I ignored him, focusing on Colin. “Never mind your sister, what’s this about poison?”
“Ah, yes,” he said with relish. “Word spread as far as the city late last night, and I walked over to the palace before dawn. The story might not have reached the servants’ wing by the evening meal, but didn’t you have breakfast in the dining hall this morning? Everyone was full of talk of it. I thought for sure you’d have heard all about it already.”
I grimaced. “I just grabbed a roll on my way through the kitchens.” Of course something momentous would occur on the one morning I slept too late. “But please do hurry up and tell me what happened!”
He gave me a stern look for hurrying his story, but finally got to the point.
“Viscount Edgewaring has been murdered! With poison, the doctors say, although they don’t know which type.”
How unpleasantly dramatic, Arvin said, eyeing Colin with displeasure, as if he was at fault for the noble’s death.
I blinked several times. “Viscount Edgewaring?” The name sounded vaguely familiar. “But who poisoned him—and why?”
“No one knows!” Colin sounded altogether too pleased by this information. A note of pride entered his voice. “We have very advanced doctors in Arcadie. We’re known for it. They detected the poison right away, but it’s some fancy one they don’t recognize. So everyone thinks it must have been a rich noble. Who else could afford fancy poison?”
I shook my head, horrified, and by no means as convinced as Colin that the perpetrator must have been another Arcadian noble. “And this happened yesterday? How awful! His poor family!”
Colin looked unconcerned. “He was about a hundred years old, I reckon. And he didn’t have much family. His only son died twenty years ago, my mam says. She says it’s all very sad, but I saw him come through the palace yard a couple of times. He looked like an irritable old—”
I put up my hand to cut off whatever further insults were coming. “The poor man has died!”
What has that to do with anything? asked Arvin.
Colin seemed to agree with the horse. “Doesn’t change what he was like while he was alive. Everyone has always felt sorry for Lord Thomas—he’s his only grandson, and it can’t have been much fun being raised by old Edgewaring. Although the old man has a whole host of nieces and nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews around the palace. He even has some in Lanover, they say.”
He continued to chatter on about them all, but I couldn’t follow the various connections. I did, however, pick up that while the viscount hadn’t been a warm man, he had been held in at least a modicum of respect. According to Colin, no one had any idea why someone would want to kill him—and in such a dramatic fashion.
His mention of seeing the viscount in the yard had at least reminded me of where I had heard his name. My own brief encounter with him in the palace yard had done nothing to dispel Colin’s notion that he had been a disagreeable old man. But he had been working in the palace for as long as most people could remember—why would anyone want to kill him now?
Unless…my heart sank. Unless the person responsible had only just arrived in Arcadia.
It grew more obvious by the day that whatever was going on in this kingdom was bigger than the theft of my identity. Alyssa had come to the servants when she wanted information, and I had now had ample opportunity to observe for myself that no one spread news as well as servants. When I first lost my title, I had thought all my power was stripped away, but I was learning to recognize a different sort of power. With no connections to the court here, I would have had little access to information as Princess Giselle. As a goose girl, I had the power to go unnoticed, and to talk freely to the servants.
Previously, the geese themselves had been a problem, keeping me tied to the park all day, but Colin’s arrival changed all that. He clearly felt no need for my assistance—quite the opposite—so he had no reason to object if I occasionally disappeared.
I still wished the enchantment broken, of course—and as soon as possible. But if my godmother appeared right now and freed me from it, I wouldn’t run straight to expose Sierra. I needed to find out what was going on first, and how far her scheming went. Exposing her now might allow anyone else involved to slither away undiscovered. I would have better luck investigating the strange occurrences while I could move around and ask questions unnoticed.
A certain face intruded on my thoughts, but I firmly told myself that my desire to linger a little longer as a some-time goose girl had nothing whatsoever to do with Philip.
Chapter 13
Eager to test Colin, I waited until the geese got restless and then suggested he drive them home on his own.
“I’d like to go for a bit of a walk through the park,” I said. “And it will be good exercise for Arvin.” I knew I should ask the horse’s opinion, but I couldn’t easily do so in front of Colin.
The boy shrugged. “Do what you like. I don’t need any help.”
“Excellent. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
Colin frowned, like he would have preferred not to see me again at all, but he glanced once at Arvin and didn’t actually protest. I waved and took off, wanting to put some space between us before he changed his mind.
For some time I wandered, Arvin keeping pace in silence. The park was a great deal more peaceful without one hundred plus geese in attendance, and even the haughty horse seemed to be enjoying it.
We didn’t pass anyone else out exercising, most people having already taken themselves home for the evening meal by this time of day. But the occasional sight of a distant trio of soldiers, still completing regular patrols of the palace grounds, kept any anxiety at bay, as did Arvin’s warm presence at my side.
I stopped after a while for a break, letting my hand rest on the rough bark of an ancient oak while Arvin pushed between the trees, on the hunt for more sweet grass. Surveying the park, I let myself imagine what it would have been like to see it for the first time as Princess Giselle, riding Arvin perhaps.
I would be spending my time with Alyssa and her children, instead of Colin and the geese—and Philip. I shook my head, dispelling the vision. Sierra had intended to punish me, but I had already learned far more as a goose girl than she could have imagined.
Turning to call to Arvin, I caught movement in the corner of my eye. Spinning back, I located three figures walking swiftly across the park some distance from me. They moved away from the palace, not toward it like everyone else at this hour, but they wore nondescript clothing quite unlike the uniform of the guards.
One of them shifted, dropping back half a pace, revealing a clearer view of the man in the front. I hissed, my hands clenching into fists. One of his arms was slung across his chest in a sling.
My eyes flicked to the other two, focusing on the man who had dropped back. He walked awkwardly compared to the others, clearly favoring one leg.
“Arvin,” I whispered loudly. “It’s my attackers. Keep quiet.”
To my surprise, the horse obeyed me, appearing beside me without a sound. I pointed across the park at the men.
“There. Those three. Do you see how one of them has a broken arm? And another has an injured leg. It has to be them.” I hesitated, looking around for any sign of a patrol. None were in sight. “I want to follow them.”