“And how is Aunt Corilyn? Formidable as ever, despite everything?”
Harrison chuckled. “You know my mother too well to doubt it.”
Her cousin. I examined him again with the knowledge of their relationship and could see some similarities. Mostly about the eyes.
“What are you doing here all alone and dressed like that?” he asked her.
She frowned. “Max is worried, and so are his parents. I am too, of course. It’s been one thing after another, and now a murder in our own home. None of us are supposed to be leaving the palace, but I told Max I needed to get out, just for an hour or two to visit you. He made me promise to come in disguise.”
Harrison raised his eyebrows. “I’m surprised he didn’t send a squad of guards.”
Alyssa sighed. “He would have liked to, of course, but that would have attracted all sorts of attention. And we decided no guards and a disguise were safer than giving myself away with just one or two.”
Harrison, who had been gazing around the yard, stiffened, his eyes on me. “Alyssa, I think someone’s recognized you.”
I kicked myself for sitting there staring at them like an idiot. An obvious idiot.
“What? Who?” She swung around, her eyes alighting on me. “Oh, Elle!” She waved me forward to join them, and I reluctantly slid down and did so.
“Who is she?” Harrison’s eyes moved to Arvin, trailing behind me, and he whistled. “Now, that is a fine horse.”
I sighed internally. No wonder Arvin had such a big ego when he constantly elicited such reactions.
“Elle is our goose girl,” Alyssa explained. “But she used to be Princess Giselle’s personal maid.”
Harrison, his attention caught, transferred his stare to me, and I couldn’t blame him, given my strange history.
“But what is she doing here?” He fixed me with a piercing stare. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m guessing she was exercising Arvin,” Alyssa said.
“In the city? Without a saddle?” Harrison’s voice sounded disbelieving. “I thought you had a beautiful big park for that.”
Alyssa smiled. “Apparently he doesn’t like saddles. Or halters. And maybe she wanted a change. She spends every day in the park.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I tend to let him have his head, and he decided to come here.”
“Perhaps he recognized my old girl from the stables.” Alyssa patted the horse who still stood at her side. She smiled at me. “I’m starting to get the impression he is the true master, and you merely dance to his tune.”
I gave a wry chuckle. “That sounds like a fairly accurate summation of our relationship, Your Highness.”
Harrison hissed at my use of her title. “Watch yourself!”
“Sorry!” I whispered.
“We need to get out of the yard.” Alyssa took command of the situation. “Harrison, you find someone to take care of the horses. Elle and I will wait for you in your sitting room.”
Harrison looked at me uneasily. “You’re bringing the goose girl with you?”
Alyssa shook her head at him. “You should know better than to think there’s any use trying to hide the state of things from servants. And besides, I have a good feeling about her—and you know my instincts about people are rarely wrong.”
Harrison took Alyssa’s reins from her hands, muttering something from which I caught the words pride and fall, but he made no further actual protest. Alyssa grabbed me by the upper arm and hauled me after her through the tap room to a private sitting room at the back of the building. She let me go as soon as she had the door safely closed behind us.
“Do feel free to sit down. Harrison should only be a moment.”
I remained standing, shifting uneasily from foot to foot. “I didn’t mean to intrude, Your Highness. I can leave.”
Alyssa shook her head. “I didn’t want to admit it to Harrison, especially after I was so determined to get out of the palace, but I had the most horrid ride down here. I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was following me.”
I grimaced, but she just grinned.
“Now I know it was only that strange horse of yours, I feel a great deal better, but I still don’t relish the idea of a solitary ride back. And Harrison is too well known to accompany me. He would give me away. You, on the other hand, will be the perfect, inconspicuous companion.”
The door opened, and Harrison appeared, slipping quickly inside.
“I feel as if I’ve suddenly become involved in some sort of espionage,” he said, sounding less than thrilled at the prospect.
“Not at all,” Alyssa assured him, unwinding the scarf from her head and freeing her golden-red curls. “I just want to find out what you’re hearing here at the inn. What’s the mood of the city?”
Harrison frowned and ran a hand through his hair. “In truth, it hasn’t felt like this for a long time.”
Alyssa sighed and sat on one of the small sofas, gesturing for us to do likewise. I imitated her, but Harrison strode to the small fireplace.
“I don’t mean to say that people are unhappy with the throne. It’s early days for that. They haven’t yet forgotten the last twelve years of prosperity.”
“But they will soon enough. If this goes on.” Alyssa rubbed her head and glanced at me. “Is it the same in Eldon, Elle? Do the people have short memories?”
“I think everyone does when they’re scared.” I thought of Celine. “Although some things are hard to forget. Our people spent a long time under a curse, and they haven’t yet forgotten their gratitude for being rescued.”
“Celine!” Alyssa clapped her hands in apparent delight. “I heard about that.” She leaned forward. “Is it true she can throw fire balls from her hands? I was hoping she would give us a demonstration.”
I smiled. “Yes, it’s true. We were fortunate she came to Eldon when she did.”
And fortunate she fell in love with my brother. When she became our crown princess, she had bought the royal family a great deal of goodwill from a terrified populace. The people had found themselves suddenly released from a curse with few memories of the previous two years but overflowing gratitude for their savior.
But there was no Celine here to rescue Eldon this time. It was up to me to protect my kingdom. And yet I sat there, like a lump, unable to think of anything helpful to say.
“Fire balls wouldn’t be much use against this enemy,” Harrison said, clearly not sharing my confidence in Celine. “Not when you don’t even know who the enemy is.” He looked sharply at his cousin. “Unless you do?”
Her shoulders slumped. “Not the least idea. Viscount Edgewaring was…”
“A bore?” Harrison supplied. “With never a kind word to say? Heartless toward that poor boy left to his care?”
When Alyssa gave him a pointed look, he just grinned. “I’m only repeating the things we hear in the inn—as you requested.”
Alyssa grimaced. “Well, yes, in truth he was all those things. But he didn’t exactly have any enemies. The man spent his life with his head buried in endless paperwork. For all his personal faults, he was an excellent Lord Chamberlain. And he’d been in the position since before King Henry took the throne.”