Thomas said nothing. I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn’t raise mine to meet them. I didn’t want to look at him. Every time I did I heard his voice in my head, his accusations and his insults, and I got angry all over again.
“You KES won’t rest until we’re all dead in the ground, will you?” Gloria said, her voice taut. “Frank, Bedford, Sasha … you don’t care who gets hurt as long as you get what you want.”
“I’m sorry about Frank,” Thomas told her. From his tone, I could tell he meant it, but I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Who was Frank?
Gloria worried her engagement ring between her fingers. She straightened her shoulders. “I don’t need your sympathy.”
“He was a good agent,” Thomas continued.
“I know he was!” she seethed.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Who’s Frank?”
Gloria ignored the question, and Thomas chose not to answer it in deference to her. “Your fiancé?” I guessed, noting the way Gloria continued to play with her engagement ring.
Gloria drew in a deep breath. “Frank was KES. He was with the king the day he was shot.”
“Did he … ?” I couldn’t bring myself to complete the question.
“No. But a bullet tore through his spinal cord. He’ll never walk again.” Gloria closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again they were wet with tears.
“Oh, Gloria.” I stood, shrugging off the blanket and putting my arms around her. Gloria leaned into the hug, patting my back softly and then stepping back. When I looked at her face, the grief was gone, a mask of professionalism in its place. What was it about the people in the Citadel that made them so adept at doing that?
“So,” Gloria said, dabbing at the corners of her eyes. “The question is, how do we move forward?”
“What do you mean?” I wondered.
“Clearly you’re not safe here,” Gloria said. Thomas nodded in agreement. “We need to remove you from the Castle for the time being, put you somewhere that nobody can get to you.”
“Like where?”
“The royal family owns several estates up and down the East Coast. Any one of them is safer than the Castle right now, it seems, but we can’t take you too far away, with the wedding set for Saturday.”
“That’s still happening?” Surely with the Libertas threat so high they would rethink the circus wedding in favor of something more private. The treaty didn’t need a huge, expensive ceremony to be ratified, only that Callum and Juliana be officially married. Or so I’d gathered.
“It’s all planned,” Gloria said. “The queen won’t be moved. She refuses to be intimidated into canceling.”
“Right now the plan is to take you and Callum away from the Castle until Friday evening for the gala. The queen will stay here to maintain some semblance of strength and defiance,” Thomas said. “We leave tomorrow morning, so, Gloria, you should help Sasha pack.”
“You’re going too?” The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. I’d been doing such a good job of ignoring him, and I was angry with myself for abandoning the silent treatment so soon.
“Of course,” Thomas said. The corners of his mouth twitched, as if he wanted to smile but knew that it wouldn’t go over well. “Anywhere you go, I go.”
“Right. Your job.”
“It is my job,” he said.
Gloria narrowed her eyes at us both. “What’s happening here? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Thomas and I barked in unison. He tried to catch my eye again, but I was back to giving him the cold shoulder.
“Where are we going?” I asked, directing the question to Gloria.
“Bethlehem House?” Gloria suggested.
Thomas nixed this. “Too far away.”
“St. Lawrence?” I glanced at the painting on the wall. It did look beautiful; I wouldn’t mind a few peaceful days in the country if I could spend them there.
“Way too far away.”
“Well, it needs to be someplace defensible,” Gloria snapped.
I had no idea what royal residence would be best, but this did seem like the perfect time to make a request, seeing as we were going to have to move anyway. “Do you have anything with a waterfront view?”
“Actually, yes. Why?”
I shrugged. “Callum’s never seen the ocean. If we’re going to have to go somewhere anyway, it’d be nice to show him.”
“Asthall Cottage in Montauk,” Gloria said to Thomas. Thomas’s face scrunched up as if he’d smelled something disgusting, but he nodded reluctantly. Gloria turned to me. “It’s right on the water. The ocean’s still a little cold for swimming this time of year, but we can put Callum in a room that overlooks it, and then of course there’s always the private beach.”
“It’s remote, too, so it’ll be easy to keep track of who comes and goes,” Thomas admitted. He didn’t sound thrilled, but he was on board. “I’ll let the General know we’ll be moving you there.”
He left without saying goodbye.
“I hope you packed your swim trunks, Cal, because we’re going to the beach,” I said as the door to his bedroom slid open. The cheeriness was forced, but when his face lit up, I didn’t have to fake it. It made me happy to see him happy, quite possibly because he seemed to be the only person in the Castle who was happy these days.
“Really?” he asked.
“Thomas and Gloria think it’s best if we get away from the Citadel for a few days,” I explained.
He nodded. “Agent Tyson told me.” Agent Bedford had survived the bombing, but he’d been seriously injured and couldn’t return to his KES duties yet. From the way Thomas had spoken about it, there was a possibility that Bedford would never be able to serve in the KES again. Agent Tyson was his replacement as the head of Callum’s security team.
“I told them we should go to one of the residences by the water, seeing as you haven’t ever seen the ocean,” I told him. He beamed at me. “And they agreed. So we’re going to Asthall Cottage.”
“A cottage? But where will all your shoes go?” Callum’s eyes crinkled when he laughed.
“It’s not an actual cottage, Callum,” I said, affecting a snooty tone that set him off laughing again. “It’s a manse, darling, of course.” I’d actually been wondering the same thing—Juliana’s family owned a cottage?—until Gloria showed me a picture of the place. The name might’ve been humble, but there was nothing humble about Asthall.
Callum put his arms around me, pulling me close, his laughter trailing off. “Is this okay?” he whispered in my ear.
I nodded, figuring it would have to be. Besides, I didn’t mind. It felt nice to be held, after the day I’d had. “Are you okay?”
“I just can’t stop thinking about what happened,” he said, pulling away so that he could look at my face. He tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.
“Me neither.” I sighed. “I’m so glad you weren’t hurt.” Thomas had dragged me away so fast I hadn’t even had time to see if someone was coming for Callum. I’d spent thirty frantic minutes after the explosion waiting for news of him. I tightened my arms around his waist, remembering the horrible, sinking feeling that came with wondering whether he was dead or alive.
“Same here.” He released me and stepped back. “I know you don’t like to talk about it, but you have to tell me—did Libertas set that bomb?”
“Thomas seems to think so.”
Callum stiffened and turned away at the second mention of Thomas’s name, pretending to go through his drawers for stuff to toss into an empty nearby suitcase.