Page 63 of Whiskers and Wiles

“Greetings, Your Majesty,” Waldorf said, bowing low for a second time as Kat curtsied again.

Even Napoleon seemed to lower himself in his basket out of respect.

“I wish to speak to the two of you alone,” Queen Matilda said.

Rather than gesturing for Kat and Waldorf to follow her to some sequestered room, the queen sent a quick look to Kat’s friends and Waldorf’s relatives, as well as the others who had crowded in nearby in the hopes of finding a good spot from which to hear Lord Walsingham’s opening remarks.

In an instant, everyone who had gathered close rushed away. Their quick footsteps and murmurs of excitement reminded Kat of the sound of a wave crashing on the beach, then rustling the sand as it moved back into the ocean.

“We are at your mercy, Your Majesty,” Kat said quietly once a buffer of emptiness had opened around them.

“Yes, you are,” Queen Matilda said in a somewhat wry voice. She stood taller and held herself with such regal power that even her silver-white hair and wrinkled face seemed beautiful and potent. “I trust your time at Oxwick Park was well-spent?”

Kat exchanged a wary glance with Waldorf as they both straightened from their positions of obeisance to the queen, but not too much. “We…I do not know, if I am honest, Your Majesty.”

Queen Matilda narrowed her eyes slightly. “You do not know what?” she asked.

Kat swallowed, resisting the urge to look to Waldorf and pile all responsibility on his shoulders. She was not the sort of woman to hide behind a man, though. She was compelled to face her queen directly.

“Neither of us were able to speak to Lord or Lady Walsingham about the Mercian Plan,” she confessed. “The events of the party were…all-consuming.”

“We have reason to believe that Lord Walsingham is not averse to the cause,” Waldorf added, somehow, despite his usual personality, managing to sound deferential and calm. “That may count for something.”

The queen hummed, still studying the two of them. “And how did you find Lady Walsingham’s retreat?” she asked.

Something hitched within Kat, a thought, or more likely, a suspicion. “It was…different, Your Majesty.”

“Lady Walsingham has formed some rather unique and insightful opinions about relations between men and women,” Waldorf said.

“Yes, I know,” the queen said in a voice that was both flat and…teasing?

Kat blinked. “You…do? Your Majesty,” Kat added with a bow of her head as a respectful afterthought.

Queen Matilda was silent for a short while more, her mouth pulling into a sly grin that she only barely attempted to conceal. “I could have chosen any of my operatives to infiltrate Oxwick Park so that they might ease along the desired outcome of such a mission,” she said. “I may have done just that with another pair as well. But it occurred to me that of all the people in my employ, the two of you might have been able to benefit the most from that sort of mission.”

Kat had to fight to keep from letting her mouth drop open. The queen had sent her and Waldorf into Lady Walsingham’s insightful madness on purpose?

The queen shifted, her grin expanding and making her blue eyes sparkle. “I have been told a certain special license has been applied for,” she said.

“I, er, um, yes, it has, Your Majesty,” Waldorf sputtered.

The queen looked as though she’d won a particularly profitable hand of Mad Eights. “Good,” she said. “Then the outcome is as I had hoped.”

She turned to walk on. Kat gusted out a breath, her skin prickling with awkwardness and excitement at the implication of everything the queen had just said.

Kat pivoted to speak to Waldorf, but before she could, Queen Matilda turned back and said, “By the by, you are both now ousted from my employ.” She nodded once, then marched on.

Waldorf made a strangled sound of surprise and reached for Kat’s free hand. “I do not know what to think about any of that,” he admitted to Kat in a hoarse voice.

“Neither do I,” Kat said, squeezing his hand. “Perhaps we should just be grateful that we both still have heads on our shoulders.”

Waldorf nodded. “I am eternally grateful for that.”

“What did Queen Matilda have to say to you that could not be heard by others?” Lord Cedric asked with a concerned look as their friends and relations crowded around them once more.

“I do not believe we are at liberty to discuss such a thing,” Kat said, still stunned.

That answer did not satisfy anyone, but their impatience with the secrecy was short-lived. A moment later, King Swithin walked past on his way to the Monarch’s Gallery in the company of King Aled of Wales and both kings’ many guards and councilors. King Swithin sent Waldorf a sharp look and a nod, but that was the only acknowledgement he received.

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