*
She didn’t tell anyone where she was going on the night of the full moon. So far as the council was concerned she’d finished her mission at the palace, and she didn’t want to reopen the debate over whether she should have taken the job in the first place.
She let herself into the spare apartment and tried to make sure she looked at home as she waited, hoping Leon would remember to summon her tonight.
It was pitch black outside by the time the valet came to inform her that the prince required her company. She was pushed through the same preparatory regimen as before; knowing she had no need to fool him this time she felt slightly resentful of the time wasted by the endless grooming, but she had to go through this charade for the benefit of all the palace staff. If she acted in any way out of place, suspicions would be raised.
This time she wasn’t left to wait in the anteroom, but summoned immediately into the prince’s chambers. He sat in a chair by the window, waiting, and waved her to take the seat beside him.
“I trust everything is ready?” he said.
She nodded, feeling strange and self-conscious about conducting business when she was dressed in a flimsy slip of lilac fabric. “Did you do as I suggested?”
“I’ve told everyone Donna’s visiting a spa for her health.”
“Excellent.”
“In reality, as you suggested, she took a horse and rode out into the country, aiming for Pettiford at the edge of the Silver Forest. She will have found some inn or guesthouse like any common traveller. You’ll go and find her, and keep her safe, and take care of the child. And you will do it well, because if any harm comes to either of them then I will come for you with all the might of the Imperial armies.”
She looked up and met his gaze steadily. “Remember who you’re talking to. I may look like one of your other girls right now, but you don’t get to threaten me. We had a deal and I’ll keep my side of it, but I can’t guarantee your wife hasn’t already given herself away.”
“She’s no fool.”
“Maybe not, but she’s a princess. She can’t have had much practice pretending to be a normal citizen.”
“She won’t fail. And nor will you.”
“And she knows to expect me, and what I’m going to do?”
“She knows you’re going to keep her safe.”
“And the child?”
“She knows.”
“Okay. What name is she travelling under?”
“I don’t know.”
“What? How am I supposed to go into some unknown inn and ask for a woman whose name I don’t know?”
“It’s your job to make this work – you’ll find a way.”
“You’re not making it easy for me.”
He shrugged. “Don’t forget the part where I’m a prince and you’re living on my sufferance.”
Over breakfast the next morning Daniel kept staring at her across the table, though he looked away whenever she caught his eye.
“You look different,” he said once they were alone in her room. “What have you done?”
“Different? How?” She’d carefully stayed blonde since her first visit to the palace; she couldn’t believe he’d notice a few extra curls.
“Just different. And you smell of– wait, I do know that smell. You have been back to the palace.”
“Yes.”
“After everything we discussed, you went back there out of choice? After the mission was over?”
“I agreed to help Leon with his wife – it was the only way I could get out of there alive last time. Listen, he thinks his mother wants him dead, or childless at the very least. And that’s not what I signed up for, so I’m helping them.”
“You have simply decided the Empress is wrong?”
“She’s murdering her son’s children, that seems pretty wrong to me. I didn’t come here to get involved in the Empress’s family feuds.”
“You are choosing to involve yourself now.”
“I made a deal with Leon to get myself out alive, now I’m just keeping my half of the bargain. Anyway, you’re the one who said it: we’re not here to play power games for the Empress.” She got to her feet. “I’ll be away for a few days.”
“Where are you going?”
“To finish this. There’s a pregnant princess waiting for me; I need to get her out of sight until this baby is born.”
“Do you really think, if the Empress wishes to kill the child, simply allowing him to be born will deter her?”
“She’ll never know.”
“What will you do?”
“I’m not telling you. Don’t look at me like that, I’m not telling anyone, not even them. The child will just vanish. It’s safest that way. Here, you can help me – figure out what this is for.”
She reached across for the pot she’d retrieved from Leon’s room. Daniel opened it and sniffed at the contents.
“Careful,” Eleanor said. “It might be dangerous.”
“I am not stupid.” He sniffed once more at the cream, and replaced the stopper. “But I do not know this mixture. I will investigate.”
“Thanks.” She leaned across for a kiss. “I’ll be back before my next class.”
Revolution (Chronicles of Charanthe #2) Page 24