“Still,” I suggested, “I’ve been turned out of Helena’s rooms once this evening. She shut the door purposefully, which was her privilege, of course. But it makes me hesitant to go back again at this hour. After all, she’s our hostess.”
“She’s a woman, and alone,” John said, “and there was someone in that room. You know that. That someone may have been threatening her while she was talking to you.”
“Yes.”
“And she denied that anyone was there.”
“She said she was not in need of protection.”
“But suppose she’s been kidnapped while you hesitate to bother her?”
“The man who came may very easily have been a messenger from Queen Yolanda. She was expecting news.”
“Or from Conrad. She’s afraid of Conrad.”
“Yes, and rightly. I shouldn’t like her if I were Conrad. After all, she has conspired to keep him off the throne.”
“Exactly. He has a case against her, and he looks like the sort of person who sees things through.”