After a friendly tugging match, Yunus led the way and ushered Iver into the house.
Behind him, Sherlock lagged a few steps behind until he came level with Iver.
The corners of his mouth curved up as he whispered teasingly, "You noticed, right?"
Iver merely looked ahead at Yunus's back without turning to Sherlock. "Naturally."
What Sherlock was referring to was the fact that Yunus had already recognized Iver's identity.
That was hardly surprising.
Although Yunus had remained active as a knight-errant and had not become Prince Albert for a long time... he had ultimately been active in Avalon. In other words, although no one knew whether Yunus had returned to Glass Island along the way... he certainly could have seen the newspapers.
Yunus had not left Avalon until after Queen Sophia's death, when Isabel had officially taken the throne.
In other words, he definitely knew that Iver had been Isabel's only trusted minister when she ascended the throne. He would also have known that Iver was Avalon's Minister of Everything.
...The only problem was that Iver's father-in-law had very likely read the news about "Miss Aleister" as well.
The long-standing scandalous rumors about the relationship between Iver and Aleister... had been Avalon's biggest news story before Her Majesty the Queen passed away.
That news itself had been Iver's means of diverting the attention of Avalon's people at the time. Although Isabel knew that Aleister was Iver, so she had not reacted... the others clearly did not know.
In their eyes, Isabel bringing Iver into her circle of trusted aides meant that she was competing with that mysterious and noble Miss Aleister for a man.
Sherlock had already thought it was a bad idea at the time. Now that Iver was running into a little trouble—or rather, retribution—because of his