Chapter Eight

Annabel had made it back to the palace unnoticed. Katy had been waiting for her, to admonish and fuss in equal measure. The princess had been so relieved not to have been greeted by an angry Lord Cranestoft she had conceded to being stripped, bathed, re-dressed, and doused in perfume, before being led to dinner.

Annabel’s heart had run away in panic when she’d entered the dining room. She had convinced herself the Regent would challenge her about her whereabouts, but he said nothing.

Annabel sat beneath the crystal chandeliers, picking at the food on her plate, the silverware heavy between her fingers. As the servants and the courses came and went, she forced polite smiles and made small-talk with Admiral-this and Colonel-that’s wife.

After dinner, she sat with the other women when the men retired to drink brandy, smoke cigars and play billiards. At last, claiming a headache, she made her excuses and escaped to her bedroom.

As soon as she heard Katy’s heavy snoring in the adjacent chamber, Annabel slipped from beneath her silken sheets and drew her dressing gown over her shoulders. She couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t only anxious thoughts about Ravensberg’s welfare should the guards have discovered his scientosophical instruments that kept her awake, but the realization she hadn’t gone back to retrieve her father’s vicinity scope from the Throne Room window casement.

Opening Katy’s connecting door, Annabel peeked round and listened. Between snores, the maid was breathing deeply. Annabel closed the door again and soft-footed it to the bedchamber door. She opened it a fraction and peered into the corridor. The guard’s chair was empty. She heard a girl’s coy laughter. A little way down the corridor in the other direction, one of the servants leaned against the wall, the guard pressed against her, kissing her neck.

Annabel slipped out and tip-toed on bare feet along the corridor. Once she was round the corner, she ran, tripping down the sweeping staircase, along another corridor, through a hallway and on into the Throne Room. She closed the door behind her and allowed her breath to settle.

At the window casement, she pulled back the shutter, and reached in to take out the device she had hidden there.

It had gone.

She shook her head in disbelief. I’m dreaming, she thought. This is a nightmare and if I go back to bed, I’ll wake up and everything will be all right.

But she didn’t go back to bed.

Her hand moved frantically, long fingernails scraping plaster and wood in the dark behind the casement. In that small space, there were no nooks into which the vicinity scope might have fallen. The device was too large. Someone’s taken it, she thought. But who?

If it had been Cranestoft, he would have confronted her with it by now, especially if he suspected her visit to Dr. Ravensberg. If a servant had taken it, it would have been passed on to the Regent, too. Annabel pressed the shutter into place and turned her back to the window. Her fingers screwed up a chunk of her dressing gown as she paced back and forth, the marble tiles cold against her naked feet.

She stopped by the window again and looked out. Turning the handle and pushing the glass doors open, she wrapped her gown around her and stepped onto the balcony.

It was a cool night and a gentle breeze played at her hair as she breathed in the soft air, scented with flowers and the distant, damp aroma of the forest. It had rained a little during the night and the balcony was wet. Above her, she made out the nearest islands, and the more distant ones in the Outer Archipelago twinkled like tiny stars. What lay beyond the archipelago, out in the inky vastness of the Dark Sea? Where had that ship come from and what had become of her crew?

“Your Highness!”

Annabel’s heart somersaulted in her breast. She whipped around and almost slipped on the slick slabs. Katy rushed forward and caught her arm before she could fall.

“Katy,” Annabel said. “You gave me the fright of my life!”

“Not so much of a fright as you gave me when I got up for a glass of water to find your bed empty and no sign of you anywhere.”

“Well, I’m safe.”

“What are you doing out here? And barefoot, too – you’ll catch your death.”

“I couldn’t sleep. I was just looking at the sky. Day dreaming.”

“Well you can’t have been day dreaming in the middle of the night, Your Highness. If you want to dream, please come back to bed and get yourself warm.” The maid touched her hand to Annabel’s arm. “You’re chilled as a corpse,” she said. “Come on. Princess or not, it’s my duty to take care of you. Back to bed, Your Highness.”

Annabel smiled. Sometimes being bossed about by Katy was the most comforting thing she knew. She linked her arm through her maid’s and let the good lady lead her back to her bed chamber. As they approached the door, the guard, seated once more, leapt up and stood to attention. Katy looked daggers at him. “Fat lot of good you are!” she said, ushering Annabel inside and slamming the door in his face before he had time to protest.

Ten minutes later and Annabel was in bed again, a cup of hot cocoa steaming on the table beside her and a foot warmer tucked under the sheets.

“Good night, Your Highness,” said Katy, yawning. “Sleep well.” Then she curtsied and returned to the adjacent chamber.

But Annabel did not have a good night. She lay awake until almost dawn, tossing and turning, her mind tumbling over troubled thoughts. When at last she drifted off to sleep, the distant birds in the far away forest were beginning their morning chorus. Annabel’s eyelids fluttered and closed. She laid still at last, the cocoa cold and untouched beside her.