By Any Other Name

Sixteen

Cora opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"Lord Huntingto-," Arthur started from the doorway but then he froze, having realized what he stumbled into. "Oh dear. I'm terribly sorry."

Sterling sighed. "It's quite alright, Arthur. What is it?"

"The letter you asked for me to deliver, my Lord," he said, stepping into the room and holding out a piece of parchment. "I'm afraid they're expecting a terrible storm on the capital road this evening. They said they won't be able to send it for a few days. I wasn't sure if you wanted to wait so long to send it."

"Letter? What letter?"

Sterling took the parchment from Arthur and looked at it.

"This is addressed to the capital," he said.

"Yes sir," Arthur said, a look of confusion on his face.

"Thank you Arthur, I will tell you of my decision when I make one."

The boy nodded and left the room, closing the door tightly behind him.

"What's wrong Sterling?" Cora asked.

He examined the letter closely. It had been written on his stationary but this was not his handwriting. He had not written to the capital, he was quite sure he would remember such a correspondence. Carefully, he opened it and began to read the contents inside. But it was nothing that could be read. The writing inside was not of any words he recognized. They were codes and bits of letting here and there. There were even a few words that he believed to be Balienese but he had never learned enough of the language to be certain. And still a few that looked to be even Quenbian.

"This makes no sense," he said aloud and then he crossed the room to his desk and found his stationary pad had moved from where he had last left it and a pen had been left, uncapped, on his desk.

"Sterling," Cora said again, more concern in her voice this time. "What is it?"

He looked up to see his sister watching him carefully. Theodore and the Duchess seemed concerned as well.

"Someone attempted to send a letter to the capital from my own stationary," Sterling said and Cora gasped.

"Who?" the Duchess asked, stepping forward.

"I don't know. It isn't signed. And I can't read it. It's in some sort of code."

"Code?" Theodore asked, taking the parchment and looking over it himself. "Sterling, I've heard that the rebels use code for their correspondences to one another."

Cora and the Duchess covered their mouths.

"Who is it addressed to?" the Duchess asked.

"Not to a person," Theodore said, peering at the front of the envelope. "Just an address. 471 Raleigh Street."

"Which is in the capital," Sterling said.

"Do you think someone in the estate is trying to feed the rebels information from Northbrook to the capital?" Theodore asked, the concern on his face real and reflected in every one of the other's.

"I don't know," Sterling said. "It may not be for the rebels. It may be for the King."

"What?"

"We don't know who lives at 471 Raleigh Street. This message is coded. Only spies use coded messages. You told me yourself, over a year ago when this rebellion began, Theodore, that the King would be wise to have spies hidden in all areas of the country to report on the activity of the rebels and the far away nobility. You even said that you would be surprised if no such system were not already in place. This letter could be written from a spy in Northrbook. It could be meant for the King."

"What do you have to fear from the King?"

"The rebel visit," Cora realized and Sterling nodded.

"Two rebel agents came to visit us here. We entertained them for a night in an effort to get information from them and to avoid any bloodshed that turning them away would have caused," Sterling said. "If the King were to find out-"

"He would suspect you to be a rebel yourself," Theodore finished for him. Sterling sighed. "And if it were meant for the rebels-"

"Then it would be to tell them where I stand on the matter and they will take action against me at the earliest chance they get."

The room fell silent as they all came to understand just how narrowly they had avoided a disaster. Thankfully, a storm was moving through the area and the messenger service had refused to deliver the letter until a later date. Thankfully, Arthur had returned the letter to the hands of his master to ask if the wait was acceptable. If that sequence of events had not come to pass, they may have never known about the secret coded messages being sent from his own estate on his own stationary.

"What are we going to do?" Cora said finally, voicing the desperate question they had all been thinking.

"Adelaide," Sterling said and the Duchess looked up at him. "I think you should return to Corinth. If there are other letters that have been sent, we may be in danger. I cannot risk you coming to any harm in my care. The Duke would never forgive me. And I would never forgive myself."

The Duchess nodded, sadly, and stood.

"Perhaps Cora should go with you," Sterling offered.

"I'm not going anywhere," Cora told him stubbornly as he knew she would. He only nodded.

"I will return with the Duke and some of his men," the Duchess promised. "We will help you in any way we can."

Sterling smiled weakly at her and she took her leave. When the door closed behind her, he looked up to his brother and sister.

"We need a plan."