Dad Hears My Thoughts novel · Chapter 22 of 32

Chapter 22: The Witness

The palace hall was the longest room I'd ever stood in.

Gray stone, gold banners, and a throne at the far end on three steps.

Every conversation in the hall died when Tristram came through the doors.

Tristram walked up the middle of it in his green coat, with me on his arm and my pencil in my hair.

The Duke walked behind us with the baby.

Nobody had dared tell him to leave her at home.

The King sat with his chin on his fist.

Beside him the Queen sat very straight, with a bare gold crown on her head and an empty setting at the front of it.

Ralph stood at the foot of the steps with the watch captain.

Between them was a boy of about seventeen in a cutter's leather apron, twisting his cap in his hands.

I knew him. I'd seen him sweep the floor of the guild hall a hundred times.

The guildmaster's apprentice.

"Tell His Majesty what you saw," Ralph said kindly.

The boy swallowed.

"A month ago, Majesty. In a tavern on the quay. I was there for my master's pipe tobacco."

He pointed at Tristram without looking at him.

"He came in in a cloak and sat with a foreign man in the back."

"He took out a stone and showed it under the lamp."

"Describe it," the King said.

"Big, Majesty. Big as a hen's egg. It flashed. I never saw anything flash like that."

"And the foreign man?"

"He gave him a purse, Majesty. A heavy one. And took the stone, and went out to the ships."

The court murmured.

The King looked at Tristram.

"Well?"

"I've never been in a quay tavern in my life," Tristram said.

"That's what a thief would say," said Ralph.

In the Duke's arms behind me, the baby gave a little kick.

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