Strike at Midnight(44)

“No,” the young guard said, “only his horse. But the staff rode out and found him unconscious about half a mile out on the lands.”

“Was he injured in any other way?” I asked, throwing another question at him. But this was important. If the guy had been injured, then it was doubtful someone would have gone as far as inflicting injuries on their person to impersonate someone.

“No. Just unconscious,” he replied, and then the older guard stepped in front of him.

“That’s enough,” he said again, and he crossed his arms over his puffed-out chest to prove a point that the conversation was over. That was fine with me, and his balls could stay intact. I had everything I needed and more.

If this Billy or Iain had wheedled his way into the job, then it wouldn’t have taken much for him to have followed Lord Camembert when he had ridden out. He could have arranged something under the saddle to have startled the horse or knocked the poor swine off. But he had definitely been involved.

These lands were large, so I was sure they weren’t guarded all the way around like the Royal Castle was, even if they did have the pretentious guards posted at the entrance. It would have been easy enough for someone to sneak on and take the place of Lord Camembert, and it would have been easy enough for them to sneak off with the original.

“Then I’ll leave you be,” I said, ignoring the smug look on the older guard’s face. He looked like the cat who got the cream thinking I was walking away because of his manly behavior. Well, he could keep thinking that.

“Good day, kind sirs,” I added sarcastically before mounting Jessie. “You may wish to check your borders. Can’t be too safe nowadays.”

It made me very happy when the smug look dropped from the older guard’s face at my comment.

Point to me.





*



Well, that had been a lucky break, I had to admit.

After the visit at the Crickets’ lands, I hadn’t been expecting anything from the Camemberts. But all hail for chatty guards, that’s what I say.

It had been a decent ride back, so I decided to go back home first and drop off Jessie before going to the Inn of the Briar Rose. It wouldn’t take me long to get there on foot later, and I could have something to eat while I was there. Any excuse for their food.

It was afternoon when I made it back to Melodies, and I wasn’t surprised to see Rapunzel already waiting for me when I walked inside. She was sitting at one of the tables laughing with Melody herself, who waved me over when she spotted me. I begrudgingly walked over and sat next to them.

“Hey, Rell,” she said, and I took a seat with them. “Any luck today?”

We had the bar to ourselves, as many of the revelers wouldn’t start piling in until the hints of dusk, but I still didn’t want to have to talk to them. It would soon come around to talking about the prince, and that was something I had successfully avoided so far.

“Good, actually. I have a few leads.” I looked at Rapunzel. “How about you?”

“Nothing,” she said, and her face fell. “No one of Billy’s description worked on either of the lands, so it was a dead end.” It was evident that she was getting more and more worried about the duke’s well-being.

“Hopefully I have something,” I said, then I realized I also needed to tell her about last night’s events because it had given us a big freaking lead. Damn it.

“Yeah,” Melody said with a big grin on her face, realizing it too. “I’m looking forward to hearing all about last night.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“What about last night?” Rapunzel asked, and I relayed everything from the missing detail of the undercover job at the ball to meeting my so-called Lemonade Guy who turned out to be the Prince of Carena.

“Oh my goodness,” Rapunzel said, trying to hide a smile.

“Just laugh already,” I said, waving my arm at her. “Get it out of your damn system.”

She did laugh then.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “but I can’t believe you asked him to fetch you drinks all night.”

“It was only twice,” I said, and I frowned at her. “How was I supposed to know who he was? I didn’t know what he looked like.”

“You could have asked for his name again,” Melody said, and I gave her the finger.

“I wasn’t exactly there to make friends,” I said, feeling a bit grumpy. “But the point of all this is that we now know other people may have been targeted, and the imposter duke’s appearance was potentially changed by magic. I’ve also got a lead today from the Camemberts.”

“What?” Rapunzel asked, leaning closer. I could tell her hands were itching to get her quill to make notes.

“It looks like Lord Camembert was targeted too, because someone of Billy’s description did work there in the stables, by the name of Iain Weatherby. They said that he didn’t turn up after Lord Camembert had an accident on his horse, and they thought it would be out of fear he would be blamed for it because he had worked with the horses that day. But we know better.”

“And did they point the finger at him?” Rapunzel asked.

“There was no need. Lord Camembert told them that the horse got spooked by a small animal and that he had got thrown off. The staff found him after the horse returned without him, but he was only unconscious. No other injuries.”