Alaric paid his servants well for any of them to risk such foolishness, and besides, none of them would ever have the nerve to steal from the king.
His mind quickly moved through the possibilities.
It couldn't be Rosalind either.
She was too innocent to take something that did not belong to her.
And that left only one person.
Sabine.
His jaw clenched at once.
Now that he thought about it, he had found her lingering by the table after he had come out of the bath, but at the time, his mind hadn't gone to the box.
The damn woman!
Alaric quickly threw on his robe and slipped his ring onto his finger, preparing for the day in far more haste than he normally would. He preferred taking his time, but not today.
The moment he stepped out of his chamber, it was as if a dark cloud followed him through the halls. His expression alone was enough to make the servants quickly scatter from his path, and even as they bowed and greeted him, they trembled where they stood.
At his command, the guards immediately fell into step behind him as he headed toward the ladies' quarters, the hem of his robe trailing across the floor.
Fortunately for him, the women were already gathered in the hall, and the moment they saw him at the entrance, they quickly bowed.
"Your Majesty."
Their voices came out in unison, though their eyes flickered toward one another in confusion since none of them had expected the king to appear there so early.
"Where is Rosalind?" Alaric demanded, immediately noticing that his little rose was nowhere in sight.
"I think I saw her in the garden," Claire answered after being nudged by Sabine.
Alaric didn't even spare her a glance, treating her as though she were not one of his mistresses at all. Instead, he signaled to one of his guards.
"Go and call her."
Sabine was already smiling inwardly because she knew exactly what awaited Rosalind.
After all, it had been she who had snuck into Rosalind's room the day before to hide the box.
What she didn't know, however, was that it had already been removed from there.
Back in the garden, Rosalind was just about to leave. She had already risen from the seat and taken a few steps when she noticed a guard approaching her and her footsteps gradually slowed.
"My lady, the king requests your presence," he said.
Again?
And this morning?...
Rosalind's thoughts immediately drifted elsewhere.
Hadn't he had enough of yesterday?
"You must come quickly, my lady. It's bad," the guard added. The urgency in his voice made it clear that this was something entirely different from what she had been imagining.
Without another word, Rosalind began to follow him as he led her back toward the quarters, while Rowan silently followed behind.
The moment they arrived, Rosalind's gaze immediately found Alaric. And then she noticed the guards surrounding him. Her brows drew together in confusion.
What had happened?
Alaric's gaze met hers, and for the briefest moment, his eyes seemed to brighten at the sight of her. But then his gaze shifted past her to the footman standing behind, and at once, his expression darkened again and Rosalind had no idea what that meant.
As she stepped closer, Alaric's voice suddenly cut through the heavy silence. "One of you stole from me," he said calmly, though the danger beneath his voice was impossible to miss. "And I advise you to return it now and leave here without punishment."
His eyes slowly moved over every woman in the room. "But if you keep it, and I discover who it is…" his voice dropped into something colder and darker, "you will wish death had found you faster than this day."
The women exchanged uneasy glances, each of them wondering inwardly who would dare steal from His Majesty when they all knew exactly how such a crime would be dealt with. Soft murmurs began to echo through the hall, and amid the quiet tension, Verity shifted her gaze to Rosalind, who had come to stand beside her.
"Are you alright?" Verity asked softly.
Rosalind only gave the slightest nod before both of them turned their attention back to the matter at hand.
Then, all of a sudden, someone cleared her throat and every gaze in the hall shifted toward Sabine.
"Your Majesty," she began smoothly, "why look so far when Rosalind herself spent the night in your chamber? She must have taken it."
Rosalind's breath caught in her throat and for a moment, she simply stared at Sabine in disbelief. Heat rose to her face, not from guilt but from the sheer insult of the accusation, and a knot of dread tightened in her stomach at the thought of what Alaric might believe.
Why would she even steal from him?
Alaric's gaze moved to Rosalind, studying the confusion written plainly across her face, before it slowly shifted to Sabine, whose expression carried the air of someone plotting something.
In truth, he had already suspected who had done it and now, he was certain.
"You were also in my room yesterday, correct?" he asked Sabine.
Her gaze snapped to him. "But I have no reason to take anything from you, Your Majesty," she said quickly, her expression shifting into one of innocence, as though she knew nothing at all about the missing box.
"But she..."
"Rosalind has no reason to steal from me," Alaric said, cutting Sabine off at once.
Sabine's eyes widened in shock. He was now defending Rosalind in public and showing that he really favoured her."You're being unfair, Your Majesty," she said, her tone turning into a whine.
Alaric shot her a sharp glare that instantly silenced the room.
Meanwhile, Rosalind found herself looking at him in confusion, wondering why he was defending her.
"Then we'll know the truth once we search her room," Sabine said, refusing to back down when she could almost taste Rosalind's downfall. If this worked, the viscount's daughter would be thrown out of the palace and sent back to whatever forgotten village she had come from.
"Your room will be searched as well," Alaric said coldly.
His eyes held hers. "It's only fair that way."
"Definitely," Sabine answered at once, fully confident, knowing very well that she had hidden the box in the exact place that would implicate Rosalind.
Because Rosalind and Sabine were now the prime suspects, the guards were immediately ordered to search both of their rooms.
As the guards went upstairs, everyone else remained on the ground floor, forbidden from going up until the search was complete.
Rosalind turned her gaze toward the blonde woman, who was looking back at her with a triumphant smile, the kind that already celebrated victory.
Rosalind didn't even understand what Sabine's problem was.
If the box was truly found in her room, then it meant she had been framed, because she had taken nothing from Alaric.
She had rushed out of his chamber that morning without lingering for even a second.
She didn't even know what the box looked like.
****
The waiting seemed endless and the hall fell into a suffocating silence as everyone waited. Rosalind could hear nothing but the pounding of her own heartbeat with each second stretching painfully.
Then suddenly, a voice rang out from upstairs. "We've found it!"
A cold dread washed over Rosalind, and she could only pray it had not been found in her room, or Alaric would surely see her as a thief and punish her for something she had never done.
Footsteps thundered down the stairs as the guards hurried back into the hall.
Rosalind's fists tightened at her sides.
When they finally reached Alaric, one of the guards stepped forward and presented the box to him.
Alaric took it into his hands, turning it slowly between his fingers to make sure it was the right one.
Then his gaze snapped back to the guards. "Where did you find it?" he asked.
"In Lady Sabine's room," the guard reported. "It was hidden behind the cupboard."
Sabine's blood ran cold. For a moment, the world around her seemed to blur as panic slammed into her chest. That was impossible. She had left it in Rosalind's room herself.
Alaric's eyes shifted to Sabine, dark and unreadable, as though he had been waiting for this exact moment.
Sabine's heart seemed to leap into her throat as her gaze met Alaric. "It wasn't me," she said at once.