Page 2 of Lost with a Scot
“Go back to sleep, milady. Dawn is but a few hours away, and you need your rest.”
Her maid kissed her forehead, and Anna lay back in her bed and pulled her blankets back up around her. She had many court duties to perform in a few hours—the life of a princess was never truly her own.
She’d only just started to fall asleep again when a bitter smell teased her nose. She shifted uncomfortably but couldn’t escape the scent. She opened her eyes and peered into the darkness, trying to see what was causing the smell. The distant light of a red dawn illuminated the edge of her window. The light flickered and wavered, dancing with the shadows nearest it. That wasn’t right... there were no trees outside her window that would make the light move if stirred by a breeze.
She took a deeper breath, and the bitter scent turned acrid, a smell she recognized with horror.
Smoke...
The light on the windowsill wasn’t dawn’s early light, but a fire’s angry glow. She threw off her blankets and shoved her feet into the pair of walking boots she kept by the foot of her bed.
“Pilar!” she shouted as she ran to find a gown that she could get into quickly. Her maid burst into the room, still in her nightgown, and sniffed the air.
“There’s a fire!” Pilar gasped. “Oh God...”
“I know. Dress quickly! We must go!” Anna pulled on a dark-green gown with laces up the front, but her hands were shaking so badly she just hastily knotted the ribbons.
She had to find her parents and brother, and then she needed to help the servants and palace staff escape. Once Pilar was dressed, they quickly exited Anna’s chamber into the corridor. Smoke drifted along the arched ceilings of the palace above them.
“Cover your nose and mouth. Try not to breathe in the smoke,” Anna warned her maid. They lifted their shawls up around their faces as they bent low while running to avoid the smoke gathering above them.
Screams and shouts filled the hazy corridor. The crack of pistols and the firing of rifles in the distance was eerie and terrifying as they echoed down the halls through the smoke. Suddenly, a figure loomed out of the shadows and crashed into them, knocking Pilar to the floor. When Anna heard her maid’s cry, she hurried over and pulled Pilar up to her feet.
One of the palace footmen barreled into them. He tried to rush past them, but Anna caught the man’s arm. He was trembling, and she saw blood on his chest.
“What happened?” she asked. “Are you all right?”
The man’s eyes grew wide with terror as he looked into her face. “It’s not my blood. It’s the cook’s. They murdered the cook and the scullery maids...” He shook his head as if to rid himself of a nightmare. “Men are here for you, princess. They are coming for you. You must escape!Run!” Then he turned at the sound of heavy boots thudding around the distant corner of the corridor. “I’ll hold them off.”
He pulled out the short sword that all footmen carried when they were in the palace. It was ceremonial and barely sharp enough to cut bread. If he tried to fight anyone with it, he would be killed.
“No, come with us.” Anna was not going to let the man face whoever was coming for her. If she could find a blade or a pistol, she could fight as well as any man, and she would, too, to save her people.
“Someone must hold them off. Not even you can fight them. There are too many!” the footman said. “Go and live, princess.”
Pilar gripped her arm and jerked her down the hall and around another corner. A moment later, they heard the clash of steel and the shouts of men at war.
Thoughts of her parents and the dangerous men who had come to burn down her world were pushed to the side as she heard Pilar’s whimper of fear as they quickly moved from shadow to shadow down the hallway. She would find out what was truly going on once she could ensure Pilar’s safety. If her parents and Alexei were not outside to greet her, she would find a way back into the castle to search for them.
“We must find Alexei,” she whispered to Pilar as the smoke and flames forced them to turn from the hallway that would lead to her brother’s rooms. Her stomach dropped as the darkness ahead of them crackled with the destructive force of the fire. Her body was moving by itself, her mind screaming about his safety, and the heat of the flames singed the air around her. Pilar pulled her back.
“The gardens,” Pilar said. “We can reach his rooms from the southern gardens.”
Encouraged by their new plan, Anna hurried with her maid toward the door that led to the south part of the royal gardens.
When they stepped into the cool, clearer air of the gardens, the smoke thinned. They were alone, at least for now, but a wall of fire separated them from Alexei’s rooms.
Anna stared at the flames. “We have to find a way to get to him.” She would never leave her twin behind. They were inseparable, two halves of a whole...
“We can’t, my lady. Alexei has his best friend William, one of the loyal palace guards, who was assigned as his bodyguard. William will watch over him. My duty is to take care of you. We must go. Milady, please!” Pilar begged, her face streaked with tears.
Only her maid’s fear made Anna agree to find a way to escape the danger on the palace grounds.
She prayed that William would be able to see him safely out of the palace.
More fighting broke out somewhere in the palace, and the horns of Ruritania sounded as the loyal palace guards fought against whoever had started the battle to defend the Crown. Flames leapt along the tops of the roof of the Summer Palace, devouring all the wood and blackening the stone. Anna stared up at the growing inferno from the garden, her body frozen, her mind blank with grief and fear. Her whole world wasburning.
“My lady!” Pilar hissed, tugging hard on Anna’s hand. Once more, they were running through the hedgerows of the luxurious palace grounds. A figure suddenly leapt out at them, and Pilar screamed. Anna took up a defensive stance, ready to protect herself and her maid however she could. She’d been trained in the use of many kinds of weapons, including her own hands.
