"Indeed," Asabel said. "It is I that invited him to the Yellow Castle that evening, to share tea with my retainers and I. Something that I have now grown to regret deeply, given the opportunity it allowed for his assailants to plan."
There was a considerable weight to Asabel's mentioning of it. She expressed clearly that she thought it was an assassination attempt. There was no question in her voice, she did not even see that part of the predicament to be something that should be questioned. It was the sort of confidence that had the crowd of nobility – who were so sure they had this case figured out – doubting themselves.
"Might I ask, merely so that we can paint the clearest picture of that evening, just what had caused you to invite Oliver Patrick to tea? You had no dealings with him before then, did you?" Hod pressed.
