Crow parted ways with Albin when they exited the throne room. The king went back to his private chamber for breakfast, while the viceroy made his way toward the stairs, heading for the Great Hall to eat amongst the other nobles in the castle. He wasn’t looking forward to appearing in front of them though. Considering how riled up the crowd had been in the early morning, he had a feeling word had already spread that he had “stolen” from those three men.

“Collin!”

He was drawn from his thoughts by the sound of a familiar voice as he headed down the corridor that led to the dining area. Looking up, he saw Preston walking toward him at a brisk pace. The attendant had a distressed look on his face and occasionally glanced over his shoulder as if he was afraid he was being followed.

“What’s going on?” Crow frowned, slowing to a stop as the servant reached him.

Preston took another quick look around. There were no guards posted in this part of the hallway, but he still spoke in a low voice as he explained the reason for his fluster, “The royal guards have begun searching the servants’ quarters for the missing jewelry. They’re starting with the lower level servants first, so they haven’t gotten to me yet, but it’s only a matter of time before they do.”

Crow cursed under his breath. “You still have them in your pocket, right?”

“Yes,” Preston nodded, fidgeting nervously with his shirt. “But they’re searching all the servants too, not just our rooms.” His eyes were wide with fright. “Collin, what should I do? I don’t want to go to prison!”

“Calm down,” the viceroy hushed him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You’re not going to prison. I’ll take care of it.”

“How?”

“Give me the jewels,” he held out his hand, keeping it low so the pass would be discreet. “The knights already searched me earlier and found nothing. If they try to do it again, I’ll just make a fuss.”

“Okay,” the attendant fumbled slightly in his anxiousness as he retrieved the pendants and rings from his shirt and slipped them to the viceroy.

Crow smoothly closed his hand around the jewelry and dropped it into his tunic. “Let’s keep going,” he said quietly, leading the way toward the Great Hall as soon as the stolen goods were secure. “It’ll look strange if someone catches us whispering in the hall.”

“Okay,” Preston said again, quickly falling in step beside the viceroy.

When they reached the Great Hall, Crow’s suspicion was proven to be true. Almost everyone turned to look at him as soon as he stepped through the doorway. There was a mixture of hatred and confusion on the nobles’ faces as they tried to figure out why the thief in their midst had yet to be punished for his crimes. He held his head high and avoided their searching gazes by looking for a place to sit. Yesterday, he had arranged to eat with the three noblemen he’d met before, but now he wasn’t sure if they would be willing to dine with him. After all, they were probably under the impression that he had been thieving too.

As his eyes swept over the room, he spotted Penelope sitting with the same man he had seen her with before. He shifted his weight slightly. He wanted to join her, since she was the only friendly face around, but he didn’t want to draw attention to their closeness while everyone was staring at him. Since Naida wasn’t around to give him a pass, he couldn’t go up to her.

Suddenly, Crow’s attention was drawn by a flash of motion to his left. He turned and was surprised to see Wayne waving at him from a table near the edge of the Great Hall. The gesture caught him off guard, since he had been expecting the noblemen to want nothing more to do with him, but it seemed that their drive to use him outweighed their reservations about eating with a thief.

After a moment of hesitation, he made his way over to join them.

“I’m guessing that, since you’re here and not in a cell, you weren’t the one who stole those pendants?” Wayne said as the viceroy sat down at his side.

“Of course not,” Crow snorted. He was relieved that at least some of the people here seemed to have their heads on straight. “They just assumed it was me because of my reputation.”

“It looks like plenty of them still do,” Percival noted as he looked over the crowd.

“They’ll figure it out soon enough,” Crow held up his hands. “See? No chains. That’s proof enough that I was cleared.”

“In the meantime, it’s probably a good idea for all of us to check our own belongings,” Robyn mused. “Three people were stolen from, so obviously [i]someone[/i] is taking things.”

“If someone took any of my heirlooms, I’m going to make sure the king hears about it,” Wayne growled.

“I’m sure the criminal will be caught soon enough,” Percival said confidently.

“If there’s even a criminal at all,” Crow muttered, drawing the other’s attention to him.

“What do you mean?” Robyn asked.

“Well,” Crow looked up at them with a frown. “Think about the timing of all this. I just got here a week ago, and suddenly things are ‘going missing.’ I’d bet anything those men just checked their belongings because they didn’t trust me and discovered they were missing things that could have gotten lost a month or a year ago. There’s no way of proving that someone is stealing right now.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Wayne said contemplatively. “But I’m still going to go through my own valuables to be sure.”

“Me too,” Robyn agreed.

Percival just grunted noncommittally.

“Do it if you want to,” Crow shrugged. “I’ve just got a feeling that your thief is a phantom created by conjecture and paranoia.” He turned away from them as Preston appeared with a plate of food for him.

All in all, the viceroy was feeling quite pleased with himself. It seemed like he had successfully convinced the noblemen that they were overreacting—or at least planted doubts in their heads. Now all he had to do was wait for them to spread the word around to the other people in the castle, and hopefully the tension would die down before he made his attempt to return the missing jewelry later that night.