Kiss of Snow

16

Her face creased into a smile, and I caught a glimpse of a missing front tooth. “Don’t you worry at all. I’ll look after both of you while you’re here. No request will be too big, no desire an imposition.”

“Thank you.” Gratitude swirled through me at her words. Hopefully, we could provide her some company during our stay, too.

“What will the ball be like?” Iris swung around the post at the top of the staircase.

“Stop that! You could fall to your death down these stairs.” Then Grimelda covered her mouth and looked at me, her eyes wide. “Oh, Princess Lily. I am sorry. I just get so worried you see. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to any of you girls.”

I narrowed my gaze at Iris as she resentfully stepped away from the top of the stairs. “That’s perfectly fine, Grimelda. I’m sure I’ll be glad for the help keeping Iris in line.” None of my sisters were here to entertain her, and my time would probably be taken up fending off the advances of men I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life with, if Dahlia had done what she’d planned.

Iris stuck her tongue out at me, but then she sighed. “I just want to see my bedroom. Which is mine?”

Grimelda quickened her step a little. “Let me see. I’ve put the two of you down this corridor, in the west wing, and the visiting gentlemen are over here in the east wing.” She looked at me and lowered her voice. “I didn’t want to take any chances on the manners of the men involved.”

My face heated, but I nodded. “Thank you.”

Then I glanced around. Something was missing. As I looked back down the staircase at the now closed door, I turned my head, about to ask Keane if I’d forgotten something. But he wasn’t there. He was my missing thing, and it felt strange to be without him.

Worse than strange. It felt wrong.

Eleven

Keane

I

gathered my guards in the courtyard behind the palace. Men had ridden on horseback through the night in pairs or small groups to avoid arousing suspicion from anyone watching the castle. I couldn’t guarantee no one had guessed we were moving Lily, but hopefully I’d minimized any danger. Adrenaline ran in a constant hum through me with the need to protect Lily from whoever was attempting to assassinate her, but it was hard to fight an unknown enemy.

I looked out over the grounds as I stood in a cluster with my men. “Sun and Moon,” I ground out. “Is this really what we’re expected to work with?”

Coming to the summer palace had seemed a good idea at the time, but now, with unkempt and overgrown land and a crumbling border wall, doubts sprang into my mind. Even Princess Dahlia mustn’t have been aware of this level of lack of repair if she intended to showcase Lily for betrothal here. No future King would want to believe he had so little money as to be unable to keep a second castle to a high standard of splendor.

I hacked back a little of the tall grass with my blade. “We shall have to do our best. Perhaps I can discuss employing a new gardener. In the meantime, I want you stationed around the perimeter and doing regular patrols. We need everything around this castle locked down tight. If nothing else, undergrowth this dense gives us as much of a chance to conceal ourselves as it does anyone creeping into the palace. I need a group of you to walk the outside of the walls and identify any weak points or areas you think vulnerable to attack.”

Three men peeled off from the group and slipped almost soundlessly through the undergrowth. I watched them go, worry invading my thoughts. If we came up against a group of men as capable as my guards, we could be in trouble.

I returned my focus to the remaining men. “We also need to arrange surveillance on the visitors here. What do we know about them? I’ll find out all I can and see if Princess Dahlia has any information to add, but until Princess Lily’s attacker is caught, we have to assume all people are either dangerous to her or have the potential to become dangerous to her.”

Case in point was Lord Malren. His history suggested capability for very bad deeds, but usually from somewhere hidden, in the background. For him to actually appear in Lily’s bedroom, ready to kill her in almost plain sight, suggested the involvement of someone very powerful indeed, and that kind of influence could certainly hold sway over our visiting noblemen. I wasn’t sure if I believed that person was Queen Riala, but we needed to be cautious nonetheless.

I rubbed my forehead. Just thinking of all the areas where danger could potentially lurk gave me a headache. I drew in a deep breath and coughed out the grass seed I’d accidentally inhaled.

I shook my head, trying to clear it. Too many thoughts of Lily crowded in, obscuring my need to keep her safe. “I’m going to join the men checking the perimeter.”

Caspar nodded. “Yes, Captain.”

I strode through the long grass, avoiding the desire to swipe my sword left and right. Clearing paths through the overgrown foliage and plants would only alert anyone watching to our activity. I pushed my way to the wall, and sighed. The crumbling stone had fallen into disrepair and there were areas where it was very clear anyone who wanted to get onto the palace grounds could just walk right in, no need to bother with gates, no requirement to even walk past a guard.

I lifted stones back into position here and there, the rough surfaces scraping my hands. For the remaining gaps, I made a mental note to let my guards know specific areas that required greater observation.

Perhaps Dahlia, even with all her knowledge and spy connections had been wrong. This palace didn’t seem an ideal place to guard Lily. I couldn’t guarantee I could keep her safe when they were so many points of access on the ground, or when there was going to be seven essentially unknown men around her at all times of day.