Maryanne squirmed against me, and I looked at her. “Your papa’s a hero,” I whispered to her. I brushed my nose over her cheek, then laid a kiss in its wake. “Both of them.”

Chapter 26

We arrived in late afternoon, five days after we’d set out from Nottingham. Margaret and I rode in a carriage, and I held her hand most of the way there. She were pale and would bare look at Winchester.

The men flanked our carriage, Rob and Winchester ahead and David and Allan behind.

Wending through the squalor of London, it were like we were meant to see the dirt and grime of the city long before we saw the beauty of Westminster Palace. And then the city began to fade and turrets of the long rectangle of the palace came into view, teetering on the edge of the river, and you remembered the riches, the glory, and the power that England held tight in its palm.

Servants rushed out to greet us, and we dismounted in the wide courtyard. The wind were snapping off the river and it made me feel taller, more royal, than I expected.

“Your Grace,” a well-dressed man said, coming forward and bowing to Winchester.

“Sir,” Winchester frowned, “we have contributions from the queen’s efforts; please have your men help us bring it to the treasury.”

“The treasury is in the White Tower, your Grace. I will have knights escort it over immediately.”

“What?” Winchester asked. “It wasn’t a few weeks ago.”

“The prince ordered it,” the man said. “He was afraid the palace wasn’t secure enough.”

“And the White Tower is better?”

“Forgive me, your Grace, I cannot think to guess at the prince’s motivation for his decision. We can have someone escort it over immediately.”

“Absolutely not,” I said.

The man looked to me like I weren’t supposed to speak. “My lady—”

“No,” I said. “We will escort it there immediately.”

“My lords—”

“I wouldn’t contradict her,” Winchester warned.

I turned to Margaret, kissing her cheek. “Go in and rest. Get settled. We will return very soon.”

She nodded, looking to Winchester, and I nodded to Allan.

Allan came over. “Stay with her,” I told him.

He dismounted with a gallant smile. “I have just the song to cure a lovesick lady,” he told her. She frowned at this.

I took Allan’s horse. “I don’t know if de Clare is here yet,” I told them, “but Allan, do not allow an audience with her if he is.”

Allan nodded once to me.

I mounted the horse without aid, and Winchester and Rob did the same.

“One of our knights will lead you—” the man started.

“I am familiar with the White Tower’s location,” I told him.

He didn’t speak more.

Rob sidled up next to me. “You don’t have to come,” he told me. “We can do it.”

Glaring at him, I said, “I’m coming. For Heaven’s sake, I put on a dress and you lot think I’m a girl.”

Winchester frowned at me. “I confess, my lady, I often don’t understand you at all.”

Rob took my hand and flipped it over, kissing the palm. “Woman, maybe. Girl, never.”

I shook my head with a smile.

David nodded once to me, solemn. “My lady, we should go. It’s already late and as you remember, London can be . . . rough.”

Rob glanced at me at that, more questioning, watching me like there were more secrets he wanted to peer into. “Let’s go,” he allowed. I nodded to David.

We left the palace with the carriage, taking the road along the river. The city were bright with lights and dark with the shadows that clung to the edges of them to our left, and out on the right, the river stretched wide, still and deep, never showing its dark secrets or the ways it moved under the surface. Breathing in deep, it weren’t the lush green of the forest; there were smoke and mold, too many bodies and wet.

I looked at Rob, trying to fill my mind with forest and ocean and sun instead, all the things I saw in his eyes and his face and his hair.

The White Tower were almost full dark, but for a lantern above the wooden staircase leading to the elevated door. The gate were shut, and a guard only appeared when we came close.

“The Earl of Winchester and the Earl and Lady Huntingdon,” David said to the guard. “We’re here to contribute to the king’s ransom.”

The knight looked us over and nodded to us, opening the gate.

At this signal, ten knights came out of the keep, and David approached one as we all dismounted. “We have silver for the ransom,” he told him.

The knight looked at David but didn’t respond.

“Yes, sir, we will take care of it,” said another knight, and David turned to him.

David frowned, listening to his accent. “French, sir?” he asked.

“Oui,” the knight answered. “Prince John called for us from France—I believe so more of his own knights could defend the queen mother.”

David nodded. “Very well. Yes, empty the carriage.”

The French knight bowed his head in agreement.

“We need the amounts—we have Eleanor’s record but not yours,” the French knight said, nodding toward a little man with his head out the door.

Rob nodded, and we went up the staircase. Inside, we didn’t go up to my former rooms, but down, into the bottom of the keep. In a large room there were near fifty chests, arranged neat behind a small desk where the man recorded our sums before going out to the carriage.