Page 106 of Ruling the Green

“His face fell right in his plate,” another woman added, getting a few snickers.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, feeling like I was missing an important piece of information.

“The poison,” the first woman said. “She was so slick with it, too.”

“What poison?”

“The poison your wife slipped into her fake-father’s wineglass,” Mendalyn said, brows pinching. “Didn’t you know?”

“Serin wouldn’t… she wouldn’t know how…”

“I bet it was Stillwater,” another woman mused. “A Daughter of the Lake would know all about that.”

No.

She wouldn’t.

Would she?

But then my memory flashed back. To the damn redcaps. To the way they were being carried out on a stretcher, looking as gray and limp as Grimwood had.

If she was working on a little poison project, though, why had she been keeping it from me?

“You know who she is?” I asked.

“I worked for Grimwood when I was a girl,” the woman told me. “I know Gemma. That’s not Gemma.”

“You’re right,” I agreed. “Grimwood kidnapped, drugged, and put Serin in Gemma’s place. But she is my wife. And she will be my queen when I take my throne.”

“Well, a queen who will discreetly drug your political enemies certainly seems like an asset.”

“I saw her saving that young girl,” one of the small, young women in the back said from where she was perched on a top bunk.

“Wait. You saw her? Serin?” I asked, hope swelling. “When? Was she hurt?”

“There was blood all over her face, but it wasn’t hers. She was dragging a girl around with her, trying to get her to safety. But things were getting too wild. I fled back here. I didn’t see anything else.”

She’d been spotted, though.

Uninjured.

Well enough to help someone even more vulnerable than herself. That had to count for something. I had to believe that she could get them both back to the palace.

Because the other reality was too unthinkable.

“The other scouts should be back soon,” Mendalyn, seeming to read the direction of my thoughts, assured me. “They will have more information.”

“Would they also have information on Vishen and Nira?”

“Their instructions were to keep a close eye on everyone closely related to the royal family.”

“Do you want us to see to that?” she asked, nodding toward my face.

I reached up, feeling wetness on my cheek.

There’d been a sword. A slice of pain. But then the adrenaline had made me numb to it.

“No, I’m good.”