The Queen's Assassin (Queen's Secret #1) - Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,79

any eligible bachelors . . .” She glances at Cal. “I like the handsome, brooding type. Sort of like your brother here. In my experience it’s the quietest ones who have the . . .”

Cal hides a grimace. But perhaps the duchess’s interest in him will be useful, as women’s attentions have been in the past.

A glass clinks. The vizier stands to get everyone’s attention again. Cal is relieved for the interruption. He notices a small step as the vizier gets up this time; he’s standing on another stool. The vizier, swaying a bit, says, “After dessert, please join us in the library for libations.” He’s up to his neck in libations already, Cal thinks.

The duchess turns back to them. “Where was I? Oh, I don’t remember. Here, I have it!” She reaches across the table to grab Shadow’s hand with her pale, thin one. Her nails are long, filed sharp, and painted the same shade as her red rosebud mouth. “You two are coming home with me. Yes, yes, don’t protest; it’s been decided. Where are you staying?”

Shadow tells her and the duchess looks confused. “I don’t think I’ve heard of it? No matter. From now on you’re both staying with me.” She releases Shadow’s hand and pats it, as if Shadow were her pet or a child. Cal sees a flicker of annoyance cross Shadow’s face.

“I’ll send for your things. This way we can get the lovely Lady Lila all ready for the king. I think she’ll clean up rather nicely. And perhaps I can do something with her little brother too.” She runs her eyes up and down his body, stopping to raise an eyebrow right in the middle. Then she looks around for her footman, snapping her fingers when she sees him. He rushes over and she begins relaying a list of tasks: Collect the lord’s and lady’s things; see to it that their rooms are ready at the house . . .

“Excellent,” says Cal. “We would be honored to stay at your residence.”

Shadow looks alarmed, and when Duchess Girt turns to her other side, she whispers in Cal’s ear. “You don’t mean for us to stay with that strumpet?! And what about our horses? We can’t bring them with us.”

Cal pretends to be absorbed in the food on his plate as he answers her from the side of his mouth. “We’ll pay Garbankle to keep the horses until we need them. Meanwhile, she is a duchess, a high-ranking courtier to the king, which means we will be part of the inner circle. And we need to be appropriately dressed to be welcomed at court. We don’t have time to get a new wardrobe otherwise. It sounds as if we’ll have a much nicer room, and I, for one, won’t miss the bugs, will you?”

“You won’t miss a pest in your bed, if that’s what you mean,” she retorts angrily.

He looks up from his plate and catches her eye. It’s the first time they’ve spoken about last night. “No, that isn’t what I meant at all,” he says sincerely. He would spend every night at that flea-bitten inn if it meant he would lie next to her again. But of course he doesn’t tell her that, as much as he wants to, and as much as he wants to know how she feels about all this.

Shadow saws into her meat, the color high on her cheeks. “It doesn’t matter. Sleep well, my lord.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Caledon

DUCHESS GIRT’S ESTATE SITS ON the far side of Mont, just outside the city proper, one of the old homes that was built before the city walls went up, and many years before the Long Wars with Renovia began. It’s surrounded by a tall spiked fence, painted white over black wrought iron—as evidenced by a few flaking spots—and a thickly wooded area to the rear of the main building. A wide gravel lane leads from the gatehouse up to the actual residence, lined on each side with towering trees that shade the drive.

The duchess seats Cal between her and Shadow in the cramped carriage. While riding to the estate, she keeps finding reasons to touch his arm, his leg, to get closer to him. He smiles broadly at her while inching as close to Shadow’s side as