The Princess beneath the streetlamp asked softly, then looked towards the suitcase Shade was carrying.
Shade shook his head slightly. As he breathed through his nose, white vapor slowly drifted away on the wind: "Actually, I was the one who met you in Middlesburg in autumn, passed along the intelligence, and drew Military Intelligence Section Six away at the train station."
He was still holding the Princess's hand, to keep this great liar from getting slapped. But she did not do so. She merely pursed her lips and looked at Shade. "So?"
White mist escaped her lips as she spoke, a sight that belonged only to winter.
"Actually, I am Gray-headed Eagle. Oh, don't look at me like that. I'm not the former Gray-headed Eagle. I am—"
He paused and stared into the Princess's eyes. Yet from the corner of his eye, he seemed to see Sparrow Hamilton standing in the darkness behind her.
Your own imagination.
"Strictly speaking, I am Gray-headed Eagle II."
He had never voluntarily admitted this to anyone. Even Doctor Schneider, who knew all of this, had heard it from Detective Sparrow's departed soul.
"I inherited everything from Sparrow Hamilton. Yes, truly everything. His identity, his wealth, his house. The Cat wasn't his; it belonged to Miss Goode, the client. But he did take on that commission, so for my own convenience, and to repay him a little, I did some things on his behalf."
He gave a self-mocking laugh. "Though I say I did things for him, it was really only to conceal my own actions."
Margaret stared at him without blinking, unconcerned as snow piled upon her shoulders. "So you were deceiving me from the very beginning. You kept concealing that we had met before, and the note about the bombing was left by