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Chapter15
Ascratching sound pulled me from my sleep instantly as every muscle in me tensed.
The tiny noise, yet chilling to wake to, rolled through my room and I stared at the door. I had no idea how long I’d slept for, but the darkness cloaking my room let me know it was night.
Staring at the door, I attempted to make sense of where the noise was coming from. Was it outside?
When the scratching sounded again, there were a few squeaky noises to go with it. I swung out of bed and toward the side of the room where Nicole and I had set our traps. Sure enough, the white mouse was there with a little note tied to her paw.
Mail room. Right away.
“Oh, Nicole. What are we getting into now?” I moved across the room and sat on my bed, trying to orient myself and wake up enough to at least get a robe on if not get dressed fully. Whatever Nicole had needed time planning was already done, and the cover of night would only give us so much time.
I stood from the bed and quickly put a thicker dress on, hoping it was enough, and slipped out of my room. The halls were quiet, and the torches had dimmed significantly. I looked to my right and left, sure that I was alone, before moving to make my way down to the mail room. It was in the same hall that I’d first arrived in with Captain Coltrain. Out of the way. So the chances of being found out were slim, though still there.
Training had helped me to move around with more stealth, and I focused on my breathing and being light on my toes with each footstep I took.
A door closed somewhere and I jumped, running toward a shadowy area in the hall. Three seconds passed, four. After ten, I continued on once more. Save for a few scuffles, which honestly could have been anything from a mouse to a guard, I made it to the long hallway where the mail room was.
It was empty. And if Nicole was in there already, she was doing a damn good job of being silent.
I pushed open the door to my destination. “Nicole?” I whispered.
Someone hit my arm and I almost screamed, but a hand covered my mouth. “Quiet,” she whispered lower than I had, “Georgette sometimes works in her office late.”
“Georgette?”
“She placed you when you arrived. At least I think she did, she places everyone.”
I nodded, remembering the woman Captain Coltrain had brought me to when I arrived at the palace.
Nicole had brought an oil lamp with her and twisted the knob slightly, illuminating a table that had letters stacked everywhere in neat little piles.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked, still completely in the dark with what batshit crazy plan Nicole had concocted this time.
“Welcome to the mail room.” Nicole smiled and waved her hands at the table filled with letters. “You most likely wouldn’t be able to access her mail in her room, so here, we intercept it before it even gets to her.”
“How are we going to open it without her knowing? We’re going to get caught, I’m not sure about this.”
Nicole slumped her shoulders and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Cora, I don’t want to get caught either. This isn’t my first rodeo.”
“You’ve spied on other people’s mail before?” I asked, surprised.
Nicole shook her head. “My espionage books, hello. I know what I’m doing.”
“Right.”
She pulled out a bottle of a tacky substance and held it up. “My secret weapon. We slide the wax seal off underneath, hence this.” She pulled out a kitchen knife, one of the sharper ones.
“Okay, watch it,” I said as she flipped it onto the table.
“And then we reattach it. Foolproof.” She beamed at me.
“Foolproof.” I shook my arms out and stretched my neck. “Let’s do this.”
“That’s my girl,” Nicole said.
So we began hunting for Vanessa’s mail, anything and everything addressed to her.
