“It was us.”
Seymour’s mouth opens, a soft “O”. Perhaps Cleves imagines it, but she is sure there is a little disappointment in Seymour’s eyes. The next moment, Seymour covers it: “Are you telling me that you and Queen Aragon set aside your squabbling for long enough to work together?”
Cleves laughs. “I am full of surprises, am I not, Queen Seymour?”
“You’re not the only one,” Clarice says, their jaw clenched. Seymour shoots them a look. Interesting. Cleves has never seen these two at odds before.
“What has happened?” she says.
Seymour cannot look at Cleves. “We … I … the Dowager Queen is our prisoner.”
“I see,” Cleves says.
Clarice juts their chin. “I did not agree with this course of action, but Her Majesty believes that Cecilia can be useful.”
“She can be,” Seymour says. She turns to Cleves. “She wants power, that is all. If we can offer her some, then I truly believe we could wrest her loyalty from her brother.”
“And if we have Elbenese royalty behind us, then we stand a chance of bringing the people to our side,” Cleves says.
Seymour becomes animated. “Yes, exactly.”
“How much does she know?” Cleves says, holding up a hand to stop Seymour from growing too excited.
“She only knows the truth of Medren, and that I am trying to finish what Boleyn started.”
Clarice nods. “That’s why we kept her on my ship. So she wouldn’t know about your involvement, or the other queens’.”
Here Clarice’s eyes flick to Johana, leaning inconspicuously against the wall next to the secret door. He holds up his hands. “I am merely here to help my cousin and my country’s interests. Pay me no mind.”
Cleves must think quickly. If Aragon and Seymour are right, then Cecilia thinks she is cleverer than she truly is, and eager for knowledge that she can use to her advantage.
“Can she remain on your ship?” Cleves asks Clarice. The Feorwan shakes their head. “I must return to my country.”
“The king is causing your people more trouble than usual, I understand.”
Clarice and Seymour dart a glance at each other that Cleves cannot read: is this an ongoing argument between the two of them? Well, it is by the by. Cleves turns to Johana. “I have a little hunting lodge deep in the Gealdrum Forest. It was built since my marriage, so the Dowager Queen will not recognise it, and with enough security – and a good steward – we can house her there for the time being.”
Johana shakes his head. “I am no gaoler.”
“You are the only one who knows all,” she says. She does not say,The only one I trust, for she trusts no one wholly but herself.
Johana groans. Clarice shrugs at him. “It is difficult when you are their only friend. You get handed a lot of shit.”
Clarice agrees to take Johana back to their ship, and from there Johana will make arrangements to convey Cecilia to Gnottel Lodge under cover of moonlight. Once they are gone, Seymour seems to collapse into herself. Cleves watches her, as disinterestedly as she can.
She might have expected Seymour to be thinner since she became a fugitive. Instead, Seymour looks stronger in every way, even when she is exhausted. Cleves’s stomach twists.
“You are tired, I think?” Cleves says.
“I am content.”
Seymour’s back is straight. Something twists again in Cleves, lower than her stomach now, and she almost laughs at herself. Why does she, the woman who can take a thousand insults and not be angered, have such a weakness for women made of fire?
“Oh, my angry queen has returned,” Cleves says.
“No.”
Cleves does laugh this time. “She brings a viper to my door and she is the one who is angry.”
