CHAPTER 145
The council chamber was already filled when Grace entered. The air was close, thick with the heat of bodies and the weight of unease. Every councillor had returned with findings, but now they had been ordered to bring something more than scraps of parchment and hidden ledgers. Grace had demanded proof, words that could not be denied.
The great doors shut behind her, and the murmur of the chamber fell into silence. Grace took her seat at the head of the table, her hands steady on the armrests though her mind pressed forward with restless urgency.
Councillor Honest was the first to rise. His face bore lines of sleepless nights, his hands clasped around a folded parchment.
"Majesty," he began, bowing low, "the barracks gave me nothing but old notes and frightened recollections. But yesterday, one of Robert's former men was found. A soldier who deserted three years past, now taken in the hills. He claims to have served Robert in deeds outside all orders of the throne."
