Palace Intrigue (Medieval Tale Book 3)

by Lina J. Potter

  Richard’s eyebrows went up. “I suppose you’ll have to beg your wife’s forgiveness.”

  “She’ll forgive me,” Jess waved away all difficulties. “She is my wife, after all.”

  Momentarily stunned by his cousin’s callousness, Richard said nothing.

  Suddenly, Jess looked up, his eyes puzzled. “Wait a moment. I didn’t take up with Adele until recently.”

  Richard frowned, “But someone started poisoning Lilian…”

  “A long time ago. What the hell?”

  “Does that mean two different people want her dead?”

  Jess put a hand on the king’s letter. “My uncle says nothing about the medicus.”

  “They can’t find him.”

  “I wonder why not?”

  “If I had hired him, you wouldn’t be able to find him, I know that much,” Richard said. “Who gave you his name?”

  “My sister.”

  The men looked at each other in silence.

  “According to Amalia, he is a good doctor. And he agreed to go see my cow.”

  Richard put his head down on Jess’ desk. It was hopeless. His wife was always a cow, and he felt sorry for the mistress who tried to have her killed.

  He looked up at his cousin, eyes twinkling. “Two different people out to get her. Plus the dishonest men you put in charge of the estate. You know what, Jess? If Lilian is anything at all like her father, you’ll have to get on your knees to beg forgiveness.”

  Jess gave his cousin a smile that always won the hearts of the fine ladies at court. “A woman is a woman. She’ll forgive me. She’ll have to…”

  ***

  Altres agreed with Richard completely: Jess Earton had it coming in the worst way. The jester had no wife or children, but if anyone had treated a daughter of his the way the earl treated Lilian, he would have done something cold and final about it.

  From his vantage point looking through a crack in the wall, he couldn’t see what women found attractive about Jess, either. He was tall and muscular, with dark hair, blue eyes, and a nice smile. He was smart enough to keep his father’s business going, and the jester had heard that he was a good soldier. On the other hand, he was annoyingly sure of himself and acted like women were objects.

  Altres wondered if Lilian Earton was the kind of woman who found Jess attractive.

  I’ll find out when I get the report from Rolf.

  ***

  Torius Avermal looked like he had just bitten into a lemon after reading a letter from the Countess of Earton. Someone had tried to kill her, and Karl Treloney was involved. That was unfortunate.

  I’ll have to get to the bottom of this.

  And there was another thing: Tahir had sent along a request to forward a letter to the Khanganate. Torius couldn’t imagine that any ship captain was planning to cross the gulf at that time of year, but he would send a servant to the harbor to find out. The letter would go out as soon as an opportunity presented.

  The lemon of the letter was sweetened by two new pieces of lace that Lily had enclosed. The baron looked forward to showing them to several merchants.

  A man could get used to making this kind of money.

  ***

  Adelaide Wells was not intelligent in the usual sense of the word. She knew nothing of history, music or politics, and her mental library contained no more than a few dozen jokes and a pair of funny stories she had heard—just enough to make small talk. As a rule, she believed that the less you said, the better off you were. However, she had a rat-like sense of cunning and the rodent’s ability to sense danger to herself.

  At the moment, she very clearly understood that Jess was her only shield against a dangerous world. So, after tearing up her best handkerchief and slapping her maid, she sent the poor girl to keep an eye on the earl’s room and let her know when he was alone.

  It was a long wait.

  Jess and Richard talked for a long time. Then they opened a bottle of Ivernean wine that was known to cloud the mind without making the body heavy, unlike wine from the Khanganate, which deadened a man’s legs while leaving his head clear. They talked some more, and they drank some more. It was midnight before the prince headed to his own rooms.

  Adelaide leaped into action.

  She undressed down to her nightshirt, rubbed herself all over with a perfume-soaked handkerchief, and padded down the hall. A few minutes later, she was tapping at the earl’s door.

  There was no answer.

  She pushed at the door. It was unlocked.

  Jess sat at his table. His head had fallen forward on his chest, and there were at least eight empty wine bottles around him. He raised his eyes to look at Adelaide but had trouble focusing.

  “What…do you…want?”

  “Jess, please don’t chase me away.” Before he could move, she fell at his feet. “I love you! I could never live without you! Do what you like—you can kill me if you want to—just don’t make me leave you!”

  If she had tried it a day earlier, it might have worked. Unfortunately for Adele, Richard’s words had made a strong impression on Jess. Now, he was as mad as the devil.

  Instead of the caress she expected, Adele got a hard slap in the face.

  She cringed away from him. Jess stood up and tried to kick her, but he was too drunk to make contact. As Adele skittered out the door and down the hall, Jess shook a fist at her and let loose a string of oaths that made it clear he did not wish to see her again.

  Then he staggered off in the opposite direction to find Richard.

  Back in her own room, Adelaide summed up the results of her mission. She would have to stay out of sight until her bruises went away. She would ask her maid to tell the rest of the delegation that she had fallen down some stairs. In a few days’ time, she would try again with Jess. She would also look around for another protector—just in case the earl turned against her for good.

  Chapter 5

  The Plot Thickens, and So Does the Snow…

  Richard wasn’t asleep when Jess came in. He sat up in bed and listened to his cousin’s story with an ironic glint in his eye. When it was over, he made a simple suggestion, “It is time to get rid of Adelaide, once and for all.”

  Jess disagreed. Adele was a woman; he didn’t like the idea of killing her, and he thought it would be easy enough to make her do as he wished.

  Richard was only able to get him to agree to write to his wife and his uncle more often. They also agreed that if Adele’s guilt was proven, Jess wouldn’t try to shield her from her rightful fate.

  After Jess was gone, Richard sat watching the candle on his bedside table. He knew it was already early morning, but it was still dark outside the window.

  My father taught me that every person, man or woman, acts in his or her own interests. Jess doesn’t understand that. He thinks he knows everything about women, but his ignorance puts him in danger.

  ***

  A night spent sneaking about in the secret passages in the guest wing of the palace had left Altres with much to ponder. He asked two of his men to find out everything they could about Adelaide Wells and to keep a close eye on her movements. She might come in useful if the prince didn’t cooperate and fall in love with Anna of his own free will.

  The jester also found himself exceedingly interested in another woman, one he had never met: Lilian Earton. He wanted to know more about her, but Rolf had yet to report back.

  He would watch and wait, building his plans one step at a time. Intrigue was like hand-to-hand combat, and the jester—always the professional—preferred to finish off his opponent with the first blow.

  ***

  Weeks passed, and snow blanketed the Earton estate. From the window of her study, Lily watched the snow falling in the courtyard, and she observed as Miranda and the other children made snowmen and engaged in wild snowball fights. Winter brought with it a damp, bone-chilling cold. Lily didn’t know if the dampness came from the sea or from the bogs. She just knew that she couldn’t keep the cas
tle warm, no matter how much peat she burned.

  Everyone was cold, but nobody went hungry. There was plenty of salted fish to eat, and Lily continued to distribute grain to those who needed it. Pastor Vopler told her that the people in the villages were praying for the health of their kind countess. And when she made her rounds of the castle, Lily often heard servants commenting that the countess was an odd sort of woman, but a good one…

  She was pleased. Earton was her home, and she liked to have her home in order. Miranda’s education was also coming along nicely.

  Lily remembered a lecture on psychology from long ago in her other life where the professor had claimed that parents weren’t capable of loving an adopted child the way they loved their biological children. Back then, she was too young and too busy studying anatomy to care about her psychology professor. Now that she had more experience, she would have liked to go back and tell that professor a thing or two about love and adopted children.

  That said, her love for Miranda never prevented her from teaching the girl a lesson if she needed it.

  On one particular day that winter, Lily went to listen in on the history lesson. The servants had hung heavy drapes over the door to keep the classroom warm, so Lily was able to stand behind the drapes and observe the lesson without being seen.

  The history teacher asked the children if they remembered who the founder of Ativerna was.

  Miranda shouted out “Elor the Great!” and looked very pleased with herself.

  A Virman boy frowned and contradicted her. “That isn’t right. It was Derek the First!”

  Miranda’s eyes grew round. “No, it was Elor. I know better than you do!”

  “But I’m sure it was Derek!”

  The teacher suggested that they consult their history text to resolve the dispute. Lily nodded to herself in approval.

  After a moment of silence as the two bent their heads over the scroll, the Virman boy looked up. “I was right! It was Derek, and Elor was his son!”

  Then, to Lily’s horror, she heard Miranda say, “I’m still going to be a countess, and I can have you whipped at the stable if I want!”

  Lily slid out from behind the drapery. “What is going on in here?” Her voice was low and dangerous.

  Miranda could have tried to say that she was just joking, but getting the answer wrong had made her angry. “He should keep his mouth shut. I’m the earl’s daughter, and he…”

  “Knows more than you do,” Lily finished her sentence for her. “Miranda Catherine Earton, come with me. You will have to miss the rest of this lesson.”

  Mirrie ran along behind her, trying to catch her stepmother’s hand, but Lily was as cold as the Snow Queen. Once they were in her study, she sat down at her desk and pointed for Mirrie to sit on the chair across from her.

  “What do you have to say for yourself, My Lady?”

  Mirrie sniffled. “I don’t know, Lily.”

  Sometimes the girl called her “Mama,” but Lily never insisted on it. Everything in time.

  “What do you not know?”

  “I don’t know why you’re mad at me.”

  Lily looked into the little girl’s blue eyes and felt her anger melt away. Mirrie truly did not know what she had done wrong. She was an aristocrat, and she had been watching adults behave that way her whole life.

  “Listen to me, my dear,” Lily said, her voice softer. “Why did you say you could have that boy whipped?”

  “Because he was trying to act better than me.” Mirrie was still annoyed.

  “Why shouldn’t he? He knew the right answer, and you didn’t. You wanted to punish him for knowing something you didn’t.”

  The little girl sniffled again. “I didn’t like how he talked to me.”

  “Maybe so, but you really did get the answer wrong. So, even if you’re the earl’s daughter and he’s a Virman, he knows more than you do…at least about history.”

  “But that’s not fair!”

  Lily smiled. “Who’s stopping you from studying harder? Then, the next time you argue with him about something, you’ll be right, and he’ll be wrong. That’s what I expect from the earl’s daughter.”

  Miranda looked up with a funny look on her face. “Lily, how can he be smarter than me? He’s just a Virman.”

  “How much do you know about Virmans?”

  Silence.

  “See? Not much,” Lily chided her. “Ignorance is no excuse. If you knew more about them, you would know that that boy’s father is a shipbuilder.”

  “So what?”

  “Shipbuilders are the most important people on Virma. So, I guess you could say that the boy you were arguing with is the equivalent of a baron’s son. That means that your title doesn’t put you that much above him.” She waited for that to sink in before continuing. “Mirrie, do you know why the Virman boys and girls study so hard? They understand that this is an opportunity for them to bring new learning back to their country. Can you think of a reason why you should be learning?”

  Mirrie looked around the room as if she hoped to see the answer written on a wall somewhere. “Because I’m the earl’s daughter?” she finally ventured.

  Lily snorted. “Think about all the people above you in rank. The dukes, the princes… Won’t you ever want to get married someday?”

  Mirrie nodded.

  “But who will want you? A wife is supposed to run the estate and keep an eye on her husband’s managers. She also has to be interesting to talk to. Otherwise, her husband will never want to come home.”

  Mirrie’s eyes got even bigger. “Like Papa?” she asked in a whisper

  Lily glanced away. That hurt. Still, the lesson she wanted to impart was more important than her own discomfort.

  “Yes. You can ask him about that when you see him. He’ll tell you that I used to be fat and stupid and boring. He couldn’t even stand to be around me.”

  “But I’m not fat!” Mirrie exclaimed.

  “That may be so, but you are doing your best to grow up stupid and boring.” She winked at the girl.

  “Lily!”

  “Just think. You’re all grown up and married someday, and your husband takes you with him to a royal reception. You turn to your neighbor at the banquet table and say ‘I believe it was the great founder of our nation, Simon the Eighth, who…’”

  “There never was any Simon the Eighth!” Mirrie objected.

  “I’m glad to see you know something,” Lily said, making a funny face. “But you’ll say something else equally ridiculous. Then, when your neighbor at that royal banquet table corrects you, what are you going to do? Jump up and say ‘I’ll have you whipped for that, sir!’”

  Mirrie looked down.

  Lily pressed on. “Don’t go around showing off in front of people when you don’t know what you’re talking about, Mirrie. That would make me ashamed of you.”

  A tear trickled down the little girl’s pink cheek. “How am I supposed to do better, Lily?”

  “Study. Study your lessons until you know them better than the tutor.”

  “What if my lessons are boring?”

  Lily got down on her knees next to the girl. “My dear, do you think I enjoy taking care of all the estate business?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then I’ll tell you, I don’t enjoy it. But I have to do it, and someday you will have to do it, too. If something happens to your father and me, you will be in charge here. How will you make yourself do all the work to run an estate if you can’t make yourself learn your lessons?”

  Mirrie was quiet for a moment. Then she looked up at her stepmother. “Lily, I want to make you proud.”

  Lily put her arms around the girl and kissed her. “Good. Because I want to be proud of you. Now, tell me something. Do you think the children will make fun of you when you go back to class?”

  “Yes,” Mirrie said glumly.

  “Then here’s what you do…”

  ***

  Later that evening, a glowin
g Mirrie reported back to Lily on her success in the classroom.

  “You were right. When I went back in, Bjorn told me I was too dumb to ever be a countess.”

  “Did you get upset?”

  “No, I didn’t! I told him to meet me in the hall a ten night from now to see who’s dumb. We’re going to compete on our history facts!”

  “Good. We’ll have to do a lot of work these next ten days.”

  “Will you help me?”

  “Of course.”

  ***

  Adelaide Wells was in deep despair. Her plan to seduce Jess again had failed. He was avoiding her. When he saw her at events, he acted as if she didn’t exist.

  That interfered with her plans, and she began to wonder if her life might be in danger. She was afraid to think what fate awaited her at home in Ativerna if Jess was no longer her protector. Even if the king let her live, she would be banished from polite society and forced to earn her keep as a prostitute; she had to act.

  Once her bruises had gone from purple to pale green, she paid another late-night visit to the earl’s rooms.

  “Come in,” he called in answer to her knock. When he saw who it was, his face turned cold. “What do you want?”

  Adelaide fell to her knees. “Listen to me, Jerrison!”

  “I don’t want to. You should leave.”

  “But I haven’t done anything to you!”

  His face turned red. “Didn’t you sell my gifts to pay men to kill my wife?”

  “I didn’t do it! It was Alex! If I hadn’t obeyed him, he would have married me off to someone horrible.”

  Jess sighed. He knew that much could be true. Adelaide’s dead husband’s cousin would certainly have had the authority to give her away in marriage as he saw fit. If he had demanded her jewelry, she could not have refused.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I was afraid of losing you. I love you so much…”

  “You’ve already lost me.”

  Adelaide looked down and blushed. “Does that mean that our child will never know his father?”

  The earl stared at her for a long minute. “Our child?”

  “Yes. Our son or daughter.”

  “But I…”