The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(61)

Or perhaps Dinah’s avid interest in the shop and her lack of surprise when Blue offered to try turning lead into gold meant something much, much worse.

“Blue?” Kellan was beside her, his hands on her shoulders. “Are you all right?”

“I need to get back to the farmhouse.” She turned toward the door.

“I’ll walk with you, but . . . Wait a minute.” He rushed to her side as she whipped open the back door. “What’s the matter? Is it me? Did I . . . I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. I shouldn’t have—”

“It isn’t you.” She turned and nearly bumped into his chest. He caught her arms to steady her, and she laid her palms against his chest.

“Then what is it?” he asked softly.

For a moment, she drew on the silent comfort of his presence while she sorted through her thoughts. Did she really believe the head of the Chauveau family had broken into her shop and stolen the first nearly successful experiment? How would that have benefited her?

Unless.

Unless she’d had Papa killed so that she could use her guardianship papers to take over Blue and the shop.

It was a sickening thought, but it was also a string of unlikely coincidences. It was strange that the head of the Chauveau family had bothered to travel to an alchemy shop in a different quarter to ask if they’d filed a complaint with their magistrate about someone paying them with false gold. Stranger still to have someone break into the shop shortly thereafter and steal the failed experiment while leaving so many other valuables behind. If Dinah had been the thief, then it was awfully convenient for Papa to be killed and for her to happen to have guardianship over the one girl who might have the solution to her financial crisis.

Awfully convenient.

“Blue, please talk to me.”

She met his eyes. “I need your help with something.”

“Anything.”

“Maybe you should hear what it is before promising.”

He met her gaze and said firmly, “Anything.”

“I need you to have the royal magistrate look into Dinah’s guardianship document. Make sure the signatures are real. Try to date the parchment. That sort of thing.”

And then she explained what she’d been doing at night in the shop. Listened to him swear as he realized the risks she’d been taking, especially after having been robbed once. Watched something cold and deadly move into his eyes when she told him she thought Dinah might have killed Papa because of the almost-gold.

“I’m taking you to the castle with me,” he said as she finished talking.

“You can’t.”

“Watch me.”

“Kellan, right now she has the law on her side. And if you make a single wrong move, you could incite the head families into declaring you unfit or going to war with each other based on which of them want to remain your allies and which are furious that it looks like you’re stripping the legal rights of someone who is one of them.” She took a step back and dropped her hands to her sides. “You told me you don’t get to choose what you want. You have to choose what the kingdom needs. It needs you to follow the law.”

He sighed. “I really hate how often you’re right.”

“You’ll get used to it. Could you also look into reports of homeless children going missing across the quarters? My own delivery girl hasn’t been seen in weeks, and she’s just one of several from this area. Some of the other quarters have had street children go missing quite regularly. I broached the subject with your mother, and she said she’d bring it up at the next council meeting, but I don’t want to wait that long. Maybe the magistrate could put some guards on the case.”

“I’ll check into it. Anything else?”

There were a hundred other things she wanted to ask. Could he hold her hand again? Promise to visit the farmhouse like he used to, even after he was betrothed?

Could they somehow remain close friends even while she had to watch him walk away?

Keeping her silence, she shook her head, put an acceptable distance between them, and together they turned to meet his guards at the mouth of the alley and begin the journey to the farmhouse.





TWENTY-SIX


TWO HOURS LATER, Kellan found his mother on a settee in the receiving room off her bedroom suite. Even reclining, she looked regal. Her spine remained straight, her evening gown draped elegantly across the settee and onto the floor, and her hair, thick as Nessa’s, was still secured in an impeccable twist at the top of her head.

“Good evening, Mother,” he said as he walked into the room and dropped a quick kiss on her cheek before settling into a chair close by.

She gave him the smile she reserved for times when she was alone with her children and sat up straight. “I see you received my summons.”

“Nessa refused to listen to any of my excuses.”

The queen’s smile widened. “That girl is just as stubborn as I am.”

“How am I to survive in this castle with two such formidable women watching my every move?” Kellan stretched his legs out in front of him and considered how best to approach his mother about Blue’s situation.

The queen had spent the day hearing requests from citizens of the realm, advising magistrates on difficult cases with the help of the castle’s solicitors, and meeting with her steward and the royal event planner to discuss final preparations for the ball that was to happen in one week.