Chapter 6
Edmund knew about the winter ambush because one of the planners was his partner.
Not friend.
Partner.
I had never known.
The man’s name was Conrad Saye.
Edmund handled financing for Saye’s transport network.
Not attacks.
At least officially.
Three days before the ambush, Edmund saw unusual vehicles moved into a mountain storage barn.
He asked.
Saye told him enough.
Leopold Rothwell would not reach dinner.
Edmund had a choice.
Stay silent.
Warn me.
He warned me.
That part was real.
“What did you lose?”
“Everything.”
His partners turned against him.
Accounts cut off.
Properties abandoned.
Men threatened.
Jessamine moved twice in six weeks.
He earned protection.
No question.
Then I asked:
“What did you know before the warning?”
His face changed.
There.
Not enough.
“What?”
He had heard talk for months.
Rothwell was becoming too powerful.
Saye wanted a coalition.
Routes were surveyed.
Men hired.
Edmund suspected something.
He did not warn me until the ambush became certain.
“Why wait?”
He looked ashamed.
“Because I thought Saye was bluffing.”
Maybe.
Then another truth.
“Because if I warned you too early and nothing happened, I lost my partners for nothing.”
There it was.
He waited until his information became valuable enough to justify betraying them.
Human.
Ugly.
Not conspiracy.
Then I asked:
“Did anyone die because you waited?”
Silence.
My driver, Theo Grant, died two nights before the planned ambush.
Supposed robbery.
Wrong place.
Wrong time.
That was the story.
Edmund closed his eyes.
He had known Saye’s men were testing our security routes.
Not that Theo would be targeted specifically.
But he knew danger was escalating.
He said nothing.
My favor had been earned by saving my life.
It had also been bought partly with someone else’s silence.
I stood.
Edmund whispered:
“I saved you.”
“Yes.”
“And that means nothing now?”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“It means exactly what it meant.”
One favor.
Protection.
Not absolution forever.
Not authority.
Not permission to build a second government beneath my roof.
May you like
He had confused gratitude with a permanent mortgage on my decisions.
Jessamine had learned the same lesson.
