Chapter XIX - A Return
There were blankets inside the carriage and I wrapped myself up in one while I waited for the marquis.
“We’ll have to get you out of those wet clothes,” he said as he joined me.
“I can wait until we get back,” I said. “What took you so long? The fog?”
“Yes,” he said. “I’m sorry, Albert. We didn’t want to alarm the guard, and we couldn’t see a blasted thing.”
“Neither could I.”
“Are you feeling calmer now?”
“I’m all right.”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
I told him all that had happened that night. It took a long time. I did not like remembering all of it, but I huddled in my blanket and told him. He interrupted occasionally with questions and comments.
“...and then we heard you coming and Tybalt let me go and ran away,” I finished.
“You leapt off the roof?” he said suddenly. “What if you had missed the tree?”
“It seemed less dangerous than staying on the roof.”
He began to tap his fingers on the coach door. He looked at me.
“We’re getting toward the palace now,” he said. “Suppose you tell me all about this business with Jupiter before we get there. Do you know where the missing girl is?”
“Yes.”
He nodded for me to go on. I paused. I did not want him to know, not ever. But he would know, and I did not see how I could stop it. Besides, I was much too tired to hide it any more. I was even too tired to brace myself for the coming reaction. Let it all come; trouble, shock, bewilderment. I did not care.
“She’s right here,” I said. “I’m Anna. I ran away. Nobody kidnapped me. Nobody stole my horse.”
His face went completely blank. He opened his mouth, and leaned forward.
“What?”
“I’m Anna. I’m a girl.”
He paused for a long time.
“I ... see,” he said at last, resettling uncomfortably in his seat.
“Our stableman Andre did nothing wrong,” I said. “He shouldn’t be in jail.”
“No, of course not,” he said, but I was not sure he heard me.
He said nothing more all the way to the palace. He did not even look at me. At first I did not mind the silence, since I was so tired, but then I got to thinking. This could well be the last time I would ever see him. Aunt Elfie might lock me up, or send me away. As I watched him avoid looking at me, I began to wonder if he would even want to see me again.
I remembered Tybalt’s warning. You can’t trust honest people. He was wrong, he had to be, but I knew what he was talking about. This was what he was warning me about. I could not trust the marquis to understand.
The carriage came to a halt. I looked out to see the back entrance of the palace, the one the queen had used that first night. I had hoped we could go to the stable, so I could say goodbye there, but that was not to be. I had said goodbye to Hans already, at least.
The marquis got out without speaking. This was my last chance to speak to him. I sat up and thought desperately for what to say.
“Come along,” he said, impatiently. The way he said it seemed so distant, that it made me mad. I stayed right where I was.
“Don’t let Tybalt be right,” I said, just loud enough for him to hear it.
He gave a start and looked at me.
“What?” he said, leaning into the carriage.
“Tybalt said I couldn’t trust you. But I did trust you. So don’t let me down.”
He looked both bewildered and angry, but at least he was looking at me.
“Just what is it you trust me to do?”
I was not sure how to answer that.
“Get Andre out of jail,” I said which wasn’t at all what I meant, but it was something I could trust him on.
“Yes, of course.”
“And don’t forget me!” I jumped up and climbed out of the carriage. “Just don’t forget me.”
“There’s little chance of that.” He looked as if he might like to, however. He waited to see if I had any other demands. I hated leaving it like this. If I was never going to see him again, I wanted him to remember that he liked Albert. I suppose I wanted him to know I had not let him down.
“If I was really like Tybalt,” I said. “I’d have gone with him.”
He took a breath, and did not seem to know how to react, so he chose not to react at all. I think I had given him too much to think about. But since he had said he would not forget me, he really would think about it. I knew it, because I really could trust his word.
“Let’s go,” I said, and I turned to lead the way into the palace, even though I had no idea of where we were going.
Aunt Elfie fainted when she saw me. I had wiped the mud off my face, and I suppose that is the only reason she even recognized me. She recovered pretty quickly though, and said I was a wicked child.
I was thoroughly scrubbed before bed, not that I minded, and I was too tired to complain. In the morning, however, I was covered in petticoats, more petticoats than were necessary, but Elfie seemed to be trying to make up for lost time. On top of them came a frilly pink and yellow dress. Even Celeste giggled at it. I did not feel much like giggling, so I gave my aunt a malevolent glare that made her put away the wig she had produced. Celeste clutched her belly and screeched, while Aunt Elfie settled for putting ribbons in my short hair.
I was allowed to go out on the terrace in that horrible get up. I suppose they figured I would not dare be seen in it, therefore I would not go far. In a way they were right, but since everyone who knew me stared at me anyway, trying to reconcile Anna and Albert, the frilly dress did not really bother me.
As I stood on the terrace looking out over the park, I saw Hans. I smiled and waved. I would be able to say goodbye properly after all. He stopped and cocked his head. Then a look of horror came over his face.
“So it is true,” he said. “I didn’t believe it.” That was when I cursed Aunt Elfie for dressing me up like that. Hans was shocked.
“Yes, unfortunately, it is true,” I said.
“You tricked me!” he said. “You made a fool of me. Charles hasn’t left me alone, you know.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t trying....”
“You lied!”
“No, I didn’t,” I said. “Only my name, and you knew that wasn’t true.”
“Everything you did was a lie!” he said. “I thought that we were friends and you weren’t even....”
“No!” I said. “No! That was true. All of it was true. This is a lie.”
I tore out one of the ribbons and threw it at him. That stopped him. He stood for a moment, confused. Then he threw up his hands. “I don’t know,” he said and he walked away.
“Hans,” I said.
“I don’t know!” he repeated and kept going.
I stood there for about fifteen minutes. It’s a funny thing about a delicate dress. You do not want to move much when you are in it, even if you do not like it.
I went back to the palace and took off the dress. I laid on my bed in the petticoats for the rest of the day. We were leaving soon anyway.
After a while Celeste came in. She did not say a word. She just picked up the dress from the floor and left. A few minutes later she came back, this time with a nice plain travelling dress and a bonnet.
“You had better get some of those petticoats off,” she said. “We’re going to go soon, and this will never fit over all that.”
I got up and got dressed. It was not a bad dress. It was even rather pretty, but it still seemed strange to have it on.
“Johan told me that Andre is out of jail,” she said idly, flopping on the bed.
“Johan?” I said.
“Yes, you know, he’s that handsome marquis. Well of course you know. You’ve just been calling him ‘sir’ too long. You can
call him Johan now too, now that you’re not a stableboy.” She giggled.
“I always could,” I said. “Only it didn’t seem right. It still doesn’t. It’s funny, it’s harder adjusting to being a girl after only a short time being a stableboy, than it was becoming a stableboy after a whole lifetime of being a girl.”
“Oh, Anna,” she said, laughing. “It’s good to have you back.”
“It’s good to be back,” I said.
“No it isn’t,” she said.
“Yes, it is.”
“Ha!” she said, jumping up from the bed. “You’re miserable, I know it. But I’ll cheer you up. Let’s go before Mother comes to get us.”
The carriage was waiting out front, loaded with luggage. A groom had gone ahead with Jupiter. Hans was holding the coach horses. I was not sure if I should speak to him, or what I should say, but he spoke first.
“Albert,” he said as I approached.
“Anna,” I said, and smiled.
“Right. Anna.
I went over to him, but Aunt Elfie came up behind and called sharply. “Anna! No talking to the servants. Get in the carriage.”
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly.
“Thank you,” I said. “Goodbye.”
“Wait!” he said as I turned to go. He thrust a box into my hands before Aunt Elfie could see it.
Elfie urged me into the coach before I could ask what it was. I was thankful that she stayed behind to talk to some friends while Celeste and I settled into our seats. I was able to open the box in peace.
Inside lay a pair of spurs. They were not silver, but they were intricately carved, from wood. They were just like the tournament prize.
“Let me see!” said Celeste, taking one. “Oh, look inside.”
Inside the curve of the spur was some writing. It said, “Albert the Great.”
“Hans’ father must have carved these,” I said. “He must have started right after the tournament.”
“There’s a note,” said Celeste.
There was a piece of paper in the bottom of the box. When I unfolded it I saw that it was written in ornate, though clumsy, letters. I suspected Philip of composing it.
“Award of Merit,” It said in big letters at the top. Then it went on. “For eliminating the pestilence that lay upon the Royal Stables (otherwise known as Wilhelm Bloch) and for brightening the lives of countless stableboys and horses by means of the above mentioned elimination, and for conquering the raging Sea Sprite, and for surviving rumored encounters with traitors, murderers, arsonists, and maybe more, as well as at least one documented midnight trip in the seat box of a poorly sprung trap, we award these spurs to ALBERT THE GREAT, whose only defeat was to a steely eyed old bat of an aunt, which hardly counts. Nobody can stand up against aunts.”
Aunt Elfie opened the door to the carriage and Celeste snatched up the spurs and hid them. Elfie climbed in. The carriage began to move. I pushed open the door to lean out.
“Bye, Hans!” I called and waved.
“Anna!” said Aunt Elfie.
“Thanks!” I continued. He was waving back. “Tell Philip thanks, too. I’ll write.”
“Anna, sit down!”
I did as she said. The carriage was going too fast now and Hans was out of sight. I sat back in my seat and smiled at her. It was nice to be going home, really.
Especially since I had just realized that Hans had been angry with me, but he had gotten over it, so perhaps the same could happen with the Marquis. Perhaps the Marquis had a harder time because no matter how much good he remembered about Albert, he also remembered how I was like Tybalt sometimes.
But I was not Tybalt von Stenbau. I would not ever give up on honest people. Maybe that was the difference that the Marquis didn’t understand. The rules were against me, but that didn’t mean I was against them, not all of them. I was going to have to figure out how to show him that breaking one rule was not breaking them all.
I did not know how I was going to manage it, but one thing I knew for sure, my adventure was far from done.
The End
About the Author:
Camille LaGuire’s stories have appeared in all kinds of magazines from Cricket and Highlights for Children, to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, to Handheld Crime and Futures Mysterious Anthology. Her thriller play, Slayer of Clocks, was performed to sold out audiences at the first Discovering New Mysteries Festival in 2007.
Camille is at work on on a sequel for The Adventure of Anna the Great. Visit her website at https://www.camillelaguire.com/ for updates!
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