This Time, I Accept Your Brother's Claim novel · Chapter 22 of 32
Chapter 22: Framed
Every face in the garden turned to me.
I'd seen that look before.
Fifty years of it, down the long table, whenever Lucinda laughed at something I'd said.
"My father gave that case to the King," I said. "In front of every pack on the ridge. It's been in the palace a month."
"It has," said a dry old voice.
The oldest Alpha came across the grass on his stick.
Two of the other Alphas walked behind him. So did Piers.
"Which is why my men went across the lake at dawn, with the captain's leave," the old man said. "To the Fairlie cellar."
He held out a small paper bag.
The captain took it from him and looked inside.
His face went still.
"An empty vial," the old man said. "Behind the racks. Where the case was laid down."
"That's not mine."
"Nobody said it was, Your Majesty." He smiled. "Yet."
My father pushed through the crowd from the garden rooms, still in yesterday's tweed, his hair wild.
"What is this?"
"Elder Fairlie." Piers spoke for the first time. "I'm sorry. I have to say it."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of This Time, I Accept Your Brother's Claim are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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