Chapter 14: In the Dark

Our lodging was two rooms with a door between them and a guardsman in the passage outside.

The king had not called it a prison.

But when Alaric opened the window, a second man was standing in the garden below.

"They are polite," I said.

"They are the king's," he said, and shut the casement.

Maud had gone to find a chair in some corner of the palace where she could hear gossip.

Wynne had gone with her, with a pin in her mouth and a look of purpose.

So it was only the two of us, with one candle, and the wine nobody had touched.

"The clerk," I said. "I know now whose signature he was copying."

He turned from the window.

"Mine."

"You saw it today, on the page, and the same curl was in it."

Alaric set his jaw.

"Then that is the man who made my wax," he said.

"He sat in the king's chamber today and swore he watched me sign."

"And we cannot say a word."

"Not one. The king would ask how you knew him."

"And I would have to tell him."

"Yes."

He crossed to me and stood close, not touching.

"Linnet. There is a thing I have not asked."

"Ask it."

"At the ball you looked at him first." His voice stayed even.

"I believe what you told me in the study."

"But I have to know what was in your face."

I took a moment, because he deserved the true answer.

"I looked at Edmund to see if he was afraid," I said. "He was. He had gone white."

"And?"

"And then I looked at you."

"You stood there with your hand out and your face shut, and you were not afraid of anything."

"I was afraid of everything."

"You did not show it." I put my hand in his.

"I took it because I wanted to, not because you were the lesser evil."

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