“As in... kill her?”
“Probably,” Declan said. “Which perhaps she knew. I would have never done it, but maybe she ran away because she feared for her life? I cannot say. I’ve not been allowed to investigate what happened because they tossed me in jail.”
He thought about the night he was summoned to the palace and his meeting with the brothers of the future king.
“The royal dukes have denied that they wanted her killed. Not that it matters. They are sons of the king. I am hired staff—or more accurately, I was a pawn.”
“But what do you mean?”
“The prince’s brothers were intentionally vague with their orders. This is not uncommon in my work, so I wasn’t alarmed. Sometimes I’m hired to make something happen with detailed precision, other times my employers prefer that I work out the details and don’t tell them how. This was one of those times. The suggestion was essentially, ‘Take her to France and make certain she doesn’t come back.’ ”
“Oh dear.”
“Indeed. But I made it very clear that I would not harm an unsuspecting young woman—I would not harm any woman.” He sighed. “I’m not in the business of violence toward innocent people, no matter how irritating.”
Helena snorted. “Was she horrible? Totally unsuited to be the future queen?”
“So horrible,” he confirmed. “Based on my very brief time with her, I’d wager she’ll be a disruptive force, whatever she becomes, and that includes time on any throne. But I’ve no interest in palace intrigue. I told the dukes that I’d escort her to France but Iwould not harm her. They assured me that harm was never their intention. They toldme Miss Snow hadagreedto go. She was excited to travel to the Continent and enjoy her aunt’s villa in Nice. Honestly, I think they gave her money to go away.”
“So, you escorted her, and—”
“And when we reached the French seaside, she gave me the slip.”
“This I cannot believe,” said Helena.
“It does no good to deny it. Believe me, I’ve tried. The crushing regret will be with me forever.” Declan stared into the dark street, shaking his head.
He went on. “Knightly Snow was a difficult charge but hardly someone I considered a flight risk. I underestimated her, a stupid, amateur mistake.”
“But how did she do it?”
“Bribery. I suspect she had collaborators.” He exhaled heavily. “We’d been under way for nearly two weeks. We had another day’s travel to reach her aunt’s villa—this was near the town of Marseille. I’d arranged for rooms at an inn just south of town.
“Like every night along the journey, I’d posted men outside her door for her own safety. It never occurred to me that she would bloody run away. She’d given me every indication of being a willing traveler, eager for a holiday in the care of her aunt.”
“Declan,” Helena pleaded, “why didn’t you tell me all this before?”
“My legal problems are not yours to bear, Helena,” he said. “You’ve enough to sort out.”
“I piled my burden on you. I didn’t give it a second thought.”
“Yes, but—”
She held up a hand and interrupted. “Tell me the rest. Say what happened, and we shall bear it together.”
Declan took another deep breath. “I took the first shift outside her door at eleven o’clock and the last shift at sunrise. She slipped from her room in the intervening hours. The men guarding the door were trusted members of the palace staff. They’d been added to her retinue to smooth the way. The dukes wanted her gone, not uncomfortable. We traveled with ten servants in all. I’d not worked with these men before—they were glorified footmen—but they’d proven themselves trustworthy to this point. And again, she’d given no indication of anything but compliance. It never occurred to me that she needed to be contained.”
“So these men abducted her?” Helena guessed.
“No. They allowed her to leave the inn. They denied everything and claimed she crawled out the window, but I scoured the room and saw no sign of this. I believe she paid them to allow her to go. They resigned from service as soon as they returned to London and both men are currently enjoying a pleasant retirement with a fat pension no one can explain.”
“But what did you do when you discovered that she was gone?”
“I did what I’ve always done: I began to hunt her down. But first I sent word to the palace. Itfelt like the responsible thing to do. What if she turned up back in London?”
“Did the royal dukes seem... alarmed? I suppose they’d wanted this all along.”
Declan shrugged. “I was occupied trying to find her... drumming the ground, shaking every tree. They made no reply.”
