Gordon scanned the documents, understanding dawning in his expression. “You know something.”
“I know someone’s been making my job harder. So I’m making their job harder right back.”
For the first time in weeks, Finn felt something besides anxiety and self-doubt. He felt determined.
Chapter Twenty-One
Darragh looked up from the harbor expansion proposal when his office door opened. Finn stepped inside, closed the door behind him with deliberate care.
“Can we talk?”
Something in Finn’s voice - controlled but strained - made Darragh set down his quill immediately. “Of course.”
Finn crossed to the desk but didn’t sit. Stood with his hands clasped behind his back like a soldier preparing for inspection. The formal posture, the careful neutrality of his expression - it was all wrong, and it broke Darragh’s heart. This wasn’t the man Darragh had married.
“I need to tell you something. About the summit preparations.”
“All right.”
“There have been problems. Small ones at first, but they’ve been adding up.” Finn’s voice remained steady, methodical. “Wine delivered to the wrong entrance. Invitations sent with incorrect dates. Furniture specifications altered. My file on Queen Valdis disappeared from my desk and turned up in a storage closet I’ve never visited.”
Darragh leaned back in his chair, frowning. “I knew about some of those. You said they were stress mistakes…”
“I thought they were. But last night I saw Thomas leaving the records room after midnight. When I checked, the master timeline for delegation arrivals was missing.” Finn met Darragh’s gaze directly. “I think Thomas has been sabotaging the summit preparations. Or sabotaging me specifically.”
The words hung in the air between them.
Darragh’s first instinct was denial. “Thomas? He’s been my adviser since I became king. He’s quiet and careful, but he’s loyal…”
“Is he?” Finn moved to the window, still maintaining that rigid control. “Let me walk you through the incidents. The wine arrived at the east entrance instead of the west. The manifest showed amended instructions claiming I’d requested the change, but I hadn’t. The handwriting wasn’t mine, but someone could claim it was similar enough.”
“That could be an honest mistake…”
“Three delegations received invitations with the wrong summit dates. I checked my master copy - it had the correct date. Helena showed me the copies that were sent out. Different dates, but formatted exactly like my originals.”
Darragh started to speak, but Finn continued.
“Furniture arrived with completely wrong specifications. The furniture master showed me an amended work order with altered measurements, marked as my corrections. The handwriting was similar to mine, but it wasn’t mine. I would never make a mistake with measurements.”
Finn turned from the window. “My file on Queen Valdis - the most politically sensitive delegation attending - disappeared from my locked desk and turned up in a random storage closet.”
“Someone could have accidentally…”
“Thomas commented two weeks ago during a planning session. I’d suggested a different seating arrangement for the opening banquet, and he said something about merchants not understanding court protocols.” Finn’s voice remained level, but his hands tightened behind his back. “Helena told him to beconstructive. Aldric changed the subject. I thought I’d imagined the insult, and that I was being too sensitive.”
Darragh felt something cold settling in his stomach. He wanted to keep defending Thomas, wanted to believe in the adviser who’d served his father before him. But as Finn laid out the evidence - the timing, the pattern, Thomas’s proximity to each problem - denial became impossible.
“Why would Thomas do this?” The question sounded weak even as Darragh asked it.
Finn’s laugh was bitter. “Because he doesn’t think I’m good enough. Because he’s a snob who thinks a carpenter has no business being king consort.” He moved away from the window, that terrible formal control still locked in place. “Maybe he thinks if I fail badly enough during the summit, I’ll leave. Or you’ll realize you made a mistake, cut me off, and find someone ‘suitable’ instead.”
The words cut deeper because they were probably true. Darragh had seen the skepticism in Thomas’s eyes during that first council meeting when Finn confused import and export taxes - had watched Thomas’s lips thin when Finn suggested reorganizing the laundry schedule. Had heard the careful politeness in Thomas’s voice when addressing Finn - the kind of courtesy that held contempt underneath.
He’d noticed all of it and dismissed it as Thomas being Thomas. Reserved, traditional, and slow to warm to change. Not as Thomas actively trying to destroy Finn’s credibility.
“I need proof,” Darragh said finally. “If I’m going to confront him and definitely dismiss him, I need something solid.”
“I know.” Finn’s voice was flat. “That’s why I’m telling you now instead of three weeks ago when the first incident happened. I needed to see the pattern.”
