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He’d been in this room before, when he’d threatened the king six months ago. It had been dark then, and he hadn’t taken the time to thoroughly search the place except to locate the king’s weapons hidden near the bed.
He found even more weapons stashed around the bed now.
He stumbled across a few other things that he definitely didn’t want to know about the Mongavarian king. He also found a secret cupboard behind the wardrobe that was some kind of hideaway; it was stocked with dried food and jugs of water. But other than that, he discovered no other hidden panels or passages.
As he stepped into the sitting room once again, voices sounded outside the door. Sarya’s light, serene tones contrasted with the Mongavarian king’s raised voice.
Jalissa’s eyes widened as she glanced from the door to Edmund.
“Apologies for this.” Edmund wrapped his arms around Jalissa and kissed her. Not just a gentle, light kiss that he would normally give her in public. Nope. This was the kind of kiss he normally would reserve only for in private.
Jalissa melted into him but stiffened in his arms as the door opened. But even if her posture went tense, she didn’t end the kiss or try to pull away. All she did was dig her fingers tighter into his shirt as if to pull him closer.
“What is the meaning of this?” King Solan’s voice thundered in the room.
Edmund forced himself to flinch and yank away from Jalissa as if startled, though he didn’t let her go. He cleared his throat and gave one of those inane laughs. “Oh, I think that should be obvious, Your Majesty. I’m kissing my wife.”
King Solan’s face darkened in a glower. “What are you doing in my bedroom suite?”
“Oh, that.” Edmund gave an empty grin and stepped a little farther away from Jalissa, though he kept an arm around her waist. “Uh, well, we ducked in here for a little privacy.”
The king’s mouth curled. “This is my bedchamber. Get out.”
“Of course, sorry. We’ll just pop over to our own room. Newlyweds, you know.” Edmund gave another smarmy smile as he steered Jalissa toward the door. At this point, Jalissa’s ears were red as strawberries, and she ducked her head against Edmund’s chest.
Once they were out in the hallway, the king slammed the door behind them. His guards took up stations in front of the door. Hopefully the king would simply assume he’d forgotten to lock his doors, leaving them wide open for Edmund and Jalissa to stumble inside.
As they hurried down the hall, Jalissa muttered against Edmund’s shirt, “That was embarrassing.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Edmund still held her close as they continued the ruse for the benefit of the guards. “But I’m glad that if I get to live the whole spy ruse of kissing my beautiful female spy partner, I’m glad she happens to be you. And I’m lucky enough to be married to you.”
Jalissa snorted against his chest. “Flatterer.”
“Is it working?”
“Maybe.” Some of the tension eased from her shoulders. After a moment, her smile returned, her gaze warming a bit. “I am rather happy to be your beautiful spy partner for life. You are stuck with me.”
“That I am.” And he couldn’t be happier about it.
* * *
Edmund sneakeddown the hallway yet again. He’d searched the king’s study for the past three nights. Perhaps the fourth night would be the charm.
So far, James and Alvin had turned up some fascinating things about the Mongavarian spy network and some evidence of smuggling activities into and out of Escarland. So far, they didn’t have anything to tie the king directly to the poisoning in Kostaria, but they at least could prove which lords in Escarland were involved in smuggling elven goods illegally into Mongavaria as well as Mongavarian goods into Escarland.
But there had to be more to find here in the king’s study.
Slipping in through the window once again, Edmund landed in a crouch in the study. This time, he didn’t bother searching the desk. Or the bookshelves.
No, he just stood there for several minutes, cataloging the room. When he’d inspected the hallway with Jalissa earlier in the day, he’d noticed that the space between the study and the next door over was longer than any of the others. The outside, too, had a larger space between windows. It wasn’t a large space. Not enough to be immediately noticeable, but he could see it now that he was looking.
The wall on that side contained a large fireplace with a bookshelf on one side, an empty wall of wood paneling on the other.
After all his searching of this office, he knew the bookshelf was too tightly fitted to be a hinged door. That meant the empty wall likely held the door.
He took off his gloves and ran his fingers over every inch of the wall. Perhaps he could detect a faint line where the door might be, but the craftsmanship of the door was so well done that he couldn’t be sure. And he couldn’t find any kind of latch or keyhole.
Putting on his gloves once again, he stepped back and studied the wall again. This would have been so much easier if he could have risked a light.
