They Gave the Doomed Duke the Wrong Bride novel · Chapter 9 of 32

Chapter 9: My Servant

I let go of Ned's hand.

"Stay with the cook," I said.

"Who is that?"

"Stay with the cook."

I walked across the square in my sister's rose wool with the fox collar.

The crowd made way for me, because the crowd had just watched me get a sergeant fined.

Rook saw me coming.

He shook his head. Very slightly.

I ignored him.

The two bounty hunters straightened up. One was big and bald. The other had a long face and a pistol in his belt.

"Good afternoon," I said. "What's this man done?"

"Vagrancy," the long-faced one said. "And brawling. He broke my partner's nose in the inn yard."

The bald one had a nose like a squashed plum.

"He hit me first," Rook said into the mud.

"Quiet, you."

"He's mine," I said.

The long face looked me up and down. "Yours?"

"My driver. I hired him in the capital. He went to buy oats this morning and didn't come back, and now I find him with his head in a board. I'd like him out, please. I have forty miles to make before the snow."

The bald one laughed.

"Nice try, my lady. This one's wanted."

"For what?"

"Never you mind for what."

"I do mind," I said, raising my voice, "because if he's wanted, there's a warrant, and if there's a warrant, the magistrate signed it. Did he?"

The crowd was listening now.

The magistrate had come out on his steps behind me, still holding his pen.

The long face glanced at him and lost some of his confidence.

"Private warrant," he said. "From the palace."

"For whom?"

He didn't answer.

"You told half the riverbank two nights ago," I said. "You said tall, a scar in the left eyebrow. You said the Prince pays double if he's breathing. You're hunting a man who was at the Gallow Pass."

The square went quiet.

"There was one famous man at the Gallow Pass," I said. "The Crown's own decree says he's dead. I heard it read at my wedding. So either you're hunting a dead man, or you're calling the Crown a liar in the middle of Fennick market."

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