21. Charlotte
CHARLOTTE
T hankfully, Gwen was able to lead the way to the section of the palace that contained the apartments of the count and his adult children. Once in that more familiar environment, Charlotte was confident in bypassing the dangerous apartment and leading the others straight to the storage cupboard.
She opened the door with a flourish, more relieved than she wanted to admit when Easton blinked up at her from a seated position on the floor. He raised his hand against the light, and Charlotte beamed at him.
“You’re welcome,” she said, standing back and gesturing toward Henry and the bear in the corridor.
Easton leaped to his feet. “Gwen!” He rushed to her side, relief lighting up his face. “You’re here! Charlotte found you!”
“As promised,” Charlotte said smugly before her face twisted a little. “I haven’t found the others, though. At least not yet,” she added hastily.
“We’ll find them together.” Gwen leaned her head against Easton’s side.
He put an arm around her head, and she looked like she could have started purring with satisfaction. Charlotte hid a smile. Henry used to look like that sometimes in the library in their old castle when she scratched behind his ears or in other hard to reach spots.
“We should find somewhere less open,” Henry said tensely. “We’re not all going to fit in that cupboard.”
Gwen shivered, and Charlotte was glad she had Easton at her side. Whatever had happened to Gwen after she got dragged away by the queen, she clearly hadn’t fully recovered from it.
“This way.” Gwen led them to a door one corridor over.
Easton turned the handle for her and stepped into a deserted sitting room.
“No one comes here during the day, let alone at night,” Gwen said.
“What about our scent?” Charlotte asked. “Couldn’t they track us?”
“Actually, I think I can do something about that,” Henry offered.
Charlotte raised her eyebrows. She only hoped they weren’t going to have to slop through any water troughs.
“Give me a minute.”
He was gone for far longer than a minute, and when he returned, Charlotte wrinkled her nose in disgust. A highly unpleasant aroma clung to him.
Gwen, on the other hand, gagged, turning away with disgust.
“What do you think?” He directed his question at Gwen.
“Real bears probably think that smell is normal, right?” she asked. “Unfortunately my bear senses and human mind are working together in a terrifying alliance. It’s like the most awful stench you’ve ever smelled amplified ten times.”
Henry nodded with satisfaction. “I got rid of it all before I came in, so this is only a minor version of how it smells out there and all down the surrounding corridors.”
“Is that horse manure?” Easton asked tentatively.
Henry smiled with satisfaction. “From the stables. I’m just glad I won’t be responsible for cleaning your palace when this is all finished, Your Majesties.”
Easton made a choked sound, his eyes bulging, and Gwen gagged again. Charlotte laughed, however. “Brilliant!”
“Hopefully this buys us some time,” Henry said. “I’m not convinced we want to do anything too hastily.”
Everyone shared what had happened to them in the last few hours, Easton drawing even closer to Gwen when she gave an emotionless recitation of her time in the small room.
“We were right there!” Easton cried in a tortured voice. “If we’d just stayed a little longer, or if I’d called for you a little louder…”
“It’s my fault,” Charlotte said, misery washing over her. “I told you to lower your voice and said we had to leave. I didn’t think you were actually in there, Gwen.”
“No!” Gwen’s voice came out unexpectedly strong. “You were doing what you thought would be best for me. I understand that. And I’m actually glad you didn’t find me. I needed to break free myself.”
“You’re always so gracious,” Charlotte sighed, wondering if she would be the same after years of being a princess. Was it something you learned by being a royal?
Gwen drew a deep breath, sounding so distressed that Charlotte frowned at her.
“Actually,” she said, “I think I should take this chance to confess something—before you and Henry risk yourselves even more for me.”
“What are you talking about?” Charlotte asked. “Of course we’re going to help you. We’re not just going to run away and abandon you.”
“But you don’t know everything,” Gwen said. “You think it was your parents that came up with the idea of using their candle to get a look at Henry’s face, but actually…” She finished on a rush, “Actually, it was me. When they took me out to their stables, I put all sorts of doubts about Henry in their heads and suggested the idea of the candle.”
She turned to Henry. “I’m so sorry! I had no idea who you were. I thought you were working with the queen. I even thought you might have been the one to give her the bear enchantment in the first place.”
Charlotte stared at her, her mind whirring. “It was you?” she cried. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Gwen winced. “When I tried to express doubts at first, you were so certain about Henry. I was worried about you, thinking you were another person being fooled and trapped by my mother. We’d only just met, so I thought you would be more likely to listen to your parents than to me. So I set up a chance to speak to them, and I poisoned their minds against Henry. It’s all my fault.”
“No,” Charlotte said slowly. “I’m the one who took the candle into that room and lit it. Half of my anger toward my parents was because I was actually angry at myself.” She sighed. “What a mess. You were right that I listened to my parents, and that was another mistake of mine. I let myself be swayed by their concerns even though they don’t have a history of good judgment or decision-making.” She sighed again. “You can love someone and know not to trust their judgment. I should have known better than to let myself be swayed by them. But their proposed solution lined up so exactly with what I wanted to do myself.”
She looked at Henry, apology all over her face. “At the end of the day, I’m the one to blame. Everyone else—even you, Gwen—have the excuse that you were acting out of concern for me. But I was driven by curiosity and impatience.”
Henry gave her a reassuring smile, taking her hand and threading his fingers through hers. She turned to Gwen with a smile.
“Henry has forgiven me my much bigger crime. You don’t even need to ask if I can forgive you. Of course I can. It’s already forgotten.”
Gwen’s expression lightened, her whole body suffused with relief. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I should have told you straight away when we met after Henry’s disappearance. But I thought…I thought…” Tears welled, making it difficult for her to speak.
“I’m glad that’s resolved,” Easton said, clearly trying to hide his tension. “But I think we should talk about what we do next. Gwen, do you have any idea where the queen might have taken the rebels? If she wants to keep them locked away until the wedding, where would they be?”
Gwen sat back, clearly considering the question. “The guards have cells of various sizes, of course, but none of them are big enough for so many.”
“Would she think it was dangerous to keep them together?” Henry asked. “If they could work together, they might find a way to escape.”
“Together…” Gwen murmured, seeming struck by a thought. “Actually, there’s one place. The servants all get locked in together every night. It’s a series of connected storage rooms. They’re in the basement level, and there aren’t even any windows. The servants have been in there as a group for nearly ten years, and they haven’t found a way to break out.”
“And she thinks they’re rebels as well,” Henry said, catching up with her idea. “She’s probably got them all locked in there together.”
“Do you know where the door is?” Easton asked. “And how we can get the key?”
Gwen looked down at her paws and then back at him. “We might not need a key.”
Easton grinned. “If you’re suggesting you could break down the door with pure force, I believe you. But if we don’t want to bring people running to investigate the commotion, we might want to find a subtler method.”
“And I think we need to wait for morning anyway,” Henry said. “The guards’ sense of smell and hearing are too great an advantage when they’re bears. We won’t manage to creep around unseen or sneak into the basement rooms if they can smell or hear us from half a palace away.”
Easton looked like he wanted to argue, but just like Charlotte, he’d never been a bear. She was inclined to agree with Henry, and doubly so when Gwen quickly nodded her agreement.
“Does that window open?” she asked, nodding at the largest window in the room. “I think we’re all going to need some rest at some point tonight, but we’ll need to take turns staying up on watch, and we should have an escape route planned. They may decide to search this whole area room by room if they guess we’re the source of that stench.”
Henry strode over and tested the latch on the window, peering outside. “It opens, and the jump isn’t too big.”
“We don’t need to take watches,” Gwen said. “I should do it the whole time. I’m the only one with bear senses, and I actually slept well the last couple of nights.”
Charlotte and Henry exchanged a look.
“You can do most of the night,” he agreed, “but you need to get a few hours’ sleep. We don’t know what tomorrow will be like yet, but the wedding was planned for the late afternoon, I believe, so it will likely be a long day.”
“So what is our plan?” Charlotte asked. “Is the queen really going to try to go through with the wedding in the middle of all this?”
“That has been her plan, but when she realizes Henry is gone, the plan is going to have to change,” Gwen said.
Henry frowned. “Should I go back to my room?”
“No!” Charlotte cried, thankful when the others stayed silent. “That is not happening. We’re together now, and we’re going to work this out together. No more prisoners, no more separation.”
Gwen nodded, Easton a beat behind her.
“She can’t have a wedding,” Gwen said. “Not unless she can recapture us both and somehow force us to comply.” She was carefully not looking at Easton as she said it. “But she won’t want to admit weakness. And she’ll still want a spectacle. The invited guests from the city and even the loyal courtiers will likely still turn up at the appointed time. Celandine will be telling herself she can recapture us in time, or else she’ll plan a big demonstration with all the rebels instead, thinking that will restore order and her power, at least in the short term while she works out how to fix things. That’s been her strategy until now, always a temporary fix, keeping things going while she gets herself further and further into trouble.”
“So we’ll still have our audience,” Easton said thoughtfully.
Gwen nodded.
“In that case,” he said, meeting her eyes. “We need to give them what they came to see.”
“A wedding!” Charlotte cried in delight, clasping her hands together. “With no need for last minute switches. Just the two of you, getting married. As long as we can keep the queen and her guards occupied, the courtiers won’t protest. They don’t even know what Henry looks like, remember.”
“But how do we keep the queen and her guards occupied?” Henry asked.
“We lock her up.” Gwen looked surprised by the ferocity in her own voice.
“Is that even possible?” Charlotte asked.
“She isn’t superhuman,” Gwen replied. “She doesn’t have the strength of a bear during the day.”
“What about her godmother objects?” Easton asked.
“She keeps them in a hidden room,” Gwen said. “The only one she carries continually on her person is the one tied to the bear enchantment. And that won’t help her get out of a locked cell. Her strength comes from fear and intimidation and her guards. Stripped of those, she’s just a human woman with the strength of a human woman. She can’t batter down a door.”
Henry slowly smiled. “So we lock her up, and then we lead her guards on a merry chase so they don’t have the chance to properly look for her.”
“It doesn’t have to last forever,” Charlotte said. “Only long enough for the captives to do their job.”
“The captives?” Henry looked at her, confused.
“The wedding!” Charlotte cried, rolling her eyes at his obliviousness. “Do you think a function like that is going to magically come together on its own? The queen was planning to put on a show, but now it’s our show, and we can’t look less impressive than her. We have to somehow convince the captives to play the role of servants one more time and set everything up.”
“So the rebels will have to lead the chase,” Henry said thoughtfully. “You and I can help with that.”
“The bride and groom will have to stick with the wedding preparation.” He looked at Easton with a small smile, and Charlotte almost laughed. It was obvious which he thought was the better assignment, despite the danger.
From the pained look on Easton’s face, he agreed. After the way they had all been treated, everyone wanted a piece of Celandine and her people. But the plan made the most sense that way, and nobody tried to argue.
Charlotte was certain she wouldn’t be able to sleep. But when she lay on one of the broad sofas with Henry pressed against her back and his arms around her, she drifted off faster than she would have liked.
She was jerked awake by a frantic whisper from Gwen in the small hours.
“Quick! Someone’s coming,” she said.
“Wha…” Charlotte sat up, bleary-eyed and confused.
Henry woke behind her, instantly alert. “Out the window, then. I left some manure there earlier.”
Easton pushed it open, and Gwen climbed through first, scrabbling with her paws for purchase before heaving herself over the ledge. Charlotte tried to hold back her impatience, glancing constantly between the door and the window, just waiting for someone to thrust the door open.
“Climb through,” Gwen called back quietly. “Straight onto my back.”
“Gwen!” Easton exclaimed, pausing halfway over the sill. “You can’t carry three of us!”
“Yes, I can,” she said stubbornly. “I’m not an ordinary bear, you know. I’m bigger, for one. And I don’t have to carry you far. Just far enough to confuse them. My scent will be unfamiliar to them, especially since most of them don’t even know I’m a bear at night. And I’ll walk through the manure. If you’re on my back, it will make it much harder for them to smell where you went.”
“Come on,” Charlotte said to Easton, giving him a light push. “Just do what she says.”
Still grumbling, Easton dropped carefully onto her back and slid forward as far as he could go. Charlotte followed next, Henry lifting her over the sill and placing her on Gwen’s back with ease. He followed last, barely fitting behind Charlotte, although he somehow managed to not only balance there but also lean back to close the window behind them.
Gwen took off at a careful walk, heading for the closest patch of concealing trees. Once out of sight, she angled toward the stables.
“If we’re throwing them off with the scent of manure…” she murmured in answer to the question no one had voiced aloud.
She walked all the way into the stables, and Charlotte expected the horses to start screaming and whinnying in terror. But they must have grown used to the presence of bears in their vicinity because they barely reacted at all.
Gwen stopped below a ladder that led up to the hay loft. They took turns stepping straight onto it, climbing one at a time. When they had finished, Gwen rubbed her side against the lower rungs, hopefully covering their scent.
“But what about you?” Easton leaned over the side, looking down at her.
“There’s an empty stall on the end. I’ll sleep there,” she called quietly back.
Easton twisted to look at Charlotte and Henry, and she could read his thoughts on his face. Thankfully, Gwen spoke before Charlotte needed to.
“You stay up there,” she told him. “Don’t even think about coming down to join me.”
Charlotte gave him a sympathetic look as he nodded with resignation. She felt selfish, but she was glad it wasn’t Henry down there, so close and yet too far. After so many stressful days apart, she wasn’t ready to have him more than an arm’s length away.