Jack Frost: King of Thieves

CHAPTER XXXVI: Save Hans And The Southern Isles

The more Elinor considered what Phrygians had told her, the more she came to see that she could not be the one to deliver these tidings to Hans. His suspicions of her ran too deep, and she supposed that was her fault. She had not been a loving mother with any of her children; such was not in her nature. More to the point, she had made little effort to hide her disappointment in Hans or her preference for Manny. It was small wonder her youngest hated her.

And so she had no choice but to swallow her pride and call on the one person she knew could help her, the one person Hans trusted above all others.

Once she finally sent word, she did not have to wait long for a reply.

As before, Elinor was struck by how pretty Princess Grimhilde was. She wore a satin dress of beige, printed in blue and embroidered with gold at the neck and sleeves. She had a tiara in her hair, a looping necklace of diamonds at her throat, and rings on several of her fingers so that she appeared to sparkle with the light of the candles that illuminated Elinor's room.

Watching the girl watch her, Elinor again had the sense that the princess felt intimidated in her presence. She had to resist the urge to relish the feeling. She had called the girl here in order to enlist her help; she had to remember that. But she also couldn't help but remind herself that the father of her first husband was this child's great grandfather. Between the two of them, they had witnessed the sweep of Europe's history over the past sixty years.

Elinor had never been good at begging for help from others. She took it as a sign of how far she had fallen and how desperate matters had grown that she should be so dependent on this... child.

She had no choice, though, so she plunged in. "My son has an enemy in his court, closer to him than any friend. A Southern Isles traitor, a paid agent for Alsace-Lorraine."

The girl's eyes widened in what Elinor took to be a unfeigned surprise, but her voice when she spoke remained even. "You know this for certain?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Elinor took a breath. They had reached the crux of the matter, though  Grimhilde couldn't have known this. To win the girl's trust she had to be as forthright as possible. But the same truth she shared with the princess here, could well keep Hans from acting if the girl betrayed her confidence.

"The treachery has been discovered by the only man among us whose wisdom I respect. And the king has banished him from his presence."

"Dymas Phrygias?" Grimhilde said, without missing a beat.

Clever indeed.

"Dymas Phrygias." Elinor placed her cup on the table and stepped closer to the fire, her arms crossed over her chest. "Dymas lost his office, but kept his informants—sightings reported, letters intercepted— and he kept his eyes and ears open on his travels. He has no doubt. The Southern Isles is in danger, and one man is at the centre of the plot." She turned to look at the girl, who still sat, her hands twisting nervously in her lap. "Tell me, do you trust me?"

"All my trust is in Hans," Grimhilde said. "If I had more to give, I might give it to you."

A reflexive smile touched Elinor's face and vanished. "I envy you. I have trust for no one. But this time there is too much at risk to ignore Phrygias warning." She hesitated, but only for an instant. "The traitor is Pitch. He has gone north to provoke the barons against the Throne. While Southern Isles is at war with itself, the Alsace-Lorraine army will land unopposed, and—"

"Why are you telling me, when you must tell the king?" Grimhilde broke in.

"Because it is you who must do that," Elinor told her. The girl blanched, and Elinor felt a pang of sympathy for her. She moved ruthlessly to crush it. The realm was at risk; either the girl was true to Hans and would do as Elinor told her, or she wouldn't and all would be lost. Either way, compassion was not something they could afford just then.