Ever After (Unfinished Fairy Tales #3)(83)
“The gun went off by accident,” Bollard says, but his eyes are on the ground.
“What’s your name? Where do you work at?”
Bollard confessed that he’s a bodyguard at a high-class casino. The police would have found out anyway, so I guess he decided he might as well reveal his identity.
Edward draws a deep breath. However, the rest of us, from the sergeant to Bertram, all look confused.
“The casino owner is an old friend of Lord Pembroke.”
Pembroke. Everything clicks into place. The wife of Lord Pembroke is—
“Bianca.” The name falls from my lips. “She hired this man to kill me.”
40
Kat
I have never seen Edward so angry before. He doesn’t express his feelings with an explosion of temper, such as slapping his palms on the table, but instead I can feel his rage radiating from him like waves. Were Bianca in the same room with us, he would have throttled her.
Bollard insists he knows nothing, but Edward continues to pierce him with his icy glare, repeating in a low, threatening tone that it’ll be easier for him if he confesses.
“If you do not want to be known as the killer of the future queen of Athelia,” Edward says, his tone as biting as the wind in Antartica, “then you’d do well to tell us everything you know. It will be the worse for you if you withhold information; a lifetime imprisonment would be the very least. However, I swear to you I shall have your sentence lightened if you confess.”
In the end, the bodyguard gives in. Lord Pembroke had indeed visited the casino, and the owner had summoned him and asked him to do away ‘that red-haired girl living with His Highness before she gets back to the palace.’ He originally turned the offer down, but Pembroke told him he’d be paid five thousand pounds. He had been lurking near Henry’s house for days. His huge frame should have stuck out, but with Bertram around, Bollard isn’t as noticeable. As I go to the park regularly in the morning, he found his chance to kill me.
Once Bollard makes a full confession and the sergeant jots everything down, Edward requests for formal proceedings to prosecute the Pembrokes.
“An assassination attempt is made on the future princess of Athelia,” he says, his expression lethal. “Schedule their trial in the earliest possible date. Have the details sent to the Duke of Somerset’s House in the city.”
The sergeant is quick to assent, bowing and apologizing.
On our way back to Henry’s house, Edward is silent, but his anger is still burning. His hands are clenched into fists; his knuckles are white. I take a handkerchief and dab away the sweat on his forehead, in an attempt to soothe him.
“Thank heavens you’re safe. If anything happened to you...if you were harmed…” His voice wavers, as though he could not find words enough to convey his fear if I were shot. “I will kill Bianca Bradshaw with my own hands. They can sentence me to jail.”
“I don’t understand why she did it. I mean, I know she wouldn’t mind getting rid of me, but didn’t she realize she could be discovered?”
“Anger can make a person lose her head. She did not expect you would return and retake the throne, a position she has always desired for herself.”
“She must have considerable influence on her husband as well,” I muse. “He was willing to risk his chance of being found out and contract a hitman, just because she wants me dead.”
“I suspect that her husband is not against the idea of you being gone. Your behavior contrasts sharply with indolent aristocrats like Pembroke, and he is concerned that the people will start to believe that those in wealth and power should act like you.” Edward lets out a sigh. “I’m sorry, love. If you married a normal person, you would not have to worry about being in the public sphere. After what happened today...” he falters for a moment. “Do you regret having met me?”
“Never,” I say with emphasis. “I’d rather take the risks than living without you.”
He breaks into a relieved grin. His arms go around me in a loving, protective embrace, and we hold each other for a long time, until the carriage stops. The future may be hazy, and there could be numerous difficulties, but with Edward by my side, we’ll get through everything together.
* * *
The news of the attempt on my life spreads like wild fire in the papers. Since the Royal Marriages Act is abolished, it is taken for granted that I am the future princess of Athelia. And an attempt to kill the future princess is guaranteed to make headlines. Bollard’s name is reported widely, but surprisingly, very few articles mention the Pembrokes, despite Bollard having made a full confession.
“I know where the Pembrokes intend to go with this,” Edward says, pointing at an article titled Madman Fires in Public Park. “They’re attempting to paint him as a man suffering from mental disorder. By declaring him insane, they will attempt to argue that his confession cannot be taken seriously.”
“But he looked perfectly normal when you questioned him in the headquarters,” I say. “He doesn’t even know me, and he doesn’t gain anything if I’m dead. There’s no reason he wants to kill me, other than that someone else told him to do it.”
“Do not worry.” He sets his jaw. “I will not rest until the Pembrokes are convicted. I will not tolerate the chance of you being in danger again.”