The sun hadn't even fully cleared the horizon when Kaelen was at my door. He didn't knock; he simply leaned against the frame, looking far too awake for a man who'd spent the night in a drafty guest wing.
"I'm ready for the tour, Lady Elara," he said, his eyes scanning my room. "Show me the 'disaster' you've been describing."
I smoothed down my dress—a purposely faded silk gown I'd found at the bottom of a trunk. "A bit eager, aren't we, Your Highness? Most men wait for breakfast before they start seizing assets."
"I find I have a better appetite when I know exactly who is stealing from the Crown," he replied smoothly.
I grabbed my parasol. "Then follow me. But watch your step. The Lexen estate isn't what it used to be."
The goal was simple: Visual Deception.
I led him first to the stables. In the novel, the Lexen stables held fifty purebred stallions. Today, there were three.
"Where are the horses?" Kaelen asked, his brow furrowing as he looked at the empty, dusty stalls.
"Sold," I lied, keeping my voice mournful. "To pay the grain tax. We're down to the carriage horses and my personal mare. It's... quite embarrassing, really."
In reality, I had sent the forty-seven stallions to a "boarding ranch" three counties over last night, under a fake company name: Lexen Logistics & Co. They weren't gone; they were just 'off-balance sheet assets' now.
Next, I took him to the greenhouse. What used to be filled with rare magical orchids was now overgrown with common, prickly weeds and a few sad-looking cabbages.
"The gardeners?" Kaelen prompted.
"Let go," I sniffled, dabbing at a non-existent tear. "I couldn't bear to see them work without pay. I've been tending the cabbages myself. It's very... grounding."
I watched his face. For a second, I saw a flicker of something that looked like pity. Got him.
"You seem different, Elara," Kaelen said as we walked toward the back of the estate, near the old stone well. "The girl I knew at court would have rather died than be seen near a cabbage. You used to spend three thousand gold on a single pair of shoes."
"Death has a way of changing your perspective on footwear," I said, stopping by the well.
This was the dangerous part. This well wasn't for water. It was the ventilation shaft for the underground vault where the gold was currently being bagged for transport.
"Is that so?" Kaelen stepped closer, his shadow falling over me. He reached out, his hand hovering near my face. I braced myself, expecting him to seize me, but instead, he tucked a stray silver hair behind my ear.
His touch was surprisingly warm. "And yet, you're still wearing a sapphire necklace that could buy a small village. A bit inconsistent for a woman who can't afford gardeners, don't you think?"
I froze. Damn it. I forgot to take off the jewelry.
"A... a family heirloom!" I stammered, my corporate-accountant brain spinning at 100mph. "It's stuck. The clasp is rusted. I'm literally too poor to hire a jeweler to remove it."
Kaelen's eyes dropped to the necklace, then back to mine. He let out a low, dark chuckle. "Rusted? This is white gold, Elara. It doesn't rust."
He leaned in, his lips inches from my ear. "You're good. But I think you're overplaying your hand. No one goes from 'Grand Villainess' to 'Cabbage Farmer' in a single week unless they're running a very long con."
Suddenly, a dull thump echoed from deep within the well. The sound of a heavy bag of coins hitting a stone floor.
Kaelen's head snapped toward the well. His hand went to the hilt of his sword. "What was that?"
"A... toad!" I shouted, a bit too loudly. "A very large, very heavy toad. The Lexen toads are legendary for their size. We... we feed them the cabbages!"
Kaelen looked at the well, then back at me, his golden eyes full of lethal suspicion. "I've seen a lot of things in my time, Elara. But I've never heard a toad sound like clinking metal."
He stepped toward the edge of the well. If he looked down, he'd see my head butler, Hans, literally holding a bag of gold marked 'Southern Retirement Fund.'
"Your Highness, wait!" I grabbed his arm, pulling him back. "The well is... cursed! My great-grandmother died there! It's a Lexen tradition to never look down it during a full moon!"
Kaelen paused, looking at my hand on his arm, then at the bright blue sky. "It's ten o'clock in the morning, Elara."
"It's a very early moon!"
Kaelen didn't move. He looked down at me, his expression unreadable. For a long moment, the only sound was the wind and the frantic thudding of my heart.
"Fine," he said, stepping back, though his eyes never left mine. "Keep your cursed well. For today. But tomorrow, I'm bringing my own auditors from the capital. If the books don't match the cabbages, Elara... I'll make sure your retirement is much shorter than you planned."
As he walked away, I collapsed against the stone wall of the well, gasping for air.
"Hans!" I hissed down the shaft.
"Yes, My Lady?" came a muffled voice from the dark.
"Double the speed. We're moving the gold tonight. Every single coin."
I looked up at the palace on the hill. I had 24 hours to commit the greatest heist in imperial history, or I was going to be the most well-dressed corpse in the cemetery.