CHAPTER EIGHT AN UNEXPECTED VISIT

Despite the softest of pillows and the warmest of beds, no one sleeps well at Northphalia Castle that night. The cut on Jack’s leg is deep, and though the royal physicians do their best to make him comfortable, he still tosses and turns from the wound. Alistair whimpers for his missing pots in his sleep. Gretel worries over the state of her skin without her nighttime routine. Filomena keeps being awoken by nothing in particular, rather a general sense of unease. It certainly isn’t the restful night that they all desperately need. And their new friends fare just as poorly. Riff has nightmares of being locked in the tower again, and Princess Jeanne refuses to accept that her old friend is working not just with her uncle but also with the ogres.

In the morning, they gather around the breakfast table in low spirits. Filomena can’t help but feel like, after all that happened yesterday, they’re back to square one. Still robbed, still searching for Robin Hood, still needing to retrieve Princess Jeanne’s crown or else lose another kingdom to the reign of the ogres.

Little Jeanne walks into the breakfast room and takes stock of the low morale. She laughs. “Did someone die?”

Filomena doesn’t find this funny.

“Tough crowd,” Little Jeanne says, sitting down.

“How are you feeling?” Filomena asks Jack. She’s worried about his leg. He arrived for breakfast with a pair of crutches. When Robin Hood slashed Jack’s leg, Filomena’s heart had stopped; she’d felt the pain, too, almost as if it had happened to her.

“I’m okay,” Jack says with a strained smile.

“What did the doctors say?” asks Gretel.

“To not move for three months at least,” he mumbles. “But obviously I can’t do that.”

“Oh no you don’t,” says Filomena. “You have to stay put.”

“Yeah, you gotta let that heal, man,” agrees Alistair. “You can’t risk it. It’s your health!”

Jack’s mood darkens. “We’ll see.”

“You rest. We’ll keep looking for the crown,” Filomena says. “Right, guys?”

Riff and Princess Jeanne are subdued as well. Alistair reported that, while no one was injured during the ransacking of the Merry Greenwood Tavern, it hurt to see the cozy little pub damaged and terrorized. When they arrived to help, they’d found the tavern a complete ruin—windows smashed, tables and chairs overturned, patrons hiding in fear, and the White Rabbit shaking uncontrollably. Robin’s goons robbed them of their coin and jewels and took every last penny from the till. It would take months to right the place.

Little Jeanne reaches for the last snozzleberry muffin without asking if anyone wants it. (No manners, especially for a princess! thinks Filomena. Filomena’s own mother would die of embarrassment if Filomena did the same.) The young princess looks around at all the glum faces. “Maybe you should all stop for a while,” she suggests.

“Stop?” Filomena furrows her brow.

“Yes, stop. You’ve been working so hard! Have you looked in a mirror lately? You guys have aged years since Robin Hood robbed you.”

“Is it that bad? I mean, I know I don’t have my moisturizer, but I didn’t think anyone had noticed!” Gretel starts looking around for the nearest mirror with panic on her face.

“Uh, no offense,” Little Jeanne adds.

“None taken,” says Filomena coolly. “So I look fifteen? Big deal.”

Gretel laughs at this. “Yeah, maybe now I can get into R-rated movies.”

“You know what I mean,” Little Jeanne continues. “Look what’s happened to Jack! He needs to rest. How’s he going to save Never After if he can’t even run?”

“I can run,” Jack mumbles. “Just not fast.”

“Jack has to rest for sure,” agrees Filomena. “But the rest of us can’t. We’ll keep looking.”

“The crown isn’t going anywhere,” Little Jeanne says. “I mean, Uncle Richard won’t be so stupid as to try putting it on while my sister is alive. And I don’t think he’s truly capable of murder.”

“What’s his plan, then?” asks Filomena, wondering—not for the first time—about Little Jeanne’s angle. At dinner the previous night, the younger princess defended Robin Hood; today she’s an apologist for King Richard.

“Probably just to have Jeanne agree to sign an abdication, relinquishing her rights to the crown and her kingdom,” says Little Jeanne.

“I would never!” says Princess Jeanne hotly.

Little Jeanne shrugs. “You might have to.”

“Never! This is my kingdom.”

“But Uncle Richard has an army and almost all the land. You have one village that’s loyal to you. That’s it,” says Little Jeanne.

“But once the crown is on my head, I am Northphalia’s rightful ruler,” Princess Jeanne argues. “It’s the law!”

“Anyway,” continues Little Jeanne, “like I was saying, it doesn’t seem like the worst thing in the world to take a breather.”

Alistair considers and turns to Filomena. “It’s not good to get so tired that you can’t properly defend yourself in battle.”

“Plus you can stay here as long as you’d like,” Little Jeanne says. “Right, sis?”

Princess Jeanne takes a sip of her espresso, her earlier agitation replaced by the airs of a consummate host. “Of course. I love company!”

Filomena can’t believe this. Little Jeanne just wants them to give up! To have her sister abdicate the throne and the four of them take a break! Of course, Jack must rest. That’s clear. Filomena’s not going to let him put weight on that leg.

But as for the rest of them? Chill out? Just hang around the castle? That seems ludicrous. They have a kingdom to save from ogres!

Why doesn’t Little Jeanne care about Princess Jeanne’s kingdom? Isn’t it her kingdom, too?

“You don’t get it, Little Jeanne,” Filomena says. “We have a mission to fulfill. We have a prophecy to keep in mind, and there’s a lot to get done!” She looks to Jack for support. “Right, Jack?”

He sighs and winces from the pain in his leg. “I don’t know. I’m feeling so foggy right now. I was going to argue, but maybe she has a point.”

Filomena can’t help feeling a little hurt. “So we just sit around here all day? Eating gumdrops and Hula-Hooping?”

“That actually sounds really nice,” Alistair inserts.

“Gretel?” asks Filomena.

Gretel throws her hands up. “I’ll do what everyone else wants to do.”

“Well, I, for one, am tired.” Alistair sighs. “We’ve been going nonstop ever since we first ran into Filomena.” (All the way back in book one!)

“But … what about our quest?” Filomena asks, quietly now.

Jack limps over to the nearest chaise to elevate his leg. It’s hard to see him so weak. “It will still be waiting for us when we’re ready. Little Jeanne is right; the crown isn’t going anywhere for a while. Richard won’t make a move until he needs to. Trust me, I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have.”

Ouch. Filomena knows she’s the newbie, but she kind of thought that Jack felt like they were on the same page. That they were a team. Aren’t they? Now she doesn’t feel so sure.

“Exactly,” Little Jeanne says. “Relax, rest, and have a little fun. I mean, it’s so nice having you here. It will be revitalizing, don’t you think?”

Gretel and Alistair nod sheepishly, staring at their breakfasts to avoid eye contact with Filomena. Princess Jeanne and Riff don’t say anything, but they look defeated as well. No one argues with Little Jeanne.

Filomena wishes she could talk privately with Jack, Alistair, and Gretel. She feels like she’s lost the rhythm and the tight alliance of her favorite foursome. She puts her head in her hands, resigned.

Just then, the front doors to the castle fly open. Everyone jumps up suddenly. Robin Hood? The henchmen? Ogres? Who goes there?!

No, none of those things. Something much, much better.

“Beatrice!” Gretel cries, running over to hug her cousin. “What are you doing here?” She pulls back to look at Beatrice. “Shouldn’t you be on your honeymoon?”

Behind Beatrice, Byron, once beastly and now returned to his handsome princely form, steps into the room as well.

Filomena feels her heart lighten. Beatrice and Byron know exactly what’s at stake! Maybe they can convince everyone that resting at this palace is silly.

“If it isn’t the prince and princess of Wonderland!” Princess Jeanne singsongs. “Please, make yourselves at home. I won’t hold it against you that I wasn’t invited to your spectacular wedding.”

But Beatrice and Byron don’t appear able to join in on the joking—they look terribly morose.

“We were on our honeymoon, yes,” Beatrice says in answer to Gretel’s question. “But once we returned, we got a message.” Turning to Filomena, she says, “We’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“For me? What kind of message?”

“Well, we’re not sure exactly how it got through the portal, but it looks like your father has figured out how to send messages from the mortal world.”

Filomena’s heart catches in her throat. “My dad? Is he okay? How did he do that?”

“We don’t know really, but it seems he somehow knew that Wonderland was the last place you’d been. He must have sent the message before you left, but we didn’t see it until we got back,” replies Byron.

“What did it say? What’s going on?” Filomena asks, raising her voice to a louder pitch than normal.

“Filomena, I’m so sorry,” Beatrice says.

“Just tell me what’s happening!” Why is her dad sending her messages in Never After? It can only mean something terrible has happened.

Beatrice sighs. She looks at Byron and then back at Filomena. Her pretty face is drawn and anxious. “I’m very sorry to tell you this, but your mother has fallen ill. It sounds quite serious, apparently.”

Filomena grips the back of her chair to remain standing. She feels sick. Her mom is ill? “How serious?” She can feel tears start to form.

“I don’t know, but I do think you should go back to the mortal world for now.”

“Fil…,” Jack begins, starting to get up to go to her. “I’m so sorry.”

“No … no, it’s okay…,” she tells him. “You shouldn’t move.” She hides her face in her hands. She doesn’t want to cry in front of everyone.

Gretel rushes over and envelops her in a hug. Alistair is there, too, holding her tightly. Her friends are with her.

She can’t restrain herself any longer. She cries in their embrace. “Not my mom!” she wails.

Her mom. Her amazing mom.

She takes a deep breath, wipes her tears, and pulls away from her friends. Whatever they decide to do now, she knows only what she must do.

“I’m going home,” she announces.