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“Hello, Orson. I just arrived yesterday. My friend and I wondered if you could tell us anything about your brother.”

His expression drops, and he comes out to join us in the yard. “George couldn’t have gotten far on his own. He could hardly get around at all.”

“Still that bad?” Concern paints Tomas’ face.

“Why is that?” I ask.

“His knee was shattered the winter before last,” Orson says. “He was kicked by a horse.”

“Oh, that’s horrible.”

He leans on a fencepost, overlooking open fields. “Yes. It was difficult to keep up with the work without him, but some workers happened upon us, willing to work for half the usual wage. He was finally getting around, if slowly, but now who knows if I’ll ever see him again. The investigators from Mirador seemed more interested in the woman who had recently passed through town than finding George.”

Tomas and I look at each other then back to Orson. “What investigators?” I ask at the same time Tomas asks, “What woman?”

A sigh blows out of me. “I’m sorry. Investigators came to speak to you?”

“Yes, just the other day. I thought it amazing that the Queen cared enough, but as I said, they didn’t seem terribly interested in finding him.”

More importantly, they weren’t sent by the Queen.

“Because there was a woman they were trying to track down?” Tomas sounds as lost as I feel.

Orson nods. “An old crone, no more agile than George. Perhaps they disappeared together, because I didn’t see her again after I saw her speaking with George. It was the night he went missing. She wasn’t from here. It was assumed she just continued on her way.”

One of the strange people passing through. What connection does someone else see between that and the missing stableboy, though?

I nod along as Tomas inquires after the boy’s mother and such, but my mind is on these supposed royal investigators and who really sent them.

Chapter seventeen

“Those investigators were not sent by Mother.”

Tomas clicks his tongue as we walk away from the stables. “Thank you, Bell. I hadn’t figured that out on my own.”

“Well, who did send them?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know.”

“Where are we going now?”

“To see if anyone else was interviewed by these investigators.”

Good. My chest tightens as I realize I’m now more interested in these frauds than our missing people—no better than the frauds themselves who cared only for the mysterious old woman. Still, they might know something we don’t, so finding them will get us closer to discovering what happened to those who’ve gone missing. Hopefully.

We wind our way through a different part of town which seems a little quieter at this hour and sports an aroma of old wine and ale. “You’re quite well known around town, by the way.”

“I spent nearly a year out here.”

The memory of who else he seemed to get to know well here draws my hands into fists. This is not the time, though. Tomas stops and knocks on a door. There’s some muffled complaining about it being too early on the other side. I look around to decipher what this place is, but as I’m about to ask, the door opens. A woman wearing the smudged remnants of last night’s makeup and a sheer robe which leaves nothing to the imagination answers.

Right. The other missing person was an escort.

The woman’s face lights up in recognition. “Good morning, Lord Tomas. So good to see you back in town.”

I can’t imagine what my face looks like as I turn by degrees to glare at Tomas. He doesn’t take any notice, responding to the woman instead. “Thank you. We’ve just arrived yesterday.”

“Oh, you must be exhausted from traveling. Come in, then, come in.” She leads us into a dark sitting room and gestures for us to sit on one of the burgundy velvet sofas. I do so reluctantly, not certain I want to be sitting on any surface here. “Well, sir, it’s a little unusual to bring a girl with you, but I’ll wake someone who will be great fun for the both of you.”