Shelby shifted his gray eyes to me. "I did not say that."
"No, you didn't, but I'm betting my uncle Taranis did."
Shelby gave a little shrug. "He doesn't seem to like your men much, that is true."
"Or me," I said.
Shelby's face showed surprise, and I wished I could have told if it was genuine, or if he were lying with his face. "The king had only good things to say about you, Princess. He seems to feel that you have been" - he seemed to change what he was about to say at the last moment - "led astray by your aunt, the queen, and her guards."
"Led astray?" I made it a question.
He nodded.
"That's not what he said, is it?"
"Not in so many words, no."
"It must have been truly insulting for you to pretty it up like this," I said.
Shelby actually looked uncomfortable. "Before I saw Ambassador Stevens and his reaction to you, and the possible spell on his watch, I might have simply stated what the king said." Shelby gave me a very straightforward look. "Let's say that Stevens has made me wonder at the vehemence of King Taranis's dislike of all your guard."
"All my guard?" Again I made it a question with the upward lilt of my voice.
"Yes."
I looked at Veducci. "He charges all my men with crimes?"
"No, only the three mentioned, but Mr. Shelby is correct. King Taranis stated that your Raven Guard is a danger to all women. He thinks that having been made celibate for so long has driven them insane." Veducci's face never changed as he let out one of the biggest secrets of the faerie courts.