He knew about the message scraped into the parchment. He had all but said so in the tent. He had read it, no doubt, and comprehended how treasonous that betrayal had been.

He had known when he let her escape, and during their last night under the stars.… Her throat thickened. Half of her wanted to weep and half of her wanted to scream at him with fury.

She looked to the Welsh who waited for Llygad’s daughter to return. They did not know yet that she had failed them. “I have often thought that this would have been so much easier if the King had chosen a stupid man,” she said.

There was no response to that.

“How much do you know?” she asked.

“I know that you have used the designs to send plans and messages. From the look on Carwyn’s face when that parchment unfolded, some went to him, but some were sent to the Scots. This last one did not arrive, however, as you can see.”

She sighed. He had even surmised who their allies were to be. She had hoped he had not. “Who else knows?”

“Addis and Paul.”

Only those two. He had kept it a secret, to protect her. He had helped her escape, so she might be safe when the truth became known.

She did not like admitting that. She wanted to hate him, and to see his own deceptions as black and heartless. If she accepted defeat, she wanted to do so spitting curses at the man who had brought her to it.

“The one you sent with David also will not reach the Scots,” he said.

Her heart cracked and sank. If he had only stopped the last message, it was possible the plan still stood a chance. But if he had intercepted the one before it too, where she reaffirmed the alliance despite Genith’s disappearance, all could be lost.

He came closer, until she felt him near her shoulder. “There is one more thing that you should know. I replaced David’s design with a new one, Nesta. It contains a very different message scraped into it. An announcement of a retreat here in Wales and a repudiation of the plan. It bears your mark of the dragon, and informs your allies that they cannot count on Wales rising.”

She pivoted, finally looking at him, her mind reeling with shock. In that instant she suddenly comprehended the fullness of what he had done.

He had not merely obstructed her. He had allowed her to proceed, so he could remain one step behind, using her betrayals to his own end.

“You think that you are very clever, don’t you, Marcus?”

“Clever enough to stop you, woman.”