Page 14 of The Heir
She saw the grass and the mud, hoofprints from the horses and footprints from people. A few wildflowers nodded their heads here and there. A cluster of round gray stones waited in a nest of weeds.
And that was all. There was no dead man in a black coat, and no sign that there had ever been such a thing.
Jane was relieved.
Jane was profoundly disappointed.
“Miss!” Betty had not followed her down the slope. She stood at the top of the rise. “I’m done, miss! I’m going straight home, and I will tell your mother what you’ve done!”
Mother would probably not care all that much. But if Betty made enough of a fuss, Mother might be moved to complain to Father. Jane touched her bruised jaw.
“All right, I’m coming!”
As Jane turned, her gaze caught on something—a glint in the mud that was neither a puddle nor raindrops. Jane bent down and stripped off her glove so she could dig out the object. It was a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles. The right lens was cracked, and a filthy black silk ribbon dangled from the frame.
“Now, miss!”
“Yes, Betty. All right.” Jane tucked the spectacles into her bag. Now she saw something else—twin ruts in the mud, as if someone had hauled a cart to this place.
Jane turned her back and trudged up the rise. “Let’s go home, Betty.”
Chapter 6
The rooms Victoria and Mama had been allotted on the first floor of the palace were a closed circle that began and ended at the stone stairs. The space that was now the boudoir had once been Victoria’s nursery. The moss-green paper that covered the walls had faded and thinned over the years. The carpet had once been a shade of deep emerald but was now a nameless pond-water color. The ceiling was stained with fireplace soot the way the windows were stained with dust. Only the furnishings were new and comfortable—the chairs, the chests of toys, the beds, a large one for Mama, a smaller one for Victoria, and two plain ones for Lehzen and Lady Flora.
Victoria might be sixteen years old, but Mama insisted her old dollhouse be kept out on its table. The white wooden boxes that held her dolls stood beside it.
Anyone who saw this room would think that Victoria still played with these toys. They would also look at her little bed situated next to Mama’s great one and think she could not stand to sleep apart from her mother. At least they would if no one bothered to mention it was Mama who dictated this arrangement.
No one did mention it. And an alarming number of people saw this room. Mama made sure of that.
Victoria sat cautiously on the edge of her bed. The pain was everywhere. Dash left his basket and came to sit on his haunches beside her. She started to pick him up but winced.
Lehzen picked Dash up and set him on Victoria’s lap. He immediately licked her face and wriggled down to make her skirts into a comfortable nest.
Lehzen sat beside them and took Victoria’s hand.
“What happened to you during your ride, ma’am?”
“Just what I said.”
They spoke softly, both of them angled so that they could see the door and be ready to close their mouths should the handle turn.
“Prince shied, and I fell,” Victoria told her. “And there was a dead man on the green.” Her voice turned pleading. “You believe me, don’t you?”
“Your Highness would not lie to me,” said Lehzen. She spoke without artifice and without doubt. “But is it possible—”
Something inside of Victoria snapped. “I wasnotmistaken!”I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s that my back hurts, and Sir John . . . and Mama . . .“I saw what I saw. Why is it so impossible that there should be a dead man on the green? Why is everyone acting as if I said I saw—I don’t know what—pink elephants singing opera?” An idea struck her. “Hornsby!”
“The groom?”
“Yes. I know what Sir John said, but that could very well be a lie. If you went to Hornsby and talked to him without Sir John to hear, he might have a different story.”
Lehzen opened her mouth and closed it again.
“Will you go, please, Lehzen?” said Victoria. “It can’t do any harm, can it? If Hornsby didn’t see anything . . .” She paused. She petted Dash’s silky back. His presence soothed her and allowed her to think more clearly. She needed to be calm now. “If he didn’t see anything, then, well, perhaps I did imagine it.”
But I did not. Sir John lies. He may not have even gone to talk to Hornsby at all.
