Bitterblue had, indeed, been allowing herself a lot of tears recently. “I’m recovering from an ordeal, Froggatt,” she said, remembering the word Katu’s doctor had used. “The last few weeks have reminded me of a lot of old things. Sad things. You understand?”

“Yes, of course I do, Lady Queen,” said Froggatt, who’d worked in her father’s court before he’d ever worked in hers.

“It’s productive crying,” she said. “I’m making progress. Though if I’m being honest, my head and neck ache from it.”

“Have you been remembering to stretch before crying?” said Giddon.

Froggatt turned to regard Giddon with an indignant and incredulous expression.

“It’s also good to do a little warm-up cry before you go all out,” said Giddon, which sent Bitterblue into giggles and finally brought her up out of her chair, taking his hand and announcing she had things to do, because (she didn’t announce this part) she wanted to get into bed with him.

Froggatt watched them together, a kind of aggrieved confusion on his face.

—

The next challenge surprised Bitterblue. She wasn’t surprised that in her meetings with the Ledra elite, more than one Industrialist casually mentioned Benni’s upstanding character, even expressing that it was hard to believe he would build an illegal weapon, imprison his own brother-in-law, kill a boy, or abduct a queen.

“And yet he did,” she would respond calmly.

But she was surprised at what one person asked: “Did you ever see him, Lady Queen? According to the parts of his defense that I’ve heard, you never actually saw him.”

“Certainly I saw him. Most recently, I saw him trying to hide evidence in Torla’s Neck,” Bitterblue replied.

But later that night, as she waited in her bedroom for Giddon to arrive, Bitterblue considered that in fact, she hadn’t seen Benni hiding any evidence. She’d stabbed him before he’d had a chance. Nor had she seen him during her kidnapping. She’d been unconscious when his airship had snatched her out of the sea. She’d been unconscious from a drugged drink—given to her by Ferla’s guard—when he’d murdered that poor boy. The fox had told her Benni was guilty, and she believed the fox. But the fox’s involvement was a secret she’d sworn to keep. She had every intention of honoring her promise to uphold the secrets of foxkind.

The truth was that if she was asked to testify in court against Benni, there was little Bitterblue could honestly report, beyond inferences. And if Benni decided to claim that Ferla had coerced him, or threatened his children, her inferences couldn’t contradict that.