James’s throat tightened on the truth. Admittinganythingfelt like a risk, but Georgie had been his best friend his entire life. They’d fought at each other’s backs in countless battles, spent endless hours in the worst conditions in the Lowlands together, and Georgie hadalwayshad his back. He trusted Georgie with his life, but more than that, James needed allies who had sway in Harendell, and the Cavendishes were the most powerful family after the Ashfords. No one would ignore Georgie—they couldn’t afford to.
“Alexandra killed my father,” he forced himself to say. “My mother as well. Ahnna is innocent.”
His friend’s expression tightened. “They say the women of Cardiff are witches, but Ahnna Kertell makes me question whether Ithicana has a better claim to the title. You saw her with the bloody knife in her hand, and yet now you believe her innocent?”
“It wasn’t her.” James gripped his friend’s shoulders. “Alexandra orchestrated my father’s murder and framed Ahnna, and that’s only the beginning of what she’s done.”
“Says who? Ahnna? God, Jamie, she must be a sorceress in bed to make you believe this bullshit.”
“Katarina confirmed it and more before she locked me in her prison.”
George shook his head in disgust. “Right. You want me to take the word of the Crimson Widow, and that Ithicanian whore—”
“Don’t call her that.”
James’s grip tightened to the point Georgie winced and said, “Fine. But I need an explanation. A full explanation, mind you, because a lot has happened in your absence.”
“There’s no time. I need your help,” James said. “I need to speak with William without Alexandra knowing, and I need you there to witness.”
“You want me to help you accuse Alexandra of murder?”
“Yes.” James ran a gloved hand over his head, relieved to have his friend on his side. “If you’re there, he’ll have to listen.”
Georgie huffed out a breath. “Or he’ll just cutmyhead off.” When James’s lips parted to say that was highly unlikely, his friend interrupted him with a wave of the hand. “Yes, yes. I know he won’t do that, but I also don’t think that he’ll turn on Alexandra so easily. He’s a mummy’s boy, Jamie. Always has been and always will be. We need hard proof if you want anyone to believe that Alexandra stabbed herselfthreegoddamned times in order to frame Ahnna for the king’s murder. Who stabs themselves? That’s madness!”
James grimaced, because that was precisely why Alexandra’s actions had worked so well on him. “She didn’t kill my father herself, Georgie. For one, I don’t think she’s strong enough to have managed it, and two, she’d have been covered in blood, but Ahnna said she wasn’t. I think Alexandra watched the deed be done, but someone else had to be the knifeman. If we can find him, or her, and get them to confess, that will be our proof. You have the lists of people in the Sky Palace that night.”
George gave a soft snort and then began unsaddling his horse. “Long,longlists, Jamie. And short of torture, no one is going to confess to killing the king. I believe you, truly I do. But I’m afraid that if we push this, Alexandra will only find a way to put us both in the ground.”
James stepped out of the stall, making room for Georgie, and then followed his friend down the hallway to the tack room.
“Honestly,” Georgie said, putting the saddle on a rack and thenhanging up the bridle, “part of me questions whether you’re better off walking away from this. Go somewhere no one knows your name and live a good life.”
Anger filled James’s chest. He’d come prepared for his friend not to believe him, but he was not prepared for apathy. “How can you suggest that? How can you stand there and say that I’m better off disappearing rather than seeing my father’s murderer brought to justice? Not just my father, but Virginia’s father.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Georgie’s cheeks flushed red. “I’d do anything for Ginny.Anything.But I fail to see how this benefits her. William has agreed to let me wed her, and she’s already begun planning the wedding. He’s not going to let the man who condemned his mother marry his sister! If I do this, I stand to lose a great deal.”
James clenched his teeth. “So you’ll make a life with Ginny while withholding this truth from her? You’ll sit down for endless dinners with Alexandra knowing what she has done but not caring, because you got whatyouwanted? Ginny would want to know the truth, and she would not hold it against you if you were the one to reveal it.”
“I need to think about it,” Georgie snapped. “Goddamn it, Jamie. You’ve dropped a mountain of shit on me and you won’t give me but a heartbeat to think before demanding action? Give me a day to decide what I want to do.”
Unease grew in James’s stomach. “What will change in the space of a day?”
