“Where are you going?” John asked. Suspicion sharpened his voice at once. “Didn’t you already clean?”
Down I went again for what felt like my hundredth curtsy that day. I held up the vase. “Begging your pardon, Your Majesty, but I thought some flowers would freshen your washroom. I wouldn’t wish any unpleasant odors on our king.”
At the mention of king, John straightened slightly and lifted his chin. What a pompous peacock he was. First in line for the throne if something were to happen to his brother, and he still needed his ego stroked by servant girls carrying flowers and wine.
“Very well,” he said, waving me on to continue.
I placed the flowers and began to leave, but just as I was about to exit, his voice stopped me. “One minute, maiden.”
Down I went again. “Your Majesty?”
“What is your name?”
“Isabella, Your Majesty.”
“And your surname?”
“I haven’t one, Your Majesty. I don’t know who my parents were. I was raised an orphan.”
He nodded, satisfied with the story. “Isabella, then.” His attention snapped back down to the leaflets fanned across his desk. “Easy enough to remember. That is my wife’s name. Thank you for the ink and wine, Isabella.”
“My pleasure, Your Majesty.” I curtsied one final time and slipped from the room, keeping my pace obedient and measured until the door closed behind me.
Later that day,Agnes found me near the dining hall. “You’re on permanent duty taking care of His Majesty’s chambers, Isabella.”
I smiled, satisfied with my success. I now had easy access to John’s apartments, and no one would question it. “Thank you, Agnes,” I said brightly. “Does this mean I don’t have to clean the barracks anymore?”
“Ah, so that was your plan, was it?” Agnes asked shrewdly. “Do an extra good job for His Majesty, and you get off barracks duty?”
I shrugged. “I get heckled every day down there, and it stinks of sweat.”
Agnes laughed. “No, I’m actually impressed. Most girls just up and quit, but you figured out a way. Just be careful. You may find you prefer barracks duty. The king can be pleasant at times, but he also has an unpredictable temper.”
I nodded vigorously. “I heard about what happened to Gwendolyn. I’ll be careful.”
Agnes pointed a finger in my direction. “See that you remember.”
BARON
It never failed to amaze me how good Laurel was at what she did. For the next month, it seemed as though she could do no wrong. No one suspected her. If anything, they trusted her more with every passing day. I would see her sometimes from across the great hall, carrying a tray with her head modestly bowed or I would pass the kitchens and hear Agnes shouting at girls for moving too slowly, only to soften the moment Laurel appeared with a basket of folded linens tucked against her hip.
“There’s my Isabella,” Agnes would say, as if Laurel were the only sensible person in the entire castle. “At leastsomeonearound here knows how to work.”
Laurel would always dip into a curtsy and murmur something like, “Thank you, Agnes. I do try.”
Even Prince John noticed. “That maid is the best one I’ve ever had,” he said after one meeting during which Laurel had come in to silently clean. “She seems to know what I need even before I do. You know she brought me buttered crumpets this morning? Without me even asking.”
“Yes,” I said, keeping my face composed. “She seems like a good worker.”
During those few weeks, Laurel brought a light and energy into my life that I had never believed possible. The castle still felt cold and Prince John was still cruel. My duties were still endless and it seemed that I always had an eternal list of harsh orders I needed to carry out. Yet no matter how heavy the day became, Laurel always seemed to find some way to reach me through it. When we didn’t have time together, notes would appear for me in the most unlikely places.
The first I found was tucked between two reports from my captains. I opened the folded scrap expecting another complaint and instead found Laurel’s handwriting.
The maids say that one of your captains
looks like a goose.
When I looked later that day, I discovered that one of them did indeed have an unusually long neck and his mouth puckered out like a goose’s bill, and I couldn’t see him as anything else after that. Another note appeared inside my coin purse, which seemed much lighter than it had at my last payroll deposit.
