Miranda rolled her eyes. "That's an argument for another day."
Kitty looked as if she would protest, but Miranda got in first. "We're heading out for a ride. Will you walk with us to the stables?" She glanced back at the palace then leaned closer to me. "We have some questions to ask you."
"We certainly do," Kitty said as we walked. "Do you remember listening in to my husband's conversation with Buxton, that sergeant and the Deerhorn brat?"
It was my turn to glance back to the palace, but no one followed us or lurked within hearing distance. "You haven't mentioned it to anyone, have you?"
She vigorously shook her head. "It doesn't matter now that the king is dead."
We were close to the gate so I signaled for them both to remain quiet. I smiled at the guards who opened the gates for us, and waited until we were out of earshot to speak again. "The question of the king's legitimacy to sit on the throne is no longer important," I said. "But it's wise not to discuss it."
"But what about…" Kitty put a hand over her mouth and whispered, "Magic? Did the sergeant prove it to my husband?"
Meg and I exchanged glances.
Miranda gasped. "Hailia and Merdu."
"Don't say a word to anyone about magic," I told them.
"No one will believe us anyway," Kitty said. "Nobody has mentioned it."
"As far as we are aware," Miranda finished.
"Oh, I am well aware of many things," Kitty said. "I've been spying on my husband and listening in to his conversations."
"Kitty! That's dangerous."
"But quite informative. Do you know what I learned?" Her strides lengthened, and considering she was quite tall, the rest of us had to quicken our pace to a trot to keep up. "I learned that he's been meeting with Violette Morgrave."
I stopped. The three of them stopped too and rounded on me.
"Josie?" Miranda prompted. "What is it?"
"Lady Morgrave is a Deerhorn," I said.
"And quite as manipulative and nasty as her mother. So?"
"I'm sure the Deerhorns believe the tales of magic. They also wanted her to marry the king so that she could become queen. If she is meeting with your husband in secret, Kitty…" I swallowed the rest of my words. It was too cruel to voice my opinion to her.
"It's all right, Josie," the duchess said levelly. "I have suspected for two days that she is seducing my husband." Kitty might not be too bright, but a woman had an instinct about such things.
"Why?" Meg blurted out. She didn't blush or try to hide her birthmark, nor look as though she wanted to slink away from the sudden attention focused on her. She simply looked shocked. "He's already married, and to a beautiful young woman too. Why would he look at another?"
Kitty lowered her gaze. "Because she could give him children and I am barren."
Meg bit her lip. "Oh. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to pry. I shouldn't have spoken out of turn."
Kitty took her hand and offered a weak smile. "You have nothing to apologize for. The truth is, my husband has grown restless for an heir and I am unable to give him one."
"It could be just a matter of time," I assured her. "It may still happen."
"I know that, and you do too, but Gladstow doesn't care. He refuses to even come to my bed, lately. He says he's too busy. But he's not too busy to meet with her, is he?"
Miranda hugged Kitty's arm. "The Deerhorns are a pack of wolves. They smell blood and attack without mercy."
"Wolves are nobler creatures than the Deerhorns," Kitty said.
We walked on in silence, and all I could think about were the implications of Lady Morgrave attaching herself to the Duke of Gladstow. Did the Deerhorns consider him the best candidate to win out of the two dukes and they hoped Violette Morgrave would once again be the mistress of the most powerful man in Glancia?
Whatever the reason, I knew for certain that she didn't intend to be his mistress for long. She intended to marry him and become queen if he secured the throne. If he thought Kitty was barren, he might agree. But that meant getting rid of his wife.
I lifted my gaze to see if Kitty knew it. She stared dead ahead, lost in her own thoughts. Miranda, however, looked as worried as I felt.
"Perhaps you shouldn't ride far today," I told them. "And not into the forest."
"But I long for a lovely sedate ride," Kitty said.
"We'll stay on Grand Avenue," Miranda assured me.
"I also think you should tell everything you just told me to the captain," I said.
"Why?" Kitty asked. "Is palace security affected by their affair?"
"It might be." Miranda and I exchanged glances. "The thing is, Kitty, your life might be in danger from the Deerhorns," I said.
Kitty gasped. "That's a diabolical thing to say! Honestly, you've become too involved in palace intrigue and can no longer see the good in people."
"I know how the Deerhorns are," I said, lowering my voice. "Lady Violette Morgrave's family murdered her husband so that she could marry the king. Is it such a stretch to think they would remove you too so that she could marry your husband?"
She blinked watery eyes and bit her lip.
Miranda wrapped her arm around Kitty's waist. "We'll stay together from now on. Send someone to fetch me if you wish to go out. Or even better, you can move into my room."
Kitty drew away. "I do appreciate the offer, dear Miranda, but your room is hardly big enough for the two of us. Besides, if I am to win back my husband, I need to be available to him, particularly in the evenings."
"Why do you even want to win him back? He's a prick for what he's doing to you."
"Miranda, language. Just because you're with Meg and Josie doesn't mean you can use village slang."
"He is a prick, Kitty, and you should wake up to the fact that he might never come back to you. You are still the Duchess of Gladstow, however, and will be until the day you die. Let's just make sure you outlive your husband, shall we?"
Kitty touched a hand to her stomach and her pretty cheeks paled. "What shall I do?"
"Be careful," I said, "and inform the captain."
Mistress Ashmole blocked my entry to the house with more conviction than any of the guards at the palace gate. Her pinched lips and flared nostrils were more forbidding than their weapons. I wouldn't be getting across the threshold unless I was in desperate need of her husband's services. Perhaps not even then.
That was all right with me. I didn't want to enter the house I'd called home for my entire life until mere days ago. I didn't want to see the changes she'd made to the rooms my mother had furnished as a newlywed or the surgery my father had died in. I did wonder if the larder was as well stocked with medicines as I'd kept it, but not enough to invite myself in.
It was one of those medicines I needed now for Dane's injury.
"Why do you need it?" she said when I asked to purchase a jar of anneece salve.
I blinked back at her. "What do you mean? I need it because I need it."