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“Addressing the perpetrator,” Roxanne replied.
"May I have a word in private with my sister, Roxanne?" he asked tersely. Edwina thought that his displeasure was directed solely at his new bride, but she dismissed the thought as her imagination. There would never be a day when her brother would not be displeased with her.
"Whatever you are going to say to her, you can say in front of me. I am family now." Roxanne jutted her chin out defiantly, glaring at her husband.
"Familywould have the simple manners to give each other some privacy. Especially when asked courteously,” Tommen returned impatiently. Roxanne opened her mouth to say something, but thought the better of it, and after one last glare in Edwina's direction, exited the room.
Tommen turned to Edwina and began to speak. “We woke up this morning to find a threatening message on the wall of our sitting room. The message called me an idiot, my wife and opportunist and a—” he appeared to swallow the last words.
“A what?” Edwina asked.
“A woman of ill-repute, to put it mildly.”
"Why would your wife accuse me of leaving such a message?" Edwina asked him coolly.
"I don't know. She can be irrational more often than not.” He heaved a beleaguered sigh and sat in the chair opposite her.After only three days of marriage?Edwina almost blurted out. She took a sip of her coffee to hide her surprise.
"I do not think that you left that message,” he said. “You are many things but you are not a hypocrite. If that is what you thought of us, you would tell us to our faces instead of hiding.”
Edwina raised a surprised brow. Not only had Tommen Pierce just declared her innocent, but this was also the most civilized conversation she ever recalled them having as adults. He was courteous and calmer than he had ever been around her. As she looked at him, she thought he seemed exhausted, appearing older than he had three days ago.
"Who do you think left the message?" Edwina asked, deciding she would help him find the truth even though he had not asked her to.
"Mother is very capable." He drew the bowl of fruit preserve toward him, then picked up a spoon and idly scooped some into his mouth.
"I do hope you are not going to put that spoon back into the preserve," Edwina admonished, expecting him to argue as usual. He further surprised her by simply plucking a clean spoon and serving himself some of the preserve before he continued eating.He had always loved fruit preserve, Edwina recalled.
"The news of the message seemed to have spread very fast, too," Tommen continued. "A rumor about you being responsible somehow sprung up with it. This seems planned.”
"I see," she murmured, recalling the conversation she had overheard them having the day before his wedding.She now understood the hushed whispers and strange glares that morning.
"Mother must be behind those rumors. It cannot be a coincidence. I know that she is planning something else," Tommen announced as Edwina drank more coffee. She found herself unable to eat with all the madness going on around her.She was aware that Prudence was planning something, of course, after the conversation she'd overheard, but she raised an inquisitive brow, nonetheless.
"Knowing her, this is just the beginning." He poured himself some warm milk now, looking very much like the boy that he still was.
His civility toward her that morning perplexed Edwina. It certainly had very little to do with her engagement to a Duke, because his behavior had not changed even after the betrothal until now.She also did not trust him because of the conversation she had overheard.
"Why are you telling me this? She is your mother.”
He looked conflicted. “She has been dictating my life from the moment of my birth. I am weary of it. And you are not as bad as I thought.”
"Why?" Edwina asked. "What changed your opinion of me?"
"Believe me," he set the empty mug down, looking red and uncomfortable, "I wish I knew." He stood.
"Tommen?" Edwina called out to him just as he reached the door. He turned. "Does Roxanne have a brother or close male relatives?" she asked, even though she knew that that man had to be anything but her brother.
"No," Tommen replied. "None that I am acquainted with, at least.” Small knots began to form in her stomach, and dread coiled in her muscles.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Albert summoned the Dowager Viscountess of Mercer. He had heard unfounded rumors about Edwina, and after a little investigation among his servants, he had discovered the culprit responsible for them.
The woman walked into his study, carrying with her a sort of pride that not even the Queen herself could challenge. "To what do I owe the honor of such… abrupt summoning, Your Grace?" she asked as she took a seat before his desk, her voice dripping with contempt.
"I woke up to some very interesting news being passed about this morning," Albert announced, folding his arms across his chest as he leaned against the window.
"Everywhere thetonconvenes is never without gossip," she intoned.
