Chapter 5 - The Child Beneath the Palace
The story Marcus told sounded impossible.
That made it more dangerous.
Princess Helena had fallen in love with Daniel Marlowe, a young palace engineer.
Their relationship was forbidden.
King Edmund had planned to marry Helena to the heir of Norland.
When Helena became pregnant, the palace panicked.
According to Marcus, Helena was hidden in a secure room beneath the west wing.
The room contained the iron cage.
"Why a cage?" Adrian demanded.
Marcus looked at him.
"Because Helena kept trying to escape."
"So your solution was imprisonment?"
"King Edmund's solution."
"And my mother?"
"Beatrice was seventeen."
"Did she know?"
"She helped Helena escape."
Adrian stared.
That contradicted everything.
"Then why erase her?"
Marcus shifted in his chair.
"Because after Helena escaped, King Edmund gave Beatrice a choice."
"What choice?"
"Take your sister's place in history or join her in exile."
Adrian thought of his mother's rigid devotion to the monarchy.
Her obsession with bloodlines.
Her cruelty.
Perhaps fear had once been underneath all of it.
"What happened to Helena's baby?"
Marcus looked toward the floor.
"Officially?"
"There was no official baby."
"Unofficially."
"A girl was born."
Adrian's chest tightened.
"Where?"
"Somewhere outside Bellmont."
"Evelyn."
Marcus said nothing.
"Is Evelyn Helena's daughter?"
"Genetic tests suggest it."
Adrian gripped the table.
"Then she is my cousin."
"Second cousin by conventional line."
Adrian stared at him.
Marcus smiled faintly.
"Royal families have survived far worse."
Adrian stood.
"You're disgusting."
"Sit down."
Adrian moved toward the door.
Marcus raised his voice.
"If Evelyn is Helena's daughter, she has a stronger constitutional claim than you."
Adrian stopped.
Marcus continued.
"Helena was older than Beatrice."
"I know."
"Which makes Evelyn the daughter of the rightful heir."
Adrian turned.
"And my son?"
Marcus's eyes hardened.
"Potentially the strongest claimant Bellmont has seen in three generations."
There it was.
Not love.
Not shame.
Power.
The cage was political.
"Why did my mother imprison Evelyn?"
Marcus leaned back.
"Because Dr. Vale discovered the blood connection during prenatal screening."
"And you?"
"I discovered something else."
"What?"
Marcus did not answer.
Adrian placed both hands on the table.
"What did you discover?"
Marcus whispered, "Evelyn was not the only child Helena gave birth to."
Adrian froze.
"There was another?"
"A boy."
"Where is he?"
Marcus smiled.
"That is the question that could destroy Bellmont."
Adrian left the interrogation room with his thoughts burning.
At the top of the stairs, Rowan waited.
"Sir."
"What?"
"We searched Dr. Vale's office."
"And?"
"We found surveillance photographs."
"Of Evelyn?"
"Some."
Rowan handed him an envelope.
Adrian opened it.
Photographs spilled into his hands.
Evelyn outside a cafe.
Evelyn entering the palace.
Evelyn at a prenatal clinic.
Then photographs of a man Adrian had never seen.
Late thirties.
Dark hair.
Tall.
The man was photographed at airports, train stations, military bases.
In several images, he wore a silver ring engraved with a crescent moon.
Adrian turned the last photograph over.
A name was written beneath it.
GABRIEL MARLOWE.
Below the name:
May you like
HELENA'S FIRSTBORN.
STATUS: ALIVE.
