“Malloryn—”
The duke simply strode toward the door, ignoring her, as he was wont to do at times. He fetched his cane. “I don’t care what personal grievance the pair of you have at the moment.” He gave her a stern look. “You have a responsibility to the realm to keep yourself alive and bloody safe, and you will obey my instructions in this. Stay with Sir Gideon until we can sweep Kensington and discover who put cyanide in your cordial.”
“Malloryn—!”
The door swung shut behind the duke.
And then they were alone.
“Curse that blackhearted bastard.” The queen balled her hands into fists. “How dare he walk away? How dare he!”
But she didn’t respond to the hint Malloryn had thrown into the room like a live bomb.
Sir Gideon waited for half a minute, until he was certain Malloryn would be out of hearing distance. When he looked at her face, he couldn’t help catching his breath, for she looked like every single one of his dreams, molded into flesh.
And just like a dream, he feared his hopes toward her would evaporate if he ever dared reach out and touch her again.
“You will be safe, Alexa.”
“You shouldn’t call me that,” she said tartly.
He gave a sad little shrug. “Safe from everything—including my attentions.” At the sight of her startled look, he headed toward the door. Best to set matters straight before she worked herself into a state of nerves. Though she’d never said a word about the encounter, they hadn’t been alone in a room together ever since. “I’ll ring for some tea. I daresay it’s going to be a long night.”
Chapter 4
“What have you got for me?” Malloryn demanded as he entered the makeshift headquarters the Company of Rogues had commandeered at Kensington Palace.
“Tea, Your Grace,” Charlie said, handing him a cup of bloodied tea.
“Not precisely what I had in mind.” He took a sip regardless. “Gemma?”
The entire membership of COR was gathered around the table. Gemma lounged at the head, looking as though she’d singlehandedly broken the hearts of everyone in the court that night. Leadership suited her. And so did love. It cast a glow across her features that he’d never seen her wear before.
“We’ve questioned the maids who handled the tea service,” Gemma replied, her shoulders squaring. “I’m fairly certain the pair of them had nothing to do with the poisoning. One is absolutely distraught at the thought, and the other has been in the queen’s service since she was on short strings. She’s so emphatically loyal to the queen, I thought she was going to throw me through the window at the mere suggestion she’d had a hand in it.”
He glanced at Obsidian, who nodded.
“Both maid’s emotional reactions rang true,” the former assassin said. “It’s too easy. It’s not the maids. They’d be the first to be suspected.”
“Who else had access to the queen’s antechamber?”
Gemma started listing members of the royal household.
“Your Grace?” Ava lifted her hand. Though she was rapidly approaching the birth of her first child, it had done nothing to hamper her effectiveness as an investigator.
“Yes?”
“I suspect our poisoner isn’t an expert.”
Ava only ever spoke when she was certain of the evidence. “Go on.”
“Firstly, there were several of the queen’s favorite lemon cakes on the tray, which were also laced with cyanide. Sugar seems to dull the effect cyanide has on a body. A good poisoner would know that. Her cordial is also sweet. I haven’t finished analyzing how much cyanide was laced within the drink, but why risk diluting its effects?”
“Hmm.” He rubbed at his jaw. “Interesting. What else?”
“Barrons said rumor began circulating throughout the ball barely half an hour after the queen removed to her rooms following her dance. Alexandra said she couldn’t have spent more than fifteen or twenty minutes refreshing herself before she returned to the antechamber where Ava was waiting,” Gemma added.
It was a little eerie how well-aligned their thought processes were. Though he had completed her training. “Sir Gideon mentioned the same.”
“Which gives us a ten-minute window between the queen accepting the cordial and rumor spreading.” Gemma’s eyes narrowed. “Only the guards witnessed my assault on the queen, and you had the room locked down.”
“So there was either someone watching—our poisoner, we may presume,” Byrnes broke in, “or someone in the ballroom was aware of what was about to happen.”
“Obsidian and I will reinvestigate the queen’s antechamber to see if there are any hidden niches one can observe from.” Gemma pushed away from the table. “Byrnes, I want you and Charlie pursuing the kitchens lead. Find that cyanide for me.” She seemed to notice Malloryn was still there. “Unless Your Grace has another preference?”
He waved her away. “You’re in command.”
She arched a brow. “I hate you sometimes.”
“You were born for this role,” he replied. “And I enjoy seeing you in action.”
“Fine.” Gemma brushed nonexistent lint from her sleeve. “Then I’m going to set you and your wife into action too. None of us can question the occupants of the ballroom. Foreign princes aren’t likely to respond to servants like us—”
“I ain’t a fuckin’ servant,” Kincaid growled.
“In their eyes you may as well be,” Malloryn murmured. He nodded. “Sir Gideon heard the rumor from Lady Baumbury. I’ll set Adele upon her and see if we can trace these whispers back to their source. Anything else, my Lady Rogue?”
Gemma stuck her tongue out at him. “Don’t tempt me.”
“My search has been unfruitful,” Adele told him several hours later as she dumped her reticule on the table. “Lady Baumbury heard it from the Countess of Wessex, who heard of it from Lady Hendricks, who was in a circle of ladies when it was first mentioned, though she cannot recall where it originated from.”
“Which ladies?” Malloryn murmured.
Adele pinched the bridge of her nose. “Lady Boxden, Princess Imogen of York, two of the Russians—though Lady Hendricks mangled their names so badly I couldn’t confirm their identities—and Lady Abagnale.”
“Hmm.” He eased away from the table. Rumors were difficult to trace, though Adele had done better than he expected. “There are five female members of the Blood court here in London currently.”
“You favor the Russians?”
“Lady Boxden is a wealthy widow who lost her cruel husband in the revolution, thanks to the queen. She’s barely shed a tear for him. Princess Imogen is a snake, but she’s the queen’s cousin. She likes the comforts such proximity affords her. And Lady Hendricks might have the capacity for such maliciousness, but she wouldn’t be able to keep word of it to herself. I don’t know the Russians, but the Blood court is infamous for poisonings.”
“But why would they go to so much trouble when one of their princes is courting the queen?”