The King’s Men were a tight and loyal group. They would say or do anything to protect each other, which was probably the reason why Barnes hesitated. Still, the presence of Lord Exeter was hard to withstand.
“Lieutenant Wylin planned a surprise birthday party for the captain. A few of us pooled our coin to buy him a present-a lady of pleasure.”
“You brought a whore into the royal residence?” Richard asked, stunned. “Did Wylin or Captain Lawrence know?”
“No, it was all very quiet-like. No one knew.”
“Obviously, as you kept the information from both the royal guard and the high constable,” Exeter said. “I won’t even bother mentioning the trouble that puts you in. Please continue.”
“Well … she disappeared.”
“What do you mean, disappeared?” Richard asked.
“The girl-Rose-she vanished. We had her hiding in that wardrobe.” Barnes pointed. “The plan was to get the captain here by telling him the princess was scared after seeing the ghost of-” Barnes coughed unconvincingly. He glanced at Richard, then looked at his feet. “Anyway, everything was going fine, but when the captain went to get his present, she wasn’t there.”
“Where’d she go?” Richard asked.
“Where indeed?” Exeter asked. “So let me get this straight, Sergeant Barnes. You secretly smuggled someone into the personal residence of the royal family-someone who I am guessing you knew nothing about-then left her alone to roam the castle wherever she pleased? What good are moats, gates, and walls if the king’s own men circumvent the castle’s defenses?”
“She’s just a young girl, a local whore. She’s not going to cause any trouble.”
Exeter’s eyebrows rose. “And yet here the three of us are. Do you think the entire castle goes on alert for no reason? Do we often search through every cellar and woodshed because we’ve nothing better to do? Oh, I think she’s caused quite a bit of trouble.”
A puzzled look crossed the high constable’s face. “Hmm … you do raise an interesting point, though. If this is a mere protocol blunder on the part of a dim-witted, ill-disciplined guard staff, why was the alarm sounded? I’m sure this isn’t the first time rules have been bent. Bringing her here demonstrated poor judgment on your part, and losing her is proof of your incompetence. But it hardly justifies sealing the castle and calling for a full-scale search. So why did Captain Lawrence empty the rest of the barracks?”
“I honestly don’t think he planned to. He was mad, all right-you know how the captain is. But at first he just told us to go find her and get her out of the castle. But then Bishop Saldur piped up and-”
Exeter raised a hand to stop him. He tilted his head down and peered up at Barnes. This was a peculiar habit of the high constable that Richard always felt was threatening, for no reason he could articulate. “Bishop Saldur was here?”
Barnes nodded.
“Was he invited to the party?”
Barnes almost laughed, which would have been a first. Richard had never seen anyone laugh in front of Exeter-not even the king. “No, Your Lordship. We don’t exactly run in the same social circles, if you get my meaning. We bumped into the bishop on the stairs when we were carrying up the refreshments and he just kinda joined us.”
“And you didn’t find that strange?”
“I think he might have just been curious, seeing all of us heading up the tower in the middle of the night. I would have been. And it’s not like we can tell the bishop he can’t share a drink. To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to the sermon he would give us when Rose jumped out, but I figured that was Wylin’s problem, not mine.”
“And what did Bishop Saldur have to do with Captain Lawrence raising the alarm?”
“Oh, right. So when the captain opens the wardrobe and there’s nothing there, he knew something was going on. We finally told him about Rose, and he said we should go find her and take her home. But Saldur started going on and on about what a big deal it was. He kept referring to Rose as an intruder and squawking about how she could be a spy or assassin or whatever. He told Captain Lawrence that if he didn’t raise the alarm, he’d go to Percy Braga himself and tell the chancellor that the captain was putting the king’s life in danger. He was making a big fuss over nothing, but Saldur’s not a soldier and doesn’t understand these things. I think part of the reason Captain Lawrence agreed was just to get the bishop to calm down. Well, that and he didn’t want to get on the wrong side of his new boss.”
“And you are absolutely sure that the bishop is wrong? That this girl isn’t a danger? Where did you find her?” Exeter resumed his tilt-headed glare.
“A brothel in the Lower Quarter.”
“You got the captain a Lower Quarter whore?” Richard was too shocked to keep quiet.
“Oh no, it’s not like that.” Barnes shook his head. “It’s new. They call it Medford House. Even though it’s on Wayward Street, it’s a real nice place, clean, classy even. And Rose is a real sweet girl. She’d never do anything-”
“Oh really? Then tell me, Sergeant, why isn’t she here? Why didn’t this sweet girl do her job, collect her money, and go back to the Lower Quarter?”
Barnes remained silent.
Exeter started to pace, deep in thought. He tugged on his lower lip, and his cape flared dramatically each time he turned and walked in the other direction. Richard, and presumably Barnes, thought it best to leave him to his thoughts. They stood silently at attention. After several minutes Exeter stopped and addressed them.
“Rose’s disappearance is indeed cause for concern, and finding her should be the realm’s highest priority, but not for the reasons stated by our esteemed bishop. To think that the girl is a spy or assassin is ludicrous. You selected the girl to come here, not the other way around. Am I correct?”
Barnes nodded his agreement.
“Melengar has many enemies, and I suspect spies do indeed lurk in many places, but the likelihood of you picking one at random from a local brothel is absurd, as is the possibility of someone finding out about her coming to the palace and bribing her to open a door or lure a guard away from a post.”
“She wouldn’t have any time to do that anyway. We walked in, picked her out, and brought her right back. She didn’t talk to no one.”
Exeter walked until he was nearly nose-to-nose with Barnes, fixing him squarely in his gaze. “If the girl is part of a conspiracy, the most likely explanation would be that Barnes here is a traitor.”
“Oh no, Your Lordship! I swear I’m not.” He looked as if he might faint.
After studying his face, Exeter said, “I’m inclined to believe you. If that was your plan, there would be no reason to make up a story about her being a gift for Captain Lawrence. You would have just hidden her in the castle and none of us would be here.
“Perhaps we are making too much of this. Could it simply be that you were taking too long to fetch Captain Lawrence, and she just got bored, walked down the stairs, and is home right now?”
Barnes shook his head. “We had Grisham watching the hallway downstairs. You know, keeping an eye out for the captain? If she came down, he would have seen her.”
Lord Exeter went to the window, leaned over, and looked down. “So that leaves only one remaining possibility.”
“You think she went out the window?” Richard asked.
“Unless Sergeant Barnes is mistaken or lying, I see no other alternative. And since we found no body from a fall, she must have climbed down.”