Chapter 6: His Lie

Every face in the meadow turned to me.

I stood in the ditch in the Emperor's arms, soaked to the waist, with my missing knife somewhere in the world and nobody's word but my own.

In the book, this was where the captain searched Vivi's saddlebag and found the silver knife.

I looked across the meadow at my grey mare.

A groom had caught her bridle.

He was already reaching for the bag behind her saddle.

"I wasn't in the stables," I said.

My voice shook.

"I was in bed."

"Of course you were," Rose said gently. "I must have been mistaken. It was so early, and the light was so strange."

She said it the way you'd forgive a child.

It was worse than an accusation.

Lady after lady on horseback was looking at me with the same face.

The groom held up the saddlebag and opened it.

"Lady Montclair was not in the stables at dawn," the Emperor said.

The groom froze.

Every head turned the other way.

The Emperor hadn't let go of me.

His arm was still around my waist, holding me up out of the water.

"She couldn't have been," he said. "She was with me."

Nobody made a sound.

A hound whined somewhere in the trees.

Then the whole meadow exploded at once.

A lady actually screamed.

Two lords started talking over each other.

Prince Lucan's mouth fell open, and for one second he forgot to smile.

Rose's face went perfectly white.

I turned my head and stared up at the Emperor.

He wasn't looking at me.

He was looking at the captain of the guard.

"Is that clear enough, Captain?"

"Yes, Majesty."

"Find out who cut that strap. Start with the grooms who saddled the pony."

He finally looked down at me.

His face was calm.

His heart under my hand was going very fast.