She allowed the gracious smile to return to her face.
“As always, there is nothing I would rather be doing than conversing with you, my lord.”
He smiled again and bid her a short farewell.
Ava watched as he quietly made his way out of the room. Interesting, she thought, very interesting.
Allowing her eyes to skim across the room, she found herself once more caught by Aldric’s gaze. He was looking at her with interest and the slightest of questions. She raised her shoulders in the most infinitesimal of shrugs. It seemed Aldric had already managed to identify the key players at court. She was once again impressed with his skill.
The courtiers were firmly divided into two groups. One group flocked to court to socialise and seek advantageous marriages. They preferred not to risk getting on the bad side of their monarch and chose to remain out of matters of state. The other group were focused on politics and came to court in order to influence the king toward their own preferred policies.
The political group was made up of several factions but Lord Adelmar was the undeniable leader of this set. Even those in other factions respected his wealth, intelligence and influence. If he threw his support behind Ava, it would be a severe blow to her brother. And an encouraging vote of confidence for her. Lord Adelmar wouldn’t make the mistake of backing the loser.
She was buzzing from the aftermath of their conversation and it was hard to insert herself back into the inane chatter of the milling socialites. She quickly signalled to the rest of her companions and they formed up around her in short time. When they left the event they once again travelled as a single bloc. The message was loud and clear and Ava felt very satisfied with her return to court.
They all made their way to Aldric and Mathilde’s suite to debrief and strategise.
“Thank you, Hans,” said Ava as soon as they were safely inside. “I should have told you to walk behind me.”
“That’s what I’m here for, isn’t it?” He smiled at her. “To think of the things that you forget?”
“We make a good team,” she said and then quickly turned towards Aldric when she realised how her words could be construed.
“And thank you, Aldric, for the drink. I sorely needed it.”
“In recent months I’ve had plenty of experience with these sorts of events, Your Highness,” he said. “It required no great skill to discern your need.”
“And what did you make of my court?”
“An interesting dynamic.” He pursed his lips. “I suspect that your brother has been overconfident and has overplayed his hand. He didn’t expect any competition and seems to have made no effort to endear himself to court. The effect of your presence was like a breath of fresh air in a suffocating room. I couldn’t help but notice a glaring absence, of course.”
Ava nodded. “Princess Clarisse.”
“What is she like?” asked Sarah.
“She’s…” Ava paused, considering her answer. The truth was that she had hated the other princess from the moment she had laid eyes on her. King Josef had always taught Ava to value her beauty and the advantage it gave her so it had been a blow to find herself supplanted: no longer the most beautiful princess at the Rangmeran court. It didn’t matter that the Lanoverian princesses were famous for their beauty. Ava had lost value in her father’s eyes and she found that difficult to bear.
It didn’t help that the childish misconduct King Josef had blamed on Hanna had been connected with the Lanoverian alliance, or that, as Konrad’s bride, Clarisse’s beauty allowed her brother to gain another advantage over Ava.
Despite the way she had buried her emotions, there were some things that Ava had never been able to see clearly and her sister-in-law was one of them. It seemed rather strange to her now. Clarisse was stunningly beautiful, it was true, but she was dark haired and dark eyed and her glowing skin was golden. She was altogether the opposite of Ava. They were so different there was no competition, really. Instead, standing side by side, they provided each other with the perfect foil. Together they would be a force to be reckoned with. Ava wondered why this perspective had never occurred to her before.
“Ava?” prompted Hans, gently.
Looking into his eyes, she wondered how much of her thoughts he was able to guess.
“She’s very beautiful.” Ava sighed. “But I confess, I’ve always found her difficult to read. She’s never been particularly involved with the court. I guess I would describe her as… distant. Withdrawn.”
“Is she the cold type, then?” asked Sarah.
“Nooo,” said Ava. “Not cold exactly. More abstracted, I suppose. Like she isn’t really present, her head always seems to be in the clouds. I don’t think she ever really adjusted to life in Rangmere.”
“Is she delicate, sickly?” asked Aldric.
“Sickly? No, not particularly.” Ava frowned at him. “No more than anyone else, I suppose. Why do you ask?”
“Apparently she hasn’t left her room since the assassination.”
“What?!?”
“The official word is that she suffered minor injuries before Konrad was able to fight off their assailant and she was so upset by the incident that she’s refusing to leave her room until the assassin is found. Obviously the court has no better read on her than you do since they’re very divided in their opinions on the situation. Some of them think it’s quite likely she’s still shaken from the attack while others think she’s just putting it on to be dramatic and still others are whispering that maybe she actually sustained serious injuries. Though why Konrad would hide such a thing I couldn’t guess.”
“Something’s wrong there,” said Ava with certainty. “I haven’t the slightest clue what it is but I’m sure Clarisse wouldn’t hide in her room like that. In fact, I would have expected her to be entirely unfazed by the incident.”
“I’ll see what I can find out then,” said Aldric. “How did your conversation with Lord Adelmar go? Will he support you, do you think?”
“I think he’s seriously considering it. What did Konrad make of our interaction?”
“Amazingly, I’m not sure if he even saw you.” Aldric gave a short bark of laughter. “Or maybe not so amazingly. He was besieged by some rather insistent courtiers at the precise moment Lord Adelmar entered the room and he was occupied with them until after the man left. Adelmar kept a very low profile, I don’t think many people saw him. He is obviously astute. Of course, the support of court will do you no good unless you can win the Trials.”
Ava nodded gravely and took a moment to think. The others waited in silence.
“You’re right, of course,” she said at last. “And it’s clear that no one wishes to be caught speaking to me of the Trials or even acknowledging that they’re going to take place. So I’ll spend my time continuing to win over the court and the populace and I’ll need you all to do some research for me.”
“You want to know what we’re likely to face at the Trials.” As usual, Aldric was a beat ahead of everyone else.
“You all heard Lord Iver. The five most senior magistrates will be allocated a virtue and told to design a trial. The trials themselves will be planned in the strictest secrecy so we need to find out who the five magistrates are. From there we can begin making educated guesses as to the nature of their trials.”
“The servants will know,” said Mathilde. “Give me tomorrow and I’ll get you the information.”
They spent a little longer discussing their various impressions of the court but nothing more of significance came out. Until they knew which magistrates had been assigned which trials there was little they could do. When Sarah yawned, setting off a chain reaction that had them all joining her, Ava ordered everyone to bed.
“Tomorrow will be here soon enough. For now, we’ll all be better off in our beds.”
The next morning, Ava woke early, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. She was back in her element and was delighted to find that the challenge and excitement were overru
ling the stress of facing Konrad in the Trials.
Evelyn woke instantly when Ava quietly slipped out of bed but looked much less pleased about facing a new day.
“You’re almost as bad as Sarah,” she muttered sleepily. “What are you getting up for?”
“Sorry to wake you,” said Ava.
“That’s alright.” Evelyn shook herself. “One way or another this will all be over in a week and then I’m going to sleep for two days solid before Sarah and I re-join the caravan.
“If I win,” said Ava generously, “you can sleep for a week.”
Evelyn snorted in amusement as she climbed into her clothes.
Ava was also scrambling into her dress and had only just finished when there was a light tap on the wooden door leading to Hans’ room. She called out permission to enter and Hans strode into the room, looking as if he’d been awake for hours.
“I thought I heard you two moving around. What’s on the schedule for today?”
Ava shook her head at him. “Do you ever sleep, Hans?”
“Of course!” He looked confused. “Insufficient rest can lead to inattention at a crucial moment.”
“Oh, Hans.” Ava shook her head at him. “You’re much too good a guard!”
“I didn’t know such a thing was possible,” he said, sounding amused.
“Well, when I win the Trials and am crowned queen, I’m hardly going to keep you on as my personal guard. You’re far too skilled and valuable for that. But how am I ever going to replace you?”
“Replace me?” He looked as if he’d never considered the matter.
“There’s plenty of time to worry about that after we win,” said Evelyn, and Hans seemed grateful for her intervention.
“Very true, so what are you planning for today, Your Highness?”
“I thought we’d moved beyond the ‘Your Highness’ stage,” said Ava, ignoring his question for the second time.
“Now that we’re back at court, it would be inappropriate for me to call you anything else,” he replied, a little woodenly.
Ava sighed. “Very well then. Today I would like to go out into the city and try to gauge the mood of the populace. Mathilde will want to stay here to talk to the servants so I won’t disturb her or Aldric but we should see if Sarah wants to come with us.”
“She will,” said Evelyn. “She’ll love it.”
Her prediction turned out to be accurate. Sarah showed great enthusiasm for the idea and spent a full ten minutes deciding which of her dresses would ‘send the right message’. In the end, Evelyn was forced to choose one for her. Ava was rather amused by the entire process but Evelyn and Hans seemed to find it incomprehensible.
“You don’t understand,” said Sarah. “It’s easy when you have a uniform to wear every day.”
“Maybe you should join the guard then,” suggested Evelyn dryly.
Hans gave a bark of laughter and then looked guilty.
Sarah, however, was entirely unfazed.
“I’d make a terrible guard, as you very well know,” she told Evelyn before shooing them all out of the room so she could get changed.
Hans was still chuckling to himself over the idea of Sarah as a guard. Ava was glad to see that their return to the castle hadn’t caused a complete reversion to the perfect, wooden guard. She hadn’t realised how much she had grown accustomed to the new, more relaxed, more fun Hans until he had disappeared.
“Where are you wanting to go first?” he asked, pulling her out of her reverie and making her realise she had been staring at his face.
She repressed a slight flush. “I’m not really sure.”
“What about the Square of Fountains?” he asked. “Many of the town women do their washing there and there are always a lot of children around. It would be the perfect place to showcase the new, approachable Princess Ava.”
Ava nodded an enthusiastic agreement, impressed with the idea. Hans really was wasted as a personal guard.
Chapter 24
When Sarah finally emerged, the four of them made their way out of the castle, exchanging grey stone walls and floors for grey cobblestones and houses. The sun shone warmly in a blue sky, however, and the air hinted at summer. Leftover spring flowers hung from window boxes and the populace filled the streets, enjoying the weather.
Hans insisted that they ride and they attracted more attention riding through the streets than they would have done walking. People came out to stand in the doors of their homes and shops and call a welcome to Ava. She smiled and waved and called greetings back and felt wholly delighted.
Konrad will hate this when he hears about it, she thought. He’s been milking the people’s sympathy but now his plan has backfired. A beautiful princess, seemingly returned from the dead, attracted a lot of attention and popularity. More so than Ava had ever received before her ‘murder’.
The Square of Fountains took up a full city block, roughly in the middle of Rangmeros. Local women filled the square, using its many fountains to do their household laundry. Children ran between the women, playing games and splashing through the water. It was a pleasant scene despite the occasional childish fight or mother calling reprimands to her boisterous family.
Hans helped Ava to dismount and Evelyn secured their horses to one of the larger fountains where they could drink from the water. A hush rippled across the square and then a small girl gave a loud shriek.
“It’s the princess!”
Everyone laughed, breaking the tension. Ava made sure her own musical laugh could be heard across the general hubbub and saw many smiles directed towards her in response.
Most of the women returned to their washing; it was a large job for many of them and they couldn’t afford delays. The children, on the other hand, had broken off their games and were gathering into a small mob a safe distance from Ava.
She smiled encouragingly at them and one young boy worked up the courage to come forward and give her a small bow.
“Welcome back,” he said and then seemed pleased with himself for delivering his short message successfully.
“Thank you.” Ava knelt down to his level. “I’m very happy to be back with you all.”
He nodded and then backed away, his place taken by an even smaller girl whose peers had pushed her forward to present Ava with a single flower. The princess accepted the offering with thanks.
A third girl, no older than three, stepped forward next. She had two brown braids and large brown eyes that seemed to take up her whole face. She pointed at Ava accusingly.
“You were dead!” she said in her small piping voice. “Are you a ghost?”
A woman, presumably her mother, gasped in horror and left her washing to rush towards the child. The rest of the children watched with wide eyes, evidently impressed with the young girl’s bravery and wanting to hear the answer. Several of them looked poised for flight.
Ava laughed again and held out her hand to the girl.
“I’m not a ghost. Here, take my hand and feel. I’m quite solid, I promise. It was just a misunderstanding. I was never dead at all.”
“Oh!” said the girl, seemingly happy with this simple explanation. She toddled forward and lightly touched Ava’s outstretched hand. She then gave her the briefest of smiles before rushing back to the safety of the crowd of children as fast as her little legs would take her. When she reached them she was besieged by questions and Ava could hear her high voice assuring the others that the princess was definitely not a ghost.
The rest of the children seemed happy with this testimony and surged forward as a group, surrounding Ava. The mother of the little girl had returned to her washing but all of the gathered women were watching warily to see how Ava would respond. When they saw how she continued to engage with the children, they relaxed.
Hans seemed equally wary of the crowd around Ava but he was soon surrounded by his own small throng. This one was made up of young boys who wanted to show off their budding skills in strength or combat. Every time Ava loo
ked over at him and his small court she had to suppress a chuckle. He was attempting to maintain his usual vigilance and focus but he also seemed rather pleased with the children’s admiration.
“I have an excellent idea,” said Ava, once all the children had spoken to her. “Hans and Evelyn, why don’t you organise the children into two teams for a game of quickball.
Before Hans could protest, something he clearly wanted to do, there was a great cheer from the crowd of boys surrounding him. Quickball was a common Rangmeran game and was highly favoured by those children who had aspirations of becoming a guard. It required strength, athleticism and precision and was considered early practice for the fighting arts.
Ava had never played it herself, it wasn’t the type of game that was approved for princesses, but she had often seen the younger trainee guards playing it in one of the smaller castle courtyards. Konrad had occasionally joined them in his adolescence and he had been a champion at the game. As a child, she had wanted to join them and had always secretly thought she would be rather good at it.
One of the children produced a ball and they began to form themselves into two teams. Several of the girls, who had been shyly eyeing Evelyn, sidled up to her and expressed their desire to be on her team. She smiled broadly at them and began to take charge of the children.
“And I’ll teach the rest of you how to make a very special flower crown, if you like,” said Sarah brightly to the remaining children. Several of them looked relieved to have an alternative option and she was soon surrounded by her own small mob.
Ava watched it all with satisfaction as she drifted towards a group of women. They were keeping half an eye on their washing and the other half on their offspring but they greeted her with a formality that hid an underlying warmth. When Hans began to shake off the children in order to follow her, one of the burlier women called out to him.
“Go on, have a game with the children. We won’t let anything happen to your princess.”
He still looked reluctant but Ava gave him a pointed look and he returned his attention to the excited children.
The Princess Fugitive Page 20