Chapter 146: Her Fault

Gavin paced his office, worrying his lip. The celebration was already underway with more people arriving by the minute. These plans he’d had to get rid of Laurel had been weeks in the making, yet he was having to change his plans quickly.
He had not expected Adolph and Laurel to be so guarded even here. None of their entourage was swayed by promises of money or status. They seemed more offended by the idea and on the verge of giving everything away. There were no openings in the royal retinue where he might squeeze in one of his operatives. The royal cooks who had arrived and taken over part of his manor’s kitchen to prepare food for them were more guarded than even their bodyguards.
They had knights inside the kitchen, keeping the staff divided though they were making all the same dishes. They didn’t even share utensils!
No matter how he looked at it, poisoning Laurel to get rid of her unborn offspring, and hopefully her, wasn’t an option unless he wanted to end up dead as well.
He adjusted his jacket, trying to calm himself. It could be worse.
It was just as well that they weren’t poisoned at his manor, he supposed. It would be suspicious.
He thought back to his conversation with Delia and huffed. At the least, his plans involving Laura’s parents might bear some fruit to reveal whether or not Basil was right.
There were miracles in this world that couldn’t be explained as anything but the moon goddess’ will.
The fact that Adolph had found his mate at all was one of them. His return from the battlefield was yet another. Laura being reincarnated into the body of a seventeen-year-old girl would be another.
His father told him once that blessings and curses each tended to come in three. Maybe there was some truth to that, though when his *blessings* were meant to come, he didn’t know!
“How are the guests settling in?” Gavin asked the servant nearby.
“They seem to be… enjoying the festivities well enough. The last of the guests arrived just a few moments ago and are being directed to the ballroom.”
“Good. Keep the alcohol flowing,” Gavin said. “At the very least, it will loosen their lips and perhaps this evening might be enjoyable.”
“Of course, my lord.” The servant ducked out of the room as Gavin lifted his head and looked at himself in the mirror.
This party was meant to be more than just a chance to murder Laurel, but a chance to re-establish old friendships. He would just have to focus on that. He knew a few drinks meant that most people would start gossiping loudly. He had servants stationed around the room to pick up every tendril to be used to his benefit later.
Perhaps someone from Raven or Irene’s pack would let slip a vital secret he could use to make them accomplices in Laurel’s impending death.
With one last check of his appearance, he walked downstairs to the main ballroom to greet his guests.
In place of the festive atmosphere he expected, the hall seemed stilted. The lavish decorations hung over the ballroom like crows waiting for an execution. The music, though an upbeat song, seemed as abysmal as a funeral march.
The only people who didn’t seem affected by the atmosphere were Adolph and Laurel, who waltzed elegantly around the room as if they had been doing so for years.
The sight of it burned him.
Adolph had never danced with Olivia, not even on their wedding day. It was not a requirement, of course, but everyone thought it was a tradition of the Raymond family to dance on their wedding day. Everyone knew that the late king and queen had danced their entire ceremony and at nearly every other event they attended until the queen had died.
Across the room, he saw Raven and Henry getting ready to take the floor and grit his teeth.
Watching the two pairs whirl around as if there was nothing wrong in the world irritated him. His hands twitched with anger.
How he would have liked to stride across the room and wrap his hands around Laurel’s neck.
She had ruined everything from the moment she had come to the palace.
Why could no one else see that?
Basil was losing his mind.
The ministry had been dissolved and was currently under either house arrest or banished for enjoying the benefits of their stations, and his birthday had become the scene of a murder plot where it had been a chance to cultivate more power among the nobility in the years before.
He hated that girl with a passion.
As soon as she was gone, everything would start returning to normal.
The song ended and the couples stepped off the floor, parting to speak with others. Adolph pressed a kiss to Laurel’s head in a haunting replica of his father, with Laurel playing the part of his mother before going to speak with a young knight.
Gavin narrowed his eyes, seeing a chance. He was going to walk over when he saw Basil watching him from the other side of the room, holding a glass of water and keeping to himself at a corner table. His clear blue eyes were narrowed and more watchful than he had ever thought possible of his grandson.
*I will never forgive you, grandfather, for taking my birthright from me.*
He froze, thinking of his grandson’s words. He had been in anguish, but there was a fury behind that anger.
Did Basil have enough anger in his heart to try and kill him? Could all the years of watching him, learning from him, have taught Basil the cunning and planning needed to develop a murder plot?
Gavin had learned from his father many things, including the proper way to murder someone. Basil’s gaze didn’t leave him. It was odd being watched by the young man he’d kept such an eye on since he was born.
What would happen if Basil ever found out the truth of Olivia’s death?
*Yet you let her waste away for want of my father knowing that he did not love her!*
He winced at the words. If only they were accurate. Wasting away at the end would have been preferable to what happened, but that hardly mattered now.
He clenched his fist. He had more reasons for resenting Adolph than these more recent offenses.
His mother had been the most beautiful woman in the kingdom of their generation. Had things been different, she might have been his countess. It should have been his right to have her, but Adolph’s father had been persistent. Caring neither about her station in the kingdom, nor Gavin’s plans for his county and pack.
In another life, Adolph would have been his son by that woman, and the Mirabelle line would have had the ties to the temple that the Raymond line now enjoyed.
Yet, he had been stuck with Olivia’s mother who could not even have the decency to bear him one son before she died.
Perhaps, the goddess had never favored his family.
Then, something happened that gave him hope.
Delia walked to Laurel, bowed politely, and said something to her. Whatever the women spoke about, it seemed amicable enough. Delia gestured to the large glass doors and they strolled towards them.
There was hope at last. He glanced at Laura's parents who seemed stunned to one side of the room. Then, Basil stood from his seat. Gavin hurried across the room, cutting Basil off from going after them.
“Basil, I need you.”
“Not now, grandfather.”
“If not now, then when?” He asked with a grin of mirth. “Won’t you humor this old man on his birthday?”
Basil narrowed his eyes at him, “What are you playing at? Don’t you have schmoozing to do?”
Gavin flinched at the harshness in his gaze and took his arm, “I wanted to introduce you to a few nobles whom you’ve never met before. Perhaps among them, you might find…kindred spirits.”
He pushed and shoved Basil towards the group of noblewomen he knew would be to his grandson’s taste. If he was not sleeping with his wife, there was a greater chance for him to be distracted by beautiful women. They turned, smiling prettily, and pulled him into the conversation with their charm and grace.
While Basil was stiff, he was not so deep in his anger to forget good manners.
While he was busy he signaled to a nearby staff member to go after Delia and Laurel. As he was leaving, Gavin slipped into the man’s path.
“It must remain a dark night,” he said. “A star can fall if it must.”
He nodded and Gavin rounded the room to the table to grab a glass of wine before making his way to the front of the room and keeping an eye on Adolph.
With any luck, by the time Adolph noticed that his wife was missing, she would be dead.