“Bless you!” Evan said brightly. “Anyway, I’m going to find Remy and see if I can’t cheer him up over a few drinks.” He tottered rather unsteadily over to the chancellor’s desk, and Thomas wondered whether the duke had started drinking early this morning or if he just hadn’t stopped since last night. Evan paused, scooped up a bottle of wine and another glass, and sashayed out the door, ignoring the incredulous looks King Leopold and Prince Felix were giving him.
Thomas blinked. Encounters with the duke often left him feeling like he’d missed something, and this time was no different.
It was Prince Felix who spoke first. “I was bloody well looking forward to that wine.”
King Leopold laughed. “Let him have it. Given the agreement we signed with Falsmark for our wine supplies today, I don’t think we’re going to run short.”
Felix grinned. “Thatwasa good deal, wasn’t it? Perhaps you should reward me for my excellent negotiating skills. We could?—”
Thomas shifted slightly from foot to foot and let out a low cough, a subtle reminder that he was in the room—the royal couple had a tendency to forget that they weren’t alone. Felix’s mouth snapped shut and his cheeks flushed pink.
Leopold, fighting back a smile, said, “You’re dismissed, Captain. We’ll see you tonight at dinner.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Thomas slipped out of the room and headed toward the kitchens, smiling as the sound of the king’s laughter followed him down the corridor. Those two were hopelessly in love, and they deserved every bit of their happiness.
He just hoped that one day he’d find someone who looked at him the way Leopold looked at Felix.
Thomas ate his supper quickly. He had a long evening ahead of him, and he still had to stop by the barracks to make sure that the guards on duty at the dinner tonight were properly turned out. Thomas had been beyond flattered when the king had recommended him as the replacement for Janus Hobson as Captain of the Guard. Not that it had come as a complete surprise—he and King Leopold had forged something of a bond during his time working at the palace—but that closeness just made Thomas more determined to prove that he was worthy of his appointment.
He slipped into the barracks soundlessly and leaned against the doorframe. There were maybe half a dozen men, most of them sitting or lying on their beds. Nobody noticed him, all too distracted by young Sam, who was holding forth on a well-worn subject.
“I don’t see how nobody’s caught him yet, though.”
“Ah, lad,” said Philip, one of the older guards. “The Rogue is a slippery character. I’ve heard nobody knows who he is except the king himself, and he’s never been seen.”
“I’ve heard he’s the most handsome man alive,” interrupted Darcy, who was almost as new to the barracks as Sam. “His hair is as black as a raven, and his eyes shine like precious jewels, and he prowls around the place like a tomcat. He’s very popular with the ladies and has half a dozen bastards in Ravenport alone. That’s why they call him the Rogue.”
“I thought they called him the Rogue because he left that lord tied up in his smallclothes in the town square in Falsmark with a sign on his chest saying, ‘Cheats at cards and on his wife’ that time?” Arthur said.
“Well, I heard he stole a whole kingdom’s treasure and lives in a hidden castle in the mountains, and he’s only loyal to the king because they were secret lovers,” Sam said.
Thomas let out a snort and stepped forward, taking petty satisfaction in the way all the men in the room jumped at his unexpected presence. “LuckyI’mnot the Rogue,” he said. “I could have slit your throats while you were spouting nonsense.”
Sam ducked his head. “Sorry, Captain. Only, we were just saying that whoever the king’s spy is, they’re bloody good. The visitors are all properly pissed that someone told all their secrets, but nobody knows who did it.”
“Aspy? Are you saying that King Leopold, who is good and honest, employs someone to discover the secrets of the other kingdoms through less than legal means?” Thomas asked, arching a brow and folding his arms across his broad chest.
Sam swallowed. “Um.” The colour drained from his face.
Thomas was tempted to tease him for a little longer, but he took pity on the boy’s stricken expression. “Because if youweresaying that, you’d be right. All kingdoms have spies. But as to who the Rogue is, nobody’s figured it out yet.”
“It’s a woman,” Philip said confidently. “Stands to reason.”
“Oh?” Thomas said.
Philip nodded. “Some pretty little thing who seduces the men with her wiles and then teases their secrets from them.”
“That’s…” Thomas paused and thought about it. “That would actually make sense.”
“But we know it’s a man,” Sam insisted. “Darcy just said. Handsomest man alive, he said.”
Thomas shook his head. As soon as there was a mention of espionage, the topic of the Rogue came up, and the speculation as to their identity grew wilder every time. “So what you’re saying is that nobody knows who the Rogue is, and nobody has ever seen them, but wedoknow that they’re the handsomestman alive, had a secret affair with our king, and is a womaniser—as well as being a woman?”
Sam blinked at him. “Wait. That doesn’t make sense.”
“I knew you were a smart lad,” Thomas said, grinning. “The Rogue is a mystery, and he can stay that way as far as I’m concerned. The king trusts him, and that’s good enough for me.”
