“Don’t look so worried, Thea,” Jilly said. “After all, this is the moment you’ve been dressing for all your life!”
Anthea looked at her cousin, ready to yell, and met Jilly’s bright eyes and familiar rakish smile. Anthea just shrugged her army coat tighter around her, covering the sailor collar of her old school blouse even more, and gave a halfhearted scowl.
She turned away from her cousin to look back over the docks. The massive steamship they were about to board was still loading anonymous crates and bundles, and the men had told them to wait far up the docks with their “animals” so that they wouldn’t disturb the sailors.
Arthur stirred in her pocket, so she pulled him out and set him on Florian’s back to watch the unloading. He climbed Florian’s mane to sit between his ears, and Florian sighed deeply and did his best not to mind.
“We’re going to do this,” Jilly said softly, taking her arm. “We are going to win.”
“Yes, we are,” Queen Josephine said. She was standing behind them, and she put her arms around both girls and gave them a little squeeze.
“Your Majesty,” Uncle Andrew said, “I wish I could tell you how—”
“Don’t say another word, Andrew,” the queen said. “It is probably against the law to make the queen cry.”
“Probably?” Jilly asked.
“There are a lot of laws, Jilly. I can’t keep track of them all.”
“Is there a law about not keeping horses?” Anthea asked.
She turned a little in the queen’s embrace so that she could see her face. The queen’s bright blue eyes were too bright: she was on the verge of tears, which made Anthea’s own gray eyes prickle.
“There is not,” the queen said firmly. “But since no one believes you, Andrew, I am more than happy to take matters into my own hands while you are in Kronenhof.”
“What are you going to do?” Finn was at last drawn out of his glum torpor.
“There will be parades,” the queen said emphatically. “There will be deliveries of medicine and vaccines to the last few suffering from the Dag. There will be special decrees. There will be unveilings of my new personal symbol.”
She pointed with her chin at the rose and horseshoe that both Anthea and Jilly still wore. The queen herself sported the symbol in gold embroidery on both lapels of her riding jacket, and she and four attendant Maidens had all ridden to the docks to see them off. Three of them had the Way, they had proudly told Anthea.
“I’m going to rip that gate right out of the Wall, and make sure that everyone knows about Last Farm,” the queen went on, her voice heated. “And that they know that there’s a herd in Bell Hyde, and Upper Stonesraugh, too! Caillin MacRennie and I are going to keep the riders busy traveling all around Coronam and Leana, blowing kisses and blessing babies!”
“But King Gareth—” Andrew began, the frown creases in his forehead deepening.
“Gareth can go jump in the sea for all I care,” the queen said with a sharpness that made Jilly’s and Anthea’s eyes meet, wide. “Our daughter has been kidnapped! And since he doesn’t want a war, and we aren’t allowed to talk about it, we are going to do this my way. With diplomacy. With polite smiles, and pretending that I’m just sending some friends on a social visit to the dear, dear empress, to show off the horses and their riders, and fetch my Meg from her spontaneous Kronenhofer holiday!”
She cleared her throat.
“And I’ve let Gareth know that this is all his fault. Him and his darling lady spy!”
She squeezed Anthea even tighter. “I’m sorry, Thea dear, but your mother … your mother!”
“We all keep saying it like that,” Jilly offered.
“She’s not my mother,” Anthea said fiercely. “Not my real mother!”
“Attagirl,” Jilly cheered.
Anthea let her head rest on the queen’s shoulder. Josephine tilted her face and kissed the top of Anthea’s head.
“My dear Horse Maidens,” Josephine whispered, “will you find my Meg and bring her home?”
“You know we will,” Jilly said.
“We will bring them all home,” Anthea said, raising her voice so that Finn could hear, too. “Meg and Constantine, Brutus, Blossom, Campanula, Buttercup! And we’ll stop this war my mother is trying to start, before it even gets off the ground!”
“They have those schutzer-somethings,” Finn said bleakly, “and we have a handful of horses and pistols.”
Arthur hooted softly.
Finn almost smiled. “And an owl.”
“I beg your pardon, but that is no way for a king to talk!” a woman’s voice cut in. “I can see that this is going to be a lot more work than I was told!”
Anthea went rigid. For a moment she thought it was her mother and her hand moved to her pistol as Josephine let go of her.
But this woman was not as tall or as slender as her mother, though she did have a very large veiled hat pinned to her beautifully upswept hair. She wore a navy blue suit and her high-buttoned boots had violet heels that matched the violet roses embroidered around the high collar of her snowy-white silk blouse. Behind her was an entire army of servants bearing dozens of pieces of matching luggage. One of them, Anthea saw, was bearing a basket with not one but two small dogs peeping out.
“Now!” The woman pointed a gloved finger at Finn. “Shoulders back, chin up! There’s no need to smile, but there’s also no need to scowl!”
“Who are you?” Finn demanded.
Uncle Andrew suddenly gripped Jilly’s arm with one hand, drawing her to his side. He turned to Queen Josephine, his mouth open and his face white with shock.
“I’m so sorry, Andrew,” the queen said. “I kept thinking I would warn you, but then I didn’t know how! This is the best way to make this look like a social visit, you know it is!
“And I’m so worried about Meg,” she added. “I will do anything to get her back!”
“Margaret,” the woman said. “Your daughter’s name is Margaret, Your Majesty. Pet names are so very inappropriate!”
“Who are you?” Now it was Anthea’s turn to ask.
“I’m a lot of things,” the woman said with a laugh. “When the queen was merely another Rose Candidate, and I had been elevated to the position of Maiden, I took her under my wing and taught her the ways of the court. I rather fancy that her current high station in life is my doing.”
The woman lowered her eyes with calculated modesty, and Anthea thought wildly that she had surely gone to Miss Miniver’s Rose Academy. It was Miss Miniver’s signature move.
“So I have been asked to attend you on this journey, to teach you all diplomacy as well as introducing you to my old friend Empress Elisabet. I will also be your translator,” the woman said briskly. “Kronenhofer is one of the four languages I speak.”
“That’s … good?”
Anthea’s comment came out as a question because both Jilly and Uncle Andrew were still pale as ghosts, and Finn was staring around between them all as though he’d been struck over the head. Anthea looked at Josephine, but the queen avoided her gaze.
“Anthea, Jillian,” the woman continued, “I’ve brought clothes for you both. I guessed at the sizes from those photographs of you and your animals that odd little man took. My maids can alter them as needed. I had thought you could wear some of your own things, but now I see that’s impossible.”
“I like my coat,” Anthea said feebly.
“And I love mine,” Jilly said hotly. “You are not touching it. You are not going to say one word to me, either! You don’t have the right to even look at me!”
“Oh,” Anthea said. “No.”
The woman looked at her with one carefully plucked eyebrow raised. “Did you just catch on?” She tsked. “I thought you were supposed to be the smart one!”
“Cassandra!” Uncle Andrew said sharply.
“That’s … She’s really …,” Finn stammered.
Jilly rounded on Queen Josephine. Her face had gone from white to red.
“I am not going anywhere with my mother!”