Her eyes narrowed with stubborn defiance, and he kissed her again before adding, “Obviously not. You’ll escape, and then plan my rescue. I look forward to being the damsel in the tower this time.”
Zarrah scoffed, then cast her eyes to the ceiling. “I’m glad you reserved these words for me. Don’t say anything so foolish to Virginia.”
The humor was an act, but Keris smirked anyway. “Our future does not end beneath Harendell’s stars, love. If for no reason other than it’s impossible to see them in this cursed foggy country. We will make it home, and then we will make everything right.”
He reached for the door just as it opened, a guard staring at him in surprise. “I need to take my dog for a walk.”
The man blinked. “At this hour?”
“She ate one of my shoes. I think her stomach is distressed, and being stuck in this shithole is bad enough without it being covered in actual shit.”
“Fine.” The guard jerked his chin at his fellow. “Watch her.”
Clipping the leash to Fiona’s collar, Keris went into the hallway and then made his way outside into the courtyard where the dog did her business. The guard dutifully followed him as he went back in through another set of doors, strolling through the lower corridor until he found the painting he was looking for.
Loosening the slack on the leash, he pretended not to notice as Fiona circled the guard’s legs, tangling him up.
“I thought these dogs were supposed to be well trained,” the guard muttered as he tried to unravel himself. Keris took the opportunity presented by the distraction to slip his hand behind the portrait where Zarrah had told him she’d hidden the documents referencing cattle and wasting disease.
There was nothing there.
Was it the wrong portrait? Or had they been found?
He kept walking, then slipped his fingers beneath another portrait, finding the worn page of Edward’s letter, which he shoved in his pocket.
The guard managed to untangle himself from Fiona, turning a glower on Keris. “Control your animal, Your Highness.” He shoved the end of the leash into Keris’s hands.
The banking documents were no longer his asset, which meant his strategy needed to pivot. “Fiona is quite uncontrollable, I’m afraid.”
They carried on, walking past the rooms he knew belonged to Virginia, a single guard standing outside. Light filtered out from beneath the door, but he kept walking to the next set of doors.
“Hold on to her.” Keris dropped Fiona’s leash, and she kept trotting down the hall. “I’m going to find something to read, and she’s prone to chewing books.” Fiona reached a potted plant and made to do some business behind it.
Cursing, the guard raced after her, leaving Keris to his own devices. The library doors were richly carved to resemble bookshelves, the metal handles molded to resemble book spines. He went inside and shut the doors behind him. A single lamp burned on one of the tables, and he turned it up bright.
He’d already pursued the contents of the Ashford library many times, so Keris swiftly found the book he was looking for. Sitting on a chair beneath a portrait of a queen of old, he flipped through the pages and began to read aloud. It was an old epic, filled with romance and heartbreak, and through the hole behind the portrait, he suspected that Virginia Ashford could hear him clearly.
It was just a matter of whether she was willing to talk.
She delivered something better than a conversation through a hole in the wall, for it was not many pages later that a set of bookshelves swung inward and a young woman stepped through the opening. Virginia wore a velvet dressing gown of black with matching slippers, her light brown hair pulled back from her face in a loose braid. She used a cane, but it struck Keris that she barely needed it in this room, for she moved with total confidence to sit on a chair across from him.
“Don’t stop on my account, Your Highness,” she said. “You read very well.”
Though time felt short, Keris carried on until he reached the end of the poem, then shut the book. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Your Highness.”
Her mouth curved. “In the middle of the night, luring me in with romantic poetry and your reputation.”
“Is that what I did?” Keris hated this. Hated using tricks to manipulate this princess who had barely stepped into adulthood. A young woman who wore grief as thick as the black velvet of her garments.
“Yes, and I confess that I’m disappointed.” She smoothed her dressing gown. “I’d heard your love for the empress was a story for the ages. That you lived and breathed for her. That you had eyes for no one but her. It gave me faith that such love was possible, and to find you seducing me when she’s in another room in this very palace is…heartbreaking.”
Keris considered her words, never forgetting that Virginia was an Ashford. Born and bred for manipulation, and by the rumors, she was the cleverest of the three siblings. She had the capacity to manipulate him, but there was a hollowness to her that could not be easily feigned. “Put the pieces of your heart back together, Your Highness. I did lure you here but not for the purposes of seduction. My wife is the only star in my sky.”
Virginia gave a dreamy smile. “She is fortunate.”
“On the contrary, the night she tried to light my palace on fire was the most fortunate night of my life.”
The princess’s smile turned into a grin and she kicked her feet, settling back farther onto her chair. “My faith is restored. Now shall we turn to the reason for this secret sojourn, this conspiracy of the darkest hour.”
