Hunting Royalty

16. Drugs and Darkness

Elise spread a rumor for me to as many lady's maids as she can; that Nate's experimentation was just a phase and he's over it. I would have found a way to set the record straight myself but the dream has me worried. It seems I have more enemies than I thought.

I spend the weekend in the library researching the poisons that could have been used to drug me. It's a harder task than I thought since I have no idea how I ingested it. Also, I can't be sure if feeling hot and shortness of breath were symptoms or not, It could have been the heat of the ballroom and my corset.

By Sunday evening I have narrowed it down to four possible poisons. I want to eliminate the deadly ones since the girl killed me but I can't be sure if she did that just for flare; she seemed like the type. I'm not an expert so I have no way of narrowing it down further.

By time my first class, history, comes around I'm tired and stressed. Mistress Klein has taken to glaring at Nate when he arrives since he is always late. We have moved on to the last Hargreave king and Klein jumps straight into her lecture.

"King William Hargreave was the last of the old kings, he reigned 250 years ago. His descent began when he married an Itarian princess to forge a peace treaty between the two kingdoms. Led by Duke Christopher Winchester the nobles opposed his decision; wanting instead to go to war with Itaria.

"Instead they began a civil war. The nobility was split down the middle, the king's strongest supporter was Duke Davenport and he was the only Duke to stand by him to the end, ultimately leading to the extinction of his house.

"The High Priestess at the time was Lady Juliette Winchester, she swung the king's supporters to her father side. It is widely believed that she lied about the visions she saw, for her family's advantage. She even cast the boarder spell to trap Davenport's army and remove the last of the king's supporters.

"Whatever the truth is about what she saw, there was one action that was out of character; she warned the Crown Prince of the attack on his family. He escaped the attack on his ship which he filled with all the Crown's gold. It is believed he returned to his mother's family in Itaria only to be banished for not saving his mother from the attack as well. However, these are just rumors and were never confirmed.

"What happened to the Crown Prince after this is unknown; he was never heard from again. In his absence, Duke Christopher Winchester crowned himself king and began a new royal house."

For once I was interested in history, this is a story that is not told often because it paints the Winchesters as villains. Likely Klein chose to tell it because of her frustration with Nate. Normally the students don't bother with questions in her class but today it seems Klein has interested them.

"What would happen if the Hargreaves came back?" Michaela asks.

"It would likely be up to the Winchesters and Hargreaves to discuss," Klein tries to answer diplomatically.

"Obviously, the Winchesters would keep the Crown," Nadia says, eyeing Nate with appreciation.

"No way, the Hargreaves are the true royals, the Winchesters were just power hungry Dukes," a girl with dark hair at the front says shooting a venomous look at Nadia.

"Who's that girl?" I whisper to Amelia.

"Kaitlyn something, she's sponsored by Forrester," she whispers back. Someone just became my number one suspect.

"Who says the Hargreaves are even still alive?" one of the guys at the back says.

The class debates the rest of the lesson until Klein dismisses us. I don't add anything to the discussion and neither does Nate, but I can tell he's deep in thought.