“He was going to kill the prince?”

“It would seem so. They’ll soon find out when they question him. No, stay still, my dear.” He pressed her gently back into the cushions of the chair, and straightened, lifting his voice above the chaos in the little cabin.

“You men. Take him up now.” This to the guards holding the attacker.

“Wait!”

It was Chlodovald, still standing on the bed, and by this keeping a commanding height. Shaken and disoriented though he must have been, waking among strangers in a strange place to find murder still stalking him, that was past, and he was himself again, a Merwing prince whose first instinct was for revenge. He had no attention, now, for anyone but the prisoner.

“You were paid for this? By whom?”

The man, scared and sullen, shook his head and muttered something unintelligible, but as one of the guards raised a hand the duke spoke sharply.

“Not here! By your leave, Prince Chlodovald. Let me present myself. I am Duke Ansirus of Rheged in Britain. I and my daughter are guests of your grandmother Queen Clotilda, and we are here to escort you to safety. So if you will, put up your dagger, and we will take this man up out of here. It seems he is one of the crew, so it will be proper to let the master question him.”

Even standing on the bed, the boy had to look up to the duke. He hesitated, then, with a formal little bow that almost made him lose his balance on the soft mattress, he sheathed the long knife and jumped to the floor.

“Sir,” he said, and then, to Alice: “You were hurt, lady? I’m sorry. I didn’t see. I didn’t see there was a lady there at all. It happened so quickly, and I was asleep.”

“I know. It’s all right. It’s nothing.” There was hardly enough room in the cabin for Alice to make her curtsey, but before she could attempt it her father’s hand gently held her back in the chair.

“No, my dear. Stay quiet. Why, you’re trembling. It’s all right now, all’s well.” A pat on her shoulder, a word to the ship’s captain, and then again to the guards. “You men, take the fellow up. And now, Prince Chlodovald, if you will go with the master, while I look to the Lady Alice? Ah, Mariamne, there you are. Come in, girl, stop gaping, there’s no danger now. See your mistress back to her bed. And see to her hand, it’s bruised and needs a salve. Good night, my dear.”

“Danger?” The duke, last out of the cabin, was barely on the bottom step of the stairway before Mariamne, still wide-eyed and open-mouthed, flew across the cabin to her mistress’s side. “What danger? What did my lord mean? Madam, madam, Lady Alice, that was Jeshua! Wasn’t it? In this light, and he never said anything, and his face was all mud, but I could have sworn –”