I followed her into the kitchen, thankful that she didn’t ask questions while she cooked, but that she listened as I rambled on about the night. I wanted to tell her of the knight but refrained, and perhaps it was only because Phelan had seemed so intent on keeping it a secret. I was on my second cup of tea when I confessed, “I saw the countess this morning. I just so happened to be sleeping in Phelan’s bed when she arrived.”

Imonie’s face paled. “And why were you in Phelan’s bed?”

“Nothing happened. He was wounded and he asked me to stay with him.”

Imonie eased into the chair across from mine. She wrapped her fingers around her teacup, her eyes glazed in fear. I had never seen such a thing in her—she kept her emotions as guarded as she did her past.

“I want you to stay away from her,” she said.

“Who? Lady Raven?”

Imonie nodded. “She’s dangerous, Clem. She will stop at nothing to get what she wants.”

“How do you know that?” I asked, breakfast suddenly like lead in my stomach.

“Have you ever heard about the Count of Amarys?”

“Her husband? No.”

“That’s because he’s dead,” Imonie said. “Been dead for almost sixteen years now. There was much speculation at the time he died. One day he was fine, the next? He fell sick. He died three days later, bloated and choking on his own blood. The countess was a young mother to two boys, and it all seemed rather tragic until rumors began to fly that the Duke of Bardyllis was the boys’ true father, and not the count. And that perhaps the countess had poisoned her husband to get rid of him.”

I gnawed on my lip, processing Imonie’s story. This would be perfect for my exposé on the Vespers. “Do you think she killed her husband?”

Imonie wiped a wrinkle from the tablecloth. “Yes, I do. She poisoned him.”

“But why?” I asked. “Why would she kill him? She hasn’t gotten with the duke since then.”

“Perhaps the count had come to know too much about her. Perhaps she wanted to raise her boys on her own. Perhaps she had simply tired of him. Perhaps he was in her way.” Imonie shrugged. “No one knows, so that’s why I’m telling you to give her a wide berth.”

That did nothing to reassure me. Not when I recalled how Lady Raven’s gaze had been icy, beholding me in her son’s bed.

“Papa said she’s an old acquaintance of his,” I said.

Imonie snorted. “Yes, and why do you think he’s now working in the mines and has given up magic and wants nothing more than to evade the Vesper boys?”

I wasn’t sure, so I remained quiet.