The Girl He Sold Returned as the King's Mate novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: A Line Through His Name
Astrid strikes Crispin Ponsonby from the Crown's hiring list in front of the Royal Council and stakes her post on a public hearing. The first witness's carriage comes back empty.
The new list of candidates from the Royal Academy reached the King's strategy room on a Tuesday morning.
I read it standing up, and I stopped at the sixth name.
Crispin Ponsonby. Top marks. Riverbend Pack.
Once he had split his last heel of bread with a hungry girl on the dock steps, and I had thought him the kindest boy alive.
I drew one line through it with my stylus, in front of the whole Royal Council.
"Crispin Ponsonby sold a nine-year-old girl to a traveling carnival," I said.
"I don't care how good his marks are. He has no business serving the Crown."
The councilor in charge of appointments went gray.
"Careful, Astrid."
"He placed second in this year's assessments. Five evaluators checked his policy report, and there isn't one irregularity in his file."
"He climbed out of the poorest dock district in Riverbend on scholarships and night shifts. If you block him without proof, every student who sat those exams will ask what the Crown's word is worth."
I set my stylus down.
"I'm not questioning his report," I said. "I'm questioning the hand that wrote it."
"That hand inked a drugged little girl's thumb and pressed it to a bill of sale."
Nobody at the long table moved.
A few councilors traded looks, sure I was chasing a rumor.
An inspector cleared his throat. "Appointments are not to be bent by the King's private affections. Ponsonby's residency, school and Pack records are all clean."
"You have just called a man a child trafficker, Investigator. If an inquiry proves you wrong, what do you lose?"
Alpha King Alaric Rooke sat at the head of the table with his eyes on me.
He let the question hang.
"Astrid," he said, low and even. "Do you know him?"
I had been Astrid Giffard since the day I walked through the castle gate.
The Healer who pulled me out of the labor camp had given me that name.
The girl I was born as had not been spoken aloud in thirteen years.
I met Alaric's eyes.
"I do."
"So I am asking the Royal Justice Office to reopen the Riverbend dock disappearance from thirteen years ago."
The councilor frowned. "What does an old missing-child file have to do with Ponsonby's appointment?"
"Everything, once it's solved."
He opened his mouth to argue, and I was quicker.
I unclipped my royal medical investigator's badge from my coat and laid it on the table beside the list.
"My post and my name are the bet."
"If I'm lying, I give up every royal office I hold, and I never ask this King for another favor."
My sleeve slid back when I let go of the badge.
The number on my wrist showed, 0917, burned into the skin, with a small crown beside it.
The carnival master had put that crown on every child he kept.
Alaric looked at my wrist.
Then he looked at the badge for a long moment.
He knew this was not favoritism.
Three years ago, rogues had ambushed him at the northern ford and put an arrow through his shoulder.
The arrowhead was coated in wolfsbane, and his wound would not close.
I was the one who named the poison from the wound and traced it to a clerk in the Royal Guard's medicine stores.
If all I wanted was to ruin a man for a grudge, I would not be asking for a public inquiry.
At last Alaric turned to the list.
"Crispin Ponsonby's appointment is suspended."
"His assessment papers and his file are sealed. The Royal Justice Office and the Council's inspectors will examine them together."
"In seven days there will be an open hearing in this castle. Academy delegates, the press and Riverbend's officials may attend."
The councilor had no choice but to bow to it.
When the room had emptied, Alaric slid the badge back across the table to me.
"You still won't name the witnesses."
"They're on the road. If their names get out early, someone will reach them first."
He was quiet.
"How many guards do you need?"
"Twelve."
"You'll have thirty. The witnesses go under royal protection, and their travel logs are sealed to you alone."
I pinned the badge back on my coat.
"Thank you."
Alaric took my hand, and the pull of his Alpha's power was steady, not heavy.
"In front of them, this is the Crown vetting a man who will hold public power," he said. "Not a King helping his mate."
I nodded.
For thirteen years nobody with a throne had cared who I was.
The door opened before I could answer him.
Beryl Quinlan, captain of the guard I had just been given, stood on the threshold with mud to her knees.
"Investigator," she said. "Your first witness never reached the river station."
"We found the carriage on the river road, empty. His coat was folded on the seat."
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