Midnight Jewel (The Glittering Court #2)(120)

Since coming to Adoria, I’d imagined and adapted to countless scenarios. An opportunity like this never crossed my mind. It had never even crossed my dreams. Independence. The chance to really and truly help others in a fair way. I could give Lonzo a job when he arrived. “It’s amazing, Mister Garrett. Really. I’m flattered you even considered me. And yes . . . I do want it. I just hope you’re right about paying off my contract.”

“Eh, I’ve faced worse problems. And if we really are on the verge of closing in on the traitors, you’ll get that absurdly high reward that Grant promised without consulting me.”

“My reward,” I reiterated. And Grant would get his too. My brilliant, exciting career suddenly felt hollow as I accepted that it’d be without him. He’d be off with the Balanquans, away from me, away from everyone here. He liked working alone, though. Or did he?

Maybe . . . maybe you’d like to see the lands up north.

My breath caught in my throat as Grant’s words came rushing back to me with a sudden, impossible revelation. Beside me, Silas said something about us being on the outskirts of Crawford, but I barely heard him. My mind flew far from this sunny road. I was back in Grant’s dark bedroom when he’d nervously hinted that I might go with him to the Balanquans.

I’d been too mad at him that night to even consider it. When Aiana had later explained the deal’s strict conditions on who could go with him, the implications of Grant’s offer hadn’t hit me. And even when I’d admitted to him that I would like to travel with him, I still hadn’t thought about my role. I just wanted to be with him—at least, I did until my priorities with Lonzo had dragged me back to reality.

Only the ambassadors and their families are allowed—wives and children, people like that. No friends or well-wishers. Not even servants or bodyguards.

Wives.

What had Grant been asking of me? Had he even known what he was saying? He’d been so hesitant each time the topic came up, as though he couldn’t acknowledge even to himself what he was doing.

Had he—in his bizarre, complicated way—been proposing marriage?




The rest of the morning passed in a daze. I put on a good performance for the potential buyer—an older man who reminded me a lot of Rupert—and convinced him I’d grown up around all sorts of fine art in Myrikos before falling in love with an Osfridian merchant who’d brought me here. If I’d had the painting on me, he would’ve handed over the money then and there.

But even as I smiled and chatted, all I kept thinking was: What had Grant meant?

Silas and I made good time back to Cape Triumph, and he left me almost immediately. “I’m testifying just before lunch and need to be on hand at the trial. If you don’t want anyone to notice that you’ve been gone, wait until the recess when you can blend in with the crowd.”

I made myself comfortable in a grassy clearing just off the lane, my mind still full of the day’s developments. When I heard the sound of voices growing in the distance, I hurried to the courthouse. I slipped in easily among the lunch-seeking crowd and was just in time to see the prisoners being led away. I almost looked right past Cedric. His arm was in a sling, and bruises shadowed his face. He wore rumpled and worn-out clothes, whereas Warren and his men were clean and smartly dressed. I thought about the day I’d met with Cedric in the church, when he’d been so stylishly dressed and hadn’t had a hair out of place. I never would have recognized that man as the one who walked by me now.

Adelaide and Aiana met me at the door. Adelaide’s face was pale and drawn, and I slipped my arm around her as we left to eat. “Everything’s going to be okay,” I said automatically.

“It was awful, Mira. Awful.”

The biased tribunal hadn’t allowed Cedric to fully tell his story, and the line of questioning had assumed he was already guilty. They’d accused Adelaide of deceit and loose morals when she testified. Warren, however, had been met with sympathy. He’d had time to polish his story, and his men had backed it up.

The afternoon session proceeded as the morning one had. When the trial ended for the day, only a few witnesses were left to testify. They’d have to do it first thing in the morning, which disappointed the crowd. Governor Doyle had said he’d see the sentence carried out immediately, and many had hoped to see an execution today.




When Aiana and I returned to Wisteria Hollow, I was in no mood to hear gossip. I slipped into my room and stayed until after midnight. Only then did I creep out in search of food. I hadn’t had an appetite for most of the day but was ravenous for the stale tarts I discovered. A shadow appeared in the kitchen doorway, and I jumped.

It was Gideon Prescott, the young man from Grashond. He and the other Heirs of Uros had lingered to wrap up some trade in town and kept saying they’d be leaving soon, but there was always some new delay. “I’m sorry,” he told me. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Did you just get in? There’s some food over there.”

“Thank you.” He accepted a tart. “I was in town later than I expected to be. I . . . I think I helped your friend. Miss Bailey. At least, I hope I did. I’m not sure.”

I set my food down. “What do you mean?”

“I approached her tonight, offering to help. I was friends with Tamsin—Miss Wright, and I just felt like it was something she’d want me to do.” He looked away for a moment before continuing. “Anyway. I suggested Mister Thorn buy a share in a new colony called Westhaven—”