The Queen's Thief - Gen/Attolia
“The Queen ordered your majesty’s food be tasted by a guardsman before you eat it. The latest attempt on your life came too close to succeeding, your majesty.”
“Attempt on my life!” Eugenides objected, “It wasn’t poison, it was dodgy eggs that disagreed with me!”
Eugenides didn’t doubt he had been given the oldest eggs the cook could find. The kitchen staff expressed their displeasure at Attolia’s marriage by sabotaging his meals but they weren’t out to kill him.
Then he realised: his wife had poisoned him. Having a taster would certainly stop the cook crushing glass in his food.