Lora of Two Worlds

What surprised Lora even more was that when the girl finished her little outburst, her schoolfellows didn't look shocked. They were plainly enjoying the show.

Lora cast a help-me glance at Carl, who was sitting a little way off. He seemed to be biting back a laugh. He rubbed his nose, flashed the points of his eyeteeth, and looked positively gloating.

Strange. When other people took a swipe at her, why wasn't he jumping to her defense? Was there some special tie between her and this girl? Lora puzzled over it.

A young lord beside Carl hissed through his teeth and crowed, "Ooh, someone's gone all sour!"

Sour? Sour, jealous?

Lora had never been in love herself, but she'd seen it often enough. She had a fair guess now. This young lady was jealous of her.

Over the Sheriff?

All three principals in one place at the same time. No wonder the crowd was waiting for the fireworks.

Rosalind, seeing Lora's blank face, smiled and said:

"Daphne is only joking, don't take it to heart. You don't remember now, but the two of you used to joke like this all the time at the convent. Just now, while you were dancing, she trod on your skirt and nearly sent you sprawling. After the dance ended, you went at each other like cats and dogs."

She stopped there, the smile still fixed on her face. With that one remark, she'd neatly turned every eye onto Daphne Durrant. And at the reminder, people did seem to remember. Yes, there'd been a moment, just a little off.

The deck cabin was tight. The girls had been standing close, and Lora had stumbled. Everyone had laughed it off at the time and thought no more of it. Apparently there'd been more after.

"Go on," said Felix.

He fixed Rosalind with a cold eye.

Rosalind turned a face full of regret on Daphne, words caught on her lip.

Daphne paid Rosalind no mind. What she cared about was the cold set of Felix's face. Lora was a cousin. Was she not a cousin too? A cold shoulder from anyone else she could swallow, but from Felix, the man she'd set her heart on, never.

She flushed hot and spat out:

"Then I'll say it! I trod on her skirt by accident and laughed at her a little, and she tried to slap me for it. Yes, she's the daughter of the Count of Odenheim, and yes, all of you dot on her, but I won't bow to her for that. I caught her hand, we had a few sharp words, and she ran out in a fit."

"Lora ran out of the cabin? Where were the rest of you at that time? Who can vouch for her?"

Felix swept his eyes over the young ladies in dance costume. Six including Lora. Not hard to sort through. He signaled, and a serjeant with a ledger came running.

Rosalind turned at once and found one of the young ladies, taking her hand. "I was outside waiting for Lancey to come out." She looked a little sheepish. Lancey, that was Odile Legard, took up the story without fuss:

"We went to the privy together. I was inside a while, so Rosalind waited for me, and then she went in. That was when we heard someone shouting 'a girl's fallen in the water!' I ran to the rail. Rosalind was still inside, so she came out a little late."

The privy? Lora hadn't heard the word before, but from their faces and the context she could guess. In the modern world, girls always went to the toilet in pairs. Apparently it was the same in this age.

Odile had given time, place, and event. That alibied them both.

Jared Shaw thought for a moment: "Hannah Vaughn and I were at the stern looking at the view. Just the two of us and two maids. We can vouch for each other. Is that acceptable?"

When she finished, every eye turned to the last one of them. Daphne.

"You suspect me?" Daphne didn't like the looks on their faces one bit. She glared at Felix. "Cousin, you don't suspect me too, do you? I don't like Lora, but that doesn't mean I pushed her into the river."

Her use of "Cousin" made Felix uncomfortable. He kept his voice even: "No one suspects you. Just tell us where you were standing, and who was with you."

Daphne tried to swallow, and found, to her dismay, that her mouth had gone bone-dry.

"What? Can't say it? Where did you go after your row with Lora?"

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Carl, who'd come over to watch, dropped the joking tone and pressed her hard. He was only a cousin by a long bend of the family tree, but this was his little sister's life on the line. He had no qualms about picking a fight with Daphne over it.

"I, I was standing by the rail getting some air. I didn't do anything." Daphne was deflating by the second. Dammit, she'd been so angry she'd sent her maid away and chewed out the steward too. No witness at all.

Sure enough, Felix followed up: "Who else was around you at the time? Where was your maid?"

The maid spoke up quickly: "My lady said I was in the way and sent me off. I went back to our seats in the cabin."

"No one. Just me. Is it a crime to want a moment's quiet? Do I have to be like those idiots who've never seen a river before, gawking at the scenery? Or too stupid to go to the privy without holding someone's hand?"

Before Felix could ask again, Daphne, angry enough to stop choosing her words, let fly. Her mother was first cousin to Felix's father, and her father was no small figure either. She was a daughter of House Dunbar, and throwing her weight around was nothing new.

She was full of disappointment in her cousin the Sheriff. We're closer kin than she's! You know how I feel about you! And you won't give me face in public. You'd rather run me into the ground than her? Or is this all for Lora's benefit?

The other young ladies went red. Daphne had used a coarse phrase, "privy," and called them stupid.

Odile, who'd been nursing a grudge anyway, started to cry, and then fired back:

"Call us stupid? I wonder who's stupid. You've told everyone at school, more than once, that Felix prefers you, his cousin, to Lora. You said Lora might be pretty, but she hasn't your figure, and men always prefer girls like you."

Lora was stunned. That direct? This was awkward.

Daphne nearly choked. Had Odile lost her mind, dragging private girl-talk out into the open like this?

"And you said that since you'd come of age before Lora this year, if the Fairfax house came to propose, you'd be first, and Lora would be furious." Rosalind looked at Daphne with perfect earnestness and added:

"You even said, in front of everyone, that the thought of Lora living next door to the Fairfax house, going over every day to curry favor with your cousin, made you want to strangle her."

"No, no, that was just things we said when we were fighting. I only said it to get under her skin."

But Odile drove the knife in one more time: "You left out one thing. Why did Lora want to slap you? Because you said Lohenheim was about to get a new Lord Regent, and the new Lord Regent was Lora's father's enemy, and her father's days here were numbered. Slandering officials like that, you deserved to be slapped!"

Daphne's mouth fell open. She hadn't imagined that a moment's spite could come back to bite her, and that Odile had been listening.

The cabin erupted. The change of Lord Regent at Lohenheim had been backstairs talk for weeks. The Lord Regent held the province's civil authority; the Count of Odenheim held its military. If those two quarreled, the quarrel would go all the way to the King himself.

How did a young woman like Daphne come out with a thing like that? It had to be her father's opinion, or even her whole house's. She'd said it to frighten Lora, and the new Lord Regent's granddaughter Odile had heard every word. She'd managed to offend both houses at once. A girl who dug her own father into a hole.

Lora hadn't known that the original Lora had been sweet on the Sheriff, that she and Daphne were rivals. And this Daphne, proud, spoiled, and none too bright, could she have killed her over it?

Felix's face went from white to red. He knew Daphne had a tendresse for him. Lora, though she'd never said so, they were distant cousins and old neighbors, so some fondness was natural enough.

But he'd never had any ambiguity with any of his cousins. In his eyes they were all still young, not yet at the age to think of marriage. He hadn't realized that privately, the two of them were like this.

In both capitals, men married late. Thirty was the fashion. He was in no hurry. He had plenty of time to wait for them to grow up.

The problem was that on this occasion, Daphne's topic shouldn't have touched on private matters, let alone on court politics.

His face hardened until his eyes could have frozen the air:

"Daphne Dunbar. I will ask you one more time. You were at the rail. Can anyone vouch for you?"

"No witness makes me a murderer? Who do you think I'm? You, you don't believe me?"

"Who you're is irrelevant. A prince breaks the law, the same law as a peasant." Felix's voice was ice.

Daphne looked at his face and felt a flicker of real fear. How had it come to this? Not only was he tearing off her face in public, her father and her aunt would hear of it too.

She had to find a way out.

She looked wildly at her brother Warwick. "Brother, you have to believe me. I never said any of those things. They're making it all up. I didn't do anything."

Warwick Dunbar was furious with his sister, but blood was blood. Seeing the Sheriff's stance, he put on a conciliatory smile:

"Felix, we all grew up together. You know what Daphne's like. Sharp tongue, soft heart. Hasty and loose-mouthed, sure, but no malice in her. She wouldn't hurt a fly. How could she kill anyone?"

That was the wrong thing to say. Felix's temper ran hotter. I know her? I've known Lora since she was a child too. Am I supposed to not know her? This is official business. What are you doing pulling purses?

"Dunbar. I'm conducting an investigation. I work by evidence, not by favor."

Daphne's gaze drifted from her brother to Felix. The bitterness in her eyes overflowed and flooded her whole face, a fury that wanted to tear everything to pieces.

She set her jaw and said, slowly: "Fine. I'll go and get you your evidence. I hope you don't regret it."

Lora had a bad feeling about this. She stood and reached for Daphne's sleeve, but Daphne shot her a glare and shook her off. The crowd parted. Daphne walked toward the cabin door.

"Follow her," Felix said.

His face didn't change, but his heart was uneasy. Still, conducting the investigation was his duty. If she could produce evidence and clear herself, so much the better.

Jonan Carey followed. Warwick, worried about his sister, went after them.

At the cabin door, Daphne turned: "Wait outside. I need to change my dress first."

"My lady, I'll come in and help," her maid offered.

"No need." Daphne didn't even raise her eyes to her maid.

Jonan and Warwick exchanged a look and stood by the rail as she shut the cabin door.

They were just beginning to lose patience when the door opened. Daphne had indeed changed. Her face was dead white. She pointed at the rail a little way off.

"The evidence is over there. Go and get it."

Jonan walked toward the spot she'd pointed, and behind him came a splash. The maid, leaning over the rail, screamed:

"The young lady's jumped in the river!"

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