Page 9 of To Love

“—which funds this order, I’ve had my personal steward manage Castle Blackwood since the start.”

“Where is Pembroke?” Eamon cut in.

“I did not ask him to the meeting.”

“The very man who uncovered the discrepancies? Why would he not be present?” Stirling asked.

“Because,” Ashcroft said, as if he were talking to a wayward child, “he is neither a nobleman nor an instructor.”

Typical Ashcroft. The man was a stickler for stations and propriety. It must have truly rankled him to learn his daughter was not his own. She glanced between Ashford and Eamon and then chanced a look at Sir Gareth. As she suspected, the man glared at Ashcroft with nearly as much animosity as Eamon did.

She is my daughter.

Elara could easily remember the day, not so long ago, after Evelina and Gareth wed, that her friend and colleague had made that admission. Sir Eamon had told her that, many years ago, he had been in love with Ashcroft’s wife. They’d been together, even after the pair were married, and Evelina was their daughter. Ashcroft claimed her as his own despite the fact and only learned of her true parentage when she and Sir Gareth became a couple. Elara understood more easily the fatherly devotion Eamon held for Evelina, as well as Ashcroft’s animosity toward the other man.

A complicated situation, to be sure.

“There was a discrepancy in the inventory logs.” Her head whipped back to Ashcroft. “Between the supplies allocated and those actually delivered to the latest skirmish in Bramshall.”

“Taken along with the arrival of Stephen’s supporters outside London,” Lord Stirling added, “and other incidents, we’ve begun to fear a traitor may be in our midst.”

Elara looked around the table. Her eyes met Eamon’s. Had he known about this? Was she the only one kept in the dark about such a possibility?

Gareth seemed just as surprised as she, but given his new status as an instructor, that was to be expected. The others, however?

She would not remain silent.

“’Tis clear this is not new information. It would seem to me, as the Strategies instructor, I should have been made privy to such concerns?”

Ashcroft stared at her, but Elara did not back down. Doing so would give him the understanding that he had the ability to intimidate her.

“That is precisely what we are doing at this meeting.”

“I am in agreement with Lady Elara,” Eamon said. “She is the one person here with expertise at ferreting out a traitor in our midst, if indeed there is one. Why was she not consulted earlier?”

“The very idea of a traitor, Sir Eamon”—Ashcroft used his title as if it were a slur—“is that we are uncertain as to their identity. Until we could—”

Elara cut in. “Are you saying you considered me as a possibility?”

Ashcroft cleared his throat. “Should not everyone be considered a possibility, Lady Elara?”

It was not only his words, but his tone she took exception to. What rankled most was . . . he was right. But she’d been on the receiving end of men’s animosity toward both her and her skills enough times that Elara had gone immediately on the defensive.

It was her biggest weakness, the one way she could be exploited. And instead of remaining calm, Elara had proclaimed that weakness for all to see. At least she was able to admit her faults. Though the words nearly stuck in her throat, she uttered them nonetheless.

“You are correct.” But she amended, “Including all in this very room.”

By all, she included Ashcroft himself, even while admitting a man who’d spent a considerable amount of coin fighting King Stephen’s reign was unlikely to, in fact, be the traitor.

“Which is why we’ve had each of you followed since the discrepancies were discovered.”

The chamber erupted. Elara watched as Stirling stood, Eamon shouted, and Gareth looked at Ashcroft as if he would strangle the man with his very own hands. She would never admit it aloud, but the move was not altogether unwarranted.

Likely noting her silence on the matter, Ashcroft yelled over the others. “We all agree she”—he pointed at Elara—“does have the expertise in such matters. What say you, Elara?”

Stirling glared at her with his one good eye. The man had never cared for her, thought she was too young to be in a position to mentor knights that could change the course of history.

No matter. He was wrong.