The King's Unbreakable Wife-Chapter 208: Start of rumours (3)

"Why are you trying to dig further when it was an accident? Don’t go trying to make it something else when all the evidence points to the girl being a thief. End this now and do something else," Saul said, patting Mark on his back.

"The queen doesn’t believe-"

"The queen needs to focus less on a dead girl and more on producing heirs. Honestly, her mind is not focused on the right things and now we pay for it by not hearing about a prince yet. I know how it is to want to get close to the royals but close this case now," Saul advised Mark.

Why do so much work over a maid when other cases need their attention? Cases that could benefit them.

"Is it normal for you to dismiss looking into a death because it is concerning a servant? She died in the palace and many who knew her said she wasn’t one to drink. We have to look into it. The king and queen requested that we do," said Mark.

"And we found nothing," Saul repeated. "Listen, when your rank in the court goes up then you can continue to poke around to see if someone was murdered, but I am telling you that this case is finished."

Mark stood still as he wasn’t finished looking into what happened to the maid. With all that he heard it was starting to be believable that someone had killed her and made it look like she was drunk.

This was a maid who served the queen and the former queen’s maid was also missing at the moment. This was no coincidence in his eyes and before it was the queen to be injured, Mark needed to find out who was behind this.

"Maybe you have not heard but the king has raised my rank in the palace so I can end this case when I feel like there is nothing more to find. I am the one in charge of it so it will not end yet. I take your eagerness to close it as knowing who might be involved. Should I have answers, don’t run away," said Mark.

Saul stepped to Mark, viewing the man as one of the bastards who sucked up to the king to get ahead. "You’re digging a hole you can’t get out of. No one will want to be close to you and you’ll find yourself wanting to get out of the court as fast as you came in. Drop the case."

"All of you are mistaken as to why I am here. I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to help the palace and the people so get out of the way. You’re now high on my list of suspects. I’ll be sure to write your name pretty when I send the list to the king," Mark joked.

It was insulting that he had to work with these kinds of men who only cared about pleasing people they could gain something from instead of working to help the people. They had all forgotten why the court was made and turned it into something else.

Seeing how the court worked, Mark was more than ready to offer his help to the king when he got rid of more of the men here. Mark had already started to gather evidence about the awful deeds. The cases were quick to end because someone they knew might be taken to court.

"You bastard!" Saul grabbed Mark’s shirt. "Ha," he scoffed, watching as two men neared Mark. "He’s already given you people to work under you. I see you kissed the king well."

Mark looked to his right at the man Declan who recently came by his side. "He is not worth taking out your sword to harm him. He’s just a fool doing the work for people higher than him who will one day kill him."

Saul smiled as Mark had no idea what was awaiting him. Saul didn’t know who did something to the maid but the others who came to see where she died had all concluded that it was an accident. There was nothing to gain from going against what others thought.

"Very well. Continue digging around and see what it gets you. By the end of the day, you’ll be on your own in the court. See how long they will want to continue to work for you," Saul said, letting go of Mark.

Mark watched as Saul stormed off. "That temper would work well in the king’s army. It is a waste he stays quiet when it comes to volunteering for war. What is all the chatter about, Zachary?"

"Nothing to do with the maid. There is some gossip growing that the king has a lover and it is someone close to the queen. Should I look more into it?" Zachary asked.

"Do you know the name of the lover? She might be tied to this," Mark said as he fixed his shirt.

Zachary tried to think of the name but it didn’t come to mind at first. "Lynn-"

"That’s the name of the dead maid," Declan corrected Zachary.

"Lin? I wasn’t paying much attention to them. Linda?"

Mark turned to Zachary after hearing the name. The only person with that name close to the queen was... "Linda Henson? Daughter of Kenneth Henson? Impossible."

"Maybe the queen wants someone she trusts to be near the king. You’ve heard how they are gathering women to become the king’s mistress. The queen might be one step ahead or did you mean that this woman has no connection to the maid?" Declan wondered.

Mark rubbed his head as he thought about it. It wasn’t that he knew much about Linda to say she wasn’t the king’s woman but he knew about Kenneth and how overprotective he was of his wife and daughter. Would Kenneth allow for his daughter to enter the palace to do this?

Mark had overheard that the Hensons were close to turning down the invitation for Linda to join the selection. "I don’t know what to think but knowing her father, I don’t think she’s the king’s woman. Even if she was, why harm a maid? It is still worth looking into if she had any problems with the maid."

"I will do that and I will look into where her relatives who visit the palace were on that day. Isn’t her grandfather visiting the court a lot these days? I’ve seen men like Saul run to greet him. I know he was one of the palace’s finest knights and his army is worth noting, but he does nothing to help the court. Do we need him there?" Zachary questioned.

"You’ve seen that they love to have men with money and power around. They must all want something from him and at his age, it must feel good to see a lot of men bowing down to him. Maybe they heard the rumours before we did that his granddaughter is the king’s lover," said Declan.

"Doesn’t make sense because I saw him around the court at the start of the selection. It could be they thought she would be picked then and now that the rumours are starting, they are continuing to be close to him. This place is nothing like I thought it would be."

"Not for me," Mark said, leading the two men to find the king. "I expected to find these kinds of men here. Our job is to help solve the problems of the people and make sure the king doesn’t abuse his power. Focus on that instead of who walks into the court."

"Right," Declan replied. "Are we going to the queen? There are two of her maids we didn’t get to question because they are serving her now and she will want to know what we have so far. I think the Henson girl is here. We can question the maids before her to see her reaction."

"Then we should go to wherever the queen is now," Mark replied, changing his direction. "Try not to let it show that we’re suspecting her. The rumours might just be rumours of her and the king having some sort of relationship and I don’t need her father on my ass now to slow down solving this case."

"But if it is true and her reaction is a bit suspicious?" Declan asked.

"Then we look into her and her family. She wouldn’t be the one to kill the maid. Not when she has a family of men who are good at killing. I’ll bet they wouldn’t want her to get her hands dirty and like you saw, her grandfather frequents the court to have someone do it. It would explain why they want to end the case," Mark concluded.

"Still, let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet until we see her. It could be someone else that we’re overlooking. You once said that there were rumours that the queen didn’t get along with the former queen. Maybe her missing maid was to throw us off."

Declan and Zachary share a look. It was both amazing and scary how Mark was willing to suspect anyone regardless of their status. There was finally someone willing to risk their position in court to get answers.