The Brightest Star in the North

by Meredith Rusu

  She had messed up. Badly. There was no way she would be allowed to stay.

  And yet that room—that room. It held within it everything Carina had ever wanted. Everything she could ever have hoped for, all in one place.

  What am I going to do? she thought. I can’t leave. Not when I’m so close.

  A sound in the hall caught her attention. A cold sweat broke over her. As swiftly as she could, Carina whisked her door open and slipped inside.

  Celia was in bed, sound asleep. Carina listened against the door for any more noises in the hall, but all she could hear was Celia’s soft snoring.

  Quietly, Carina changed into her nightclothes and climbed into bed.

  “I must speak with Lady Devonshire in the morning,” she whispered to herself, determined. “I will show her the diary. Somehow I will convince her to let me stay and let me see that room again.”

  But with every sound that night, Carina’s heart pounded.

  She did not sleep, convinced they would come to take her away before daylight.

  * * *

  Morning finally came. Carina glanced at herself in the mirror. She looked terrible. Dark circles pooled under her eyes, and she couldn’t stop yawning.

  “Are you ill?” Celia asked. “You look positively dreadful.”

  “I am fine.” Carina yawned again. “I did not sleep well.”

  Celia left the room as usual, but Carina cautiously poked her head around the doorframe before exiting. The housemaids and stewards bustled around with their morning duties.

  Carina was on edge as she walked to the servants’ dining hall for breakfast. But everything seemed normal. No one spoke. No one laughed. Just as plain and dull as ever. If every event from the prior evening hadn’t been imprinted on Carina’s memory, she would have thought it all a dream.

  Carina reached her place at the table, and she stopped. Her heart sank.

  A small square of folded paper rested on her plate. Carina picked it up and read the single line: YOU ARE HEREBY DISMISSED. YOU WILL LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.

  Celia looked over Carina’s shoulder and gasped.

  “What in heaven’s name did you do?” she asked.

  Carina shook her head, fighting back tears. “I do not know,” she lied.

  Mrs. Rossi cleared her throat and walked over. She leaned down and spoke in a low, matter-of-fact tone. “There was only one servant who matched Lady Devonshire’s description of the maid trespassing on her private quarters, and that is you. You will come with me and pack your bag. The driver will be waiting.”

  * * *

  “I must speak with Lady Devonshire,” Carina pleaded as Mrs. Rossi flung Carina’s meager belongings into the carpetbag. “There must have been a misunderstanding.”

  “Out of the question,” Mrs. Rossi replied curtly. “Once a servant has been dismissed, there is no further discussion.”

  “But that’s not fair,” Carina insisted. “If I may just speak with her, she will see—”

  “She will see nothing.” Mrs. Rossi snapped Carina’s bag shut. “Do you think you are the first housemaid to be dismissed? I have seen men and women come and go—servants far worthier than you—who to this day do not know the reason for their dismissal. Her Ladyship’s decisions are final. You will leave this morning, or we shall have the authorities summoned to drag you off the premises.”

  Carina stopped arguing. Pushing back against Mrs. Rossi would get her nowhere.

  She’d have to take matters into her own hands.

  Without another word, Carina picked up her bag and the satchel with Galileo’s diary and walked with Mrs. Rossi out of the room.

  A slew of servants had gathered to watch. They whispered, but none attempted to ask Carina what was happening.

  Carina clutched her bags tighter and continued walking, past the dining room, past the great hall, and, finally, past the sitting room.

  That was when she noticed another housemaid heading away. Morning tea must have been served for Her Ladyship—which meant Lady Devonshire was entering the sitting room right then, through the private entrance from her chambers.

  Without a word, Carina darted to the right and ran straight to the sitting room doors.

  “What in heaven’s name—?” Mrs. Rossi cried. “Stop! Immediately!”

  But Carina did not stop. She raced up and flung the doors open.

  The woman from the night before—Lady Devonshire—sat inside. In the light of day, Carina could make out more of her appearance. The woman was dressed in a simple but elegant navy morning gown with a shawl about her shoulders. She was not old; her skin was smooth and her eyes keenly alert. Carina would have guessed she was not more than forty were it not for the shock of stately gray hair piled atop her head.

  Lady Devonshire started, nearly spilling her tea. “How—”

  “Dare I, yes, I know,” Carina said. She needed to get straight to the point. “Your Ladyship, I have in my possession Galileo’s diary.” Carina quickly displayed the book, allowing the ruby to catch the morning light. “It was given to me by my father. I was abandoned as an infant with no other birthright than this—to study the stars. I swear, I did not know about the observatory nor realize what was in the room until last night. But now that I do—Your Ladyship, it was no accident I was placed here. Lord Willoughby was my benefactor. He must have sent me here on purpose—to study with you. To learn the heavens as my father intended me to.”

  Carina caught her breath, expecting Lady Devonshire to interrupt. But the woman did not. She maintained a frigid look, eyes locked with Carina’s.

  “Please, Your Ladyship,” Carina begged, holding out the diary. “This must mean something. We can find out, together.”

  The other servants had all gathered outside the doors. Suddenly, two stewards stormed into the room. They grabbed Carina by her shoulders, hauling her back.

  “Your Ladyship, do not send me away!” Carina shouted. “We can help one another!”

  Lady Devonshire remained icily silent as the stewards dragged Carina out of the sitting room. They shoved her through the front entrance and threw her unceremoniously to the ground. Carina tumbled, hitting her head against the frozen dirt as the diary flew from her grasp.

  Mrs. Rossi stepped up to the door. She tossed Carina’s bag alongside her.

  “Go,” was all she said.

  Carina watched as the heavy doors slammed. She wiped grit from her mouth. Her hands stung bitterly.

  “I…” She shivered.

  She looked hopefully to the window of the sitting room. But no one was there.

  “Fine,” Carina said to herself. She struggled to her feet unsteadily and picked up the diary.

  For a moment, she glanced up at the tower with the observatory. To be so close, she thought.

  Swallowing hard, she dusted herself off and wrapped her patched cloak more tightly around herself. There was no driver as promised. She was on her own.

  So she began walking.

  Past the leafless trees. Past the untended shrubs. And she was moving through the front gates leading to the moors when…

  “Miss Carina! Miss Carina!”

  Carina turned to see Celia running up to her on the path.

  “You won’t believe it,” Celia panted, out of breath. “Lady Devonshire. She wishes to speak with you.”

  IF THERE HAD BEEN MANY servants gathered in the hall before, now the entire staff had turned out to see what was happening. Every housemaid, chambermaid, cook, and steward watched intently as Carina was led back to Her Ladyship’s sitting room. Carina guessed that it was likely the most excitement Hanover Hall had seen in, well, forever. She noted Mrs. Rossi standing at the front of the crowd, her face stony.

  Carina stepped into the sitting room. Lady Devonshire was still seated exactly where she’d been before.

  “Leave us,” Her Ladyship instructed the stewards.

  They bowed and turned away. The younger of the two glanced back at Lady Devonshire. It was clearly his first
time ever seeing his employer, and he appeared fascinated.

  The moment the door shut, Carina spoke. “Your Ladyship, I—”

  Lady Devonshire held up a hand to silence Carina. “The book,” she said.

  When Carina didn’t respond, the woman raised her eyebrows expectantly. “Bring it here.”

  Carina hesitated. Then she withdrew Galileo’s diary and handed it to Lady Devonshire.

  The woman began carefully turning the pages.

  “You say your father gave you this book?”

  “Yes, my lady,” Carina replied.

  “And you do not know who your father is?”

  “No, my lady,” Carina said.

  “Yet you can read it?”

  Carina couldn’t help huffing a little. “Of course, my lady.”

  Lady Devonshire looked up sharply. “It would behoove you to curb your tongue. Do you realize how much trouble you find yourself in?”

  Carina opened her mouth to respond and then closed it again. She had a feeling that speaking further would only make things worse.

  A hint of the vicious anger from the previous evening crossed Lady Devonshire’s face. “Perhaps you feel that your intrusion last night was merely a trifle. I assure you, it was not.” She held Carina’s gaze for a painfully long moment. Finally, she looked down to turn the pages of the book. “Tell me, what do you hope to accomplish with this?”

  “I—” Carina swallowed. “I wish to study the stars.”

  “That is a fool’s effort,” Lady Devonshire replied with some force. “You are a woman. You will never be allowed to study science, much less the stars.”

  “But you did,” Carina said hopefully.

  Lady Devonshire stopped turning the pages. “What makes you think that?”

  “The observatory,” Carina replied.

  “You assume it is mine?”

  “Isn’t it?”

  Lady Devonshire didn’t answer. She had reached the drawing of the Trident of Poseidon and the Map No Man Can Read.

  “I will require this book for perusal,” she said abruptly.

  Carina’s heart pounded. “But—you can’t—”

  Lady Devonshire’s eyes flashed. “I can’t what? Speak up.”

  Carina’s cheeks burned. But she forced herself to speak calmly. “My lady, I cannot part with the book. It is my birthright. I have fought my whole life to keep it.”

  “Do you really think you could stop me from keeping it as recompense for your transgression if I wished?” Lady Devonshire asked.

  Carina wanted to reply heatedly. But something about Lady Devonshire’s phrasing gave her pause. The woman was not like the Mr. Conways or Mrs. Rossis of the world. Her intentions ran deeper. She was testing her.

  Carina chose her next words carefully. “If you wished?” she finally asked.

  Her Ladyship stared at Carina for a long moment.

  “You are fortunate that I do not intend to take your book,” she finally spoke. “Merely to study it, in your own words.”

  “But how?” Carina asked. “If I am to be sent away?”

  “Against my better instincts, I will permit you to keep your position at Hanover Hall,” Lady Devonshire said. “In return, I will maintain access to this book indefinitely.”

  For one of the rare times in her life, Carina was uncertain what to say. “I…But…It’s in Italian,” she stammered.

  If Carina hadn’t known any better, she would have sworn Lady Devonshire’s eyes twinkled with amusement.

  “So you find it easy to believe I have studied the stars, but incomprehensible that I can read Italian?”

  Again, Carina was rendered speechless.

  Lady Devonshire closed the diary firmly. “I believe we have an understanding. You will return to your duties at once. But mark my words—if I ever hear of or see you putting one toe over the line again, you will be gone. Is that understood?”

  Carina nodded. “Yes, my lady.”

  “Good,” said Lady Devonshire. “My lady’s maid will send written instructions regarding this book, which I will begin perusing immediately.”

  Somehow, the stewards knew it was time to open the doors. Carina watched as they walked in. But this time, they did not apprehend her.

  Lady Devonshire nodded. “That is all.”

  * * *

  “You do not know how lucky you are!” Celia whispered to Carina in their room. “No one has ever come back once dismissed—ever!”

  “I’m not entirely certain what happened,” Carina admitted. She hated being separated from Galileo’s diary, even if it was temporary. It felt like a piece of her was missing. Still, she had no reason to doubt Lady Devonshire’s intentions. And if it meant there was even the slightest chance she might get back into that observatory…

  “What did you think of her?” Celia asked eagerly.

  Carina thought. “She was not unpleasant. But brusque. And”—Carina remembered the wild look in the woman’s eyes the night before—“troubled.”

  Celia nodded, as though she understood.

  “But you know more about her than I,” said Carina. “Tell me what happened here. What made Lady Devonshire this way?”

  Celia and Carina looked up as Mrs. Rossi entered the room.

  “I daresay I cannot be as loose with my tongue as you,” Celia whispered once Mrs. Rossi was out of earshot. “I do not think I would be granted a second chance.”

  The girls watched Mrs. Rossi drop a basket of linens to be ironed on a cot on the other side of the room.

  “I hope we can get on,” Carina said, standing, her tone a bit more antagonistic than it probably should have been.

  Mrs. Rossi looked at her. “Do you think I care whether you are here or not?”

  Carina was unsure how to respond.

  “My responsibility is to my job, as should be yours,” Mrs. Rossi continued. “I have little concern for your fate as long as it does not affect mine.”

  The woman walked briskly out of the room and clicked the door shut.

  “She’s not all that bad,” Celia said, helping Carina pick up the linens. “She used to have friends, but now she just keeps to herself, really.”

  “Yes, I’ve seen,” Carina said, thinking back on the prior three months of dull repetitiveness. “It seems everyone here could use a change.”

  “What are you going to do?” Celia asked keenly. “We heard you say you wished to study the stars. Do you think you ever will?”

  Carina’s old mischievous half smile returned.

  “I have a plan,” she said.

  THE INSTRUCTIONS from Lady Devonshire’s lady’s maid were brief and precise.

  Carina was to drop off Galileo’s diary every morning with Her Ladyship’s tea. The book would be returned to Carina that evening via her lady’s maid. If Her Ladyship desired to retain the book overnight, notice would be given that evening via handwritten message.

  All else was to go back to the way it had been. Carina would not see Her Ladyship. She would not converse with her. The only change was the daily passing off of the book.

  But that was all Carina needed.

  She started with a simple note at first. A torn piece of paper slipped inside the front cover.

  Andromeda was particularly bright last night, was it not?

  She eagerly awaited the book’s return that evening. The moment it was in her hands, she looked through every page to see if there was a return note.

  To her dismay, there was not.

  Yet…her slip of paper was gone.

  Her notes on the days following were similar.

  Orion will be coming into view this evening.

  What did you think of Galileo’s passage on the phases of Venus?

  Heliocentrism makes perfect sense, to my mind.

  Each day the diary was returned to her without a reply note, yet her original piece of paper was gone. And Carina couldn’t help noticing that when her note referred to an upcoming celestial event, those were the evenings
Lady Devonshire sent word she would be retaining the book until the next day.

  A month passed, and Carina felt it was time. The note she slipped in the book that morning was different.

  Have you reached the Map No Man Can Read?

  She waited more anxiously than ever for the diary’s return that evening. When the knock came at her door, she practically leaped from the bed.

  Her heart raced as she opened the cover. A small square of paper fell to the floor.

  Yes, it read.

  A huge grin broke across Carina’s face. Her plan was working! Now for her ultimate message.

  The next morning, Carina’s hand shook as she wrote her favorite line from the diary: Tutte le verità saranno comprese quando le stesse si saranno derectus.

  All that day, Carina could barely concentrate on her usual duties, eagerly awaiting the return of the book.

  It felt like an eternity before the knock finally came that evening.

  But when Carina opened the door, it was not the lady’s maid with the book as usual. It was a steward.

  “Her Ladyship requests your presence in the sitting room,” he said. “Follow me.”

  CARINA COULDN’T HELP BOUNCING a little in place while the steward announced her. The possibility of what it could mean—of all her hopes culminating in one fateful meeting—was elating and terrifying and overwhelming all at once.

  Carina gave a small curtsy as she entered the room. Her Ladyship was dressed in a stately violet dressing gown with lace at the cuffs. Her gray hair was pulled up in a twist.

  “I imagine you are curious why I summoned you?” Lady Devonshire said once the steward left the room.

  “I imagine it is because of my note,” Carina replied, barely containing her excitement.

  Lady Devonshire held Galileo’s diary in her lap, open to the page with the Map No Man Can Read. “‘Tutte le verità saranno comprese quando le stesse si saranno derectus,’” she said. “Do you know what it means?”

  “It means ‘All truths will be understood—’” Carina started.

  “‘When the stars align,’” Her Ladyship finished. “There are many ancient texts which reference the great treasure. And they, too, speak of the Map No Man Can Read.”