Chapter 26
Fay woke Sophie up the next morning with a shake, then got under the covers with her. “Goodness, it’s cold in here,” she said.
“It’ll be a lot colder on the road,” Sophie answered, grouchy from poor sleep and not wanting to say goodbye.
“There’s a fireplace in that big, open chamber on the floor below. You know the one Father has meetings in? You need to get someone to keep a fire burning in there. It heats up through this floor and keeps it fairly toasty.”
“Thanks for the tip, but don’t you need to be leaving?” Sophie squinted at the window. “It looks like it’s past daybreak.”
Fay plumped the pillow behind her head and got more comfortable. “The snow piled up too much in the night. We’ll have to wait for it to melt a bit.”
“Oh? That’s too bad.” Sophie smiled hugely, not bothering to hide her lack of sincerity. Thinking of people who lacked sincerity made her hug her stomach and groan. “You’ll never guess what godawful thing happened yesterday.”
“You’re engaged to Sir Harold?”
Sophie sat straight up as if she’d been jolted with a cattle prod. “You didn’t just guess that.”
Fay shook her head. “I heard it from Brom, who heard it from one of the pages, who heard it—”
“But are they actually saying engagement? Harold asked Sir Wal—Father, that part is true. But I said no. A thousand times no. And he agreed to give Leo some time to put in a bid as well. There is absolutely no engagement.” She gasped and jumped the rest of the way out of bed, tearing off her nightgown and stuffing the first dress she grabbed over her head. “If Brom knew about it, that means Leo might have heard about it by now.”
“Didn’t you immediately go and clarify the situation?” Fay asked in an annoying schoolmarm tone.
“I wanted to, but Marjorie grabbed me and dragged me up here. She brought me a tray full of food and brushed my hair for what seemed like ten years while she reminisced about Anne. It was a little creepy, but she misses Anne so much and I’m all she’s got now…”
“You know I’m sorry to take Batty,” Fay said. She got out from under the covers and helped Sophie finish dressing. “But Marjorie might loosen up. You never know.”
“I’m glad you’re staying, even if it’s just for a little while longer,” Sophie said, heading out the door. “I’ve got to find Leo and explain that Sir Ginger Jerk will never be my husband.” She stopped and pulled herself back in the room. “Can you talk to Father? I really don’t want to lose because of this glitch.” And by lose she meant die which, by the looks of her, Fay understood.
“The whole thing’s been a glitch this time around,” Fay said. “But I’ll try and say something. It’d be better if Leo would just ask him for you.”
Sophie refrained from childishly saying “Duh” and went in search of Leo. He wasn’t in his chamber and he wasn’t in the great hall. She stopped to think where he might be and her heart fluttered that it might be with Sir Walter, demanding his chance at her hand. Her heart sank at the more realistic notion that he’d heard the news and left for home.
Well, if he believed she was so fickle, maybe she didn’t want him, after all. Except she did want him and, once again, her heart soared, remembering the blizzard that was keeping Fay and Tristan there. No one could travel in such weather. She’d keep looking.
Even though there were snowdrifts almost to her waist, she checked the training area. It was deserted and she slipped and slid back inside. She took a moment to warm up at a fire and saw Marjorie coming from the kitchens with a bucket in each hand. She ran and grabbed one of the buckets. Despite being empty, the big, unwieldy thing was heavy and she lugged it alongside Marjorie until she motioned that they’d reached her destination.
“Thank you,” she said, seeming surprised for the help. Sophie promised herself she’d try harder to make friends with her new maid.
“It’s no problem but, hey, you haven’t seen Sir Leo around, have you?” When Marjorie narrowed her eyes, Sophie sighed. “You know I would never marry Sir Harold, right? He turned out to be as bad as Drayton.”
“You had nothing to do with that proposal?”
“No! I’d rather be dead than marry that heartless fiend.” She’d actually wind up dead if she did marry the fiend, but Marjorie could never understand that.
She narrowed her eyes at Sophie some more, then shrugged. “I think I saw him head out to the stables. But that was some time ago.”
Sophie took off for the stables, hoping she wasn’t too late. Since he lived so close to the castle, he might have set out despite the storm. If she missed him, she was going to make Sir Harold’s life a living hell until he gave up his ridiculous claim on her. If she ended up dead because she was forced to marry that pile of manure, she would find a way to haunt him. And if Leo hadn’t left yet, he was going to face some of her wrath as well. Why couldn’t he admit he loved her?
She nodded to Mr. Merrick as she entered his domain. The stables were large and luxurious as far as horse housing went. Each stall was roomy and tidy, with a watering trough, a bin for hay and oats, and a clever wooden storage box built into the walls that could double as a bench or a step for grooming. A few stable lads were busy feeding the horses and mucking out stalls. One boy carefully swept the stone hearth in front of the large fire in the middle of the building. She frowned, realizing the horses had a fire in their chamber while she did not. She hoped Fay remembered to tell someone to light the fire in the room below hers so she wouldn’t suffer another night tossing and turning in the cold.
“Have you seen Sir Leo, Mr. Merrick?” she asked after walking up and down the long row.
“Might have done,” he grunted, prying at some metal thing with an oversized pair of tongs.
He tipped his chin out back where the paddock was. She braced herself to go out into the cold again, getting nervous about what she would say to Leo when she found him. She had a wild thought, completely out of the blue, that someone should be guarding the dress. If Fay wouldn’t let her destroy it, they needed to keep the curse’s assistant from getting to it again. Hide it better, bury it deep in the woods, hell, wear the damned thing until the time limit was up. The idea so overwhelmed her, she almost gave up looking for Leo for the moment.
But what if that was what the curse wanted her to do? Leo was the key to breaking it and, all of a sudden, she got the idea to go running after the dress? Oh, which was the right thing to do?
“I hate you so much,” she whispered, looking around anxiously as if the curse might have taken on a corporeal form.
She’d wanted to find Leo. She loved Leo. She wasn’t going to be sidetracked again. It was likely he’d already heard about Sir Harold’s perfidy so she had to assure him it was all a misunderstanding. She snorted out an angry gust of air and clenched her fists. To think she almost let her mind get clouded by the curse.
“I’m so far ahead of you,” she whispered again. “You might as well…” She trailed off, not knowing what happened to curses when they were broken. Was it a big production with smoke and sound effects? “I hope it’s painful, whatever it is.”
A horse whinnied behind her and she turned around to pat its nose and let it know she wasn’t crazy. “Oh, I recognize you,” she said in a normal tone of voice.
It was Leo’s horse, the spotty brown and white one she’d ridden on when they’d made their predawn flight back to the castle. She opened the stall door to see if she could find a treat to give it, certain now that Leo was still there. “I’m just about to find your master,” she said, holding out her hand for it to sniff. “Let’s see if there’s anything good to eat in this cabinet of yours.”
She opened the lid on the bench to see it was only grooming supplies. The stall door creaked behind her and she turned, hoping it was Leo. The door stood open wider than she’d left it, but no one was there. With a frown, she hurried out and closed it behind her so Leo’s horse wouldn’t escape. The sweet thing just stood there looking at her with its soulful horse eyes and she reached over the door one last time to pat its neck and say goodbye.
“For now,” she said. “I’m sure I’ll be back with your—”
A resounding crack led to a pain in the top of her head that shot straight to her toes. Her vision went out and she felt herself crumple to the floor. She tried to move but was paralyzed from the intense pain that reverberated from whatever had hit her in the head. Had the whole barn roof fallen on her? She thought she heard a grunting sound and felt rough hands on her arms, twisting her bad shoulder so that she wanted to cry out but couldn’t find the strength. She struggled ineffectually away from those hands, feeling straw and wood slats under her fingers. She heard a muffled curse and then felt another crack on her head. All her struggles gave way to darkness.
She clawed her way back to consciousness, certain she hadn’t been out for long. Her hands were tied behind her back and a smelly rag was stuffed deep in her mouth. She lurched forward and hit her forehead on a wooden wall. Terror coursed through her and she found it hard to breathe around the rag. Not wanting to pass out again, she sat still for a moment.
Was this it? Had she been thrown in the dungeon just as Fay had been? If so, that was a good thing. It would be the first place Fay would think to come looking for her. She had to relax and wait, that was all. The darkness closed in on her and she tried to spit the vile cloth out, only managing to gag herself. She thought she heard thumping noises and jerked to the side, hitting another wall. She wriggled around enough to realize she was in a very small space and all the walls seemed to be made of wood. A closet? She kicked out with her feet, hoping to splinter the wood. It was so sturdy she only gave herself shin pain but continued, thinking maybe she’d attract someone with her noise.
Noise. She was sure she kept hearing a far off thumping. She stopped kicking long enough to listen. She not only heard thumps, she heard absolute mayhem outside her tiny prison. Muffled shouts, clattering, screams of men and… horses. She was still in the stables. And the horses were all going bonkers for some reason. She’d managed to distract herself from her fear while she was kicking the wall, but now it descended on her again. She hunched back into the corner and sat frozen, waiting, struggling to breathe. What was happening out there?
Calm down, calm down, you’re going to hyperventilate, she repeated to herself.
She closed her eyes and tried to block out the terrifying noises and was finally able to slow her breathing. A thundering roar filled her ears and, seconds later, the floor shook underneath her and the walls groaned at her sides. She drew in a shuddering breath, trying to keep calm in the midst of everything seeming to collapse around her. The sounds of men and horses outside grew weaker and farther away but something else grew stronger. It was unmistakable now as it curled its way through the cracks in the walls that surrounded her. Smoke.
She was in her coffin. Asphyxiated or burned alive or crushed, this dark, small space would be where she breathed her last. She thought of her parents and her brother who already believed her dead. Then she thought of Leo and wanted more time. Screaming through the filthy rag, she kicked the walls with all her might.