Page 40 of The Queen's Crown
Markis immediately stepped forward. “What’s wrong?” he demanded.
“Someone has been in my room.” She opened the door wider, granting him entrance. She wanted him to check everywhere to make sure an assassin wasn’t hiding somewhere. Like in her dressing closet behind an outfit.
“Are you certain?” Markis asked, stepping into her room flanked by two additional guards. The remaining guards stayed in the hallway.
She nodded. “Has Claire been here?” she asked. Maybe her lady’s maid had been tidying up.
“No, Your Highness,” one of the guards answered.
The only other feasible option was the man who’d murdered Alina had returned to kill Sabine.
The three guards began searching through her room, looking under the bed and in her closet to be certain no one was hiding in there.
“A few of the items on my desk are moved,” she explained. Turning in a slow circle, she examined her room, not seeing anything else out of place. Then she remembered falling asleep out on the sofa on the balcony and the funny taste in her mouth. “I think someone slipped something in my food,” she whispered.
Markis rushed over, examining her eyes, skin color, and hands. “Do you feel okay?”
“I do now.” She hadn’t before. Looking directly into Markis’s eyes she said, “I took my breakfast with the king.” If someone had slipped something into her food, it had to have been then. “Do you think the king did this?”
“Why would he do such a thing?” Markis whispered so the other guards wouldn’t overhear their conversation.
“Maybe so he could look through my things?”
“It’s a possibility. Especially since we didn’t see anyone enter your room.”
Fury built. How dare the king drug her and go through her possessions, especially since Alina had been poisoned. This didn’t bode well for Rainer as it only made him look guilty. She went over to the door leading to the royal suite and pounded on it. When no one immediately answered, she threw it open and stormed inside, stepping past the guard on duty.
“Can I help you, Your Highness?” the guard asked as he hurried after her.
Sabine ignored him. “King Rainer,” she shouted, peering into the dining room, and not seeing him. She called his name again.
A door opened and Rainer strolled out of his bedchamber, wearing nothing but loose pants, his chest and face covered with sweat. “Is there a problem?”
Sabine blinked, startled to have found the king half naked.
“I just finished working with my soldiers and am about to take a bath. Do you need something?”
Regaining her wits about her, she said, “Someone has been in my room.”
“That’s because I had your room searched.”
“Why would you do that?”
He smiled and made a placating gesture with his hands. “I wanted them to check your room to ensure it was secure. When they deemed it was, I ordered two men to remain at the exterior door and one to always remain here at this door, even when you leave your room. That way, when you return, it will not have to be searched every time. It will afford you more privacy as well.”
“And when they checked my room, did you tell them to read my personal letters? To go through my desk and look at my papers?” Knowing someone had touched her possessions made her feel violated.
His eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Not in those exact words, but yes, I did.” He ran his arm over his forehead, wiping the sweat away.
“How could you?” Shock and anger boiled inside of her. She took a step forward, wanting to wrap her hands around his thick neck and squeeze that smug look off his face. How dare he order his servants to touch her personal belongings. Her hands balled into fists.
He took a step closer to her as well. They now stood less than a foot apart. “I don’t know you,” he said, his voice low and lethal, like steel cutting through stalks of wheat. “Captain Lithane informed me that you entered my home with a weapon. I ordered my guards to go through your things to see what else you might be hiding.” His eyes raked over her body, as if looking for where she’d concealed the dagger. “I have a duty to protect my people.”
“You can’t possibly think I’m a threat.”
Rainer cocked his head to the side. “How do I know you’re really Princess Sabine and not an assassin sent to kill me?”
She scoffed at the suggestion.
