Queen Isabelle reviewed the documents spread out before her. This was turning out to be a nightmare. Emily had indeed turned out to be complicit, correspondence discovered in her room covering the planned 'assassination' extensively. The floor plans and details of guard patrols had come from Emily herself. Servants had stated that she was actually out of the house the night in question; a sleep-over with a schoolmate arranged at short notice. In case the guards failed to catch the assassin, she had said, panicking and admitting everything once confronted about it.

Furthermore news had arrived of her mother's poisoning. They were still trying to trace the source of the perfume that bore the poison, but it was already obvious that Isabelle had been lured away purely so that the hot headed Raymond and eager-to-please Edward would be left to deal with the situation. The whole thing was planned meticulously, and the disturbing thing was that Isabelle had no idea by whom. Emily was an idiot. She had been used in this plot, but only as a disposable pawn, and was in no way the mastermind. She was supposed to have been caught. Emily didn't know who she was conspiring with, communicating only through writing. The correspondence revealed nothing other than that the conspirator was female. Although even that could easily be a lie... Raymond hadn't been involved at all, thank goodness, and was legitimately surprised to find Emily complicit. He hadn't even picked up on her slip in the audience chamber, dull as he was. Although he still tried to defend her when she was arrested. Isabelle really didn't know what her saw in her, but there was no way they were getting together now. Emily would remain under house arrest for now, but was likely to soon develop a sudden attack of religion, church service being a common disposal method for nobility who had caused too much embarrassment. It might be unavoidable for Raymond to withdraw from society due to 'illness' too, if he didn't start seeing sense over Emily in the next few days.

There were also the Sandovals to be concerned about. Not only had Alice still not turned up, but given the travel time to their territories Denis and Lucy could arrive as soon as tomorrow. How much would she need to tell them? Trying to cover up facts only to have them discovered later would be disastrous, but on the other hand sharing some of the more embarrassing information would also be problematic if it turned out to not actually be needed. And who knows how much Alice was able to find out over the last few days; if she was still in the capital and made contact with her own family before Isabelle, then they could potentially turn up already knowing everything.

Isabelle cursed at her ignorant son and incautious husband. She was going to have to be open with Denis and Lucy. To do otherwise was too great a risk. This was going to cost the royal family badly... Or... Isabelle frowned as another thought occurred to her. Given the utterly meticulous planning, why was the framing of Alice so flimsy? Someone capable of coming up with all this should be equally capable of planting evidence that took more than one day to dispel. Given the layers of deception, what was one more? Perhaps Alice was not the primary target of this conspiracy, but rather the royal family themselves?

Who would gain most from these events? Her finger tapped on the transcript of an interview with one of Alice tutors. Alice's destain for Raymond was no secret, but she had on occasion claimed that she would not be permitted to be queen. That was an interesting terminology, implying that while she was prepared to go through with it, it was the other side that was the problem. Given Raymond's deteriorating behaviour, Isabelle had to admit he may have said something in private to give Alice that impression. Had the engagement been broken legitimately, it would be embarrassing for Alice, and the Sandovals would lose their valuable connection to royalty. But now? The engagement had been broken unjustly, and she was already thinking of the concessions she would need to offer to buy Denis' silence. She knew the man held no love for his daughter; she was a tool to him to further the designs of his house. A tool that would have been rendered useless by Raymond. This whole situation avoided that, and let him get something out of Alice after all. Lucy would not condone such a thing, but Denis... Was it possible that he was the mastermind behind all this?