For a long moment—too long—I stared at the rickety metal ladder Derrick had just climbed. At the top, he’d deftly swung his legs over a low brick wall and disappeared.

Then, without conscious thought, my finger flew over the windowsill, feeling for a lock. When I was able to tear my eyes away from the spot where I’d last seen my charge, my heart sank. There didn’t appear to be a lock on the window, but it was old and looked enormously heavy. There were two panes encased in thick wooden frames. When I tugged on the bottom rim, nothing gave, not even a little.

Was it glued shut? Or just never used? It didn’t matter which, because the window wasn’t going to budge. At least not for me. If I had Nico’s impressive biceps maybe it would, but I couldn’t get it open.

Ignoring the somber atmosphere of the room, I dashed out and into the next one, and then the one after that. None of the windows would open.

Panic overwhelmed me. I should find someone, get help, but I didn’t know where anyone was. Hell, I didn’t even know where I was. And if I encountered a servant or soldier who didn’t speak English, how would I make them understand that Derrick was out there in the cold, climbing up walls and doing who knew what else?

God, if he fell… if he fell, I’d never forgive myself.

Rushing into yet another room, I skidded to a halt. A balcony. This room had a balcony! Thank god. In seconds I was out in the cold, but the balcony overlooked the palace grounds, not another rooftop. Frantically I looked around. There! At the far right was a corner of the second-floor roof. But it was a couple of feet away from the balcony.

Rushing to the rail, I peered over the edge. At the base of was a ledge of perhaps six inches. Beyond that was a stone-paved walkway three stories down.

Please, please, please… The words echoed in my mind, though I didn’t know what exactly I was asking for. For Derrick to be safe? For me to find him? For me not to fall?

I swung my leg over the rail, thankful that I had on pants and sturdy ankle boots today. With a death grip on the rail, I placed one foot and then the other on the six-inch ledge. Focusing on the nearby rooftop and trying to ignore the ground below, I reached out one leg, pointing my toe.

When I was stretched my farthest, I could almost reach the edge of the roof. Muttering a quick and disjointed prayer, I extended my arms, letting my upper body fall forward. When the toe of my boot had almost bridged the gap, I pushed off with my other foot and made the leap.

When my foot hit the rooftop, I kept going, terrified I’d fall backward. But I didn’t, and as my heart raced, I realized that I’d done it.

Following the line of rooms back to the one that had Lady Lisette’s pink gown wasn’t difficult. Even in my heightened state the irony reached me: this castle was easier to navigate from the rooftops than it was from the inside.

“Derrick?” I called his name as soon as I could see over the top of the ladder. Like he had before, I swung my leg over the brick wall and stepped onto yet another rooftop. This one was flat and wide, about the size of the children’s suite. There were little structures almost like buildings that dotted the roof. One looked fairly modern and I suspected it housed the top of the elevator shaft. “Derrick?”

Cold wind whipped around me as I hurried across the roof. There was a fairly large structure at the far end, and I couldn’t see around it. As I neared I heard a strange noise, like a low-pitched chattering.

At the edge of the structure, I turned the corner and walked into a little alcove, sheltered on three sides.

Startled, I looked around. There were boxes. And birds. Lots of birds. Pigeons were everywhere, preening themselves, eating from shallow dishes of seeds, and walking in and out of open wooden crates. Derrick was crouched in the middle, pouring food from a bag into one of the feeding dishes.

As my shadow passed over him, he shot to his feet, looking shocked. “Miss Andrews! You shouldn’t be up here. It’s dangerous.”

“I know it’s dangerous. That’s why you shouldn’t be up here, either.” In my fear over what could have happened, my words came out harshly. “How did you get here? Did you step across from the balcony?”

He peered up at me, looking confused. “No, there’s a trap door at the top of the closet in the Eckstein room.” At my frown, he elaborated. “There’s a ladder built into the wall. It’s easy.”

It still sounded like he could get hurt. But maybe he could show me. After all, I certainly wasn’t going to try to go back the way I’d come. No more vaulting the balcony rail. “You know you’re not supposed to be up here.”

“Why not?” For the first time since I’d met him, Derrick looked defiant. “Nobody’s using this space, and they get cold in the winter. They can’t find food easily. I’m not hurting anyone.”

Despite his staunch words, his lip trembled slightly. It was clear he didn’t like challenging me. “Of course you’re not hurting anyone,” I said, and I took his hand and pulled him over to a stack of stone bricks about the height of a bench. He sat next to me and I tried to figure out how to continue. “It’s not that you’re hurting anyone, but you could’ve gotten hurt.”

“I’m careful,” he said. “I never go too close to the edge.”

That wasn’t entirely comforting to hear, but I let it pass. “But what if something happened to you up here? No one would have any idea of where to look for you.”

Guilt crossed Derrick’s face and he ducked his head.

“You were the one who told me it’s dangerous up here,” I said. “If it’s dangerous for me, then it’s dangerous for you, too.”

“I’m always careful. I’ve been coming up here for over a year.”

He’d first come up here by himself when he was six? I couldn’t even imagine that. But as my pulse slowed to something resembling a normal rate, I was paying more attention to my surroundings. “It looks like you’ve been busy.”

“Yeah. I started with just bringing them crumbs and bread from the kitchen. There were only a few then. Then I found a bag of seeds in the gardener’s shack. Now so many come every day. And some of them sleep here at night.” He gestured toward the crates.

“You’ve made a nice area for them.” I wasn’t just saying that—he really had. I wanted to keep him from doing anything dangerous in the future, but I didn’t want to ignore what he’d accomplished. “Do any other kinds of birds come here?”

“Yes,” he said, “but I don’t know their names in English. I could show you, though.”

I looked around, trying to spot any birds that were different, but they all looked like dumb, gray pigeons to me. Except one that was extremely small and fast-moving. “A mouse!” I shrieked, leaping to my feet as it came my way.

Derrick rose as well, looking nonchalant. “Yeah, they come up here to eat, too.”

Wondering just how many times I was going to be startled out of my skin today, I watched as the mouse disappeared under a crate. I doubt that the inhabitants of the castle below would approve of Derrick’s hobby attracting rodents.

“Mice and birds,” I muttered under my breath. All that was needed was for one of them to pull out a needle and thread and Autumn’s prediction of me having my own Cinderella moment would come true.

“Here, miss.” Derrick was holding up an ancient and weathered book. The yellowed pages looked like they were about to fall out. “This one here. I see one of these about three times a week.”

I squinted at the illustration, but I couldn’t figure out what bird it was supposed to represent. Not that I was an expert, but the book was so worn I doubt anyone could’ve identified the bird. That didn’t deter Derrick, however.

“And this one, here. And this one on page forty-nine.” He stopped and looked up at me. “Do you think you could look up the English names online?”

“I can try,” I said. “But first we need to go back inside before they call out a search party.” Even as I said this, I realized how little sense it made. Derrick had been coming up here for a year. But that didn’t matter; all that mattered was getting him back inside safely. “Can you show me the way you get down? And maybe later we can look on the internet.”

“Sure, Miss Andrews.” He knelt down and carefully wrapped his bird book in a heavy piece of cloth. Then he slid the bundle under a loose brick. Straightening up, he smiled at me before setting off.

As I followed him along the rooftop, I thought about the difficult conversation we needed to have. There was no way I could let him continue to come up here, at least not by himself.

But once that was resolved, it wouldn’t hurt to foster his interest in birds. It was clear he knew a lot about them. And maybe once we’d looked them up online, I could get him a new bird book—one that was in English and looked like it had been written sometime in the current millennium.

As I followed Derrick down a narrow staircase that led to the closet, a wry thought came to me. Did Amazon deliver to castles?