Princess in Disguise (10 page)

As the innkeeper's wife hurried off to help someone else, Liam leaned toward Annie. “Looks like another dead end.”

Annie shook her head. “I don't think so, at least not yet. The butcher probably lives above his shop. Let's go pay his daughter a visit. Maybe she knows more than she's told this woman.”

The butcher shop was only a few buildings away on the other side of the street. Liam and Annie were on their way there when they saw a woman and her two daughters walking in the opposite direction. Annie recognized them right away, having met them at the ball where Eleanor met the prince. They were Eleanor's stepsisters, Wilhemina and Zelda, following behind their mother, Lenore. Once again they were arguing.

“It's your turn to make supper tonight, Willie! I did it yesterday,” Zelda told her sister.

“You did not! I cooked while you read your silly book. Tell her that it's her turn, Mother! I shouldn't have to do it two days in a row.”

“Quiet, both of you!” snapped Lenore as she stopped to face her daughters. “We wouldn't be in this mess if you two had been nicer to your stepsister, Eleanor.”

“It wasn't us!” sputtered Willie. “You're the one who made her work like a servant.”

“Only because you girls are lazy,” Lenore replied.

“I've never seen you do any housework, either!” Willie cried. “I don't think you've ever cooked or washed dishes or swept or cleaned out the fireplace or any of the things you make us do.”

“Watch your manners, Willie darling, or you'll be out on your ear!” her mother said. “I'm your mother and I deserve better than this! Even Eleanor will understand when I explain it to her.”

“So now you call her Eleanor. You were the one who started calling her Cinderella, Mother. You only like her because she's a princess,” grumbled Zelda. “You want her to like us so she'll invite us to the castle.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” Lenore said. “We deserve to be there more than she does. I blame it on those two princesses who showed up unannounced. If it hadn't been for them, one of you would have married the prince and we'd be living in the castle right now!”

Annie glanced at the little group as Lenore and her daughters walked past. She tried not to react when Lenore stopped to stare at her as if she looked familiar, but couldn't quite place her. When the woman finally shook her head and moved on, Annie let out a shaky breath, not having realized until then that she'd been holding it in.

When they reached the butcher shop, Liam tried the door just in case. “It's locked,” he said. “Do you see another entrance for the house?”

“Not in the front,” said Annie. “Maybe we have to go through the alley.”

She led the way through the narrow space between the shop and the building next door. There was a door near the back, but it too was locked. “This must be it,” Annie said, and knocked.

When no one replied, Liam started thumping the wooden door. “I'm going to keep this up until someone answers or my hand gets tired. We didn't come all this way for nothing.”

“Maybe no one is home,” said Annie.

“Or maybe the butcher's daughter doesn't want to answer the door,” he said, knocking louder.

“Go away!” a voice yelled from inside the house.

“We're not going away until you talk to us,” Liam yelled back. When no one came to the door, he began pounding on it and shouting, “Open up!”

Suddenly the door flew open, revealing an angry girl a few years older than Liam. She was wielding a wicked-looking knife like a butcher might use and stood blocking the doorway. “What do you want?”

“To talk to Gertrude,” said Annie. “You can put the knife away. We aren't going to hurt you.”

“What do you want to talk to Gertrude about?” the girl asked.

“We want to ask her about the fairy Moonbeam,” Liam told her.

“I knew it!” the girl said, lowering the knife. “When I first heard the knocking, I said to myself, ‘Gertrude, it's another one of those girls wanting to know when Moonbeam will be back. You're not answering the door again today.' But then I heard a man's voice and I thought it was someone with bad intentions. A girl can't be too safe these days. I'm here now, though, so I'll tell you what I tell everybody. I don't know when she'll be back.”

She started to close the door, but Liam had put his foot in the way. “Can you tell us where we might be able to find her?” he asked.

“I don't know and I don't care,” Gertrude said, trying to close the door on Liam's foot. “And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you.”

“You sound like you don't like her,” said Annie.

The girl opened the door all the way and laughed. It was an ugly sound with no trace of humor. “Would you like someone who marries your father without warning and makes him tell you what to do? He'd been grumbling about our living here for years, but it wasn't until she came along that he did anything about it. Jamesey had to marry the girl he'd been courting and move out to start his own shop. He moved all the way to Harper's Village, so we'll hardly ever get to see him. Papa drove him away because of that woman! And do you know what Papa did to Franny and me? We had to get jobs! Taking care of him and the house wasn't enough. Now we both have to earn our own money.”

“Really!” said Annie.

Gertrude nodded. “It's so unfair! The four of us were happy here before that fairy came along. Jamesey helped Papa in the shop when he got really busy, and Franny and I took care of things here at home. Papa gave us money when we needed it and no one had to work like this! And then he married that fairy and everything changed.”

“I can only imagine!” Annie told her, trying to look sympathetic.

“And to top it off,” said Gertrude, “just a few weeks after Jamesey moved out, Papa took that woman to visit
our brother
and left us here without any money or food in the house. If anyone should have gone on a trip, it was Franny and me. Papa was always working and never took us anywhere, and now look! And the way Moonbeam makes him laugh, why, Franny and I think it's disgraceful. Sure, she's fixed up the house with her magic and given us nice clothes and things, but we still wish Father had never met her. If I ever see that princess who made Moonbeam fall in love with my father, I'll give her a piece of my mind!”

“So you're sure you won't tell us where they went?” said Liam, removing his foot from the doorway.

“No, I won't! So don't ask again,” Gertrude said, and slammed the door in their faces.

Annie couldn't help but laugh as they walked away. “She doesn't realize it, but she just gave me that talking-to!”

“And told us where to find her father and Moonbeam!” said Liam.

“Now all we have to do is get directions for Harper's Village.”

Liam shook his head. “I know where it is. It's in the Dark Forest near where we met Gloria.”

“You mean Little Red Riding Hood? It will take us at least a day to get there.”

“Less if Otis can keep up the pace. You know, I really do like that horse.”

It was getting dark when Annie and Liam reached the grove of trees where they were going to spend the night. The grove was far enough off the road that passersby wouldn't bother them, but close enough that Otis nickered softly each time he heard another horse on the road. Liam kept watch while Annie slept. She didn't know if he dozed or not, but he was getting cold food out of his knapsack for their breakfast when she woke. They ate quickly and were soon on their way south.

A few hours later, they entered the Dark Forest. It was hilly ground, so they were constantly going up- or downhill as they followed curves in the road. Because there was little level ground and virtually no straightaways, they couldn't see very far ahead. Otis walked when the grade grew steeper, but he seemed to enjoy trotting downhill, so Liam let him have his head most of the time. They were rounding a downhill curve at a
trot when they suddenly came upon a wagon stopped sideways across the road, blocking their way. When Liam turned Otis to the side to avoid running into the wagon, the horse tossed his head and Liam leaned back to avoid getting his face whacked. Something whizzed past, right where Liam's head had been, ruffling Otis's mane.

“What was that?” Annie asked as Otis danced to the side.

Before Liam could answer, an arrow whizzed past, narrowly missing Annie. “Someone is shooting arrows at us!” Liam cried, urging Otis off the road.

The horse floundered through the underbrush while Annie and Liam ducked to avoid the lower branches. A man appeared from behind a tree, forcing Otis to turn back. When another man appeared, Otis turned again and they found themselves back on the road before the curve.

“I hope you're up to this, boy,” Liam said, patting Otis's neck, and then they were off at a gallop, hurtling through the curve, and heading straight for the wagon.

Both Liam and Annie had jumped horses before, and they knew when to shift their weight. As Otis flew over the wagon, Annie held on to Liam so tightly that it was almost as if one person rode the gelding. And then they were on the downward curve of the arc and Otis's hooves were creating a cloud of dust, leaving the highwaymen
behind. The arrows that followed them missed their mark, but were enough to make Otis go faster. Up and down hills, over gulleys where rain had washed out the road, and under branches that could knock the unwary off a horse, the old gelding galloped as if his tail were on fire. When he finally began to slow, they were well into the Dark Forest and far from their pursuers.

Hearts racing and as out of breath as if they had been running themselves, Annie and Liam praised Otis, thankful that they had such a good horse under them. They made the horse walk to cool off, which gave them the chance to talk.

“Do you have any idea who those men were?” Annie asked Liam.

“None,” he replied. “I got a good look at one of them, and I'd never seen him before. They were wearing ordinary clothes, too; nothing about them stood out.”

“Do you think they know who we really are?”

“Either that or they were shooting at everyone who came along. Two farm boys on an old horse wouldn't be carrying enough money to make it worth their while. Say, I know where we are,” said Liam. “See that lightning-blasted tree? If we turn here, we aren't far from the cottage where we first met Yardley.”

“When he was a wolf,” said Annie. “Yes, I remember.”

“We could go there now and then on to Harper's Village,” said Liam. “If anyone is following us, they wouldn't expect us to leave the road like this.”

“That's a good idea,” said Annie. “It will throw them off our track and we can see how Gloria's grandmother is doing.”

Liam turned the horse toward the woods. “Not much farther and you can rest for a bit, Otis.”

They rode for only a short while before dismounting and walking beside Otis. The gelding was exhausted from his gallop and walked slowly, stopping every now and then until Liam made him move again. They were finally approaching Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother's cottage when they heard the sound of someone chopping wood.

“It's probably Granny's son, the huntsman,” said Annie. “I bet he came by to look in on her.”

It wasn't the huntsman, but Yardley, the young man who had been turned into a wolf by a nasty dwarf. He was human again, thanks to Annie and Liam, who had hunted the dwarf down and given him a taste of his own magic.

“Yardley, what are you doing here?” Liam asked from the edge of the clearing that surrounded the cottage.

“Prince Liam, is that you? And who is that with you? Is that Princess Annie dressed like a boy again? You don't always dress that way, do you?”

“Not normally, at least not at home,” Annie told him. “Why are you here? Where is Gloria's grandmother?”

“My wife and I bought the cottage from her. She didn't want to live in such an isolated spot any longer
and moved in with one of her daughters.” Setting down his ax, Yardley strode to the door and opened it, calling, “Honey! We have company.”

Rose Red appeared in the doorway, smiling and wiping her hands on a rag. “Well, well! Would you look at what the wolf brought in! What are you two doing here? Beldegard isn't with you, is he?”

Annie shook her head. “He married my sister a few weeks ago. I don't think you'll be seeing much of him.”

“I'd like to water the horse while we have the chance,” Liam told Yardley. “Where is your well?”

“Right this way,” said Yardley, and the two young men walked off with Otis.

“Would you like a cup of tea?” Rose Red asked Annie. “We don't have much, but we do have tea!”

“I'd love one!” said Annie, following Rose Red into the cottage. Taking a seat at the small table, she looked around the room while Rose Red moved from fireplace to table and back again. The cottage was cozy inside and was better laid out than it had been before. The bed no longer dominated the center of the room, but was pushed into a corner, with a table and chairs opposite and more chairs beside the fireplace. Annie recognized the cushions on the chairs as being like those she'd seen in Mother Hubbard's cottage. PEACE, HARMONY, HAPPINESS were written on three of the cushions and Annie could hear the faint magic that enforced the words.