Page 12 of Slippers and Thorns
Katy looked uncomfortable when Ella mentioned the feat that had won her her husband, but then she bristled with anger. “Morevaluable?Ella, it is not what you do or what family you were born into that gives you your worth. It is the simple fact that you are a human being! Any value beyond that comes from who you are as a person, not the rank you hold.” She leaned forward and pinned Ella with a stare. “You are kind and sweet and gentle, and it doesn’t matter if you were born in a gutter or in a palace, Michael has no right to treat you the way he has, even if he were the king!”
Ducking her head, Ella weakly argued, “But perhaps he would prefer the daughter of a count.”
“Then he should have thought of that before he married someone whoisn’tone,” Katy fumed. “Just because he regrets it now doesn’t mean he gets to—” She stopped when Ella’s face scrunched up. “Oh, Ella,” she said quickly, resting a hand on her shoulder. “I didn’t mean to imply that hedoesregret it. It was rhetorical.”
Shaking her head, Ella took several deep breaths, trying to hold back the tears that filled her eyes. She knew Katy hadn’t meant to hurt her, but the words still stung. It wasn’t just Michael’s behavior since arriving in Himmelsburg; the growing distance between them, not to mention the way his gazes these days seemed more like those of a close acquaintance than of a lover, had fed the doubt wiggling its way into her mind. The doubt that perhaps she wasn’t good enough for a prince, and perhaps he knew it now that he wasn’t blinded by love. That perhaps he now regretted the rash decision to marry a girl upon whom he’d never lain eyes before that fateful ball.
“Nevertheless,” Ella managed through quivering lips, “I would prefer that you not make a scene over it.” When Katy looked mutinous, she added quietly, “I do not believe it would help me.”
Katy maintained her mulish expression for a few moments, then sighed in defeat. “No, I suppose not,” she admitted. “But it would makemefeel better,” she muttered.
Before they left in search of breakfast, Ella reluctantly relayed to Katy all of the little things that seemed to add up to the big rocks that her marriage felt stuck upon. Katy frowned and promised to spend some time thinking about it with the hope that she could help. Also, at Ella’s insistence, that she wouldnottake any action without consulting Ella first.
“I’ve got it!” Katy declared triumphantly about mid-afternoon.
Ella turned from the roses she was examining. “You’ve got what?”
“The answer to your woes with Michael, of course,” Katy returned gleefully. She clapped her hands together. “It’s perfect.”
Ella eyed her friend a little warily. Katy was intelligent, but sometimes she didn’t think things all the way through. As evidenced by their conversation earlier in the day. “What’s perfect?”
Katy looped her arm through Ella’s and began walking her down the garden path. “Michael is too busy, so you haven’t seen each other much lately.”
Ella sighed. “Lately? You mean for months.”
Katy waved away the clarification. “So, you need a reason to spend more time together, make him busywithyou. I think you need a project to do together. And I have just the thing!”
Ella raised an eyebrow. “And that would be…?”
“You like to clean,” Katy began, “and men like to fix things. It’s in their blood: give them a problem, and they have to whack it with the biggest hammer they can find to try and fix it. So, we give Michael an actual hammer to swing at a problem that can actually be fixed by a hammer, and give you something to clean, and you can work on it together!”
Ella blinked at her friend. “And how would we do that?”
Katy grinned. “There’s an old, rundown castle, Reineggburg, right on the border between Ralnor and Daraigh. No one ever goes there anymore, and it’s not high on the king’s priority list to fix. Since it’s right next to your kingdom, I’m sure you and Michael could persuade Axel and his father to sell it to you cheap. Then you can repair it, tear it down and start over, or whatever you want to do with it, but you could do it together. See? Perfect!”
Ella wasn’t certain she agreed with Katy’s assessment. Michael liked to ride and hunt and fence, but she didn’t think he would be interested in the kind of physical activity required for such a project. Not to mention she doubted that he had the necessary knowledge to repair a castle himself. Besides… “Why is this castle rundown and low on the king’s priority list? Why would he be interested in selling it toanyone, let alone someone from another kingdom?”
Waggling her eyebrows, Katy said mysteriously, “That’s the question, isn’t it? Something tragic occurred there a little over a decade ago. The king and queen decided they didn’t want to keep it up afterwards, and none of the locals have any reason to hang out in an abandoned castle.”
“What something tragic?”
“No one knows,” Katy replied in the same tone.
“What do you mean?” Ella asked, confused. “If King Steffan owns it, wouldn’t he know what the tragedy was? And if he doesn’t, how would he know it was bad enough that he didn’t want to go back?” She shook her head. “He must not want to talk about it. Couldn’t you ask Axel?”
Katy hesitated briefly, dropping her ghost-teller act for a moment. “He doesn’t know. Or can’t remember, anyway.”
Ella put her free hand on her hip and gave Katy a skeptical look. “Can’t remember? You’re telling me that something tragic happened at aroyalcastle barely a decade ago andno onecan remember what it was, nor can they be bothered to look up the records?”
Looking uncomfortable, Katy said, “Yes.” Ella raised an eyebrow. “No, really,” Katy protested. Her warm brown eyes darted away. “I’ve asked. I’velooked. There is nothing in the records.”
Ella rolled her eyes and attempted to imitate Katy’s earlier spooky attitude. “Maybe it’s cursed,” she joked.
“I wonder sometimes,” Katy said seriously. “It’s my one reservation with this plan.”
Laughing, Ella replied, “I was kidding.”
“But I’m not,” Katy returned. “That castle is near where I used to live.Ishould know what happened. Everyone in my village should know what happened. But no one does. Just that it was tragic, and now everyone avoids the place.” She looked at the ground. “It makes me wonder if magic was involved, and that part of the magic is that no one can remember.”
