Kate looked away. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you’d have had a million questions I couldn’t answer.”
“Two years ago, my mother came here to the castle looking for her daughter, but she knew well I was safely home with my father and brother, so…”
Kate—apparently schooled in the art of looking unfazed—didn’t respond.
Avery unrolled the painting and smoothed it out on the bed. She pointed to one of Queen Elizabeth’s ladies. “The first time I saw this, I wasn’t sure if that was my mother or you.”
Kate’s face reddened, and she looked down.
“Are you my mother’s daughter?”
Almost imperceptibly, Kate nodded.
Avery flopped back against her pillows and stared at the ceiling. “Start at the beginning.”
And Kate—disregarding royal decorum—lay back next to her. “The mother you’ve always known was a country bride and gave birth to me shortly before my father died. My grandmother agreed to raise me to give my mother a—her words—‘fighting chance in the world.’ When my grandmother was hired by Queen Elizabeth, my mother was made her lady-in-waiting.”
Avery held up a hand, trying to wrap her mind around it. “So, if you are my mother’s birth daughter—”
“Your birth mother is our queen, Elizabeth.”
“Does that make us sort of sisters?” Avery said.
“More than sisters. When you were born, my grandmother took two of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting down to the Sea—”
“Giving each enough gold to flee and never be seen again,” Avery finished, thinking of the old woman in the tower prison.
Kate nodded. “Two years ago, your mother came back to the castle to speak privately to my grandmother.”
“Why?”
“To tell her about your life and progress and to take me back to your family cottage to live with a real family.”
“What happened?” Avery said.
“They were overheard.”
“By the advisor in scarlet?”
Kate nodded. “He went straight to Angelina, who seized your mother and demanded to know where you were. Of course, your mother wouldn’t tell Angelina, so she ordered her advisor to eliminate all children your age in the kingdom. He knew my grandmother had originally been charged with destroying the babies, so he forced her to find the king’s heirs or pay with her life.”
“So where is my mother?”
“Our mother, you mean?” Kate asked.
Avery nodded. Kate might be her birth daughter, but Kate’s mother was also the only mother Avery had ever known.
“I really don’t know,” Kate said. “But she’s still alive. My grandmother insists she is.”
Avery slipped her arm into Kate’s. “So who told you your job was to protect me?”
“Did you have to be told to protect Henry?”
Avery smiled. She liked having a sister, and she liked that it was Kate.
Chapter 34
The Chapel Prayer
Early the next morning Avery sat on her bed, pages of parchment spread around her and the dog curled on the floor beside her. She was busy assigning jobs to the thirteen-year-olds, her part of the pardon bargain with the king.
Kate appeared. “Walk with me.”
Avery took her arm, and they moved along the privy gallery and through the maze of halls. “Where are we going?” she said, but Kate just shook her head.
They descended the stairs to a wing of less formal chambers Avery recognized immediately. Kate approached one of the doors and didn’t even bother to knock. Avery followed her into an airy space lined with shelves of bottles. Dried plants hung from the ceiling, and a breeze swept in from where curtains had been brushed aside.
“The wise woman’s chamber,” Avery said, and Kate shushed her. Avery soon realized why. Someone lay on a threadbare mattress in a corner.
“Thomas!” she said, and Kate again held a finger to her lips. “How did he get here?” Avery whispered.
“Brought him here myself,” came a voice behind them, and Avery whirled. Babs came in, balancing a stack of blankets and a plate of food. “I could tell it was important to you to help him.”
Relief flooded Avery. “So that’s why his brother thanked me.” Once again, Babs had come to the rescue.
Babs looked puzzled. “His brother?”
“Yes, his older brother. One of the guards assigned to my new wing.”
He shook his head. “Must be some mistake. Thomas has no brother.”
What? For as long as Avery stayed in the castle, she knew she would never solve all its mysteries.
Kate and Avery climbed the stairwell to the tiny, beautiful chapel. The last time Avery had been here, the advisor in scarlet had tricked her, and she had wound up in the tower prison.
“Why are we here?” Avery asked.
“This is the only place we can really talk privately.” Kate led her down the center aisle to the foot of the altar. Kneeling, hands clasped and head bowed, Kate whispered, “I have a plan that will get you out of here, but we need to act quickly.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Do you want this life, Avery?”
“No! I mean, I want to make a difference here, but I want to go home, too. I miss my family.”
“Were you made for this life?” Kate asked.
“No, but how can I go anywhere? Staying is my duty.”
But the faces of her father, mother, and brother crowded her mind, and she remembered Queen Elizabeth telling her to go home.
“Kate, say a person were to leave—how might they do it?”
“Hmm…Nobility rarely pays attention to peasants. I would recommend plain clothes. That way he, or she, could more easily sneak out of the castle unnoticed.”
Avery nodded. “Anything else?”
“This person would probably be wise to do this at night and find their way to the Salt Sea, where a young boatman might already be prepared to take him, or her, to the other side, near his, or her, village.”
Avery held Kate’s gaze.
“Not that one would do such a thing,” Kate added. “But if one did…”
Late that night, the king sent word to Avery that he was commissioning a painting of his recently reunited family. He told her to wear gold and scarlet and to come for the sitting first thing after breakfast the next morning.
Avery paced, the dog watching.
“If I sit for that painting,” she said to the dog, “and then choose to leave, people may recognize me outside. If I leave before the sitting, I might be able to leave in plain clothes and return to a common life. No one will see my face on a gallery wall or in the theater district.”
The dog tilted his head.
“I don’t have long to decide.” Avery scratched his ears. “I also need to give you a name.”
What if I trade the kingdom for my family and they are long gone?
She might be able to do some good in the castle—being kind to the people—but she loved her family more than life.
And who’s to say serving the kingdom is more important than serving my family?
When Avery finally crawled into bed, she lay staring at the magnificent dome ceiling, hoping Kate could be trusted.
The old woman claimed she had told Kate to kill the king’s heirs.
This could all be a trap. Still, I have to try.
Chapter 35
The Dress
Avery awoke to the growling of the dog and a dark silhouette slipping into her room. The growl grew more urgent as the figure approached, and she sat up.
“It’s just me,” Kate said. Avery sighed with relief.
Kate pushed a folded dress into Avery’s arms. “We don’t have much time if you’re going to leave.”
“Right now?”
“The king has spies everywhere. Your best chance is in the dark, especially if you want to do it before the portrait sitting.”
&nb
sp; How did she know about that?
Avery rose, still in a fog, and stepped behind the dressing panel. Kate had brought her the white linen dress she’d worn in the woods so long ago. The ruffles were torn and the hem destroyed, but she buried her face in the material and breathed in the scent of earth and woods and home.
Thud! Her muddy black boots.
When she had changed, she realized Kate was wearing one of her new gowns from the Hall of Mirrors. “To distract anyone on our trail,” Kate said. “I need to look like you.”
“But—”
Kate held up a hand. “We have a long walk. Save your questions. We should go.”
Avery considered the room, all she had, and everything she would forfeit. “Let’s go.”
The dog followed them into the maze of halls and balconies. Avery noticed a figure step out from behind a marble column and settle in a safe distance behind.
And then another did the same.
And another.
Soon, it seemed, an entire fleet trailed them.
Avery whispered, “They’re clearly onto us. We should go back.”
“Keep walking.”
Up in the gallery the advisor in scarlet met her eyes and nodded slowly. He’ll control the throne someday, she thought.
When they reached the great double doors that led outside, Avery turned and saw that the crowd behind her looked as young as she was. They bowed.
“Scouts,” Kate said with a smile.
Chapter 36
The Road Home
Kate and Avery walked arm in arm over the craggy hills and steep declines, stopping only to catch their breath.
“I’ll name him Babs,” Avery said, as they watched the dog lap from a stream.
Kate laughed. “Why?”
“It’s his job to protect me now.”
As they continued, Kate said, “My grandmother wasn’t a bad person. She came to the castle to provide for her family. Queen Elizabeth generously appointed my grandmother’s two daughters their own ladies-in-waiting, unheard of for untitled girls. My grandmother was named the castle’s wise woman, and she studied until she could identify every herb and its medicinal benefits at a glance.”
“So what went wrong?”
“Greed. Grandmother always wanted more, wanted her daughters and granddaughters to become influential. If she had just lived out her days with the provision already afforded her by Queen Elizabeth, all would have been well. Many now dead would still be alive. But she swore on her life allegiance to Angelina in the hope that she and her family would be given more.”
Every snap of a twig or flutter of a bird made Avery jump. “Tell me more,” she said, hoping to keep her mind occupied.
“My grandmother never dreamed Angelina would command her to destroy Queen Elizabeth’s children. Trying to obtain it all, she lost it all.”
“So why did she fake her death when we were living in the children’s quarters?”
“She knew Angelina and her advisors were on her trail and would hold her responsible for not doing away with the king’s heirs at birth. So she forged a plot with some of her fellow workers and took an herb that made her sleep as if dead, and they sneaked her into the tunnels.”
Avery nodded. So the old woman was the one who had communicated with her in the underworld. She smelled like fish.
“And how did she actually die?”
“When the guards raided the tunnels for you, they found her. Angelina accused her of poisoning the king and sent her to the tower prison.”
“But Angelina herself poisoned the king!” Avery said. “Why didn’t your grandmother deny it?”
Kate stopped and shook her head. “Because she was guilty of poisoning Angelina.”
Avery’s mother had been right that “the road home is always longest,” but the path to the boathouse was too short.
“Here is where we part ways,” Kate said.
“I don’t think I can say one more good-bye.”
“Then don’t. This is only temporary. I know where to find you, and I will.”
“Come with me, Kate. We could rebuild our lives together. We both love our mother, and she loves us. We could find her and bring her home. Be a real family.”
Kate smiled sadly. “I can’t. You weren’t made for my world, and I wasn’t made for yours. But promise you’ll send word to the castle if ever you need me.”
Avery’s voice was full of emotion. “I will,” she said, and they embraced. “Please tell Queen Elizabeth I’m safe and happy. She of all people will understand.”
Kate stepped back. “So, do I look like a queen?” She twirled in the dress made for Avery. “Will I fool anyone?”
“Almost,” Avery said with a smile. “But you’re missing something.” She lifted the ruby flower necklace over her head and placed it around Kate’s neck.
“Oh, you can’t do this! It’s your favorite…”
“I’m lending it to you. I’ll expect it back.”
Kate smiled and pointed to the simple craft—more raft that boat—bobbing in the water. “You’d better go.”
Avery stepped aboard and nodded to the pilot, who tipped the bill of his hat, pulled low over his eyes. She made her way aft to a bench, little Babs settling at her feet. As the raft pushed away, Avery raised a hand to Kate, who raised hers in return. Did Kate eye titles and fortunes just like her grandmother? Avery just hoped her adoptive sister wouldn’t trade everything and risk losing it all.
Avery was grateful to sail in silence under a net of stars and a brilliant moon, large and lavender. It would take a lifetime to sort her memories.
With Edward’s rebel army disbanded, her family cottage should be unoccupied, and she hoped that in the morning she and her father could start putting it back in shape.
But this time Avery had no horse for a fast getaway, and she wasn’t about to risk approaching home on foot in darkness. She would spend the rest of the night in her beloved castle tree house.
Avery turned to watch the real castle fade into the distance like a pile of puffy clouds.
Much later, the boat avoided a thick tree trunk and glided through the suddenly still water. Ahead she made out a hulking obstacle, and a huge ship came into view, on its side like an injured bird.
Kendrick’s? Had it been sabotaged? And if so, by whom? The advisor in scarlet?
Avery stood and scanned the glassy surface of the water. Her pilot wordlessly maneuvered around the wreckage, and she stared until it disappeared in the heavy darkness.
Finally, the pilot guided his craft to the water’s edge and tied off on a weathered post. Eager to get to her tree house, Avery accepted his hand and disembarked, Babs right behind her. She patted her white peasant’s dress for a gold coin but found neither pockets nor coins. “I’m sorry,” she said, helplessly looking into the young man’s bespectacled face.
Avery gasped.
Chapter 37
A Reunion
One of his eyes was brown and the other blue.
“Kendrick!” Avery cried as he leapt ashore, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “How did I miss that it was you?”
He laughed, untangling himself and straightening his glasses. “I wanted to surprise you.”
“But I don’t understand. Tuck told me—”
“I know what Tuck said. But I wanted out of castle life as much as you did.”
“Does Tuck know you’re alive?”
He nodded. “And so does Kate. She arranged your trip tonight.”
“So where have you been?”
“Home. My mother was glad to have me back. It didn’t hurt that I brought enough gold to take care of us for the rest of our lives.”
Avery laughed, swatting at her tears. “I so want to see my mother again.”
“Don’t lose heart. Hold on a little longer.”
“Have you heard anything of Henry?”
Kendrick shook his head. “There were rumors that one of your father’s customers saw him wander by the sh
op and took him in.”
“Oh, I hope so!”
“Your father’s been searching for him. May I walk with you?”
“Yes! I have so much to tell you, Kendrick. So much happened after you left. Did you hear about Queen Elizabeth coming back?”
“I did. And she knows I’m here.”
So that’s why she never mentioned him.
Avery filled Kendrick in on all he had missed as they walked all the way to her village. The heavenly fragrance of woodsmoke and roasting meat made Avery’s stomach growl. They cut through the woods where Avery had encountered the peddler, and they passed the peasants’ huts and the camp of tents.
Avery stopped at the edge of the forest. “I can manage the rest of the way.”
“Then I’ll check on you in the morning, Sister,” he said.
“Good night, Brother.”
Avery ran as fast as she could through the moonlit woods, Babs right behind. It made no sense, but she called out for Henry as she ran, just in case. Exhausted, the hope of finding her family kept her going.
Finally, she arrived at the clearing that led to her tree house. It was a good thing, because Avery couldn’t have run another step.
Chapter 38
Stories for Another Day
A chapel bell clanged in the distance.
Avery’s back ached and her muscles burned as the morning light shone through the windows of her play castle. Beyond the arched doorway of the thick tree trunk the sun began to bathe the woods. All around her were watercolor scenes plastered to the walls of her castle—an evil queen, a tower prison, and a ruby moon.
Footsteps in the brittle leaves made her call out, “Who’s there?”
Babs, fur matted and muddy, appeared below, panting. Avery rushed out to scratch his floppy ears. “What do you say we try to find some breakfast, boy?”
“Breakfast? What will we eat?”
Avery jerked up to see a little boy in the clearing.
In tears, she ran to him, falling to her knees and pulling Henry close, squeezing until he squealed, “Let me go!”
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