How to Poison Your Husband [COMPLETE! Cozy Romantasy With A Dash Of Murder]

Step 7b: ...don't trust him to keep his promises...

Ivelle's gawked at Lillian, sure she'd misheard.

"He – hang on... what?"

"I don't know all the details," Lillian said in a low voice. "It happened years ago, before I arrived at the palace. But I heard the news from his own lips."

"Surely there's some mistake." Ivelle shook her head, trying to clear it. "I thought your brother disappeared after the carriage crash that killed your parents."

"He made it to the palace alive." Lillian's hands twisted together in her lap. "Eirifold became his only friend in the palace. And then Eirifold betrayed him."

"Why?"

"I don't know. But he told me so himself. Boasted about it to me one night, while he was drunk out of his mind." Lillian's face hardened. "I'm not sure why you're always jumping to his defense. You saw with your own eyes what he did to Wilfred."

"I..."

Ivelle floundered, for once rendered speechless. Of all the accusations she had expected to come out of Lillian's mouth, murdering one of Lillian's close relatives had been near the bottom of the list, on par with learning that Eirifold had a secret side hobby as a snake charmer, or that he kicked helpless bunnies for fun.

This was a mistake. It had to be a mistake. Eirifold wasn't a murderer.

...Was he?

Unbidden, the memory of what Eirifold had said the night before floated to the forefront of Ivelle's mind.

Some things I've done can't be forgiven... I can see why she'd want to poison me...

Lillian was still watching her. Ivelle shook her head. "He... he just doesn't strike me as that sort of person."

A hint of pity glittered in Lillian's eyes.

"Ivelle," she said gently, "How long has Eirifold been using you?"

For the second time that morning, Ivelle found herself rendered speechless – so speechless, in fact, that she managed to choke on a large glob of spit. It bopped around in her trachea, tickling her vocal cords until she was convinced she would never stop coughing.

"I – hack hack – I'm sorry – What?"

"Using people," said Lillian, "is what the royal family does. Eirifold might not be a true son of the king and queen, but he's still a member of the royal family. And I suspect he's been toying with you, just like he toyed with me. Mariel told me how she caught the two of you together a few days ago."

Mariel, you little snake!

But Ivelle couldn't be mad, not really. She would've done the same thing as Mariel if she'd discovered someone's fiance cheating on them.

Then her brain caught up with the rest of what Lillian had just said. "What do you mean, just like he toyed with you?"

"Eirifold tried to get close to me a few years ago. Foolishly, I let him." Lillian's breath caught in her throat. "He bought me pretty gifts. He showed me his secret hideouts around the palace, passages only he knew about. For a time, I thought he loved me. But it was a lie. Eirifold doesn't know what love means. He was just using me to get back at Mariel. He'd made a bet with her, and he was trying to one-up her because of their foolish rivalry.

"And now, he's probably doing the same thing to you. He's leading you on, telling you things only when it's convenient for him. He didn't tell you what he did to my brother – I imagine it wouldn't have fit his particular agenda. He probably had some pretty excuses to explain away his other misdeeds."