The door opened and Mally quickly straightened. A stuffy, pinched-looking servant stood in the doorway, eyeing her suspiciously.
“Who is calling?” he asked. Even his voice sounded constricted. Mally wondered if he had a bad cold.
“Mally Biddle. If I may have a word with Madame Bones, please.”
“Humph,” the servant snorted, his watery eyes narrowing in disdain. “You may wait in the welcoming chamber.”
He stepped back to allow her entrance. Nodding politely, Mally walked past him only to stop in her tracks. There was hardly any walking space in the chamber. The walls, what little you could see of them, were a frightening cheddar yellow. Bookcases, spindly chairs with piles of trinkets, vases, paintings …
“Something wrong?” the man simpered, glaring at Mally as if daring her to say anything about his mistress.
“No, nothing,” Mally replied politely.
He nodded stiffly.
“I will inform Madame you are here.”
With amusement Mally watched him cross the room with what she could only describe as artistry, ducking and weaving through the mess before disappearing through a door she had not spotted in all the clutter. She wasn’t left alone for very long. The servant soon returned and asked her to follow him. They walked past several other rooms that were just as cluttered as the welcoming chamber. Then they entered a room that reminded Mally of a crowded tea shop. The air was horribly stuffy thanks to a very large, burning fire. Mally immediately removed her cloak. Along the walls, Hebitha Bones had hung numerous portraits of Marlo, her yellow cat. His fur clashed horribly with the red walls. With a bit of difficulty, Mally managed to squeeze past tables and squishy chairs to reach Hebitha Bones.
“My dear!” Madame Bones exclaimed loudly. She extended her short arms to Mally in warm welcome “Sit! Sit! I do love visitors! Cream or sugar?”
“Cream, thank you.”
Mally sat in a very fluffy, pink chair and sunk a few inches. She took a cup of tea from Madame Bones and sipped it. A sickly sweet smell hung heavily in the room. Mally wondered if Hebitha ordered the servants to spray the room daily with perfume.
“I don’t mean to be rude, my dear, but I don’t know who you are,” Madam Bones said pleasantly, peering at Mally through her gloopy eyelashes.
“I was a servant at Bosc Castle during the Winter Ball.”
Madam Bones fluttered her droopy lashes for a moment before her eyes widened in recognition. “Ah yes! Yes, I remember you! What is it I can do for you, dear?” Madam Bones asked as she picked up a cake from a blindingly shiny platter. She kept her other hand firmly placed on Marlo, who sat in her lap. His yellow eyes glared at Mally.
“I was hoping you would allow me to speak to one of your servants,” Mally said calmly, though her heart rate was picking up speed.
“One of my servants?” Hebitha stared at Mally, her hand halted in its search for another cake.
“Yes, I believe her name is Cayla Black?”
“Cayla?” Madam Bones blinked rapidly, making her eyelashes flap like batwings. “Oh, yes! She is charming!” Madam Bones exclaimed. “Don’t know what I’d—oh, Marlo!” Marlo had sensed that his distracted mistress had slackened her hold and he dove out of her lap, yellow tail high in the air as he streaked between tables and chairs. “Robert! ROBERT!” Madam Bones cried frantically.
The stuffy servant who had welcomed Mally appeared in the doorway just as Marlo dashed between his legs.
“I’ll get him, Madam!” Robert proclaimed, spinning on the spot.
“And Miss Black!” Mally added.
“Yes! Yes—Cayla!” Madam Bones echoed. “Bring Cayla, Robert!”
A crash answered them. Madam Bones flopped back in her chair, looking like a winded chicken. Mally quickly refilled her teacup.
“Oh. Oh, thank you dear,” Madam Bones thanked her weakly, taking the cup. She sipped it, grimaced and added more sugar. Another crash sounded along with a muffled oof! Mally flinched at the smashing sounds. Madam Bones however, didn’t seem to notice the destruction of her possessions that accompanied the search for Marlo.
“Have you had a cake?” Madam Bones asked sweetly, now looking much less flustered.
Mally shook her head and Madam Bones placed a cake dripping in thick icing on a plate. Mally took a bite, nearly choked, and politely put it back down.
“You, um, have a lovely home,” said Mally, making a stab at conversation just as another loud shattering reached their ears.
Madam Bones smiled girlishly.
“It’s home,” she said happily.
“Madam.” Robert had returned. Three long scratches ran down his hand, and a lump was turning red on his temple. Clamped in his arms was an extremely sour Marlo.
Madam Bones leapt to her feet.
“Oh, well done, Robert!” She took Marlo from him and turned back to Mally, looking oddly uneasy. “My dear, I do hope you don’t mind, but your company seems to disagree with Marlo. You won’t mind if I leave you with Cayla?”
Mally’s eyebrows rose. “That’s perfectly all right,” she assured her. “My apologies to Marlo.”
Madam Bones nodded happily and trotted out of the room.
“Cayla will be here shortly,” said Robert tartly.
“Thank you.”
Robert closed the door.
A bit astonished at what she had just sat through, Mally blinked at the silverware.
“You wanted to see me?”
Startled, Mally turned in her chair.
“Yes, thank you.” Mally stood hastily, suddenly breathless.
Cayla looked just as she had at Bosc Castle, though there seemed to be an extra degree of stiffness in her countenance.
“Would you like to sit?” Mally motioned to the chair Madam Bones had vacated.
Cayla stared at Mally. She looked like she was biting the inside of her mouth. Mally, starting to feel hot in the face at the strained atmosphere, decided it was now or never.
“I have been told that you were the personal maid for Princess Avona,” Mally stated boldly.
Cayla’s face hardly flickered.
“Yes. I was.”
“Ah.”
Silence settled over them once more.
“Are you sure I can’t offer you tea?” Mally asked, desperate to lighten the mood.
“Perhaps, Miss Biddle, you can tell me what it is you came here to say,” Cayla replied shortly.
Mally blushed, suddenly feeling like a scolded child. She gritted her teeth.
“My mother told me the truth. You brought me to her as a baby.”
Cayla’s skin turned a milky white.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she hissed.
Mally blinked, feeling her own face pale as the last shred of denial was swept away.
“I was horrified when I saw you at the castle!” Cayla continued in a hoarse whisper, as if afraid of being overheard. “Don’t you realize the danger you were in, being employed there?”
“I think I’m starting to realize that,” Mally admitted.
Cayla turned away from Mally, frustrated.
“Why did you take me from the castle in the first place?” Mally asked, wanting to understand as much as she could while Cayla was willing to talk.
Cayla looked at her as if she were stupid.
“The king had been murdered. And the queen’s accident was no accident! It was only logical that you were next. What would you have done?”
“But Alice Spindle—”
“Don’t talk to me about Alice!” Cayla lashed out so fiercely that Mally flinched. Cayla breathed deeply and said more calmly, “I’m sorry.” She ran a trembling hand over her hair. “Alice Spindle did not kill the king. She was set up.”
“By who?” Mally pressed. “Surely you suspected someone.”
Cayla nodded.
“I did. But … now I’m not so sure.” Cayla shook her head as if remembering something from long ago. “You and Susie need to leave Lenzar,” Cay
la pressed. “We cannot risk someone discovering who you are. You will not be safe anywhere in this kingdom.”
“I can’t do that,” Mally argued, surprising herself with her conviction. “I have to make this right. I’m going back.”
“No!” Cayla gripped her arms. “You mustn’t! Molick will kill you!”
“I must make this right—”
“MARLO!”
Mally and Cayla spun around just as Richard sprinted toward them down the hall. Marlo, quick as a flash, raced through the half-open door, disappearing somewhere in the clutter. Richard banged the door open and for a moment stared at Cayla and Mally. Huffing and chattering frantically, Madam Bones appeared behind Richard.
“Ah ha!” Richard must have spotted a paw because he dived under a squat couch. In his dive, he knocked over a tall, heavy candelabra. Mally leapt backwards to dodge it, but Cayla moved too slowly and had to catch it, leaving her struggling under its weight. Two more servants rushed into the room having heard the commotion. Somewhere in the activity, Mally heard Marlo hiss, Richard cry out, and Madam Bones’s constant pleads of “Careful! Oh, be careful!” Sensing her opportunity to leave without being noticed, Mally slipped out of the room and left Bones Manor before anyone could stop her.
32 Princess Avona's Return
Mally stopped at an inn one hour outside of Bosc. She had traveled all day from Bones Manor to the city. The proprietor poured Mally a cup of tea while her husband wiped Sam down and put him in a stall.
“I won’t be here very long,” Mally explained, taking the cup. “There’s no need to go through so much trouble.”
“It’s no trouble!” the woman exclaimed, smiling broadly. “Cookie?”
She pushed a plate of walnut cookies toward Mally.
“Thank you,” said Mally, taking one. It was really better for her to be talking to someone instead of sitting alone in a bedroom. She feared her nerves would turn her mad. At least, letting the proprietor talk and insist upon more tea, she could try to ignore what she was about to do.
“Where are you heading?” the woman asked.
Mally hesitated for a fraction of a second before saying, “Bosc.”
“Oh, dear, are you sure you want to do that?” the woman asked, her face paling. “I thought everyone knew by now—Molick captured the rebel group.”
Mally’s eyebrows rose. So Molick was bragging.
“The city isn’t safe for anyone right now,” the woman continued. “Knights have been searching everywhere, looking for the few rebels that managed to escape. Word is two castle servants were rebels and they were right under Molick’s nose!”
Mally felt her pulse quicken. She and Lita had been seen? At the ambush? Or had they been followed to the ambush? Mally hadn’t spent much time wondering about how the knights had known where or when to attack, but that would all be explained if a knight had followed them to the location and then raced back to the castle and awoken Molick. It was certainly likely that the knights had been ordered to keep an eye out for her and Lita.
But then how was she to get past Strap?
With twilight as her cover, Mally cautiously approached Bosc. She heard men’s voices sooner than she saw them and quickly dismounted. She didn’t want to make it too easy. A large stack of barrels had been left a good distance outside of the entrance. Peering around them, Mally spotted from the light of the torches mounted on the walls, not two knights, but five guarding the gate. She cursed under her breath. How was she going to get past them?
“Mally?”
Mally spun around, throwing up her fists to fight off whoever had recognized her when—
“Allen?” Mally stared at the horse breeder from Blighten, momentarily flabbergasted. “What—what are you doing here?”
“We’re here to help you!”
“What?” Mally now noticed that a large group of people with wagons and horses were gathered around them, all of whom she recognized from her hometown. “What?” she repeated stupidly.
“Susie told us,” Allen explained.
“We’ve come to fight!” a tiny, wiry man named Adam Woodruff proclaimed. He was answered with a resounding “Aye!”
“Shhhh! They’ll hear you!” someone scolded.
Mally glanced nervously at the gate, but the knights weren’t looking their way. She turned back to Allen.
“There’s no point in arguing with us, Mally,” he said seriously. “The rebels have been captured. We want to make a stand. And from the fact that you’re here, it looks like you want to do the same.”
Mally swallowed the lump in her throat.
“Do you … did my mother tell you …”
“Who you are? Who you both suspect you are?” Allen finished. “Yes.”
The people around Allen all suddenly nodded, their faces and eyes warm. Some even whispered under their breath, ‘Princess Avona’ and touched their lips, inclining their heads slightly.
Mally felt her cheeks redden, but with a quick glance at the wagons, she said, “I need to get in, but I think the knights are looking for me. One of them may have seen me at the ambush when the rebels were captured. I don’t think they know who I am—who I really am. But they might suspect me for a rebel.”
“Jump in a wagon,” Allen suggested immediately. “Judy, throw Mally some blankets to hide under.”
“And Sam,” Mally pressed.
“Hmmm, fine Sam,” Allen commented, nodding approvingly to his former foal. “He’ll be hard to hide, but …” Allen, along with the help of three others, took off Sam’s bridle and saddle, and harnessed him up to one of the wagons with two other mares.
“Here! Here’s some dirt!” Stuart Jennings rushed toward them.
“Good thinking!” Allen and a few others started dirtying Sam’s hide. In the torchlight, in such a large crowd, and dirtied, the knights would be hard pressed to pick him out.
Mally climbed into one of the wagons and stubbed her toe. Pulling some of the blankets off, she uncovered an axe. She swallowed.
“We’re here to fight,” Allen repeated seriously. “Be careful where you lie down.”
Mally nodded and once she had been completely hidden, they started their progress to the gate.
“Halt there!”
Mally listened, holding her breath, as Allen talked his way past Strap. The wagon rattled beneath her as they moved into the city. She expelled a shaky breath but didn’t move until the wagon had stopped again and Allen pulled the blanket back.
“I need to find the rebels,” Mally said quietly after scanning her surroundings. No one was about. The streets were darkening quickly. It wasn’t yet curfew, but Mally feared it was closely approaching.
“Where are they?”
“Probably in an apothecary.”
“An apothecary?”
“Yes, and you should all come with me. It’s too dangerous for anyone to be on the streets—curfew is coming. Maud will take you in.”
Mally walked ahead of the wagons, tugging her hood far over her face. They wouldn’t be able to get the wagons in Maud’s narrow alleyway, but they could leave them at the market, as the other farmers did. The knights wouldn’t suspect that, the way they might if the wagons looked abandoned in an unusual location.
After they had left the wagons—loaded with hidden weapons—Mally, followed by a close and large group, quickly traveled to the apothecary. She led them down the empty streets, worried that if they ran, they would cause suspicion. There was no need for a knight to stop them until the bells tolled the hour. To the knights, they probably looked like a large group of farmers on their way to an inn. If they acted strangely, they would be halted. So against her desires, she walked at a steady pace, straight down the streets, though she made sure her face was hidden. Finally, hardly believing they’d made it, she knocked on Maud’s door.
“Maybe no one’s in?” Allen whispered. He had climbed the stairs and stood beside her on the top step.
“Where would they have gone?” Mally aske
d, knocking again.
“Someone is going to hear you.”
“Well, she doesn’t have a bell!” Mally hissed.
“Stop fussing!” came a rasp.
Mally jumped in surprise. There was Maud looking just as formidable as ever in her doorway.
“So you came back,” she stated as if she’d won a bet. “Maud knew you would.” She walked back into her shop; Mally, Allen and the rest followed. They quickly entered the kitchen and from there, descended the hidden stairs.
“She’s back,” Maud announced to the room as Mally climbed down.
Before she’d even reached the bottom step, arms grabbed her. She was being hugged tightly by Galen and then by Lita. Mally felt swarmed and she loved every minute of it.
When she’d been given room and the chatter had died down, Mally started her introductions. Galen, Lita and Edwin stared wide-eyed at the large crowd descending the stairs. Soon it was too crowded to move in Maud’s tiny underground room.
“They are here to help,” Mally explained.
An excited cheer sounded. Egan and Garren, both of whom looked much better than the last time she had seen them, nodded their approval.
“We can take action tonight!” Edwin yelled in excitement, turning to his brother.
“The longer we wait, the more likely Adam and the others will be dead,” Egan agreed. “We have enough manpower now. And the people are ready for the call.”
“The call?” Mally asked.
“We’ve been sneaking around the city since you left,” Lita explained, flushed with excitement. She had entwined her arm in Mally’s. “Knocking on doors. Telling people that not all the rebels were taken captive. That we’ve been planning to break into the castle and release the prisoners.” “We’ll need to find Meriyal or Mildred or Evelyn if you want to free the prisoners,” said Mally. “They know a secret passage into the dungeons.”
Lita looked shocked. Egan, Garren, and Galen were jubilant.
“The call is the bells,” Garren answered. “When we ring the bells, we are making our move and those who wish to help will storm the castle.”
The Tale of Mally Biddle Page 30