Before Claud could hit me again, or prise off my fingers, he was suddenly gone. His arm wrenched from my grip and his pistol dropped at my feet. I lay on the ground, confused, my head throbbing and stared at the gun lying on the hard dirt.
“Alyssa? Alyssa! Are you alright?”
Max sounded panicked so with a great deal of effort, I pushed myself into a sitting position. The quick movement made me lose vision again but after a moment I was able to reply.
“I’m alright. What happened?”
“Can you pick up the gun? And I need something to secure his hands. Quickly, before he comes around.”
My vision had cleared now and I could see Max kneeling over Claud’s still body. I realised that while I was clinging onto Claud’s arm, Max had knocked him out. I tried to think through the pain. Rope, rope, where can I find rope. I looked helplessly towards the castle and then down at my empty hands. My clothes!
I had nothing on me but my clothes, they would have to do. I glanced towards Max but he was looking the other way, kneeling over Claud. I carefully stood up, pulled up my skirt and slipped off my petticoat. I began to tear the material into one long strip, ignoring the burn in my hands as I strained to make the initial rip. At the sound of the tearing fabric Max glanced up.
“Good, bring that here and then find the gun.” I walked the few steps towards him, the torn garment in both hands. He took it and began to tie Claud’s hands in place. I turned back around but could no longer see the gun in the darkness. Getting down onto my hands and knees, I swept the ground with my fingers until I felt the cold metal. I stood up and Max was suddenly there, standing next to me. For a moment I thought he was going to put his arms around me and I desperately wanted to rest my aching head against his chest. But behind us Claud groaned and Max turned back towards him, holding his hand out blindly for the gun. I put it into his hand and he spoke without turning back towards me.
“I’ll guard him. Are you well enough to go get help?”
I nodded and then realised he couldn’t see me. “Yes.”
“Go straight to the guardhouse. As quickly as you can. I should be alright here but if that other man heard the gunshot…”
The pain in my head was clouding my thinking, I had completely forgotten the other man. I wondered if he would double back or leave Claud to his fate. I took off running without another word.
Despite my pain and bruises, I had never run so fast in my life. With each step I strained to hear the sound of another gunshot, imagining Max lying on the ground, bleeding out.
The moonlight turned the garden into an alien place and twice I veered momentarily off course, startled by an unexpected shadow. My breath was coming in short pants.
I had never been inside the guard house but I knew it was on the other side of the castle to the stables. As I neared it, I somehow found the breath to shout.
“Help! Help!” I screamed as loudly as I could.
There was an answering shout from inside and then bright light poured across me from a suddenly opened door. Guards spilled out of the doorway, several carrying lanterns and the rest buckling on swords or shouldering rifles. I was relieved to see them but illogically angered by all the noise they were making. I was still straining to hear the dreaded gunshot.
The first guard grabbed me by the arms, stopping my forward momentum.
“What is it? What’s going on?” And then sharply, after he got a good look at my face, “The princesses?”
“No, the prince!” I panted. “In the woods, with a prisoner. But there’s another man with a gun.”
Several of the guards took off running in the direction I was pointing. The one who was holding me began to follow, dragging me with him.
“You’ll have to come with us,” he said. “Show us exactly where he is.”
I was exhausted but I didn’t complain. Each second without a gunshot seemed to give me a new burst of energy. I was anxious to get back. Only the sight of Max, whole and unharmed, would erase the picture I had in my head. The one where he lay on the ground, unmoving in a pool of blood.
The trip back through the garden seemed to take half the time now that I was surrounded by light and people. As the fastest guards neared the forest I called out “to the left” and they veered around to enter the forest at the same spot where I had emerged. I could hear them calling to each other and then a louder shout. I hoped that meant they had found Max. I sped up.
The forest looked completely different now, light spilling everywhere from the many lanterns. At first I couldn’t work out what was going on in the chaos of moving bodies. And then I saw him. He was covered in dirt and his clothes were torn from being tackled to the ground but he was standing talking to the captain of the guard. He had never looked so good to me as he did then, coloured by my relief.
He must have felt the strength of my gaze because he turned and spotted me in the crowd of men. He looked concerned but his words were too quiet for me to hear. I suddenly wondered what had happened to Claud and looked around with concern myself. But no, Claud was still there, supported between two guards, his hands tied with my petticoat.
Before I had time to do more than note Claud’s presence, a guard approached me.
“I’m to escort you back to the castle, miss,” he said.
“No, no,” I said, a little wildly, “I need to talk to Max – I mean, the prince.”
“It’s the prince’s orders, miss. You’re to wait for him there.”
“Oh… alright.” I was reluctant to leave but I couldn’t think of any useful reason for me to remain in the woods.
I let the guard lead me back to the palace. I was stumbling now from fatigue and the aftereffects of over-stimulation. I kept my eyes on the back of his boots and almost collided with him when he stopped at the castle door. Dorkins must have been lurking in the entrance hall, roused by the noise and lights, because he opened the door at the first knock. I shook my head mutely when his shocked and enquiring eyes fell on me. I figured it was best not to say anything at all until I had had a chance to talk to Max.
The guard began to lead me towards the East Wing but Dorkins objected sharply. After a slight altercation, I learned my objective was the king’s office. I wasn’t in the least surprised when Dorkins won the bout and the guard retreated back outside, leaving the butler to lead me to the designated room.
I had glimpsed the office briefly during my tour of the castle but had retained only a hazy memory of dark oak. I wondered, with some anxiety, if the king would still be there at this hour. This new fear was overriding the numbness of fatigue and my mind was sharp again when I entered the room.
To my great relief it was empty. The air was still warm and the fire was still dwindling in the fireplace so I had probably only just missed him. Dorkins proceeded to stoke the fire, moving with a stately majesty to remind me that this task was beneath him. I suspected that he was dying to hear what was going on outside but I remained silent. After lighting several branches of candles and straightening the chairs, Dorkins ran out of things to do and reluctantly left the room.
I sank into one of the chairs and stared blankly into the fire. I longed for my bed and even more to talk to Max. To assure myself he really was alright. As the minutes ticked by I looked around and began to wonder uneasily why Max had had the guard lead me here. Max had seen and heard everything I had. He didn’t need me to explain the night’s happenings to the king.
Unless.
I suddenly remembered that I had never had the chance to explain to Max why I was following Claud. All he knew was that I had led him into the forest, alone, to face two armed traitors. Just as this thought occurred to me, the door opened. Max entered first, closely followed by King Henry. Both looked grim. And two guards were now stationed outside the door.
Chapter 10
I leapt to my feet, knocking over my chair. Max immediately came forward and picked it back up with a small smile. I was relieved enough that my protestations died on my lips.
We all took seats and for a moment simply stared at each other.
"My son tells me that the two of you followed a traitor into the woods tonight and apprehended him." It was the king who broke the silence. "Apparently one of our footmen has been paid to spy on us. It seems my son was right - there are some flaws in our recruitment process."
Silence once again enveloped us. I shivered slightly under the king's piercing gaze, acutely aware of the double meaning of his words.
"I confess to some confusion regarding your role. I'm afraid I have to ask what, exactly, were your intentions when you led my son into the forest tonight?"
I straightened, relieved to be given the chance to explain.
"I had no intention of leading Max into the forest at all," I replied. "I certainly wouldn't have let him follow me if I'd known what we were going to find." After a moment's thought I added, "For that matter, I wouldn't have been out there myself if I'd known what Claud was doing."
The king raised his eyebrows. "Are you asking me to believe that you just happened to stroll into a traitorous assignation? And on a night when my son just happened to be following you?"
I could almost feel his incredulity.
"Of course not!" I hurried to say. "I meant to follow Claud. I had to wait in the garden for ages for him to come out. That's why Max was there, he saw me from his window and came out to see what I was doing. Only then Claud came out, too, so I followed him and Max followed me."
I looked to Max for confirmation of my story. He was looking at his father.
"It's true she didn't seem to want me out there but I was hardly going to let her go wandering around in the forest alone at night."
"Given how events transpired, I think that shows a reasonable level of foresight," said the king.
"I wasn't suspicious of her!" Max flushed. "I was concerned for her safety."
"As I said," repeated the king, "given events, that turned out to be a wise assessment. What I still don't understand is why Alyssa was following Claud in the first place."
Clearly I wasn't going to be able to leave Mathilde out of this.
"It was my friend, your majesty," I said.
"Your friend is involved in this treason?" The king tensed and leaned forward and Max spun around to look at me.
"No, no! I was watching Claud because my friend was in lo...well, she really liked him. He seemed to be courting her but was sending some mixed messages. I was worried about her so I was watching Claud and something seemed," I hesitated, "off about him. Honestly, I thought he was messing around with one of the other maids behind her back. I thought if I followed him and saw them together then I would have proof for my friend."
There was silence as the king weighed my words.
"It's true." The king and I both looked at Max in surprise. "I'd forgotten but Claud mentioned something about it to his associate. The other man was worried that someone suspected Claud but Claud said that Alyssa only suspected him of two-timing her friend."
"Well," the king said, after another moment’s thought, "in that case it seems we owe a debt of gratitude to your instincts, Alyssa. We might not have discovered Claud otherwise."
I felt emboldened to ask, "What will happen to him now?"
"We’ll send him back to the prisons in Arcadie. We don't have any suitable lock-up facilities here. My intelligence chief will be very curious to interview him."
"Will he talk, though?" I asked, concerned.
The king shrugged and it was Max who answered.
"From the sound of things out in the woods he owes no loyalty to his employer. If his motivations are greed it’ll be easy enough to convince him it's in his best interests to tell us everything he knows."
I felt relieved but the excess energy had well and truly dissipated from my system now and my fatigue was battling with the ache in my head. Max noticed my sagging lids and wrapped up the conversation. Next thing I knew we were all walking up the stairs, the two guards trailing behind us. When we reached the gallery, the king turned to the right with a quick good night and the guards followed him, leaving Max and I to walk up the west gallery alone. We walked in silence but Max stayed by my side until I reached the door to the Princess Suite.
Then he spoke. "You're hurt."
He reached up, as if to touch my bruised face, but then seemed to think better of it and let his hand drop.
"Out there, in the woods," he gestured towards the forest, "I wasn't sure what you'd do. I thought maybe you'd go for help. I know how you feel about pain, I didn't think you'd attack him."
"I wasn't going to leave you there at gunpoint!" I exclaimed, incensed.
"Well, I'm sorry you got hurt," he said. "And I'm sorry I called you soft the other day."
My anger faded and I managed a small chuckle.
"I am soft," I said. "But that doesn't mean I'm not brave. I just save my bravery for when it's actually needed."
He smiled in response. "You know, that doesn't sound so stupid," he said.
"People don't generally accuse me of being stupid," I replied with a smile, "just soft."
"No, I've never accused you of being stupid," he said quietly. And then, "I think you'd better get some sleep, Brave Alyssa, you're about to keel over."
"You'd better get some rest yourself, Max," I replied, "you must be pretty tired too."
When I opened my eyes it was morning. I must have been half asleep as I prepared for bed because I had no memory of doing it. In fact, it took a moment for any of the memories from the night before to return. At first all I could think of was the pounding in my head. When I put my hand up to my head I gasped in pain. But the contact with my bruise brought the events in the forest flooding back into my mind and I leapt from bed.
After waiting a moment for the head rush to subside, I ran into the bathroom. I stared at my reflection in the mirror in shock. My eyes were still green and my hair still red gold but otherwise I felt unrecognisable. Since it hurt too much to touch the real thing I touched the huge black eye in the mirror. If possible, it looked even worse than it felt. What in the world was I going to tell the princesses?
I did a quick inventory of the rest of my body as I completed my morning wash. My only other injury was some minor scratches on my hands from crawling across the forest floor. When I heard someone enter the suite I went back out into the sitting room, still in my nightgown but at least clean.
The queen was standing there, looking far more alert than I felt. With a sense of surprise I realised this was only the second time I had seen her here, in the princesses’ suite. The first time was my first day when she introduced me to Mrs Pine and Nanny.
I barely had time to register this thought before she swept me into a hug. At first the shock of the unexpected contact held me stiff but after a moment I was flooded with thoughts of my own mother and I returned her embrace.
"Thank you," she said and at first I thought she meant for uncovering Claud's treachery. But then she added, "for saving my son."
"Alyssa saved Max?!?" That was Lily from the doorway to the bedroom. Her words were followed by two shrieks when the queen and I turned towards them and the girls saw my face.
"Well, he saved me too," I said. And then, conscientiously, "twice."
But no one seemed to be taking any notice of me as the girls rushed over and began bombarding us with questions.
"What happened to your face?"
"Are you alright?"
"Where's Max?
"Is he alright?"
"How did you save him?"
I looked at the queen, unsure how much to tell them. She seemed similarly uncertain but after a moment she gave a resigned sigh and cut across their questions.
"Last night Alyssa and Max discovered that one of the footmen was being paid to gather information on the kingdom. They captured him but he injured Alyssa."
The queen gestured towards my face. "But she's fine, Max's fine, everyone's fine."
"Everyone except the spy, I hope," said Li
ly.
I raised my eyebrows at her and she gave me a look that clearly said 'I'm eleven, not stupid'.
"He's safely in custody," said the queen repressively.
"Which one was it?" asked Sophie.
"Which one what?" I asked back.
"Which footman?" clarified Lily.
"Oh. Um, it was Claud," I said, figuring this information was hardly going to stay secret.
"Claud? Really?" Lily turned to Sophie, "that's the cute one."
"Lily!" The queen's tone was reproving but her face looked amused.
"Well he is!" said Sophie.
"I hope you girls haven't ever spoken to him!" said the queen, a new worry rearing its head.
"Of course not!" exclaimed Lily. "He's a footman!"
I raised my eyebrows at her again. Claud might have turned out to be a traitor but none of us had known that before last night. Lily bit her lip.
"Sorry, Alyssa, I forgot," she said.
"Forgot what?" asked the queen, confused.
"She forgot that a princess should always be courteous and considerate to everyone, especially to people of lower rank," piped in Sophie, speaking as if she were reciting a lesson. "Alyssa's been teaching us but sometimes we forget. Lily forgets the most."
At this addition, her sister kicked her in the ankle. By the time I had told Lily off for the violence and convinced both girls to go get ready for breakfast, my embarrassment at their behaviour had faded. I turned back to the queen, trying to think of an acceptable explanation for the girls’ words but she spoke before I could think of anything.
“It seems it’s not just for my son’s sake that I need to thank you,” she said.
Her words made me acutely uncomfortable.
“Honestly, your majesty, I didn’t do much. Max saved me first. If it wasn’t for his quick thinking we would probably both be dead right now.”
The Princess Companion: A Retelling of The Princess and the Pea (The Four Kingdoms Book 1) Page 9