Chapter 344: You Are Lying

Henry gestured towards the door. "Shall we? I have some Italians to meet."

Richard almost asked whether this unexpected royal visit had anything to do with Livia. He stopped himself.

There were still boundaries between them, even after everything they had said today, and Livia remained one of them.

Perhaps she always would.

Richard could accept that she loved Henry. He could accept that she intended to marry him and become his queen.

But he would always worry about her. That was not going to change.

Richard parted from them soon afterwards. Henry and Geoffrey travelled to Eltham Palace, where the Italian royal household had been lodged away. The Italians had arrived late the previous night.

Geoffrey had already seen that suitable chambers were prepared for them. Their arrival was announced ahead of them.

Henry stood with Geoffrey at his side and waited. It did not take long. The doors opened once more, and King Alessandro di Monteluce of Italy was brought forward, accompanied by his Lord Chancellor.

"King Henry," the Italian king greeted.

Henry did not return the courtesy. "Let us not pretend to be civil with one another." He had no patience for ceremony today. "An assassin bearing your markings entered England and attempted to kill me. I would like to know why."

"As I stated in my message to your Lord Chancellor, I had nothing to do with it. I have no quarrel with you. What reason would I have to order your death?"

"That is what I intend to discover."

"And frankly," Alessandro continued, "I came to England because I wished to see for myself whether this accusation was merely a ruse to manufacture a war between our kingdoms."

Henry barely heard the accusation. He had been waiting for this moment. There were questions men could prepare lies for. They could rehearse their outrage, control their expressions.

Then there were questions they never expected. Those were the useful ones.

"Then I shall be more precise," Henry said, his eyes never left Alessandro’s face. "The arrow was not meant for me. I took the arrow for my intended. Livia Valenti."

Henry watched Alessandro’s eyes closely.

"An Italian woman?"

"With your family name."

"I do not..." Alessandro stopped, then gathered himself. "Valenti is hardly a name belonging to one person. I have no reason to direct an assassin towards anyone bearing that name, King Henry."

Henry smiled. Then he stepped back. He had seen enough. "You are lying."

Alessandro’s face hardened instantly. "I beg your pardon? I will not stand here and endure such an insult."

"You will. You are on my land. An assassin connected to your court entered my kingdom and attempted to murder the woman who will become my queen. Until I decide whether that constitutes an act of war, you will stand for whatever questions I choose to put before you."

Alessandro’s anger flashed. "I have already told you the truth."

"No." Henry turned his head slightly. His gaze settled on Lorenzo Bellaforte.

The Italian Lord Chancellor had said nothing since the conversation began. That alone was not suspicious.

But Bellaforte’s shoulders had stiffened when Henry said Livia’s name. His eyes had gone immediately towards his king. One hand had tightened around the edge of his sleeve, and he had been making a poor attempt ever since to appear interested in anything except the conversation happening directly in front of him.

"You see, Alessandro, I might have believed you. I might even have accepted that Valenti is merely a name and that Livia means nothing to you." Henry turned fully towards Bellaforte. "But since the moment I mentioned the name Livia Valenti, your Lord Chancellor here has looked remarkably uncomfortable in his own clothing."

He took a measured step towards the Lord Chancellor. "Care to share what has you in a knot?"

The man looked as though he might sink straight through the floor if the stone would only show him mercy.

Every eye in the chamber had turned towards him.

"Lorenzo?" King Alessandro called.

The Lord Chancellor swallowed. "I... I know nothing."

"Geoffrey, have the guards seize him."

Geoffrey had barely moved before Alessandro stepped forward.

"You cannot do that."

Henry turned his head. "I can, and I will. I would arrest the Pope himself if I believed he had sent an assassin after Livia." He returned his attention to Lorenzo. "Unless he begins telling me exactly what he knows."

Lorenzo’s face had drained of colour.

"My Lord Chancellor became curious about my intended’s origins. He sent a letter of inquiry to your council asking for information regarding the name Valenti. Weeks later, an assassin appeared on English soil and tried to put an arrow through her. Tell me, Lorenzo. What conclusion should I draw?"

"The queen told me to get rid of her!"

Alessandro turned on him. "What?"

"The queen instructed me."

"What does Caterina have to do with this?"

"She did not want any reminder that you had lain with Elena."

"I do not understand."

Lorenzo looked miserable. Henry watched the king closely now, but there was no performance in Alessandro’s confusion. Whatever secret Lorenzo had been carrying, his sovereign truly did not know it. Lorenzo lowered his eyes. "Livia Valenti is your daughter, sire. She was born months after the queen sent Elena away."

Alessandro took a step backwards. Henry turned sharply towards Geoffrey. Even his Lord Chancellor looked genuinely stunned.

The Lord did indeed work in mysterious ways. There was no possible way that, on the very morning the Archbishop had demanded one piece of Livia’s lineage, her father had simply walked into England and presented himself.

Her father.

A king.

The Church wanted a lineage? They had one. The Church wanted a family name that could be established?

They had that too.

Livia was of royal blood. Illegitimate, certainly. Unacknowledged until this very moment. But the blood in her veins belonged to a reigning king. Livia, who had spent so much of her life being treated as though she came from nowhere, had unknowingly been carrying the blood of a royal house all along.