Lady Olivia clapped her hands and cheered the announcement. It made the Queen frown and Charlie thought Blondie had over-played it a bit. Beautiful women were used to getting what they wanted when they wanted it. No surprise there.
The Queen stood and walked to the front of her desk.
“General, I assume you are going to look for QG Owens and Benjamin now,” she said. “Don’t be too hard on them. Does Benjamin have a rank I should know about or is he just a… Benjamin? I know he is giving the children riding lessons now.”
“He has no rank that I’m aware of, Your Majesty,” replied the General. “But that is usual here at Belvoir Estate, they function with a different hierarchy than at the Golden Palace. But I shall let him know how we do things where we are from, especially on guard duty. And Owens should definitely have known better.”
Charlie had avoided looking at the General too closely in case he caught his eye. The man was old to Charlie’s young eye, but heavily muscled and strong. His bearing was impressive and he radiated the kind of authority Charlie had spent his sixteen years avoiding. He almost felt sorry for the Benjamin down in the stables. The lad might have the eye of Nice Curves the Nanny, but Charlie didn’t envy him the glacial blue glare of General Beefy.
With a nod the Queen dismissed the General who left with two of his QGs in tow and Mr. Tight Curls and his scribe hustling behind. That just left Blondie and Captain Handsome in the room.
“Lady Olivia, could you go and tell Piers and the other dressers to set up everything that they need in my bedroom? It’s more comfortable in there,” the Queen asked Blondie, who curtseyed and skipped out, but not before sending Captain Handsome a pretty smile.
“Captain Lucky…”
Charlie almost snorted, Course he is! Captain bloody Lucky! Too perfect.
“… if you could find my children down at the stables and let their nannies know that they must be ready and dressed for the Breakfast Party soon. Also I want them to come up to me and tell me how their riding lessons went, I missed them this morning.” She smiled and her face softened when she spoke of the children. Charlie thought it looked like genuine emotion and was confused.
“QG Pepper will guard the door for you, Your Majesty, but would you prefer I set another QG with him while I’m gone?” asked Captain Handsome, his face creased with respectful concern. Charlie hated the just-too-perfect, do-gooder type and in a normal situation might have set himself to baiting the Captain, but right now he was just praying he would stay. However, the Queen shook her head and Charlie watched in dismay as Captain Lucky snapped a bow and left.
Charlie turned to the Queen as she leant against the front of her desk and folded her arms. She gave him a look which sent a shiver down his spine. “Now, Charlie. Finally, we are alone, so you are going to tell me exactly what it was you were doing in my bedroom this morning.”
Chapter Twenty
“And What Hides in the Light”
Adele regarded the young man who called himself Charlie.
He was about her height, but hunched like a boy not yet used to his body. His face was so thin that his cheekbones stuck out sharply and had obviously never needed a razor. Though he was clean his hair was badly cut and stuck at odd angles across his forehead. The clothes he was wearing hung on his frame and looked as though they belonged to a much taller boy. A passing glance wouldn’t have revealed much, but Adele could now see this boy definitely wasn’t who he claimed to be. Charlie was too rough and starved-looking to be a palace squire.
“I know who sent you, Charlie,” said Adele, breaking the silence and keeping her voice low. “We don’t need to say his name, but that little box... thing… you used looked like one of his things.”
Charlie’s white face blanched even further. “You know him?” he whispered.
Adele smiled. “I do, and I will need you to deliver a message back to him for me.”
Charlie became suddenly animated, shaking his head and backing away. “I won’t let him know that you said anything, Your Majesty,” he promised her fervently. “Please, I know how to keep my mouth shut!”
Adele gave Charlie a curious look and dropped her head to the side, to measure him from another angle. Perhaps Rainere hadn’t trusted this boy with the knowledge that they already had a relationship. “But Charlie I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you were just doing as he had asked. The Prince won’t be angry with you, I promise.”
Charlie froze again. “The Prince?”
“Yes, Charlie, the Prince. But we are running out of time. Let me write a quick letter and you can take it back to him. The Grey Palace is just a day’s ride so you can have it to him by nightfall.”
Adele snatched up a quill and paper from the desk and began writing. She was too engrossed to notice the look of shock that was plastered across Charlie’s face.
“I wish I knew a spell to seal this thing so only he can open it,” muttered Adele. It was frustrating not to have such a simple spell at her command when she could do so many bigger things with her Magic. She looked up at Charlie and smiled. “I guess I’m just going to have to trust you, Charlie. If he does, then I can too.”
Adele held out the letter to the boy, but snatched it back just before his fingers could close over it. She noticed his hand was shaking. “Do you know, Charlie? I’ve just realized how brave you were breaking into my room this morning to carry out this little task for the Prince. How did you know that the Magic would even work with the Curse on this house?”
Charlie swallowed. “My boss, the…uh, Prince…has tricks up his sleeve those old wizards never thought of. He has Magic no one else even remembers how to use, Your Majesty.”
“And did it work? Am I safe from Magic here?” she asked.
“Safe as houses, Your Majesty. There was nothing here,” said Charlie, but his voice was curiously flat and his eyes avoided hers.
Adele just couldn’t shake the feeling that this boy was terrified of her. She handed over the letter and watched as Charlie slipped it beneath his coat. She picked up a wooden messenger token from the desk drawer and flipped it to him.
“You’ll need this to get a fresh horse from the stables and food from the kitchen,” she said. “And then you can be on your way.” Adele’s smile faltered. “Only the Prince is to read that note Charlie. Only him you understand me? If anyone else finds it… well, it would be big trouble for both of us.”
After a quick thought, Adele pulled a thin gold bracelet off her wrist and held it out to the boy. She watched with a growing sense of disquiet as he slowly inched back over to her and took it, careful not to brush her skin. What was Rainere thinking sending such a skittish boy to do his errands for him? The kid looks about as tough as Aaron, she thought.
“There will be more gold when you bring a letter back to me, Charlie. I can be very generous when people do their jobs properly,” added Adele.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Charlie nodded, his dark fringe swinging low across his forehead. “I will be back as soon as I can be.”
His shrewd eyes rose to meet hers and they were the only adult thing in his young boy’s face.
A moment later, Lady Olivia swung back into the room calling out ‘Your Majesty!’ and their time had run out. Adele smiled at Charlie before giving him a little push toward the door.
“Off you go, Charlie, and pleasant journey.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“The Carnival Begins”
The hot sun beat down on their heads as Adele pulled her children close and surveyed the huge crowd spread out across the green fields of the Belvoir Estate. She could just about make out the racetrack between the raised, open-sided pavilions that surrounded it. The colors and flags of each Royal Family decorated each pavilion in a gaudy show of family loyalty and wealth. The pavilions of the lesser families were behind their richer cousins, at ground level, but Adele could see that the parties under these canopies were already in full swing. Music drifted on the breeze as it ruffled the pennants and brought the scent
s of popcorn and roasting meat, boiled sugar and horse manure.
Hundreds of aristocrats mixed with the landed gentry and the wealthier merchant families from the capital, Concordis, and other nearby towns. Money and connections spoke louder than bloodlines and crowns when it came to the horse market at this all-important carnival.
Bertie held Adele’s arm in the crook of his own as he introduced her to the most famous horse traders and husbanders in the Kingdom. He bored their audiences again and again, telling the story of his reaction to Queen Adelena choosing the Belvoir Estate stables to provide horses for her Royal Sojourn later in the year. At the time she had chosen the beautiful chestnut striders Adele knew she was granting an honor to the Family of Belvoir, she just had no idea how seriously Bertie took the appointment. By the time the Opening Ceremony was due to start, she was almost convinced these Belvoir horses would be the backbone of her new Court, as well as the beasts that would pull the carriages.
The Royal Family settled with relief under the Belvoir pavilion when the time came for the parade to start. The heat of the day was becoming stifling as the breeze dropped and the dust in the field sat in a hazy cloud over everything.
Up on the high stage of the royal pavilion Prince Bertrand opened the carnival with a longwinded speech about the competing horses and the more technical aspects of the coming races but the crowd listened politely enough and laughed graciously at Bertie’s more pointed comments about the superiority of the Belvoir breeds. He held by his side a boy with rusty red hair and a serious expression. Adele recognized him as Lance, the young man Bertie had chosen to succeed him as the Prince of Belvoir.
Personally, Adele knew nothing about horses, but the pageant before her was very beautiful. Both horses and riders were dressed in colored silks, trotting in a well-organized parade before the crowd. Her own children began bouncing in their seats, cheering and choosing their favorites based on the color of the horse’s socks, or how tall the riders’ hats were. Behind her, Adele could hear her Queen’s Guard swapping tips and hints for bets to be laid later, and as always QG Owens held the book. Surprisingly, though, it was the youngest QG—Pepper—who sounded the most knowledgeable about what to look for in a winning horse and for once, the other men listened to him closely.
“The betting should be fierce this year, Your Majesty,” said Bertie gleefully as he rubbed his hands together and eyed the horses going past on their second turn. “My rider this year is a young girl from the Blue Hills, and she is a natural on Blue Streak. She handles him beautifully. Truly, they could be one animal when you see them ride together. But she’ll be underestimated by the punters, I just know it!”
Adele could only smile wanly as the smell of horse manure under a hot sun had her fanning herself with a scented handkerchief.
“Shall we go down to the Yards, Your Majesty?” asked Bertie, extending his arm to Adele as he stood. Adele fought not to grimace at the idea of heading out into the heat again and closer to the fresh manure. “We can look at all of the horses more closely and I’ll introduce you to our rider on Blue Streak. I imagine Golden Pride, the St. Lucidis stallion, will be down there too, which I suppose you have an obligation to look over as well.”
Adele did smile this time at Bertie’s feigned indifference to the St. Lucidis offering. She had no doubt at all that he was already very familiar with the pride of the St. Lucidis’s Family stables.
The children begged to come with Adele to the Horse Yards where the champions were all tethered. A thick crowd had gathered at the bottom of their pavilion and Adele had to ask QG Pepper to carry Aaron and QG Leith to hold Natalie so the children wouldn’t get stepped on. She took Stella herself as the baby was getting fussy having to miss her nap and only wanted her mother.
The crowd cleared a narrow path for the Royal Family as they made their way over to the horse yards, cheering good-naturedly and calling out to the children, forcing Adele to nod and smile in return, despite how uncomfortable the celebrity made her.
In the yards the horses had been lined up, facing the crowd and their trainers were perched up high on chairs with long stilt-like legs. Each trainer had a metal megaphone which they used to great effect haranguing each other and trying to drown out their competition. The language and the humor was slightly coarse as the ritual shouting and bragging of the horse trainers whipped the crowd up into a competitive fervor, but it was very amusing.
Adele was so preoccupied with the entertainment that she didn’t really register Stella struggling to get down to her feet, and then pulling her hand out of Adele’s. It was only when she heard a loud scream that Adele realized her baby was gone. It had only been a matter of seconds.
Frantically, Adele searched the crowd of people packed in around her until she saw that all eyes were on the enormous stallion Golden Pride, who was stomping and snorting in the ring, her tiny Stella standing directly beneath him. With a shriek, Adele threw herself under the fence but before she could take another step Adele felt herself pushed out of the way as Captain Lucky stepped in front of her, and slowly approached the horse. “Get back, Your Majesty,” ordered Lucky in a low voice. “I’ll get her.”
“Careful boy, he is going to rear if you spook him,” said the trainer from up on his perch. Adele noted the man’s white face and felt her heart contract with fear.
Captain Lucky ignored the advice and advanced on the horse as its eyes rolled to the whites and its tail flicked aggressively. Lucky crooned quietly, keeping his stance relaxed and calm as he reached out a hand to let the animal catch his scent. Still crooning, he reached under the horse, his shoulder sliding against the horse’s neck, and quicker than the eye could follow, he had snatched the little girl up into his arms. Lucky leaped back, rightly anticipating that the motion would startle the already-nervous stallion and Golden Pride reared, whinnying in fear at the strangeness he’d just encountered having a little girl crawl under him.
Adele was pale and trembling with fright as Captain Lucky brought her baby back over to her and they all climbed back through the fence. Incredibly Stella was giggling in his arms and trying to hold the face of her rescuer in her little chubby hands. When he bent his face to hers she planted a wet kiss on his cheek. It was only when Stella saw Adele’s stricken expression that her bottom lip began to tremble, and she put her arms out for her mother.
“And the Princess has awarded her brave Captain with kisses!” shouted Bertie to the silent crowd. A cheer started to swell, until the sound of a thousand people shouting for joy was all Adele could hear. Unfortunately, her heart was still frozen with shock. She looked at Lucky, and saw sympathy in his clear blue eyes.
“She is alright, Your Majesty.” He kept his voice low and caught her arm gently, as she started to sway a little. “The children will never be in any danger when we are here to protect them, I swear.”
Adele cast her eye back to the rearing horse as three stable hands tried to get him under control. Captain Lucky had risked his own life to save Stella just now.
“I can never thank you enough,” she whispered and gripped his hand, but Lucky only bowed in response and stepped away as Adele was suddenly enveloped by a flurry of hysterical Royal ladies, all excited beyond words by Stella’s near death experience. Whether it was the multitude of perfumes that surrounded her or the horrible fright, Adele started to sway again and see dots before her eyes. She pulled Stella tighter to her chest as a hundred hands stroked and petted the both of them.
An arm went around Adele’s shoulders just as she was starting to panic, she turned quickly and looked into the lavender blue eyes of Lady Olivia, who gave Adele’s shoulders a squeeze before turning back to the jostle surrounding them.
“Let’s move this crowd!” cried the young woman in a very un-ladylike voice. “The Queen needs air. Move away, for the love of the Goddess! People, please! Stop gawking and move!”
Still shouting, Lady Olivia managed to pull along Adele and shepherd the other two QGs, Pepper and Leith who
were still carrying the older children, out of the fields and back through the gardens of the manor. The further they got from the horse yards the thinner the crowd became and the smell of horse manure finally abated.
Back in the house, their group was joined by the General and the rest of the Queen’s Guard who followed them to a quiet courtyard room. The Queen’s Guard waited as Lady Olivia settled Adele and the children with hot tea and biscuits and after checking that Stella was indeed healthy after her incident, they left the room to give Adele some peace.
The room was light and airy and Adele finally felt the cold fear melt its grip on her insides as she watched Stella playing happily with her older siblings. Her baby really was okay despite the terror of just a few minutes ago. She took a deep breath and let the giggling of her children soothe her.
Adele looked over at Lady Olivia, who sat holding her cup of tea and smiling at the children playing. She was younger than Adele, maybe no more than nineteen or twenty, but she seemed older than the other young women of the Court because of her poise and confidence. Normally, Adele found women as beautiful and glamorous as Lady Olivia intimidating, but there was something so fun about Olivia. Her quick wit and sweet laugh made Adele feel like perhaps they could be real friends one day and not just servant and Queen.
“Thank you for your help just now, Lady Olivia. That crowd was getting just too much for me,” Adele smiled shakily as Lady Olivia gave her a pat on the shoulder, and poured her more tea.
“Oh, it was nothing, Your Majesty, where I’m from we are used to being loud and obnoxious!” Lady Olivia laughed. “Back home on the farm.”
Adele realized suddenly how little she knew about the people who worked for her. Lucky’s bravery today and Lady Olivia’s care made her feel ashamed she had never inquired more closely about who they all were, and where they were from.
“How long have you been at the Court of the Golden Palace, Lady Olivia?” Adele asked.
“I had only really just arrived before you yourself, Your Majesty,” she replied. “I had been invited to stay with my Aunt Oliphant in the St. Lucidis quarters. My aunt is the Lady of Templeton, on my Father’s side, of the St. Lucidis Templetons.”
The Queen Revealed Page 14
