His Secret Slave to Scandalous Queen

Henry exhaled. "It is inevitable."

"Will you go to war?"

"Not unless there is an heir. We should get to that as soon as possible. Wouldn’t want my men facing the war by themselves."

Henry’s hand moved slowly up and down her back. Every sigh made him look down. Every shift of her body made his arm tighten. Every quiet breath she took seemed to demand personal supervision from the Crown.

Livia snuggled closer to him. "I am glad you are back."

"Me too," he murmured.

She rested her cheek against his chest.

"Wherever I go now," he said, "you go."

Livia chuckled softly. "That is excessive." She smiled against him though. "I would never say no to seeing the world."

Henry lowered his mouth to her hair. "Good. Then we are agreed."

Livia laughed again and Henry closed his eyes, allowing her softness envelope him, her innocence. Maybe that would chase the nightmare away.

*****

Lionel arrived the next morning. Livia was awake, propped against pillows. He stopped at the threshold and Tabitha, standing near the table with a cup of broth in her hand, caught the faint smile that crossed his face before he buried it.

"My lord," Lionel said, bowing to Henry. "Will Your Majesty be attending council?"

Henry sat beside Livia on the bed, one arm behind her pillows. "First...I need to know everything that happened in my absence. I was planning to bring charges against Her Grace, but I hear a different version from Livia." His gaze shifted briefly to her.

Livia met it calmly from the bed, though her hand curled slightly beneath the coverlet.

Henry looked back to Lionel. "Begin."

Lionel stood straight. "Things were quiet at first, Your Majesty. Uneasy, but quiet. Her Grace kept her distance from Miss Valenti. Then came the day Lady Bella died. We were returning from mass. The attack came in two places at once. Miss Valenti was clearly the target. Lady Bella took the blade for her."

"The attackers?"

"Dead," Lionel answered. "All of them."

"How?"

"They were all killed by me at the scene. I began investigating their movements and found a connection between one of the men and the women from Beaumont’s house who had been held in the gaol."

"And when you reached them?" Henry asked.

"They were dead," Lionel said. "All of them."

Henry’s voice lowered. "Beaumont’s girls had the means to stage an attack such as that?"

Lionel’s guilt surged forward so plainly that even Henry’s narrowed eyes caught it. The man looked as though he wanted punishment. "It was my fault, sire...I—"

"No," Livia interrupted quickly.

Every eye turned to her. She had spoken too fast.

Livia drew herself up against the pillows. "Beaumont’s girls had enough coin between them...They were paid by men."

Henry’s gaze remained on her. He was listening, but not fully convinced.

"If they pooled their funds together, I am sure they could manage it."

Lionel looked at Livia. The look carried far too much. Guilt and the desperate wish of a man who had spent days standing beneath the weight of his own conscience and wanted, at last, to be crushed by it.

Livia understood him. She understood the need to confess. She understood the ugly relief of handing pain to the person most likely to punish it. Lionel wanted Henry to know. He wanted the king’s rage, the king’s disappointment, perhaps even the king’s sword.

But Livia needed him alive.

"Right?" Livia asked, lifting her eyes to him.

Her voice was gentle enough for the room, but her gaze was stern. Henry glanced between them.

The look did not escape him.

"So you have no leads we can bring before council?"

Lionel tore his gaze from Livia and faced the king. "On that front, no, Your Majesty."

Henry’s mouth tightened. "Nothing we can use against my mother for Bella’s death?"

"No evidence strong enough, sire. For the forged order perhaps, we may have something. Her Grace must have stolen your seal, and she had your hand copied well enough to make the order convincing. The letter commanding the court mistresses to be married off before your return could be brought before council. Lord Langford already doubted it, but the seal made defiance difficult."

"She did not steal it," he said.

Lionel paused. "Sire?"

"I gave her a sealed blank parchment as payment for her help."

"Henry," Livia whispered.

He looked at her then, and the self-hatred in his eyes stopped whatever she was about to say.

Lionel bowed his head. "We can still hold Her Grace for forging your hand, Your Majesty."

"That is merely a slap on the wrist."

"It is still an offence against the Crown."

"What will I do about that? Scold her, confine her. I already did that. Why did Geoffrey believe she was responsible for the poisoning?"

Livia felt the answer approaching and wished, rather uselessly, that she could sink through the mattress.

"We needed to delay," Lionel said. "The marriages. Her Grace had the gentlemen summoned. The women would have been married unless something significant halted the proceedings."

Henry’s hand curled against the coverlet. "Continue."

"Miss Valenti came up with the idea to use Her Grace’s own trick against her," Lionel said carefully. "A letter was written in Her Grace’s hand, admitting instructions to replace the herbs she had been giving Miss Valenti with poison. It was meant to frighten her into summoning the physician quickly, and to create enough suspicion to stop the forced marriages."

"So the poison was planned?" Henry asked.

Lionel did not answer, because the question was no longer for him. Henry looked at Livia.

"It was not a spur-of-the-moment act?" he asked.

Livia did the only sensible thing left. She sank deeper into the pillows. The coverlet rose nearly to her chin, and she turned her face slightly aside."

Henry’s gaze returned to Lionel. "And you approved this?"

"No, Your Majesty," he said. "I argued against it."

"You knew she meant to drink poison?"

"I knew the plan."

"And you allowed it?"

"I failed to stop it."