I choke hearing her say that. Even she knows we’re engaged?
Briar glares for several more seconds at the glass, as if she’s expecting it to argue back, and then turns to me. “First of all, yes, I was arrested for protesting, and yes that was ridiculous and something that the King needs to change as soon as possible. I hear from Matilda that a bill is being voted on in Parliament in a few days’ time to update the laws and the King has already given it his support.”
“You hear from Matilda? Matilda Desjardins? But how?”
“She’s been writing to me to keep my spirits up. But that’s not what I want to talk about. You’re in danger, Sachelle. Obviously, you know that, but I don’t think you realize just how much danger you’re in, or why. Has anything strange happened to you lately apart from the truck incident?”
Everything that’s been happening is strange, but I think I know what sort of strange she’s asking about. I tell her about the doctored recording and the photographs that make it look like I’m in charge of the secret group. “Jakob—Mr. Rasmussen—claims that-you-know who did it, but I don’t…”
I trail off when Briar’s eyes grow very wide. “That was Tieman for sure. He was trying to scare you, or discredit you, or sow more chaos to move the heat away from him.”
I gaze at her, perplexed. She’s supposed to be on Tieman’s side, but her expression is one of disgust. “Mr. Rasmussen said it was a test of my loyalty, and who I would run to for help. I ran to Mr. Rasmussen. Not for help, but because I was so angry with him. I thought he’d done it.”
Briar nods. “Yes, a test makes a lot of sense. He probably wanted to test you because of me, and he’ll know that he can’t trust you now. After everything I’ve told Mr. Rasmussen, he’ll try to kill me, too, the moment I step outside this guard station.”
“I don’t understand. You were just protestors. Now you’re talking like Tieman is the leader of some terrorist group.”
Her expression becomes even more grim. “That’s exactly what he is.”
I breathe in sharply. “That’s a serious accusation. Do you have any evidence?”
“You remember the scandal about me not being Dad’s biological daughter?” Briar asks, and I nod. “I was shunned by everyone in the family except Mum and Dad, and you of course. I couldn’t bear being at home because I was so confused and ashamed, and so I called Tieman. He told me I could come and stay with him and Louis.”
My heart aches for Briar. Lord Anthony and his wife love their daughter and would never have thrown Briar out, but I suppose she was so upset by everyone in Paravel gossiping about her and seeing her name in the papers that she felt betrayed by Court.
“They were living in an abandoned building on the outskirts of the city. It felt great to be with them, a big eff you to the family and Court who didn’t want me. Tieman was so kind to me. I kind of had a crush on him, I suppose. I was so desperate for someone to be nice to me after everything that had happened.”
She looks down at her hands as if she’s ashamed. I remember how it felt to have Tieman bestow one of his charming smiles on me and the way he flirted when I asked for his help with Jakob. Seems he’s got his routine down pat.
“On the day I was arrested, Mr. Rasmussen questioned me, but he didn’t seem at all interested in me protesting outside the palace gates. All his questions were about where the group met and who else I knew.”
“And you just told him?” The Briar I knew would never turn on her friends like that.
“Not at first. I didn’t like him and I didn’t trust him, and I wasn’t about to rat out my friends, but his questions got me thinking about some of the things I’d seen at the abandoned apartments. Tieman told me they were nothing, and I believed him, at the time.” She stares past me and shakes her head, lost in bitter recollections.
“What did you see?”
Briar turns back to me, her mouth set in a grim line. “Boxes of nails. Bags of fertilizer. Metal pipes. Tanks of propane.”
Shards of ice slip down my spine. I remember reading newspaper reports before the revolution about people being arrested when such things were found in their homes. “Those are things for making bombs, aren’t they?”
Briar nods. “Big, nasty bombs.”
That’s not what the group claimed to be about. It’s supposed to be about peaceful protesting, and if that’s what Tieman and Louis are really up to, then they’re dangerous as hell. I gnaw on my lip, feeling sick. “What happened after that?”