Selena held her breath as Lucas explained that her father had left for Castle Borrom early yesterday morning. She was a little embarrassed that the stable boy knew more about her father’s whereabouts than she did, but more than anything, she was sorry she had not had the chance to say anything to him before he left.
Selena hoped he was not too cross with her. Maybe by the time he returned home, Selena’s birthday catastrophe would be ancient history.
But the idea that he would be gone so long did more to depress her than cheer her.
“Thought for certain the Duke was going to head off the day before yesterday…the day after your party,” Lucas said, scratching at the woolen hat that sat lopsidedly atop his head.
“Why is that?”
“’Cause of your uncle, of course,” Lucas replied.
“Oh, because of the coins he stole?” Selena shrugged. Truth be told, she had forgotten about that. Her own problems seemed more important than a little missing money.
“‘The coins,’ you say!” Lucas laughed. “More like a small fortune! I had a horse all saddled up for the Duke, I did. One for him and a few more for Old Alger and his Knights.
“’Tis a good thing the Duchess talked them out of it…for your uncle’s sake, I mean. From what I’ve heard, the Duke was so angry, he probably would’ve hunted your uncle down like a wild stag…maybe would’ve speared him too.”
“Mother was probably more worried about the family reputation than Uncle Will’s safety,” Selena said. “Imagine what people would say if Father was responsible for Uncle Will’s death.”
Lucas made a sound that resembled a scoff and scratched again at his wooly cap.
“What?” Selena prompted.
“The Duchess was in a real hurry to get rid of him…your uncle, I mean. She granted him permission to take a horse from the stable. He tried to take the Duke’s favorite mount, but we put a stop to that. Still, he ended up with a fine piece o’ horseflesh.”
“Well, I am certain Mother would not have given him a horse if she had known how much money he already had purloined,” Selena replied. “I imagine he was in a great hurry to be off…”
Lucas sat up straight. “That’s the funny thing, isn’t it? He wasn’t in a rush at all. He chatted with Big Ted as though he were just headin’ off on holiday, not escapin’ the scene o’ the crime.”
“Perhaps he did not want to appear suspicious,” Selena reasoned.
Lucas gave a halfhearted shrug and leaned back against the hay. “Pardon me for sayin’ it, but I didn’t much care for that uncle of yours. He’s got a gilded tongue in that mouth o’ his, but there’s no hidin’ the scoundrel in him.”
“I would have liked the chance to talk with him more.” Selena glanced at the full moon, framed by a window at the far end of the loft. She went on to describe her strange conversation with Uncle Will, how he had told her more about her mother’s past than anyone ever had before.
“Well, you prob’ly won’t be seein’ him for a long time,” Lucas said, “unless he’s foolish enough to let your father catch him.”
“He reminded me of you a little,” Selena said.
Lucas’s eyes widened.
“Not in a bad way,” she amended. “I guess it was mostly because he was Paramese…and the way he talked…”
“I’m not Paramese,” Lucas said with a sly smile. “Was born right here at Castle Nelesti.”
“But your parents are from Param,” Selena said. “And you look Paramese.”
“Guilty as charged,” was Lucas’s snide reply, though Selena could see the boy was grinning.
“It is not a crime to be Paramese,” she told him. “It makes you interesting.”
“The Duke apparently agrees. He’s given jobs to many Paramese over the years.”
“Including my mother,” Selena was quick to interject, and they both laughed at that.
Selena glanced back over at the moon, letting her mind wander. “I cannot help but wonder how the two of them met…my father and mother. They are so unalike.”
“Perhaps that’s why they fell in love. Because they were so different.” Lucas cleared his throat. “Lookin’ for the Man o’ the Moon?”
“There is no Man of the Moon,” Selena stated. “Three sisters live up there, or so the stories say.”
“There are stories about the Man o’ the Moon too,” Lucas argued playfully.
“How did he get up there?”
Lucas thought about this for a moment. “Guess I don’t recall how that part goes. How’d the sisters end up on the moon?”
Selena knew the story well, though she had not thought about it for years. Mythology had never much interested her because it was untrue. But the story about the Three Sisters—Lady White, Lady Red, and Lady Black—had a special place in her heart because her grandmother had often told her the story.
“You are a child of the moon…”
That was how Celeste always began the tale. The ancient people of Western Arabond had called the moon Selene, believing that the celestial orb itself was a goddess. It had made Selena feel special to know she had something in common with such a beautiful thing.
She had often wondered why her parents had picked “Selena” over all other names. On the one occasion she had asked her father, he had said the following:
“It is no easy task choosing a name for your baby, and by the time you were born, your mother and I had had to do it seven times before! We could not think of any good names anymore, so we threw our hands up and named you after the first thing we saw.”
She related the legend of the Three Sisters to Lucas, pausing here and there to remember the details of her grandmother’s tale. The Three Sisters had been banished to the moon because they could not get along and their bickering was causing an uproar all over the world.
It was their mother who had sent them to the moon, but Selena could not recall who their mother was. Maybe it was a goddess. Maybe it was Selene. Celeste had told her so many myths about gods and goddesses that Selena had a tough time keeping them straight.
“So who were the Three Sisters anyway?” Lucas asked her. “Were they people like you and me or spirits or what?”
Selena did not know. “My grandmother always referred to them as Lady White, Lady Red, and Lady Black.”
“Lady White?” Lucas said. “Probably, she’s the mother of Old Alger White.”
“Or the daughter!” Selena shot back.
They laughed for a while, making jokes about how Alger White could probably remember back before there were castles, when people lived in caves.
“So, the three o’ them…the Three Sisters…they’re still trapped up there?” Lucas asked.
“As far as I know,” Selena said.
“Then I expect those colorful ladies could use a bit o’ company. If there is a Man o’ the Moon, he’d be a popular fellow!”
Selena snorted in amusement. By this time, she could see only a sliver of the moon from where she was sitting. The night was passing far too quickly. She had to get up for more lessons with Briarbridge. Lucas would be up even earlier, feeding the horses and doing whatever other chores the current stablemaster—Theodore McSomething—found for him to do.
They must have both come to the same conclusion for they stood up at the same time. Selena pulled her hood up and tightened the scarf around her neck. She preceded him down the ladder and waited for him to lead the way back to the stable’s rear entrance.
He walked with her back to the castle, but they dared not speak. The only sound was the crunching of the snow beneath their feet. Selena feared that the noise must surely carry for miles.
This was by far the most dangerous part of the night. If anyone came upon them, it would be the end of it all. Her mother would surely lock Selena in her room until the day of her nuptials.
They stopped once they reached the tall wooden fence. Selena did not want to look at Lucas, did not want to say goodbye. Without saying a word, Lucas cupped his hands and bent his knees. She came forward and placed her hands on his shoulders and her foot in his hands.
“On the count o’ three,” Lucas whispered.
Three seconds later, Selena was propelled into the air. She almost always got the top of the fence on the first try, though she always worried she would miss. Her fingers closed upon the wooden ridge, her feet scrambling for purchase. Lucas steadied her legs, and he pushed while Selena pulled herself up and over the fence.
Standing atop the woodpile, she waved goodnight to Lucas, who stood watching her from the ground on the other side. He waved back.
She wondered how long he would wait there as she carefully climbed down the pile of logs. Did he wait until he heard the door close? Or was he already sprinting back to his home near the stable?
She withdrew a big key from her pocket and slowly turned it inside the keyhole. To her great relief, Old Alger was not waiting for her in the corridor. She made her way back to her bedroom. No one stirred.
Selena crawled into her bed without preamble, kicking off her boots along the way. She removed her coat and threw it under her bed so the servant who woke her up the next morning would not see it.
Sleep did not come quickly, though she hoped it would, not wanting to think what would happen if she fell asleep during Briarbridge’s class.
Try as she might, she could not douse the flame of thought that cast its light on everything from her Uncle Will to the origin of her parents’ relationship to her time spent with Lucas Thorne.
When it was time get up the next morning, Selena would have sworn she had not slept at wink.