He Chose the Wrong Sister novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: The Queen's Test

The Queen held her hearing in the long audience hall, with the prince on her left and Hester's chair on her right.

Rosalind sat beside her mother in a white shawl.

She was pretending to be ill again, and she did it badly.

Cade stood behind my chair with one hand on the back of it, still grey, still on his feet.

The old surgeon stood in the middle of the floor with a guard on either side and iron on his wrists.

The Queen was small and white-haired and never raised her voice.

"Lady Tarrant lays a charge," she said. "That this man dosed the Warden of the Northmarch with monkshood."

"He did, Your Majesty," Hester said gently. "I fear for the poor Warden's mind, to have been so ill and so alone."

"He was not alone," Cade said. "I was with my wife."

"Of course you were, my lord."

"The monkshood was in a cup that came from your kitchen, Lady Tarrant."

Hester put a hand to her heart.

"I would never."

"The maid who carried it has vanished," I said. "I would be glad to know where."

The Queen looked from one of us to the other and tapped the arm of her chair once.

"We will come to the cup. First I want to know why a surgeon who saved a man's life sits in irons."

"Because he is a liar, Your Majesty," Hester said.

"He told the court's gossips that the Crown Prince carries a girl's sewing thread in his own body."

"He does," said the surgeon.

A murmur went down the hall.

"Say that again," the Queen said.

"Left shoulder, three fingers below the collarbone." The old man held up his chained hands. "Green silk, grown into the flesh."

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