“We have to fight this.” Emmerson was livid. “We all know that he’ll go after Wilma with her being a new bride and not yet a mother.”
“No. I’ll kick him before I let him touch me,” Wilma declared.
“Claire isn’t a mother either.” My eyes went to my sister, who stood pressed up against her husband, Lucas. You and Wilma would be his obvious choice.”
Claire paled. “You think he’ll kill Lucas to get to me?”
Lucas gave a low sneer. “Let him try. I can defend myself. Jeremiah is no match for me.”
Frederick snorted. “Don’t be a fool. He’s not stupid enough to go up against any of us man to man. He’s sneaky and he’ll make it look like an accident.”
I propped my hands under my armpits. “Not if he has an accident first.”
There was a moment of silence in the room and then Emmerson lifted his chin. “Keep talking.”
Over the next hours we plotted the death of our king. Our best chance was at one of the upcoming Christmas parties where he would be eating and getting drunk.
“You men won’t get any weapons past the security, but I can smuggle in a dagger under my skirt,” Marni offered.
“What about poison? I could have some in my bra,” Wilma added.
“Whoa, we’re not leaving it to you women to protect us!” Emmerson frowned.
“None of you are killing the king. I am!”
The room went quiet and they all stared at me.
“You sure, Tyton?” Henry asked. “If anything goes wrong, you’re dead.”
Despite the pressure in my chest, I nodded. “You women are too valuable and I’m the only single man in this room. If anything goes wrong and I die, I won’t be leaving a widow for him to prey on. It has to be me!”
My father, Henry, Lucas, and Emmerson all bowed their heads to me and Frederick grabbed my shoulder. “You won’t be alone. We’ll help you.”
“Yes, whatever you need,” Marni added.
“As long as you distract his guards like we talked about; I’ll need the time to get close to him.”
CHAPTER 30
Killing a King
Tyton
The annual Christmas party at the royal palace was an affair with tight security. Our family had a prominent place in society, which put us on the guest list, but we weren’t close to the king and were seated in the other end of the large banquet hall.
The plan was simple. We would wait for the king to get drunk and start bragging like he did every year. Once he began wandering through the room to make sure we all heard him boast, I would challenge him to a drinking contest and hand him a glass with beer that was poisoned.
If it worked, I would have ended the tyranny of our worthless king.
If it failed, I would be executed.
Marni’s original plan to smuggle in a dagger under her skirt had been shot down by us men. The previous years, women had been exempted from walking through security scanners like us men, but rumors were that King Jeremiah was getting more paranoid.
As the night progressed, the voices of the two hundred people in the room grew louder. Music played and men were erupting in drunken laughter here and there.
Our king was surrounded by his supporters during dinner but as anticipated he grew tired of their company and began shouting to people at other tables, lifting his glass and drinking like there was gold on the bottom of his glass.
We watched him push up from his chair and scream profanities at random people.
