Chapter 59: A Poor Choice of Target

"The man was telling the truth, My Lord. Cain is indeed employed by the city’s information guild. We followed the trail from his guild mark to the dealings at the Old Three Bells, where we confirmed that Master Alden had arranged the commission. The account he gave us during questioning also agrees with the information we obtained from the guild."

Lioren leaned back in his chair, letting out a satisfied breath as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, at least the man wasn’t making everything up. That’s something, I suppose. It would’ve been rather annoying if I’d had to go back down there and start the questioning all over again. I’m sure neither he nor the guards would have enjoyed that."

Xavion sat quietly, his eye turning toward Therin. "What about the person who hired him? Were you able to trace the commission back to its source, or does the trail end with the guild? I’d like to know who thought it necessary to keep watch over me."

Cadrin stepped forward, flipping open a small notebook filled with cramped handwriting. "That’s where things get interesting, Your Highness. The guild’s structure is built like a series of locked boxes. Clients drop their coin and instructions through intermediaries who handle the payment and hand out numbered tickets to available operatives. The men sent to carry out these assignments usually has no idea who has commissioned them, and the clerks behind the desk don’t always know either. They keep everyone compartmented to protect their high-paying patrons."

"Except," Therin added with a dry smirk, "Master Alden is getting on in years, and a few well-placed threats involving city regulations and an especially thorough tax inspection tend to loosen an old broker’s tongue. We managed to get him to reveal who was actually behind the commission."

Lioren leaned forward. "And?"

"Marquess Gardner," Therin said clearly.

Lioren’s eyebrows shot up. He stared at Therin, then let out a loud snort. "Oh, you’ve got to be joking. That old man?"

Xavion turned his head slightly, his brow furrowing as he looked between the two intelligence officers and his fiancé. "Marquess Gardner? Who is that?"

"Oh, just some local nobleman with too much time, too much coin, and absolutely zero shame," Lioren muttered, rolling his eyes so hard it looked painful. He waved a dismissive hand in the air. "He’s an old noble who’s spent years trying to corner me at every possible opportunity to propose some sort of marriage alliance. He wanted me to marry his youngest daughter, sweet girl, I think, though she once cried because her horse’s ribbons didn’t match her slippers, and believed it would solve all of our political problems. Imagine that."

Therin cleared his throat, suppressing a very obvious grin. "He was remarkably enthusiastic about it, Your Highness. For years, my lord here turned down every single formal invitation to the Gardner estate. Whenever the topic of marriage or romance came up in public, my lord’s standard line was that he had zero interest in either, that he was perfectly content living alone like an antisocial hermit, and that he certainly didn’t need a partner cluttering up his grand estate."

As those words hung in the quiet air of the study, Lioren abruptly froze. He glanced sideways, his eyes darting toward Xavion.

At the exact same moment, Xavion looked over at him.

The room fell awkwardly quiet. For a long, painful second, Lioren could practically hear his own past declarations coming back to bite him, with Xavion sitting not far from him as living proof of just how much things had changed.

Lioren’s face flushed a bright, violent shade of pink. He immediately threw both hands up in the air, flapping them frantically.

"Bap, bap, bap!" Lioren hissed, his voice pitching up an octave as he tried to physically wave the memory out of existence. "There is zero, absolutely zero need to bring up ancient history, Therin! My circumstances have changed! Hasn’t everyone heard? The geopolitical landscape has shifted! We are living in modern times!"

Therin bit back a grin and decided that, for once, keeping his thoughts to himself was the wiser choice.

Xavion watched the spectacle with a faint, quiet twitch at the corner of his mouth, though he wisely chose to let the awkward silence pass. "And why," Xavion asked, smoothly steering the conversation back to safer ground, "would this Marquess Gardner hire this man to watch me? If he was so fixated on a match between his daughter and House Roscaire, sending a spy to tail the new fiancé seems counterproductive."

"Curiosity, mostly," Caldrin offered, stepping in to answer. "And a healthy dose of bitter disbelief. When the imperial decree dropped announcing your arrival and the sudden betrothal, half the high nobility thought it was a joke or a temporary political stunt. Gardner likely wanted to know what sort of relationship you and His Grace actually share, how you’re being treated within the capital residence, and whether an Ostharian prince without his throne still carried any real political weight."

Therin nodded in agreement. "The guild’s assignment orders for Cain were strictly limited to observation. Note the comings and goings, track who His Highness speaks to, log his daily routines. There were no instructions to approach, harass, or interfere with him in any way. It was nosey, pathetic, and boundary-violating, but technically, the old man hadn’t gone so far as to arrange an attack on him."

"Of course it’s an attack!" Lioren immediately protested, uncrossing his arms. "An attack on someone’s privacy! Does that not count for anything? Honestly, if it were up to me, I’d have a restraining order issued against the man. He’s not allowed to come anywhere near him, me, the residence, or even send someone to peek through our windows!"

He paused, seemingly considering something, before his expression brightened.

"Oh, wait. I might actually be able to do something about that." Lioren nodded to himself, looking rather pleased with the thought. "I should bring this up with His Majesty. I’m sure he’d agree that there ought to be some consequences for this sort of behavior."

The other three men exchanged glances.

Therin looked particularly uncertain, while Caldrin seemed to be trying to work out what exactly a restraining order was supposed to be. Xavion, meanwhile, simply watched Lioren with a faintly puzzled expression.

Whatever this mysterious order was, apparently Gardner was going to be in quite a lot of trouble.

Lioren crossed his arms again, his jaw set in a hard line. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like the idea of some pompous aristocrat treating his fiancé like a rare exotic bird in a cage to be observed from a carriage window.

"Still," Lioren muttered, "hiring someone to follow you around and keep tabs on your every move? That’s crossing a very specific line. A very stupid one. If the man has that much free time, perhaps I should arrange a fencing tournament right in the middle of his estate dining room. See how he likes having strangers poking around his business."

He paused, glancing over at Xavion with a sudden, soft shift in his expression, carefully weighing his next words.

"So, Your Highness," Lioren asked gently, tilting his head. "What should we do about them? We can march straight to his house right now and demand an explanation, or, if we want to avoid getting you overly worked up and tired, heaven forbid another headache flare up, we could always wait until tomorrow, or the day after."

Xavion seemed to give the question some thought before finally shaking his head.

"I don’t think we need to do anything like that," Xavion said quietly.

Lioren blinked, genuinely taken aback. "Huh? Why not? The man was literally spying on you!"

"As unpleasant as being followed was, no real harm was done," Xavion replied calmly. He spoke with the practical acceptance of someone who had faced far worse than an overly curious nobleman. "Well, aside from whatever happened to the man down in the cells, of course. But once the Marquess realizes we’ve discovered his scheme and that the man he hired is nowhere to be found, he’ll think twice before trying anything again. Drawing a massive public scandal over a petty surveillance job will only invite more questions from others."

Lioren stared at him, bewildered. "You’re just... willing to let him walk away?"

"I would call it being pragmatic," Xavion corrected smoothly.

"Fine," Lioren sighed, throwing his hands up in theatrical defeat, though a reluctant smile tugged at his lips. "Though I’ll admit, part of me really doesn’t feel like visiting Gardner anyway. If I showed up at his door, he’d probably think I finally came to propose to his daughter and launch into a twenty-minute speech, probably starting with something like, ’Ah, yes, the Grand Duke has finally opened his eyes to this sacred union.’"

He shuddered dramatically at the thought, rubbing his arms as if trying to shake off a chill.

Still, Lioren wasn’t about to let the old pest escape completely off the hook that easily. He turned his attention back to Therin and Caldrin, a sly smile slowly spreading across his face.

"Therin. Caldrin," Lioren’s voice grew more serious as he gave the order. "Keep a close watch on Gardner’s estate. Make damn sure he doesn’t try anything stupider than this. If he so much as sends another pigeon in our direction, I want to know before it crosses the property line."

Then, another rather mischievous smile slowly spread across Lioren’s face. And judging by that smile, it probably wasn’t going to be particularly pleasant for Gardner.

He leaned forward, wiggling a finger at the two men in a clear invitation to come closer. Naturally, both obeyed.

"And also, we can’t leave the poor man without a proper response, can we?" Lioren said, leaning forward with a grin. "Fortunately, I’ve come up with something."