Frederick runs his finger along the page. ‘Bird heart is for murder without design.’ He stops and looks up. ‘Is it murder if it’s without design? I take issue with the wording here. Paul, it should be killing, not murder, if it’s unintended. Am I wrong?’

‘I heartily agree,’ Paul says back.

‘Who claims authorship of this singular tome?’ asks Frederick. He looks at the first pages. ‘None.’

I suck my teeth.

Frederick turns back to the M’s. ‘Rabbit for murder in defence of one’s life or as a soldier in battle. Again, I amend it to killing. Pig heart for wrathful murder. I grant the use of murder in this instance.’

‘Hear, hear,’ agrees Paul.

‘Lamb heart for murder of a babe. Cock heart for murder of your father. Swan for murder of your mother. Bear for murder of royalty. Deer for murder of a royal babe. Goat for—’ Frederick stops when my breath catches. ‘Eureka, I surmise.’

Deer heart for the murder of a royal babe.

Maker mine, what have I stumbled upon? Corliss and Tilly Howe have both been poisoned and hearts placed on their coffins that claim they murdered a royal child. But I know from their Recitations they never did.

Questions come into my head so quick I can hardly sort them all. Why would somefolk slander Corliss and Tilly like this? To throw blame off themselves? To harm the women and their kin by ruining their names? That’s all I come up with.

And what royal child or children were murdered? There surely must be those with a claim to the throne who died young, but apart from the babes Maris lost in her womb, I don’t know of them.

Tilly said a heart would be on her coffin, so she knew something of the matter. What did she know?

The questions keep on, but the only one I can conceive an answer for is this: why might a royal child be murdered?

This one’s easy to figure. Killing a royal babe changes who’s next in line for the throne. Many folk might consider murder if it meant they could rule over all of Angland. I get a cold feeling when this thought comes, because it makes it seem like Queen Bethany could be the murderer – after all, she’s ruling over all of Angland now. I close my mind against the thought. To think such a thing is treason. But it creeps back through like a draught under a door.

Who besides Bethany might kill a royal babe? The answer is anyfolk who profited when she became Queen.

Of course Black Fingers. He nearly killed me for speaking of it. Twice. And at Corliss’s Eating it sounded as if he had ambitions for the throne.

The Willow Tree. With Bethany as Queen, he’s one of the most important men in Angland.

The Queen’s ladies too. They’re Bethany’s loyal friends.