The Bravest Princess (2 page)

Gwendolyn stomped her dainty foot and pouted. “I asked you to do one little thing and you failed! Are you trying to ruin my wedding?”

Queen Karolina frowned. “Gwendolyn! Annie was trying to stop Granny Bentbone from harming the children. It's not surprising that she wasn't able to take care of your errand. I'm just glad she noticed what the witch was doing. Thank you for warning us, Annie,” she said, turning to her younger daughter.

Gwendolyn sighed in a loud and dramatic way. “Does everything have to be about Annie? Tomorrow is supposed to be my special day!”

Queen Karolina cast her older daughter an annoyed glance. “Annie didn't ask for this to happen.”

There was a knock on the door, and a guard poked his head into the room. “A messenger just arrived, Your Highness.”

At a gesture from the king, the guard opened the door wide to admit a man carrying a satchel. “I bear two messages from the princess Snow White, Your Majesty,” said the messenger. “One is for Princess Gwendolyn, the other for Princess Annabelle.”

“I wonder what this is about,” Annie said, reaching for her message. Breaking the seal, she spread the
parchment open. “Snow White wants me to come visit her the moment I can get away. Her father wants her to choose a prince as soon as possible.”

“Read mine, too, Annie,” Gwendolyn said, handing her message to her sister. Like most princesses, Gwendolyn had never learned to read. Although she had often made fun of Annie for learning the skill, she usually turned to her sister when she wanted something read to her.

Annie took the message. “Oh, that's too bad,” she said. “Snow White and her father are unable to attend the wedding. I wonder what's going on. Something must have happened to keep her from coming here and made her father want her to find a prince right away.”

“I can't imagine what it could be,” Gwendolyn said. “But I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. In the meantime, could we please concentrate on my wedding? It is tomorrow, you know.”

“Yes, we know!” everyone said at once.

“Annie, wake up!” Gwendolyn shouted, hopping onto Annie's bed.

Annie opened one bleary eye and peered at her sister. “It's still dark out. Why do
I
have to wake up so early?”

“Because I need to talk to you about Beldegard.” Gwendolyn stretched out on Annie's bed and turned to face her sister. “Do you think I've been hasty in agreeing to marry him so soon? I met him only a few weeks ago.”

Annie sighed and opened her other eye. “Ordinarily, I'd say that you and Beldegard went way too fast, but you
know
he's the love of your life. He has to be, because it was his kiss that woke you from the curse.”

“But I hardly know him! What if he likes things that I don't? What if I don't like his friends or don't get along with his relatives?”

“You'll work it out. I think that finding one's true
love is so rare that you shouldn't let anything get in your way.”

“I guess you're right,” Gwendolyn admitted. “I really do believe he's perfect for me. I get tingles all over when he kisses me, especially now that he's human! Come on, Annie. Get up! I'm getting married in five hours, and there's still so much to do!”

Annie sat up as her sister hopped off the bed and was surprised when Gwendolyn hugged her. She was sure that if she counted on one hand the number of times any member of her family had given her a hug, she'd still have fingers left over.

“I love you, Annie, and I think you're a wonderful sister. Thanks for our little talk,” said Gwendolyn.

Stunned, Annie watched Gwendolyn dance toward the door. As far back as she could remember, this was the first time her sister had ever said she liked her, let alone loved her. All those years before the curse ended, Gwendolyn wouldn't let Annie near her and made cutting remarks about Annie whenever they were in the same room.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Gwendolyn said, stopping by the door and turning. “Please don't do anything to disrupt my wedding.”

Annie glanced out the window as her bare feet touched the cold stone floor. It was still dark out, and the guards
had torches lit by the drawbridge and gates, although when she crossed the room and leaned over the window ledge, she could see the first glimmer of daylight in the east. It looked as if no one else was awake, but she knew that the cooks had been busy for hours preparing the wedding feast, seamstresses had been up all night putting the finishing touches on Gwendolyn's and the queen's gowns, and a small army was already working on the flowers that were to decorate the great hall.

Even as Annie put on her very best gown, she heard the sounds of the castle stirring. Voices rose and fell as people hurried through the hall. A querulous voice outside her door complained about torn stockings. Someone dragged something heavy that bumped and scraped against the floor.

Annie slipped from her chamber, hoping to get something to eat before she got caught up in the bustle of activity around her. When she reached the great hall, she found that most of it had already been decorated with masses of fragrant roses and lilies. She waved at some of the people working in the hall. Growing up with a family who treated her like an outsider, and nobility who had as little contact with her as possible, Annie had spent much of her time with the servants' children and learned a lot from watching the servants work. Her parents weren't happy that she was on such close terms with them, but Annie didn't care.

Annie smiled at Marie, the maid who was in charge of the flowers. Marie knew everything there was to know about flowers and picked fresh blooms every day from the queen's garden. Queen Karolina's fairy godmother had created the garden when Karolina married King Halbert, making sure that the new queen had fresh flowers all year long. As Annie passed by, Marie was telling three footmen where to place several baskets of flowers while she whipped together bouquets using blossoms from water-filled buckets.

Annie looked around as she walked down the aisle between the rows of benches that filled the center of the hall. The tables, which normally stood in two long rows, had been pushed against the wall behind the columns that supported the balcony, where the musicians would be playing. Colorful banners fluttered from the ceiling, garlands of flowers were draped over the balcony railing, and great copper bowls sat on the tables, their blossoms spilling down the sides like froth from over filled tankards. The scent of the flowers mingled with the fresh beeswax candles in the wall sconces and the sweet-smelling herbs covering the floors, making the entire hall smell like summer.

Two tables had been left at the opposite end of the hall from the dais for the use of anyone wanting breakfast. Annie spotted Prince Emilio, one of the princes she had met while looking for Gwendolyn's true love. Annie joined him, and a moment later, a harried-looking
kitchen helper came to the table carrying a pot of porridge. Setting a bowl in front of Annie, the girl began to ladle out a serving. Annie glanced at the porridge, which was laced with burned bits scraped from the bottom of the pot.

“Is there anything else to eat?” she asked the girl.

“I'm sorry, Your Highness,” said the girl, dropping another scoop of porridge in the bowl with an audible
plop,
“but that's all there is this morning. The cooks all have their hands full fixing the wedding feast.”

“I can't eat that slop,” said Prince Digby, who had been Gwendolyn's only suitor before the curse took hold. “It looks like something a cat—”

“Don't you dare finish that sentence,” Annie told him. “Some of us are actually going to eat it.”

Digby smirked and opened his mouth to continue when a little girl seated at the end of the other table turned to her mother and said, “Momma, I don't feel so good.”

“Who was that?” Emilio asked Annie as the woman hustled her daughter from the room.

“I think that was one of the flower girls,” said Annie. After pushing the largest blackened bits to one side of her bowl, she tasted the less-burned porridge and decided that it wasn't too terrible. She glanced down the length of the table before asking Emilio, “Where are the rest of the princes?”

“Your Prince Liam is out talking with the guards,
and Beldegard is getting dressed. The others are in their rooms still,” said Emilio.

Annie had been hoping to see Beldegard's brother, Maitland, at breakfast. He had told her that he wanted to win Snow White's hand, so he'd probably want to hear about the message she had sent. Annie was wondering if she should send him a message of her own, but then Liam walked in and she forgot all about it. She smiled as he took a seat beside her.

“Your father has decided that the tower is the best place to keep Granny Bentbone for now,” said Liam. “He was a little hesitant at first because the tower lies in Dorinocco, but I assured him that it would be all right. My father feels guilty that Mother caused so much trouble when she tried to take over your kingdom, so he's willing to help in whatever way he can. Anyway, your father sent guards ahead to get the tower ready. Tomorrow morning I'm going to accompany the men who are taking Granny Bentbone. I'll go see my father and explain everything after we have the old witch locked away.”

Annie glanced up when two girls in matching pale green gowns sat down at the table. Although Annie and Liam had been formally introduced to Beldegard's sisters at supper the night before, the girls acted as if they didn't know anyone. They started a whispered conversation, but within a few minutes their voices rose and Annie couldn't help but hear them.

“I still can't believe how rude those guards were to us,” said the girl named Willa. “They should have let us go wherever we wanted. I think we should report them to Father. He would never let guards talk to us that way at home.”

Liam leaned forward so he could see past the other people at the table. “Pardon me for interrupting, but where did you want to go?” he asked the girls.

“The North Tower,” replied the twin named Tyne, whose braid was already coming undone.

“We weren't doing anything wrong,” Willa added, sounding defensive.

Liam sat back and turned to Annie. “The entrance to the dungeon is in the North Tower. Granny Bentbone must still be trying to call the children to her.”

“Then she has to leave the castle as soon as possible,” Annie replied. “We should tell Beldegard's father about Granny Bentbone. Maybe he can keep his daughters from trying to reach her.” She looked up when one of her mother's ladies-in-waiting appeared at the end of the table. “Yes, Lady Clare?”

The middle-aged woman curtsied. “Queen Karolina requires your presence in her chamber.”

“I'll be right there,” Annie told her. Lady Clare had already begun to walk away when Annie stood and said to Liam, “At least I got a little time to myself.”

Liam laughed. “I'm surprised you got away this long.”

“So am I,” said Annie, straightening her shoulders as if she were heading into battle.

When Annie reached her mother's chamber, she found Gwendolyn in tears and her mother scolding one of the ladies-in-waiting. “Thank goodness you're here, Annabelle!” the queen exclaimed. “I told Lady Cecily to hold on to Gwendolyn's necklace for one minute, but she's somehow managed to lose it. Tell me,” she said, turning back to Cecily, “what did you do with the necklace?”

“I don't remember, Your Highness,” the girl replied with a nervous tremor to her voice. “I had it in my hand, and then it was gone! Maybe someone used magic to take it!”

“I doubt that,” said Annie as she joined them. “Why don't you try retracing your steps?”

When the queen nodded, the lady-in-waiting let her gaze wander around the room. “Well, I was standing over here when you told me to hold it, Your Highness,” she said, crossing to a table. “Then I watched Princess Gwendolyn try on the other necklaces. And then you told me to fetch the brush, so I walked past the bed like this and … oh, I know! I set the necklace down here and … look, I found it!” Cecily held up a necklace of sparkling diamonds with a triumphant flourish.