“Verity wanted these put away while he was gone. Damp can harm them, and this room is seldom heated when he is not here,” I explained as I finished rolling the map.
She nodded. “It seems so empty and cold in here without him. Not just the cold hearth. There is no scent of him, none of his clutter ….”
“Then you tidied in here?” I tried to ask it casually.
“No!” She laughed. “My tidying only destroys what little order he keeps here. No, I will leave it as he left it, until he returns. I want him to come home to his own things in their places.” Her face grew grave. “But this room is the least of it.
I sent a page to find you this morning, but you were out. Have you heard the news about Ferry?”
“Only the gossip,” I replied.
“Then you have heard as much as I. I was not summoned,” she said coldly. Then she turned to me, and there was pain in her eyes. “I heard the most of it from Lady Modesty, who heard Regal’s serving man talking to her maid. The guardsmen went to Regal, to tell him of the messenger’s arrival. Surely, they should have sent to me? Do not they think of me as a Queen at all?”
“My lady queen,” I reminded her gently. “By all rights, the message should have been taken directly to King Shrewd. I suspect it was, and Regal’s men, who mind the King’s door, sent for him instead of you.”
Her head came up. “There is a thing that must be remedied, then. Two can play at that silly game.”
“I wonder if other messages have similarly gone astray,” I speculated aloud.
Her blue eyes turned gray with chill. “What do you mean?”