“Ezzonid is secure now, you know, should you ever desire to return,” Johana says, leaning across the table to select a bread roll. Cleves hands him one that she knows he’ll enjoy – stuffed with fruit and nuts.
“Would my brother permit me to dine with my animals at my feet?” she says, indicating the many mouths upturned, hoping for scraps.
“That I think he may object to.”
Cleves shrugs. “Then there is nothing for it. I must remain in Elben.”
“Then that is why I will stay on this awful, rainy little island in this miserable, damp castle to keep you company, cousin.” Johana takes a bite of another apple and looks round the receiving chamber. At the murals on the ceiling, the tapestries on the walls; anywhere but Cleves. “It surprises me though, cousin.”
“Why should that be?”
“We heard that perhaps Elben was going to see its own … upheaval.”
“Indeed?”
Johana cocks his head. “Perhaps you felt some kinship with certain sister-queens.”
Cleves sighs. “My dancing with the traitor queen at the Moon Ball.”
“It has been commented upon.”
Cleves adopts the “you should know better” attitude that has served her well for much of her life. “She may be a traitor, but she was wearing a very fetching gown, cousin. Did they comment upon that as well? I may be faithful to my husband but my fondness for a pretty figure has not faded with time.”
Johana does not laugh as she intended. He leans further forward. “I am with you, cousin. You know this, yes? You can tell me the truth.”
Cleves gets up, feigning boredom, and goes to the sideboard to pour herself a cup of wine. “You are being very strange, Johana. I am neither a schemer, a rebel or a heretic. I merely wish to live my very comfortable life in my very comfortable castle with my very delicious apples.”
And that is not so far from the truth. She may not know what made her don the gossamer overgown at the Moon Ball, or why she joined that dance with Seymour and Boleyn. She has pondered it often. But she is committed now, and if she is going to take Cnothan and the power of the bordweal for herself, then she will gather knowledge around her like so many bricks. They will form a fortress against her husband and his allies every bit as strong as the many walls of Cnothan castle itself. And part of that fortress lies in not revealing more of the truth than is absolutely necessary, not even to the cousin she trusted most as a child. As far as she is concerned, too many people already suspect the truth. A secret shared is a danger increased.
Johana grunts and nods, all business at last, and pats his pockets down before producing a thick packet of letters. He hands them to her. One bears her brother’s seal, one her mother’s and one her sister’s. She fingers the letter from her mother. The Dowager Queen Sidonia hardly ever writes to her.
“I suspect you will mostly find questions inside those letters, rather than news,” Johana says.
“Ah. There has been gossip.”
“Gossip. Rumours. Scandal. I cannot think of more words just yet but I’m sure they will come to me.”
“You had better be careful, cousin. The very air has eyes in this country,” she says.
Johana puts down his cup. “Speculation. There’s another. And I do not think they expect a response by letter.”
“You are to be the vessel.”
“I am.” He nibbles on one of the cakes. “This is dry. I do not like it.”
“How strange. I think that about you all the time.”
Johana pulls a face at her. “I have missed you, cousin.”
“And I you,” she says.
Outside, a bell tolls. Cleves wipes her mouth on the napkin draped over her shoulder and rises.
“I must go now. My people will see you to your chamber. You must be tired after all that vomiting.”
He bows as she sweeps from the room. She must think of a way to return him safely to Ezzonid without raising the suspicions of those at High Hall. She will give him anything but the truth. It is safer that way. It is why she has shaped Cnothan the way she has, why she rarely keeps ladies-in-waiting. The walls must grow thicker and thicker.
CHAPTER SIX
