18
“ S o, what are you doing again?” Tori whispered in my ear. I barely made out her words over Julianna’s operatic singing.
The crate on my lap shifted as I leaned over in my seat. “You’ll find out.”
Tori winced when Julianna hit an inhumanly high note that reverberated within the theatre. Even Genevieve, who had high tolerance for opera, grimaced. Olivia pulled her braids over her ears. When at last Julianna ended her song with a powerful vibrato, the theatre erupted in applause, concluding the first performance of the evening.
Madam Lucille emerged from the velvet curtains as Julianna curtsied low.
“Wonderful, simply wonderful! What a voice!” she exclaimed, giving Julianna an appraising look. Julianna tossed her hair as she returned to her box, which was unfortunately in front of mine .
“You were amazing, Julianna,” Samantha gushed, bunching up her skirts to let her pass.
Julianna sat primly, smoothing her satin gloves as she was bombarded with compliments from the girls in her box. She was awfully pleased with herself for someone who had damaged multiple pairs of ears.
“I know. Mama had me trained by professionals when I was a little girl,” Julianna said. “How fortunate I was to learn the arts instead of wasting my girlhood away in dirt and dusty studies.” She gave a tinkling laugh, throwing her head back far enough to look at me.
I narrowed my eyes, wishing I could tip the contents of my crate on her frustratingly stunning gown. But I couldn’t risk losing my supplies. And there was no saying how long it would take to get the rest.
In the box on the second level, Ash stood out from the red velvet seats in a suit of emerald green. He was talking to the queen but occasionally glanced down at the sea of boxes below. Duchess Wilhelmina and Narcissa sat behind him. I leaned forward, trying to catch his attention with my stare alone, but found that it only strained my eyes and garnered a contemptuous glare from Samantha.
“Next is Lady Victoria Strongfoot, playing the lute,” Madam Lucille announced.
Tori jumped up from her seat and squeezed past me and Olivia, a hefty lute in her hands. “Wish me luck, girls.”
She didn’t stay to hear our good lucks, though, and bounded down the steps.
“How do you think they’ll take it?” I murmured to Genevieve.
“I’m sure she’ll do fine,” she whispered.
We had woken up to the sound of Tori’s lively lute playing for over a week. Neither Genevieve nor I had the heart to tell Tori that her lute needed desperate tuning. Despite our urgings for her to borrow a palace lute, she insisted on using hers, which once belonged to Lord Strongfoot when he almost became a minstrel.
The sound of a stool dragging across the stage could be heard through soft murmurs. Tori arranged herself on the seat, lifted the lute onto her lap, and began to play.
The first notes were miraculously in tune. It sounded like a simplified version of an old folk song, but as Tori continued, the tempo increased and became a spirited jig one might hear at a tavern. Her fingers danced deftly across the strings. Despite the occasional sour note, it was altogether a pleasant and of course, very lively, performance.
“She’s doing well,” I said, surprised.
“She might’ve done better with another lute,” someone whispered to my left. I glanced over. It was Ash. I had hardly noticed him come in.
Genevieve and Olivia looked startled at the unexpected guest. Ash smiled at them in acknowledgment and ignored Samantha’s simpering gaze below him.
“Amarante. Care for some air?” he asked, tilting his head to the exit.
I nodded and said to Genevieve, “I’ll be back in a bit.”
Tucking my crate under my seat, I followed Ash out of the box. Luckily, we were sitting on the outer edges of the theatre so no one noticed us slip behind a curtained alcove near the exit.
“Do you have them?” I said, my palms dampening.
“Just caught them,” he said, pulling out a wooden box nestled beneath a corner table. There were several holes punched into the top .
I took it gingerly as faint squeaks sounded inside. “Thank you. I suppose.”
“Don’t worry. They’re quite cuddly,” Ash said, grinning.
“They’re rodents!”
“Be glad they aren’t rats. Those are the worst. Once I found one the size of a cat inside my—”
“Please stop,” I groaned.
Ash dipped his head in acquiescence. “I’ll leave you to it then. If you need help, scream.”
“That’s comforting.”
With a bow and another smile, he was gone. I looked down at the box and suppressed another groan. Holding it away from me, I managed to return to my seat. My new possession drew inquiring stares from both Genevieve and Olivia.
“It’s for my act,” I whispered.
My stepsister smiled. “You’re still not going to tell us what it is?”
“You’ll find out.”
Tori finished her song with one final flourish. She rose and bowed as everyone applauded.
“What a horrendously antiquated piece,” Julianna said with a sneer as Tori returned to our box.
Neither of us paid Julianna any mind. I was much too nervous to argue. I knew it was my turn before I heard my name.
“Next, Miss Amarante Flora will be performing...a scientific demonstration,” Madam Lucille said, pulling a face.
I began the treacherous descent to the stage with my arms full of my supplies. I was immensely glad of the velvet carpet, which gave my slippers more grip than they would have otherwise. I climbed the stairs. The table and two glass terrariums I had requested were already set up when I approached.
It was deathly silent when I unloaded my crate.
Two small porcelain dishes, one in each terrarium. A flask of water. The box Ash gave me, right at the center.
When everything was in place, I took a deep breath and spoke.
“Tonight, I will be showing you all a mystery. A mystery you will be eager to solve.”
I shot a quick glance up at Ash, who flashed me an encouraging smile. I wanted to strangle him with his own necktie. The lines he wrote sounded ridiculous. But there was no time to change them, so I continued.
“Inside this box are two mice. One will have a very different fate than the other.”
I lowered the box into one terrarium and slid the lid open. A tiny white mouse scurried out. I tried not to shriek as I let the other into the next terrarium. I put the box down.
“Both will drink out of the same flask.” I opened the flask and filled each dish with water. Murmurs rose as I waited for the blasted mice to drink the water. It took longer than I anticipated. One of them drank a bit. The other was busy sniffing around the terrarium, exploring every corner except the one that actually held something of interest.
When at last the stubborn mouse drank, I stepped back and waited for the sleeping draught to kick in. I waited some more. The murmurs grew louder. Somebody coughed. The curtains rustled behind me.
“Now, what is this, Miss Flora?” Madam Lucille demanded, poking her head out. “I must object to the rodents. They are horrifying.”
I threw a worried glance at the terrariums. Both mice were still scurrying around. Had I remembered to use Erasmus’s sleeping draught at all?
“Madam, if you’ll wait a little longer—”
Madam Lucille frowned, emerging fully from the curtains. “That is quite enough, Miss Flora. What are you trying to do, speaking so cryptically? It’s quite unbecoming.”
Both mice were still awake. I was sure my cheeks were red enough to be a beacon. “Madam—”
The music mistress shook her head. “The theatre is a place for art, Miss Flora, not spectacle. Now, if you would like to sing a song, perhaps—”
“Look! One of them stopped moving!” a voice that sounded suspiciously like Ash’s rung out from the seats. I looked. The mouse on the left was no longer moving. I deflated with relief. Madam Lucille gasped.
“Yes. This mouse has felt the effects of a sleeping draught while the other remains awake,” I said, assuming as grandiose an air as possible. “How could it be, when both drank the same water from the same flask?”
Murmurs ran through the audience. They seemed properly intrigued. Madam Lucille retreated into the curtains with a huff.
“You slipped it in when we weren’t looking!” someone shouted.
“The mouse was drugged beforehand!” another gentleman hollered.
“You’re a witch!” a debutante exclaimed.
My heart nearly leapt out of my throat at the last comment, but another voice stopped me from blubbering and exposing myself.
“Do not keep us in suspense, Miss Flora.” It was Duchess Wilhelmina. She had stood from her seat, her face impassive. “Tell us.”
I bit my lip. “I coated one dish in sleeping draught before pouring the water.”
Oohs and ahhs filled the theatre, but the ruckus quieted when Her Grace clapped slowly. “What a clever little trick, Miss Flora. I wonder where you got such an idea.”
I swallowed, feeling the intensity of her stare despite her distance. I trained my gaze past her on Ash. His eyes were on the duchess. “It’s nothing, Your Grace. I just thought it would be an entertaining riddle.”
“Indeed. But such riddles, I’m afraid, are not appropriate for young ladies like yourself,” the duchess said, staring with half-lidded eyes. “It seems like a part of some...scheme.”
“Forgive me, Your Grace,” I said. “I mean nothing by it.”
The back of my gown was slick with sweat. I wanted to slap myself for my own foolishness. What did I expect? That the duchess would stand and expose her crimes once she saw her own tricks performed before her?
“Now, Wilhelmina. It was just a harmless demonstration,” Queen Cordelia said. She gave me a smile. Her cheeks were hollower than I remembered them. “I found it amusing. Thank you, Miss Amarante.”
I curtsied low. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Madam Lucille reentered with her list and I scampered off, leaving the mice and the crate for the stagehands to deal with. My heart pounded at doing something so bold. Tori slapped my back when I returned to our box.
“What a show!” she said. “No wonder you didn’t want to tell us. I didn’t expect that at all.”
“Will the mice be alright?” Olivia asked, furrowing her brow as the stagehands carried the terrariums away. “I would hate for them to be harmed. They look so cuddly. ”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” I lied.
“Any reason why the prince of all people fetched you mice?” Genevieve said. Her tone was more teasing than serious, which calmed me.
“He offered.”
“Did he now?” Tori asked, wiggling her eyebrows. “What else did he offer?”
Julianna and Samantha turned to glare at us. “Will you be quiet?” Julianna snapped. “Some people would like to enjoy the show without your blabbering.”
The talent show ended at half past nine. We all filed out the west wing to wait for our carriages. On my way out, Ash pulled me aside at the threshold so we were concealed by a row of potted plants.
He grinned, his face illuminated by the gas lamps along the hedges. “You were fantastic.”
I laughed. “Thank you. But it didn’t do much.”
“No,” Ash agreed. “But it was a warning. The duchess looked livid.”
“That’s not enough to stop her, is it?”
Ash shook his head. “No, it isn’t,” he said in a low voice. His grin faltered. “And now if she is the culprit–which I have strong reason to think she is–she knows that you know.”
I shrugged. It wasn’t as if Duchess Wilhelmina and I were on good terms to begin with. “And the queen? How is she?” I asked.
“The physicians are trying,” he said. “My mother is showing signs of recovery, but I don’t know how their antidote will work when they’re treating the wrong poison.”
I opened my mouth, about to recommend he use Lana’s general antidote, but remembered that I shouldn’t know about it. “You’ll find a way,” I said instead, tugging the strap of my pouch.
I tugged a little too hard. The contents spilled out onto the grass. My flask, and to my horror, the misshapen apple Ash had given me at the Witch Market. I had forgotten to remove it the other day.
My blood froze as he knelt to pick it up. I remembered Miriam’s words.
Hatred for witches run in royal blood.
For a moment, I forgot I didn’t believe that.
I snatched the apple from him and shoved it in my bag.
Ash furrowed his brow and grinned. “You’re quite violent with apples, you know?”
I pressed my lips together, not knowing whether to laugh or cry in relief. He hadn’t recognized it. I bent to retrieve my flask instead, glad that it was dark.
“I really like apples, that’s all.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. But it still didn’t make much sense. Ash merely looked perplexed. Luckily, he didn’t comment on my odd behavior.
“I’ll see you in a week, then?” he said.
I returned his smile. “I’ll see you then.”