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“We are not friends. When are you going to get it through your thick skull? We were never friends. I once thought different, but your actions have made it clear you were never a friend to me. Only to him. I should have seen it for what it was. Did you think that Rupert would like you if you told him the truth? Trust me, Bronwyn, no one likes bad news, and especially not the messenger.”

“Lady Alice. I didn’t mean…” Bronwyn started.

“Save it. He’s broken it off with me. Says we need some time apart, if you can believe it. All thanks to you.”

“I didn’t know you were courting.” She felt a tightness in her throat.

“Well, we are. We were. It was never said but implied in his every word, and… Never mind. It’s over now.” Lady Alice’s dainty fists clenched.

“I’m sorry.” Bronwyn felt a pang of regret for her, in spite of herself. “But you shouldn’t have lied to him.”

“That’s all you have to say? He blames me, when all I did was help him save his blasted king’s life.

He should be thanking me. Instead, I don’t even get credit for the blooming scheme.

Sir Ranulf does. And now Rupert’s… Never mind.

I only wanted to tell you to leave me be, Bronwyn, and I’ll not speak to you again.

Let us part. It was wrong of us to let our worlds intersect.

” Lady Alice shot her a glance, her dark eyes flashing to match her shining, black hair, and left.

Bronwyn sighed. And now what did it matter?

Stephen was alive and relatively safe, but she’d lost a friend.

And broken up a happy couple. She walked back down to the kitchens and threw herself into her work.

And based on Stephen’s treatment of her father previously, where he’d been preparing to hang him for a crime he hadn’t committed just a few months ago, she was surprised she cared at all.

Maybe the man would be better off dead , she thought darkly.

But she couldn’t shake the feeling that this was not up to her, and even if he wasn’t quite a king, Stephen deserved better treatment than what he was getting here.

This was the second day of feasting, but the foods were quite different.

Being Ash Wednesday, there was no more meat from four-legged creatures, and the emphasis was on fish.

The day was spent either gutting fish, deboning fish, making fish sauces, boiling fish in milk, and frying fish over hot pans.

Along with fresh bread, it was to be the first Lenten meal of the season.

For Bronwyn, it was quite a learning experience.

She’d only ever worked as a baker before this year and had only limited experience working with fish in the kitchen.

It was exciting and she’d never learned so much about cooking in such a little time.

She’d come to understand that in the city where she’d grown up, being a baker meant learning a trade in a certain set of skills, but working in the castle kitchens was like an entirely different world.

Here she did a bit of everything, and it was invigorating. There was just one problem: her mind kept getting diverted by what she’d witnessed and heard on the roof that morning—and all of the strange things that had happened since she’d joined Empress Maud’s camp.

Why had Lady Morwenna been holding on for dear life to the ropes above hanged traitors in the first place? Had she tripped? Could it have been an accident? What had she been doing on the parapets at such an early hour?

Bronwyn thought to herself as she slowly stirred a broth. She mentally stepped back to the start of the events that had taken place and pondered the order of what had happened.

Lady Eleanor, loyal to the empress by all accounts, had most likely interrupted men stealing the crown, and in her fighting with the guards, she’d been killed for her trouble.

Or, if Sir Bors was to be believed, she had been attempting to steal it herself, and he’d stopped her, but he’d been struck from behind.

His account was odd, though, considering how big and strong he was, and everyone’s description of the lady as the empress’s most trusted friend.

There was also the scent of roses she’d smelled at the time, a scent that Lady Eleanor did not wear.

Bronwyn excused herself, went to Lady Alice’s room and knocked on the door. She rapped and rapped until a sleepy Lady Alice said, “What? What do you want?”

“Does Lady Morwenna wear a scent? Like a floral scent?” She walked into the room.

“You bothered me to talk about perfume? Lord, you’re unbelievable. And if you haven’t forgotten, I’m not currently speaking to you. We are no longer friends, Bronwyn. We are nothing.”

“Yes, yes, I know. But answer me this. Lady Eleanor wore lavender scent, but do any of the other ladies?”

“Well, Lady Susanna likes the smell of apples.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“I know. But you seem to know enough already. Yes, Lady Morwenna likes to smell like roses. She had a rosewater she would often wear at camp, more so as she said the place smelled terrible, but she ran out of it and wishes to buy herself some or make some more. Why do you care, and why did you wake me up at the crack of dawn to ask about her toilette?”

“Because. When I first came across the scene of Lady Eleanor’s death, I smelled roses in the air.” Bronwyn realized Lady Morwenna had lied to her when she’d denied wearing the scent.

“So? There might have been flowers present.” Lady Alice yawned.

“Lady Eleanor was the only woman there and there were no flowers. It was February.”

“Oh. Well…” Lady Alice sat on her bed, thinking.

“And just this morning. I found Lady Morwenna at the top of the castle on the parapet, screaming. She was holding on to a rope that…” Bronwyn felt sick.

“Are you all right? You look pale.”

“Yes, I’m fine. I found Lady Morwenna, but she smelled like roses. I’m sure of it. But when I asked her, she denied it.”

“Hmm. You think she had something to do with Lady Eleanor’s death?” Lady Alice asked and tapped her chin.

“I think she might have been there, right before I found Lady Eleanor.”

“Then why didn’t she say anything?” Lady Alice asked.

“That, I do not know. Maybe she was afraid she’d be suspected of the crime. Maybe she saw Lady Eleanor die and it was too late to save her, and whoever had done it threatened her,” Bronwyn said.

Lady Alice said, “She was clearly trying to frame me for the theft of the empress’s crown. She’s up to no good at the best of times, I think. Perhaps she took the crown the night Lady Eleanor died. Or there’s the more obvious solution.”

Bronwyn raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“Maybe Lady Morwenna killed Lady Eleanor.”