He looked exhausted. Beyond exhaustion, really.
I settled into the chair across from him, even though he hadn’t invited me. But such was how it was between blood, between brothers. The fire in the hearth threw inadequate light. I didn’t comment on it.
“You have administrative gaps,” I said.
He waited.
“The part of your administration that’s exemplary is where it’s always been exemplary: in the kitchens, the armory, the treasury, the stables.” I paused. “What it’s lacking, however, is a systematic way of checking the private rooms of the senior knights.”
“Why would I want to check the private rooms of my knights?”
I shrugged. “Why should you not?”
He cocked his head to the side. “I suppose that’s a good enough point.”
I nodded, knowing he’d see the logic in it. Arthur was, by rule, paranoid and distrustful. “But there’s no office with that mandate.”
“And I suppose you would like to take on such a task?”
“I’m as good as any for the position.”
He nodded. “You’re asking for the Seneschalship.”
“No, not asking. Simply explaining why it’s necessary.”
His eyes moved to the fire. I watched his jaw work once, barely, before he controlled it again.
“If you’ve come to tell me something, spit it out.”
“I’ve not come to tell you anything. I’ve come to tell you what I intend to find out.”
You didn’t bring yoursuspicionsto Arthur, for he wouldn’t act on them. What you had to bring was evidence. And such was exactly what I was after.
“What do you intend to find out?”
I didn’t answer right away, and the pause was by design. “Tell me, Arthur, does the question regarding who took Guinevere’s maidenhead still bother you?”
He studied me for a moment, as if trying to gauge my game. “Of course.”
“A subject you still haven’t resolved.”
His eyes narrowed. “How do you know I haven’t resolved it?”
“I make it my business,” I said, “to know all things that happen within this castle.”
The flat hands on the table shifted slightly. It was almost nothing, but my gift picked up on it anyway, especially the small seam of tension in his right hand, where his grip wanted to form, but he wasn’t letting it.
“It hasn’t been resolved, no.” Something crossed his face that might have been amusement in a different man in a different room. “She still won’t confess who it was.” A pause. I said nothing. “And I haven’t—” He stopped. Restarted more flatly. “I haven’t determined the answer by other means.”
“No,” I said. “You haven’t.”
He looked at me directly then. The firelight made his eyes difficult to read. “Do you have information on that subject, Kay?”
“Not yet.”
“Then what are you—”
“—I know how to get it.” I let a beat pass. “But that all depends on you.”