Chapter 9: Tea With The Queen

The Queen did not wait to be announced.

She walked into Hadrian's study in the small hours in a traveling cloak, with Sorrel behind her and four guards at the door.

I had barely time to button my dress.

The Queen was sixty, thin and straight, with a face like a closed purse.

She looked at the scattered papers on the floor and the torn buttons by the desk.

She did not comment.

"Lord Marshal," she said.

"I am told you are keeping Lady Rosamund Hallowell in your house."

"Your Majesty was told correctly."

"I am told she has a vial of poison, and that it was found in her maid's apron."

"Your Majesty was told incorrectly," Hadrian said.

"It was placed there by the Prince's guards."

"Sorrel tells me otherwise."

Sorrel stepped forward, eyes wide and wet, with her hands folded before her.

"Your Majesty, I never wished to say anything," she whispered.

"But Lady Rosamund has hated me since the day I came to court."

"I've been afraid to drink anything she touched."

"I know it was foxglove, in honey, because I tasted it once at the Spring Ball, in a cup she poured."

"I have been so frightened."

It was a lovely speech.

It would have been a perfect one, except for that single detail.

I looked at Hadrian, and he looked at me.

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