“You will not tell me what I know,” she said. She turned away from me, and paused for a breath before she left the room, shaking her head.

I watched her go, shocked.

I came out of the chamber, and David, Allan, Winchester, and two women were staring after where the queen had gone. One of the women were Lady Norfolk, an older woman who had been the queen’s lady a long while. The other were an awful young girl, a pretty thing who even after the queen stormed off were staring up at Winchester.

She turned her head to me and she smiled bright, dipping into a curtsy.

Winchester beamed, stepping forward. “My lady Marian, may I introduce Lady Margaret, daughter of the Earl of Leicester.”

“My lady Princess,” she said, reverent.

I nodded my head to her. “So Eleanor is telling people I’m her granddaughter?” I asked.

She straightened, glancing at Winchester, and I wondered if that meant he told her. “A select few, my lady.”

“Please,” Allan huffed. “She has half the minstrels in England singing of it. It’s the most purposefully worst-kept secret in Europe.”

“I’ve heard so very much about you,” Margaret said, looking at me still.

“Oh,” I said. “You have?”

“Yes,” Winchester said quick. “I told you the queen has been searching for you.”

Lady Norfolk looked fair disapproving, which were a bit of a feat since I’d only ever seen one utterly blank expression from her. Allan chuckled.

“The queen won’t hear of it,” I told them. “She doesn’t believe Prince John would hurt Richard.”

“He tried to kill you,” David said. “How is that different?”

Lady Norfolk raised her chin in a look that were a pale mimic of Eleanor. “She’s a mother,” Lady Norfolk said flat. “Not one of you understands what that means.”

I sighed, thinking of the letters in my room. Nottingham were starting to seem farther away than ever. “If she won’t help us, we have to stop Prince John on our own,” I told them.

“But you don’t know how the prince intends to act,” Winchester reminded me careful. “How can we stop something if we don’t know what’s going to happen?”

I crossed my arms. “Eleanor said something interesting—Prince John doesn’t have a tremendous amount of money. Is that true?”

“Of course not!” Allan crowed. “He’s John Lackland!”

Winchester lifted his shoulder. “He’s lord of a few holdings—Nottingham included, as you’ll remember—mostly properties that have reverted to the Crown and that he doesn’t entirely hold in his own right. He exists by his brother’s beneficence,” Winchester said. “He’ll collect money from those, which is more than many have, but no, he doesn’t have access to the royal coffers or the fortune of Aquitaine.”

“So Eleanor’s right. He needs an army if he hopes to take the crown. Even in the most peaceful ways, he’d still need men to protect his claim to the throne.”

“He needs money,” David said.

I nodded.

“But . . .” Margaret started to say something, but her eyes darted round the room and she stopped, putting her head down.

“What?” I asked her.

“Well—the money. The queen came south to start collecting the funds for the tax, but the prince went north. Within a month, he’ll have thousands of pounds of silver at his fingertips,” she said. “As will the queen.”

“That’s not good,” muttered Allan.

“But it doesn’t make sense to steal it as he goes,” I said, shaking my head. “He needs to raise 65,000 pounds—Eleanor won’t let a ship leave without the full amount on it.” I stopped, looking at Allan. “A ship. Of course—that would be the smartest move, to fill a ship and send it to the wrong place. Steal the ransom and use it to buy an army, not the king’s freedom.”

“And what does that change?” Eleanor said, returning slow from the hallway she left by. “Nothing. We still have the daunting task of raising this tax. We must bring the English people to the brink and then find a way to stop them falling over. If he means to steal the tax after it’s raised, that’s one thing. But we still need to raise it. And we still need to protect you,” she said, looking at me.

“So you believe me?” I asked.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “No. I believe John will act with pride and honor. But I recognize the temptation. I pushed his brothers to rebel against their father, after all. The night before you are crowned is the last full night of sleep you ever get—everyone who has even a loose claim will take their chance to end your reign and with it, your life. The key is not to give them an opportunity, and the only thing that I will agree upon is that this is an opportunity. But I won’t lose either of my sons to it.”

I swallowed. For now, it were enough. I nodded, once.

“But I also won’t lose my granddaughter. So I will send you to Ireland.”

“Eleanor—” I started.

She held up a hand. “No. You cannot go to France, because whether or not you’re right, John has friends in France. It’s the first place he’d turn to for armies for a rebellion. And you wouldn’t be able to hide there. I can’t get you safely to any of my daughters, so I’ll send you to Ireland. It’s close, and you can be safe there until this mess blows over.”