Page 59 of Stars May Fall

Lady Sophie’s eyes creased at the edges. “Of course, I would. I will write to her. Thank you so much for the news, it is good to hear.”

I decided it would not be wise to bring up her father. Instead, I accepted her thanks with a nod. “She will be thrilled to hear I have seen you in person and that you are looking so well.”

Lady Sophie smiled. She had a wide, innocent smile that transformed her whole face. It was contagious. She couldn't have appeared more different than the general. Her willowy frame meant she had to be about a quarter of his weight. “Thank you for looking out for her well-being. I’ve been worried about her.”

I inclined my head in a small bow. “I shall continue to do so.”

I noticed Annabelle was watching me from the corner of her eye while pretending not to. I was glad she had asked me to help wrap things up with Lady Sophie’s family. The thought of anyone harming this sweet girl made the anger buried deep inside me stir.

I spent so long entangled in court cases and trying to keep the justice system fair while dealing with the likes of Lord Lyrason, I worried Annabelle felt I wasn’t readily available to support her despite our regularly scheduled meetings.

The three of us spoke for another half hour about trivial matters before Lady Sophie excused herself to go home.

At last, I was alone with my betrothed. She was quiet, and I wondered if I should excuse myself too. She was probably still tired from dealing with the envoys yesterday.

“Venerick,” Annabelle paused with a conflicted expression, and my breath caught. Whatever she was about to say was important and not for show. This meant something more. She straightened. “Venerick, I’m sorry to ask this, but I was wondering if you could do me another favor?”

Now this sounded like the true test, as if meeting Sophie had just been the pretext to see if I qualified for it. Just like the test to help banish Sophie’s father. At last, her trust in me was growing. I tried not to seem too eager. “Of course.”

She winced. “If I give you a name, could you look into his disappearance, no questions asked? And in a way that doesn’t trace back to me?”

Of all the questions she could have asked, this was the last thing I was expecting. Was she involved in something big? Or was she helping a friend? I chose my words carefully to be as unthreatening as possible. “It sounds like something that would easily come under my repertoire.”

She hesitated again and my curiosity grew. At last, she took a deep breath and looked down, twisting the goblet between her fingers. “Please be careful. His name is Regan Jones.”

SOPHIE

To my frustration, Lord Lyrason didn’t turn up for the campaign planning or have any secret meetings with the king for Annabelle and I to eavesdrop on all morning, so I decided to head home after an hour of lingering, giving space for the princess to talk to Venerick. I couldn’t exactly stay in or around Annabelle’s rooms all day. Not without raising suspicion, anyway. Besides, she had many other duties. I suspected the king would already be cautious about the amount of time we were spending together.

I got halfway down the corridor before I heard Kasten’s voice calling my name. I turned in surprise to see him striding toward us. How had he known I was leaving?

I frowned at Meena in suspicion. “Did you just signal to him on your detector?” Various signals had been going off all day, none that I recognized, and I’d had the sound turned down to concentrate on Annabelle.

Meena looked sheepish. “Yes, my lady. The general asked to be notified when we were leaving the palace. He likes to be kept up to date on your movements.”

“Oh.” I supposed that made sense for him to know where I was. But why had he come? Had something happened?

Kasten stopped beside me and looked me up and down. “Are you well?”

I nodded, still taken aback by his sudden appearance. “Aren’t you still in the war council meeting? Or have you stopped for lunch?”

He shrugged. “I asked to be excused briefly. I wanted to escort you home.”

I took a step back. “Escort me? Why? Kasten, you need to be in that meeting. It’s important. You can’t afford to antagonize anyone in there.”

He looked down and shrugged, then fixed me with one of his intense stares that made me lose my train of thought. “I’ll only be gone for half an hour and they’re breaking soon anyway. The king excused me.”

I shifted, uncomfortable, though his tone was confident.

The corner of his mouth twitched, and his voice lowered to a more teasing tone. “Don’t you want to spend time with me, Sophie?”

I shook myself and let his gaze warm me. “Yes, of course, Kasten.”

He stepped closer to me, his eyes briefly flicking to my lips and bringing back memories of the night before last. I felt my cheeks warm and looked away, taking his arm and pulling us forward. Meena was awkwardly looking everywhere but us.

Kasten chuckled under his breath and closed his free hand over where mine was resting on his arm. My stomach flipped.

We didn’t speak until we reached the front steps and Kasten summoned our carriage. I turned to him and patted his arm. “Kasten, thank you for coming, but you really should go back now. It’s only a short carriage ride, and I’ll be with Meena. I don’t want to undermine all the hard work you’ve put in with the campaign planning and discovering what’s going on.”

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