Chasing Royalty

5

Alexanne manages to eat with Emilienne, Violette, and I for supper, but her hands shake from exhaustion.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask, even though I’ve already asked this more than once.

Alexanne forces a faint smile, “I’m sure I’m fine. I’m already feeling better than I was this morning. I’m here, aren’t I?”

I want to tell her of everything that happened in the courtyard, but there are servants all around us.

We’re mostly silent around the table. There’s a thousand things we want to say to each other, but each is too dangerous to say aloud.

Once we’ve finished picking through our meals, Violette catches my eye. She tilts her head slightly in Alexanne’s direction.

After fifteen years of growing up with her, I understand what she means. She wants me to talk to Alexanne, update her, and ask her if she wants to come with us to question the servants.

I turn to her, “Alexanne, could I walk you back to your room? I need to talk to you again about what we discussed early today.”

“Sure, I want to talk to you anyway.” Alexanne pushes herself up from her seat. I pretend not to notice how much her legs tremble.

Noelle, her lady in waiting, says, “Is that such a good idea, Alexanne? After this, don’t you want some rest?”

“I think I can talk to Admira for a few minutes.” I don’t know how Alexanne can be so patient with Noelle.

Alexanne and I pass by Emilienne on the way out of the room. I whisper in her ear, “I’ll be in the Sitting Room in ten minutes.”

She nods shortly. Alexanne stumbles all the way to her room.

I don’t say anything, but she feels my concerned stare on her back.

“I’m fine. I’m just a little preoccupied, thinking about…”

“About…?”

“About the…the murder.”

“It’s horrible, isn’t it?”

“I just don’t....” Her voice is soft and weak. A tear gathers in each of her eyes.

“Oh, Alexanne,” I rush to her side, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

We reach her bedroom door. I push it open for her and she slips inside. She collapses on to her bed.

I say, “We went to courtyard, looked for about a minute, and an investigator appeared. He commanded us that we were never to come to that courtyard again, at least until the investigation is over.”

Alexanne gasps, “Is he going to tell William?”

“I don’t know. He seemed a little cold, but not necessarily mean. Just…above us.”

“Did you figure anything out while you were there?”

“All that was left were bloodstained cobblestones. But we have a plan. In just a few minutes, we are going to go try to talk to some of the servants that knew Evette. Maybe they’ll tell us something that they wouldn’t tell the investigator. Do you want to come?”

Alexanne looks away, “I wish I could, but I’m afraid I’d only slow you down. Besides, if I am sick with something, I wouldn’t want to infect all the servants.”

“You wouldn’t be a bother if you wanted to come. The servants might trust us more if all four of us are there.”

“I need the rest. But, you have to tell me absolutely everything you learn.”

“Of course,” I say, “If you’re not going then, I need to get to the Sitting Room. I’ll send Noelle, okay?”

“That’ll be perfect. Thank you. You should try to learn more about the investigator too. He could be working with someone. He could be hiding the courtyard from you to keep you from finding out the true facts,” Alexanne says.

The investigator was likely hired by William. It’d be the perfect cover up if William were the murderer. He’d have no problem hiding the clues if the investigator wasn’t looking for them.

“You’re right, we’ll work on that too.” I say. “I hope you feel better soon.”

I run to get Noelle, before making my way to the Sitting Room. Emilienne and Violette wait inside, their heads bent into a quiet conversation.

Violette stands, “Evette worked in the kitchen, so more of that staff would know her. We should go there first.”

We stroll through the corridors, passing by the guards and servants. When we reach the doors of the kitchen, Violette hesitates. I can’t remember ever entering the kitchen. It’s the servants’ territory. As long as my food is delivered to my place at the table, I have no reason to be there. William certainly wouldn’t encourage it.

“Come on, let’s go. We don’t want William or Victor to discover us here.” Emilienne pushes past Violette, shoving the doors open.

The nearest servants widen as they notice us. Emilienne offers them a hesitant smile. They immediately drop to curtsies and bows. The clatter and chatter of the kitchen dies to absolute silence as we capture their interest.

We have no plan. Did we think we could just stroll in here without catching everyone’s attention? It’d be a miracle if word of our visit didn’t get back to William or the investigator. But we’re already here. We have to ask questions or we’ll never learn who Evette was and why someone would want to kill her.

I step forward, “We, uh, were wondering if any of you knew Evette well? Perhaps her mother?”

A muffled sniff breaks the silence. My eyes land on a young girl of maybe twelve or thirteen.

Violette steps toward her, “What’s your name?”

The girl shies away from her, burying her teary cheeks into her hands.

I join Violette, only a step away from the girl, “It’s okay, we aren’t going to hurt you. We just want to know your name.”

“Sophie.” The mumbled words escape from her hands.

Violette curtsies, “It’s lovely to meet you, Sophie. My name is Violette.”

“Of course, I know your name. You’re a princess.”

“Did you know Evette?” I ask.

She nods her head.

Violette says, “Would you like to talk about it? Maybe we could have some pastries.”

Two ladies in the back begin preparing a plate of pastries.

Sophie lifts her head from her hands, revealing an awestruck face, “Have a pastry? With you?”

I notice how her shirt hangs from her narrow shoulders. Her thin arms wrap around her fragile body.

“Shall we?” Violette motions towards the door.

Sophie grins and follows us out of the door. We got to an empty meeting room and sit down around the table. Hopefully this room is random enough to keep us hidden from Victor and William.

Emilienne, Violette, and I all sit down, but Sophie hesitates. She waits in front of Alexanne’s chair.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

She stares at the chair, “Can I…can I sit here? In Princess Alexandra’s chair?”

I grin at her encouragingly. She settles on to the very edge of the chair, as if she’s afraid she’ll infect it. A servant enters and places the plate of pastries in front of us. Sophie murmurs, “Thanks, Lilian.”

The servant smiles faintly and disappears from the room.

Why haven’t I ever taken the time to learn any of the servants’ names? I try to be nice to them, but I haven’t tried to get to know them.

Violette carefully asks, “Sophie, how was it that you knew Evette?”

Tears immediately flood Sophie’s eyes. “She was my sister.”

“Your sister?” The words slip from my mouth before I could stop. William said there was no known family.

“Well, she wasn’t my true sister, but we’d grown up together since we were toddlers. We told each other everything and now…”

“I’m so sorry.” Violette hands her the plate of pastries. Sophie nibbles on one.

“It’s terrible,” she says, “We used to dream of being princesses, with no problems or work, you know? It would help us work through the day. Now I’m finally here, ‘playing princess’, and that’s only because she died.”

A tear fills my own eye. We can’t question her, not now. She’s probably gone through triple of whatever we might go through in our pampered lives.

She continues to talk. “I can’t get over that I’ll never talk to her again. Our last conversation wasn’t even meaningful. We’d just shared a couple nervous sentences as we passed by each other in the hall.”

“Nervous sentences?” Emilienne asks. “What were you nervous about?”

“It was more her than me. She’d just accidently spilled some wine on William. He requested that someone brought it up for him. She was one of the few people not busy, so the kitchen staff made her go. They knew it was bad choice, Evette’s always getting in trouble with the kitchen staff for being clumsy and making mistakes. While pouring the wine, she just stumbled and some drops slipped over the edge. He seemed to be forgiving, but everyone’s always been scared of him.”