The Stoneholding

met have not dimmed your splendour," he declared, seeking to lock eyes with hers. He winked. Again he winked. She stood there baffled.

Everything within these walls smelled of a closing trap. He chafed at the unbroken tension, calculating his chances if he were to wheel around and close with Baldrick all of a sudden, armed only with a dagger. Frysan resisted the impulse to look over his shoulder. The Queen remained wary. He had come to her with the Captain of the Guard. She must suppose he was one of the man's cronies. A wise assumption, but a very awkward one at the moment.

"I don't understand." Ignoring his pleading face and gestures, she looked past Frysan to Baldrick for an explanation.

"Oh, but you will, you will, Your Highness," he said with an unusual deference. He edged his way to the curtain, resting his left hand on the pommel of his sword. The fingers of the other caressed a dagger strapped to his belt.

"I'll leave you now with Master Dorassy for just a wee bit of a moment. Don't go away, he'll answer all your questions quite handily, I'm sure." Baldrick smirked as he backed his way out of the bedchamber past the drawn curtain and then disappeared. They could hear a scuffle of sounds and then the faint rattle of a doorknob. Queen Asturia retreated a step or two from Frysan, holding fast to her baby, all ...