by Nikki Gaspar
Speaking with Vincent made me feel better, and so I fell asleep as soon as we said goodnight.
Chapter Thirty-One
That taxation class was brutal. Outsiders would think that being a princess was all about wearing pretty dresses, eating gourmet served in golden plates, and meeting a handsome prince from a faraway kingdom, but it was actually much more than that. Everything we were being taught in class was supposed to get us ready to make Bellanmuse a good place for future generations. I feel pressured to be good enough, but at the same time, honored to be trusted with such responsibility. Shoulders drooped, I went out of the classroom and saw Vincent in the corridor, hurrying.
“I will leave early today,” he said. “Dad is meeting some important businessman and won’t be back till very late. I would have enough time to do a search in his home office.”
“Okay, let me know if you find anything.”
Vincent stepped out of the study area; I followed and bumped on his back.
“Why did you stop?”
“Shhh…” He pushed me back inside, closed the door, and peered outside through the window.
“What are you looking at?” I asked and stood beside him to see what’s outside.
“My dad’s here. That’s odd. He usually just tells me if he’s meeting the king. Why did he lie that he’s meeting some businessman?"
I peered through the window; his dad was walking alone in the garden and then went inside the palace.
“Come on, let’s follow him.” I didn’t wait for Vincent’s reply. I couldn’t let an opportunity to see Adam Hunte and Uncle Ant together when they thought they were alone, pass me by.
Vincent sprinted after me, and we stopped just outside the back door. Adam was knocking on Uncle Ant’s office, and when he went inside, we ran toward it, hoping to eavesdrop.
Just as we reached the stairs, the door opened again. Vincent and I hid behind the stairs just in time.
“…spend nights in the laboratory,” Uncle Ant said, walking out of the office. The beginning of his sentence was drowned out by the door’s creak.
“Someone might hear you!”
Uncle Ant snorted. “No one will hear, Adam. The kids are in class, and queen mother attended a meeting.”
“Yeah, and the kids are probably done with class. We better leave now. I told Vincent that I’m meeting some businessman, I don’t want him to see me here.”
“Laboratory? Did you hear everything he said?” I whispered, watching as the two men leave through the front door.
“Only ‘…spend nights in the laboratory’ what do you think that meant?”
“I don’t know. But based on your dad’s reaction, I think that it’s something illegal, or maybe that’s where he experiments with the plants.” I shivered when I realized that they probably met to do some planning or go to this mysterious laboratory to invent some killing device to use on me.
“What are you two doing there?” Sofia’s voice gave me a mini heart-attack. She and Ysabel just arrived from the study area.
“Great timing, come on, we’re going to the cottage.”
My facial expression must have hinted to them that something serious had happened because they followed without any question.
“A what?” Ysabel asked, her brows pulled together in a frown.
“A laboratory. That’s what Uncle Ant said.”
“He doesn’t have a laboratory. Not that I know of,” she said.
“That’s definitely not here in the palace. I have seen every inch of this place, and there is no laboratory,” Sofia said.
“I think it’s time to interview staff members again. This time, we know what information we need, it should be easier.”
Ysabel nodded. “I’ll tell Oliver. The guards might know something.”
***
I chose to speak to Jazaael. I found him in the staff room, which was located opposite the dining room and the kitchen.
“Hi, Jazaael!” I said.
He looked up from the papers he was studying. “Good afternoon, Claire! Do you need anything?”
“I was just walking around the palace, and then I realized that I haven’t been in this room before.”
Jazaael prepared some coffee for the two of us, so I got comfortable and started my information gathering.
As the palace’s butler, Jazaael’s job was to manage the household. He makes sure that the palace was maintained in its pristine condition, cleaned every day, bills were paid, and any repairs needed were done. He also does the staff schedule and salary.
“Wow, the scope of your job is endless,” I commented.
“It’s okay. I just oversee everything and do some troubleshooting here and there.”
“But it’s a good job because it means that the king trusts you.”
“Yes. The king is really busy in managing the whole country, so I manage the palace for him.”
I sipped my coffee and tried my best to sound innocent. “It must be hard to be a king. Is that what he does all day, or he also has some hobbies?”
“He used to be interested in books and science, but when the late King died, he stopped all that and focused on being a King.”
“I also love science. Maybe I got that from him. Does he do experiments?” I asked, hoping that I’m subtle enough.
“Not that I know of, I only know that he read a lot of science books.”
I’m not sure if I did a good job of interviewing Jazaael, but I didn’t know how to proceed without making him suspicious, so I just said goodbye and left him to finish his work.
***
I went to the cottage to wait for the others and hear what they learned from the other staff. Vincent arrived moments later. He said that he talked to the gardening staff, but did not learn anything. Ysabel was next to arrive, followed by Major Krisham, both of them were also unsuccessful.
We were all feeling dejected but waited patiently for Sofia. She arrived almost an hour later and didn’t look disappointed like the rest of us, but looked confused instead.
“I talked to the maids. Did you know that they haven’t been allowed to clean dad’s room ever since mom died?”
“I didn’t know that,” Ysabel said. “I haven’t been in dad’s room for that long as well, for obvious reasons. How about you?”
“I go there sometimes if I need something. But when I knock on the door, he would tell me to go back to my room and wait for him there. I realized just now that he never let me in.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
We’re back to planning another adventure. This time, we’re not sneaking out of the palace, but further inside the palace.
Our decision was to do this immediately the next day. Uncle Ant himself said that he spends the night in the laboratory, which meant the evidence we needed was currently in there.
Ysabel’s boyfriend was proving an asset to our group. Being a King’s guard, he knew the secret passageways in the palace. He said that these passageways were used in emergency cases so that the guards could travel around the palace fast and inconspicuously. And having a higher rank gave him access to the keys of every room in the palace.
Our plan was Ysabel, Vincent, Major Krisham, and I would sneak into Uncle Ant’s bedroom, while Sofia distracts him. We agreed that the best time to do it was during lunch. Sofia would tell Uncle Ant that Ysabel and Vincent were on a date, and they brought me along so I could see more of Bellanmuse.
At 11:00 A.M., we separated from Sofia. She would wait for Uncle Ant to come out of his office and would text us to inform whether he was going straight to the dining room or if he was going to his bedroom. Ysabel, Vincent, and I, on the other hand, went to meet Major Krisham in the parking lot, near the king’s guards’ quarters.
“This way,” Major Krisham said when he saw us.
He led us to a concealed door that looked like a part of the wall beside their quarters and pushed it open. We followed him through the passageway, climbed stairs, and took plenty of turns that it w
as impossible for me to know where we were exactly.
“This is it,” Major Krisham said when he stopped beside a door a few minutes later. “Outside is the king’s bedroom door.”
“We’ll just wait for Sofia’s text then,” I said nervously.
A little after twelve, Ysabel’s phone lit up with Sofia’s text. Going to the dining room now. Good luck.
Major Krisham opened the door and revealed the corridor outside Uncle Ant’s bedroom. The silence was deafening in this area of the palace, and it made me shiver. Fishing an old fashioned key from his pocket, Major Krisham unlocked the bedroom. We got in quickly and started to find some clues. We only have approximately an hour for the king to finish his lunch, then we’re not sure where he would go, he might go back to his office, but he might also want to freshen up in his bedroom.
“Major Krisham, you don’t know if there are secret doors here as well?”
“No, Princess Claire, we need to search manually.”
The bedroom was quite messy. There were random papers—just common documents for his work—dirty laundry that didn’t make it to the hamper, and shoes kicked unceremoniously on the floor.
Ysabel and Major Krisham rummaged through Uncle Ant’s walk-in closet, but they didn’t find hidden doors, and all clothes pockets were empty.
I touched every part of the wall, searching for concealed doors while Vincent crawled on the floor and knocked on each floor tiles, but still no luck.
There were no buttons or remote control to open electronic doors, and the switches on the wall were confirmed to turn on the lights.
“I think there’s no laboratory here,” Ysabel said, defeated.
I, on the other hand, was looking at a picture frame hanging on the wall. It’s a picture of Uncle Ant and my dad. Why would he hang a picture of him together with his victim? That’s creepy.
The first time I saw a picture of my dad was when I arrived here in the palace, so I was still memorizing all his features. I touched his face, and when I did, the glass on the frame changed and became a touch screen monitor.
“Guys! I think I found it!” I hissed.
I tried the same number combination that Uncle Ant used as his password in the greenhouse, and it worked. His bed moved upwards, bringing a part of the flooring with it, and a stairway was revealed.
“Oh my gosh! If only he’s not doing anything illegal, I would be really impressed. That’s a cool bit of technology, right there,” Ysabel said.
My foot was on the first step when Vincent held my arm back.
“Let me go first,” he said, “we don’t know what’s in there.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet. You’re never that gentleman for me, dear fiancé,” Ysabel mocked.
Major Krisham gave her a disgusted look.
“Yeah, and thank goodness for that. Just look at your boyfriend’s arms,” Vincent said, gesturing to Major Krisham. “I’d die after one punch.”
Ysabel and I burst out laughing, which brought annoyance to the boys.
“Are we going to continue this chat or inspect the lab?” Major Krisham asked.
“We’re inspecting, relax,” I said.
We went down the steps and saw the laboratory. His huge table was filled with lab apparatus, like a microscope, bunsen burners, weighing scale, some beakers, test tubes, and different kinds of bottles containing unknown solutions. There were also lots of leaves and flowers. Some Banafesti leaves were on the center of the table and beside them were bean-shaped seeds. He also had some Kloz-Assalire Flowers and some other plants that I have never seen before.
“I’ll take some of these Banafesti Beans. We can have it checked if it’s the same as the poison in your milk,” Vincent said, producing a small bag from his pocket.
“Claire, look at those bottles.” Ysabel pointed to a shelf. “Those are the same as the one we found hidden in your baby pillow.”
I looked up and saw that she was right. “I wonder why he has so many. I hope he’s not planning to give me the same food supplement he used on my dad.”
“Let’s take pictures of everything,” Vincent suggested.
Each of us took our own pictures just to be sure that we have everything. We captured all the plants, all the equipment and bottles, the secret stairway, the bed, and the picture/touch screen monitor.
“This lab is perfect. We just need the result proving that the beans are the same poison in the milk, and we’re done,” I said.
“We have to leave. It’s almost an hour,” Major Krisham said with urgency in his voice.
We climbed up the staircase, replaced the bed, made sure that everything looks the same as before we rummaged the room, and then went back to the passageway.
Halfway through our walk, Ysabel’s phone lit up with Sofia’s text again. Lunch over. Leave the room now!
Ysabel sent her a reply. Done. Meet you at the cottage ASAP.
We were near the exit when Major Krisham stopped dead in his tracks.
“Dad?” Vincent said.
“Why are you kids here?” Adam Hunte’s voice was laden with suspicion.
“Please don’t tell grandma that we’re sneaking out of the palace, sir…she will scold us if she found out,” I said with a saccharine voice.
Vincent’s dad cast a wary eye on us. “Sorry, Princess. I cannot bear it in my conscience if something bad happened to you outside the palace. Please do not leave, and I will not tell the queen mother about this.”
“Yeah, Claire, Ysabel, let’s just hang out in the cottage,” Vincent said. He took my hand and pulled me out of the passageway, leaving Adam to stare at the back of us.
***
“Finally! What took you so long? Did you find it?” Sofia was waiting in the cottage, with Mr. Taz and Mrs. Luminaire sitting beside her on the couch. A plate of sandwiches and a pitcher of juice were waiting for us on the table in front of them.
Vincent and Major Krisham proceeded to grab sandwiches, and we collapsed on the armchairs—and on the floor for the boys—letting out a huge breath.
They listened as we relayed to them everything that happened in the laboratory and were as amazed as we were about how it was hidden. Vincent extracted the Banafesti Beans from his pocket and passed it to Mr. Taz for inspection.
“Yes, these are definitely Banafesti Beans.” He turned a bean over and over.
“Mr. Taz, we ran into Vincent’s dad on our way out of the passageway,” I said.
His eyes went wide. “He might tell the king that you were there.”
“I worry about that too,” Major Krisham said and then swallowed a huge bite of sandwich. “Although, we also passed by the door towards the corridor in your bedrooms. It’s better for him to think that we came from your bedrooms instead of the king’s.”
“I can bring the beans to the hospital immediately. The sooner we confirm that this is the poison in your milk, the better,” Vincent offered.
“You have to make sure that the doctors will not say anything to anyone,” I reminded him.
“I will come with you. If you are accompanied by a king’s guard, it will make them think that this is an official part of the investigation,” Major Krisham said.
The two boys left, leaving us with nothing to do but worry. Ysabel and I nibbled on the sandwiches, but our increasing nervousness made the sandwiches lose its appeal. Soon, we stopped pretending to eat and just waited impatiently.
Ysabel bit her nails. I noticed that she forgets about her perfect nails and does this every time she’s nervous. Mr. Taz and Mrs. Luminaire took turns looking at the wall clock; Sofia tapped her feet like she’s performing a tap dance while sitting down and I paced non-stop.
Vincent handed me an envelope when he and Major Krisham returned two hours later. I opened it eagerly and unfolded the paper inside.
“Please tell me it’s positive. I’m ready for this to be over,” Ysabel said.
“It’s positive! The milk has Banafesti Beans!”
Sofia raised her ar
ms in the air and did a ridiculous celebratory dance. Checkmate…Checkmate…Checkmate…” she chanted.
“We should go to Grandma immediately,” Ysabel said, standing up.
“Wait! Vincent and I will go with you for protection,” Major Krisham said.
If our fears were correct and Adam told Uncle Ant that he saw us in the passageway, it would be suspicious if we were seen going to grandma’s office.
“What do you think if we just call and ask her to come here instead?” I asked.
“Better than a group of us coming to see her, that’s too suspicious.” Sofia extracted her phone from her pocket and dialed grandma’s number.
“Hello, Grandma, are you alone…That’s good. Can you come here to the cottage…Yeah, now…And don’t speak to anyone, even dad or Vincent’s dad…We’ll explain when you get here…see you soon.”
A few agonizing minutes later, grandma opened the door and entered the cottage.
“Is there a problem, girls?” She looked at all of us with inquisitive eyes.
“Grandma, we have something to tell you.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Grandma allowed Sofia to lead her into a seat, her eyes following our struggle to tell her what’s happening. Ysabel was biting her nails and staring on the floor, while Sofia was twiddling her thumbs and looked on the verge of tears. Vincent and Major Krisham stood like statues beside the door.
“You’re scaring me. Why are you acting strange?”
Mr. Taz took pity on us and did the first step. He went to the spare bedroom and emerged a few seconds later carrying a wooden box which he placed on the center table.
With a glance at Ysabel and Sofia, I opened it, retrieved my mom’s letter, and gave it to grandma.
“Before you read that, Grandma, we just ask you to please, do not freak out. We can explain everything,” Ysabel said.
Grandma responded with a hesitant nod. She unfolded the letter and read it quietly. Soon, her eyes went wide and started to fill with tears.
“Is this true?” Her voice cracked.
“We did some investigations, Grandma,” I said, then looked at Vincent. “Maybe you can start.”
