by E. G. Foley
Jake halted before her, thankful for once that children were not to speak until they were spoken to.
He kept his mouth shut and waited.
And tried to ignore the ghost of her husband leaning by the wall.
“You certainly look like your father,” the Queen declared. “And you have inherited his powers?”
Jake stared blankly; Derek elbowed him.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Show Us.”
Derek gestured to a nearby side-table with a lamp and various knickknacks on it, including a photograph of the dead German prince with bushy sideburns who was in the room with them, unbeknownst to the others.
Prince Albert, Beloved Husband was engraved on a silver plaque on the lower part of the frame.
Jake felt sad to realize how much the tough-as-nails old Queen missed her soul mate. But Derek gave him a nod, urging him to begin his demonstration of his telekinesis.
While Her Majesty looked on, Jake took a deep breath. His head still hurt from overusing his powers tonight. He ignored the pain, however, not about to ignore a royal command, especially from the honorary head of the Order of the Yew Tree.
Determined to impress her, he began levitating various objects off the table, including the picture frame, a small vase, and the paperweight that Gladwin was sitting on.
Gladwin giggled as her paperweight began to rise and float. Hands free, Jake made the objects circle gently in the air before setting them down on the lace-draped table.
He glanced at Derek in question; Derek nodded to him in approval.
“Very impressive,” the Queen conceded.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“Guardian Stone tells me you also possess your mother’s powers.” She eyed him keenly. “You can see ghosts?”
This instantly got the dead Prince’s attention.
The ghost was inches in front of him in a whoosh.
Jake leaned a little to the side, distracted at having to look through his whitish-blue spirit body. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“Boy! You zere! You can see me?” Prince Albert exclaimed. He still had his German accent.
Jake discreetly sent His Serene Highness a brief scowl, not wishing to look like a loony in front of the Queen, talking to invisible people.
“Tell her zat I am here!” the royal German ghost demanded.
“What is it, Jacob?” the Queen prompted.
“Jake, Ma’am,” he corrected her in his distraction.
Her eyebrows shot up high into her wrinkled brow.
He realized what he had just done. “Uh, sorry, Your Majesty. Call me whatever you like.”
“Well, thank you—Jake,” she answered in mild amusement. “You seem distracted.”
“Er, yes, Ma’am.” He cringed at having to tell the Queen of England that she was being haunted.
“What’s the matter?” Derek whispered.
Jake was trying to ignore the ghost of Prince Albert, who was now studying him up close through his monocle. He turned and mumbled to Derek, “There’s one here now.”
The warrior gave him a quick, startled stare.
“What does he say?” the Queen demanded.
“Er, Your Majesty, he, er—”
Seeing Derek flounder made Jake even more nervous.
“Hmm?” Her Majesty demanded.
“He’s here,” Jake blurted out.
“Come again?” she said.
“He’s here.” Ruefully, Jake pointed to the picture he had levitated. “Him.”
“Ah, good lad!” The Prince tried to clap him on the back, but his hand went right through Jake’s shoulder.
The Queen had the opposite reaction. She pinned a frozen glare on Jake that seemed to say, How dare you?
He blanched. “I’m tellin’ the truth, Your Majesty! Prince Albert’s here right now!”
She eyed him in suspicion. “Can you prove this claim?”
Jake glanced at the ghost in question.
Prince Albert stroked his bushy sideburns in thought, trying to come up with something only his wife would know. Nearly everything about her life was reported in the newspapers, so he had to come up with something private, or she wouldn’t believe that he was really there.
Then the apparition smiled. “Say this. Ich bin immer mit Ihnen, Meine Kleine Fraüchen.”
“What’s that mean?” Jake whispered while the others stared at him.
“She’ll know,” he said.
“Well?” the Queen demanded.
Jake swallowed hard. “He told me to say…” The ghost had to repeat the message in German bit by bit so Jake could spit it out. Then he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I have no idea what that means.”
Queen Victoria had gone pale and now turned away.
Prince Albert floated over to his wife and bent down to comfort her, his hand resting on her shoulder. “I am always with you, My Little Wife,” the ghost breathed, as the Queen also whispered the words at the same time.
“Meine Kleine Fraüchen. That’s what he always called me,” she admitted a moment later.
Derek looked at Jake; he shrugged slightly while the Queen stared poignantly into space, trying to see the ghost of her husband right in front of her.
As one who knew grief all too well, Jake felt awful for her.
“Oh, Albert,” the Queen whispered. But after a moment, she pushed aside emotion and quickly gathered herself, returning to her usual stern manner. “Guardian Stone,” she said firmly, “this boy is of untold value to the Realm. See that he is educated in a manner befitting his station and appropriate to his rare talents. Spare no expense. We have need of you, Jacob—Jake,” she corrected herself with the hint of a smile. “You have a great destiny ahead. Your parents were leaders in the Order of the Yew Tree, and We are very sure that one day, you will follow in their footsteps—if you work very hard for your teachers and resolve to prepare yourself well for your future service.”
“I will, Your Majesty!” Jake vowed, elated by her belief in him.
“Good. You can do things hardly anyone on earth can do, and We are certain you will use your gifts in service to the good of the Realm. This is your duty. One that perhaps you never asked for, but one you are well suited to, all the same. The gleam in those blue eyes would suggest you are a true adventurer. Guardian Stone says you enjoyed helping thwart those villains tonight. Is this true?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” he said, blushing slightly.
“Do future missions interest you? Righting wrongs, solving mysteries? Aiding those in distress among the magical folk of our Empire? Well, young man, speak up!”
Jake drew himself up tall and lifted his chin. “Your Majesty,” he declared, “it would be an honor.”
Derek looked at him in astonishment as Jake gave Queen Victoria a very noble bow.
“Excellent.” Her Majesty fought back a smile and nodded as though she had known Jake’s answer even before he did. “Thank you, Lord Griffon. That will do for now. You are dismissed. Gladwin, Guardian Stone. You may go.”
They bowed out, leaving the Queen almost smiling while her devoted Albert floated nearby, keeping watch over her from beyond the grave, just as he had apparently been doing for the past fourteen years.
Gladwin zipped ahead into the reception room. Jake breathed a sigh of relief as soon as Derek shut the door.
The Guardian tousled his hair. “You did well in there. You look a mess, but I think she liked you.”
Jake grinned. He glanced around the reception room, bursting to brag to the carrot-head about how he was going to do heroic things and be sent off on missions.
She wasn’t where he’d left her, but he was distracted by a sudden thought. Surely the Queen didn’t intend to make him wait ‘til he was grown up before he could start…
“Where’s Dani?” Derek asked, glancing around.
“Maybe one of the servants took her on a tour of the palace. I’ll go find her,” Gladwin offered.
&nb
sp; As she buzzed away to find the girl, who should arrive just then but his cousins, Aunt Ramona, and the twins.
“Jake!” Archie came running toward him ahead of the others. Isabelle walked farther behind with Aunt Ramona.
Jake was surprised to see his girl cousin, considering how difficult it was for her to bear the London crowds. But Dani was certainly going to be happy to see her dog. Isabelle was carrying Teddy.
Archie grabbed Jake by the shoulders. “We were so worried about you! Are you all right?”
He nodded. “I just met the Queen.”
“Good heavens, Jacob!” Aunt Ramona exclaimed, striding over to him. “You gave us such a fright!”
“I didn’t run off on purpose, I swear, I was under a spell—” Jake quickly told the others as they gathered around.
Then Gladwin suddenly zoomed back into the reception room. “I can’t find Miss O’Dell!”
“That’s odd,” Derek said.
“I will pay my respects to the Queen while you look for her,” Her Ladyship said in distraction, turning to the white-gloved chamberlain who then showed her in to see her royal friend.
Isabelle glanced around while Teddy wriggled in her arms, his nose twitching at top speed, his stump tail wagging. “Where is she, Teddy?” Isabelle asked the dog. “He says he can smell her.”
Jake shrugged, glancing around, at a loss. “I dunno. She was here a minute ago.”
“Why don’t you put him down and let him track her?” Archie suggested, but his sister’s eyes widened.
“I don’t dare!” she whispered. “If he pees on the Queen’s furniture, we’ll all be thrown in the Tower.”
Jake grinned at her unladylike jest. “We’re a bad influence on you, Izz.”
Meanwhile, Derek went over to the chamberlain, who had just shut the Queen’s office door behind Lady Bradford.
“Excuse me, have you seen the little girl who was sitting out here?”
“Yes, sir.” The lord chamberlain presented a silver tray on which lay a folded letter. “The young lady left a note for Lord Griffon. Miss O’Dell sends her apologies and asked me to tell you all that she has gone home.”
“What?” Jake snatched her letter off the tray, unfolding it. As he read, his heart sank.
“What did she write?” Isabelle cried.
Jake blindly handed her the letter. “She said you should keep Teddy,” he murmured, so stunned that he felt numb. “She thinks he’ll be better off with you at Bradford Park.”
Speechless, Isabelle looked at him in pain; she took the short letter and quickly read it.
“Let me see that!” Derek growled, snatching it out of her hand as soon as she was through.
Archie read it over his arm. “Well, that’s just daft!” the boy-genius said, folding his arms across his chest.
The twins exchanged a worried glance.
At that moment, Great-Great Aunt Ramona stepped out of the Queen’s office. “Well, it seems I have my work cut out for me tonight, making those party guests forget the things they saw…” She stopped abruptly, looking around at all of them in surprise. “Goodness, what’s happened? Why all the long faces?”
Isabelle glanced at her with tears in her eyes. The dog whined in concern.
“Isabelle? What is it?”
Derek handed Lady Bradford the letter with a stricken look. “Poor little mite. She says she’s got to go home and take care of her father and brothers.”
Aunt Ramona looked at him in confusion, then she read the letter while Jake stood there reeling.
Blimey, he hadn’t realized how much he had simply assumed the carrot-head would always be there. Always following him, bothering him. But maybe he was wrong.
‘I’ll never forget you, Jake,’ she had written. ‘I know you will go on to do great things, but I don’t belong in your world anymore. So I guess this is goodbye…’
Jake looked at his great-great aunt, at a loss. He saw the prim pursing of her thin lips as the old dragon-lady read the note.
She went very still for a moment.
Jake hoped the dowager baroness was remembering how coldly she had treated Dani. If she had been a little nicer to her, he thought in reproach, maybe she would’ve stayed.
Without warning, Lady Bradford lifted her chin and was suddenly all business as she refolded the letter. “Foolishness! What utter nonsense! I’ve never heard of anything so preposterous. A child taking care of a grown man! This will not do at all. Come, children!” She pivoted on her heel. “Twins. Guardian Stone, if you please, we could use your protection, as well, where we’re going.”
“Where are we going, my lady?” Miss Helena asked, hurrying after her.
Lady Bradford held her chin high, marching down the gilded corridor. “To the rookery, of course.”
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Home Again
Goodbyes had been hard for Dani ever since she’d lost her mother. There was no use wallowing in it. She saw, as they say, the writing on the wall. It was easier just to get it over with. So she had written her letter and had given it to that white-gloved fellow at the Queen’s house.
Walking out quickly, she had hopped on a passing omnibus to Covent Garden. Then she trudged the rest of the way home through the dodgy streets of the rookery.
She had cried a little, walking home through the dark, but at least she would always have the memory of their ride through the sky on the Gryphon tonight.
Then, drying her eyes, she put Jake and all the rest of them out of her mind as she grasped the doorknob of the O’Dell family apartment inside the tenement house.
Time to go back to reality.
She braced herself and opened it, then let out a sigh as she realized…nothing had changed.
The front room stank of dirty socks. Dirt covered every surface. A narrow footpath led through piles of clutter. Her heart sank into the abyss.
There were a few grunted questions from Da and her brothers about where she’d been, but they soon lost interest.
She had held a fairy in her hands tonight, had ridden a Gryphon, and had sat in the next room away from the Queen. But she wasn’t telling them anything. They’d never believe her. They’d only make fun of her. So she didn’t waste her breath, and just like that, life went back to dismal normality.
“’Hoy, Danio! Why don’t you fix us somethin’ to eat?” Luke called, lounging with the others, sprawled out in the squalor.
“Aye, hop to it. I’m starved!” Mark agreed.
“Why don’t you fix it yourself?” she said under her breath. She did not even look at them.
All she could think of was the sunny, spacious halls of Bradford Park and the smiling face of Isabelle, who had been so kind to her and treated her like a little sister ought to be treated, even though Lady Bradford disapproved of her. She could not understand why that old bird disliked her so much. It wasn’t fair! Her chin began to tremble, but she dared not cry. Her brothers’ teasing was always most savage when they spotted tears.
Now she didn’t even have Teddy anymore to make her life here bearable. But he was better off out in the country where he could run and play without fear of getting hit by a carriage or running out of food.
“Hoy! Dani! Wake up, lass! Don’t you hear that?”
“What?” she snarled back in rookery fashion.
He didn’t even notice she was being rude. This was normal talk. “Get the door!” Matthew ordered, pointing at it and glaring at her.
Only then did she notice the firm knock rapping on the front door.
She didn’t bother refusing her brother’s command. With any luck, maybe it was the bailiffs coming to take the lazy louts away to debtor’s prison.
But when she picked her way through the mounds of junk and opened the door, her eyes widened to find Lady Bradford towering over her.
The tall, proud aristocratic old witch looked down her pointy nose at her.
“Your Ladyship!” Dani breathed. She was instantly flooded with shame and no
small amount of confusion to find Jake’s terrifying great-great aunt standing at her door of her family hovel.
“Miss O’Dell.” Her Ladyship looked past Dani, scanning the apartment with a frosty stare that stunned the rowdy O’Dell boys into silence. “I am here to see your father.”
Dani gulped. Am I in trouble? What did I do now?
Obediently, however, she opened the door wider—and saw the others standing in the hallway. “Isabelle! Teddy!”
While Lady Bradford stepped gingerly into the cramped, filthy apartment to have a word with Mr. O’Dell, Dani hugged Isabelle and Teddy at the same time in the open doorway.
A moment later, Jake grasped Dani’s shoulder. He turned her to face him and gave her a scowl. “What do you mean by runnin’ off like that, you carrot-head?” His Lordship demanded.
As soon as she saw him, she felt stupid about the letter, but her brothers’ rudeness saved her from having to answer. They burst out laughing, pointing at Jake’s tuxedo.
“Look, lads! It’s a penguin!”
“Where’d you steal them threads, Jakey?”
“Who do you think you are, boy, all dressed up like some high-falutin’ twig?” Matthew said in a withering tone, trying, as always, to put him in his place.
But when Derek Stone stepped into view behind Jake, her brothers suddenly stopped laughing.
The warrior’s cold stare shut them up.
Dani turned with a gloating smile from ear to ear.
Meanwhile, Isabelle and Archie exchanged a baffled look at her brothers’ incomprehensibly bad manners.
“Mr. O’Dell,” Lady Bradford was saying meanwhile, on the other side of the room, “I am here because I wish to hire your daughter as a lady’s companion for my niece.”
Dani gasped and turned to Isabelle in amazement.
She nodded at her, smiling.
“Wot, like a servant?” Da asked skeptically, folding his arms across his chest.
“A lady’s companion is different from a servant, Mr. O’Dell. It is a respectable position among households of the Quality. This is a very rare opportunity for your daughter.”
He stared blankly at her.