Chapter 8 The Duke’s Secret Letter

One night while Roselin was reading her notes in the bedroom, Marian rushed in with a twice-folded envelope. She said she had found it fallen into the Duke’s secretary’s laundry basket, and thought her lady should see it before anyone else.

The letter listed a number of nobles who had agreed to support a plan on the prince’s birthday. Two phrases recurred several times, “the moonless night” and “the storeroom behind the house.” Roselin immediately thought of the small iron door sealed shut at the end of the corridor.

She copied the entire text into her own notebook, then returned the envelope to where it had been without anyone knowing. Marian asked anxiously what they should do next. Roselin answered, “For now, nothing. Let them think we know nothing at all.”

The next morning she saw the Duke standing on the balcony of his study, gazing at the flower garden as though thinking something over. When he noticed Roselin, he said flatly, “You seem very different, and much cleverer too. Be careful.” Then he turned and went back inside without waiting for a reply.

Roselin knew she was walking a razor-thin thread. Her father was watching her now, and anything she did from here on would be counted as a threat.