"Ettinsmoor? Is that what we're calling it now?" Imira asked.
"Better than 'the northern lands the Ettins inhabit' don't you think?" Peter asked in return.
"I suppose it's catchy," she agreed. "So what do we do now?"
Peter looked around the room...
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EDMUND
After Imira left, we all went inside Lord Henry's manor for some tea and to come up with a plan. Imira had shared everything with me, but I wanted to hear it all from Lord Henry himself.
It was a most suspicious story, the behaviour Henry related made no logical sense, but it reminded me a good deal of Prince Darren's. One thing was clear to me: something foul had taken place.
"Before announcing he was to marry Lady Danielle, Prince Darren shared with me his desire to leave her in favour of another," I share with them. "He spoke of it often during our venture and then again the night we returned. He said he was breaking up with her first thing the next morning, but after breakfast, he announced the exact opposite. It made no sense to me, neither his decision nor his behaviour, and now for some unknown reason, his brother and yours," I turn to look at Lady Thea for a moment, "are all acting the same. Whatever has affected them, it has to be linked to Prince Darren."
They nod in silent agreement, eating a biscuit or picking up their tea but say nothing. Only Lady Phoebe speaks up.
"Well, what do they have in common?" She asks quietly. This is the first time she has spoken all day, not counting the time she apologized to Imira and the time she offered me some tea.
Henry furrows his brow, thinking, and Thea shrugs.
"Well," it's obvious, isn't it? "they all went to her house," I say. "First Prince Darren to break up with her that morning and-"
"and then my brother to spy on her," Thea continues what I was about to say, looking at Lord Henry judgingly, though he misses the glance.
"An action I must say was most unlawful," I add, making my displeasure with it known. I understand what they were trying to accomplish, but there are other ways to go about it.
"And then Prince Dean to let her parents know things were off," Henry says, catching up with the rest of us. "She is the common element," He seems very pleased with that assertion, but there's a little problem with his logic...
"Only she wasn't there when Lord Roy snuck into her quarters," Lady Phoebe beats me to it. "Or when Prince Dean disguised himself as Darren. She was with Lady Thea, remember? She couldn't have done anything,"
I guess we now know who's the clever one in this house.
"That's right," I agree with Lady Phoebe, "It couldn't have been her. It's impossible,"
"But, Your Majesty, clearly she must have been involved somehow," Lady Thea turns to me, making her animosity towards Danielle very clear.
