Upon A Time

Chapter Twelve

Charlotte walked until her legs felt dead beneath her, betraying her word to her mother that she wouldn’t go far. She needed to go to the place where she felt safest, where the brook would bubble and splash against the rocks, where she could finally be alone with her thoughts…

Or so she imagined.

She reached her favorite place only to find it was already occupied.

Thomas had taken up position on the boulder where she normally sat and was skipping stones, one after another, across the surface of the water. With each successive throw he seemed to grow more frustrated, until finally he looked down and realized he’d run out of rocks.

The sound of the water and his own preoccupation had prevented him from hearing Charlotte’s approach. He startled slightly when she extended her hand toward him, holding a perfect skipping stone.

He took it from her without a word and cast it in with the others. She hunted up a few more, and then finally took a shot at throwing one into the stream herself before she plunked down onto the bank.

She looked off into the distance; toward the place not far away where Thomas had found Julien, so close to death, just weeks ago. How much smaller her world had been before that moment. She wondered how she would fit everything and everyone within it back into the same small space, ever again.

She was a simple maid from a tiny village and an even tinier family. She was one of the cast-offs from the ball and yet, she found herself in the awkward position of getting to know the Prince as a man and not a future monarch; getting to know him better than even, by his own admission, his future bride.

He’d come so close to kissing her twice now, she was certain of it. Was it the delusion of drug and drink making him behave so? Or was there truly some kind of feeling for her forming within him?

Then, there was Thomas. Even as the last of the daylight waned, in the light of his lantern she could see his cheeks were ruddy with embarrassment, and she was certain he must be thinking of what had taken place earlier between them.

She didn’t know whether or not she should ignore or address the situation, but she feared that not saying anything would be worse than saying the wrong thing… so she ventured to try.

“Thomas?”

Just the way she said his name made Thomas bristle, and he raised a hand and waved it. “Please, Charlotte. Don’t.”

“Don’t what? Don’t speak the truth? Don’t ask you what on earth happened this afternoon?”

“Please, can we pretend what happened didn’t?”

She inhaled sharply. That was not the response she was expecting. “Is that what you really want?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know!” His shoulders slumped. “I want things to be the way they have been between us, not awkward or silent because of my impulsive act.”  

“Is that all it was? A momentary, impulsive act?”

He turned toward her at last. “I don’t regret what I did, Charlotte. It was impulsive, yet it meant something to me. Now is not the time for us to discuss it, though. There are much more pressing matters we must concern ourselves with.”

“All right.” Charlotte’s confusion was all-encompassing. He didn’t regret kissing her, yet he didn’t wish to speak of it. He wanted things to remain the way they were between them, but clearly his kiss had asked for more.

She was beside herself as to what she should think, until his next statement turned her mind to those much more pressing matters.

“He requested my help,” Thomas whispered, turning from side to side to make sure they were alone and beckoning Charlotte closer. She sat beside him on the boulder, and he whispered in her ear, a sensation that sent that same strange thrill through her as before, though she couldn’t identify exactly what it meant. Was she losing her mind? She felt she might, if she couldn’t begin to sort through her feelings soon.

“Charlotte, you must listen now,” Thomas admonished.

“I’m sorry. Julien asked your help? In what matter?”

Thomas nodded. “He needs help raising support among the people before it becomes well known he is alive. An army is what he needs, and I don’t know how on earth he expects me, of all people, to find one for him.”

“You know everyone in town, Thomas, and in towns over. Rowan’s is the best blacksmith’s shop in the province, and everyone knows that is because of your work. You have alliances, of a sort. You know who possesses the best weapons in the land and you must know, for the most part, who was loyal to his Majesty before his untimely death.”

“One does hear a lot about politics when discussing what kinds of arms a person wishes to purchase,” Thomas admitted. “So, I know some people. So I might even be able to find a way, somehow, to get closer to the castle to try to determine if there is loyalty to Julien within.”

Charlotte grabbed hold of his sleeve, frightened. “No! Thomas, that would be entirely too dangerous. You cannot possibly undertake such a mission.”

“He has asked me to consider it,” Thomas replied. “I am merely considering.”

“Well, you must tell him no!” Charlotte stood and began to pace. “If someone must infiltrate the royal Court and take a measure of where loyalties lie, it would be much more logical for it to be me than you.”

“WHAT?” Now Thomas was also standing, and held her firmly by both shoulders. “Charlotte, even Julien never suggested the possibility of such a thing! There is no way you can risk your life by going into the royal Court. Young women are used for all kinds of unseemly purposes there, by men like Duke Frederick who seek companionship among the ladies in waiting and women of the Court.” He shook his head. “They shall be drawn to your virtue. They will see you as fresh meat, and God alone knows what could become of you.”

“Then come with me,” Charlotte begged. “Come with me and help me discern what is going on within the castle. Surely with all the commotion going on surrounding the impending coronation of Duke Frederick—a party I hope will never actually take place, if we can but get Julien out of bed soon enough—there will be plenty of new people coming and going. Julien knows the inner workings of the palace, it is his job to know. Though certain matters of security might have changed during these past weeks with Frederick shoring up his position as the new monarch, there must be a way for servants to be added to the complement there, still. I could go in hiding as a lady’s maid, you could perhaps obtain work in the maintenance of the armor and weaponry.” Her eyes flared with fire as the idea set in her mind. “What better way to find out which, if any, powerful men at Court hold loyalty to Julien than by listening to the gossip among them? It may be the only chance we have to know whether or not Julien has any hope of retaking his position without the aid of an outside kingdom.”

“That idea had occurred to me,” Thomas admitted. “It may be easier to get him out of the country and then have another’s army return him to power. But there is only one flaw in that plan.”

“That he would then be beholden to that country, I know, the thought occurred to me as well,” Charlotte admitted.

“It must also have occurred to Julien, or he would have suggested it as a more sane solution than the one he is proposing.” Thomas shook his head. “I am only a blacksmith. I have no experience with espionage.”

“Which is what makes you the perfect spy,” Charlotte insisted. “We must think this through, entirely. We must speak with my father and Julien to formulate some sort of definitive plan of action before we can do anything.”

“I am sure you are putting the cart before the horse if you think any of us are going to want you involved in this plan in any degree besides sitting at Julien’s bedside and administering his medications.”

“Father can do that, but there is no way he could do what you and I could at the palace.”

“I don’t know, Charlotte. I just don’t know.”

She gently tugged on his arm, trying her best to dispel some of the awkwardness of the moment. “Then we shall do what we’ve always done. We’ll figure it out together.”

He reached out, took her hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze. He released it and lifted the lantern into the darkness. “Come along. We must get you home, or your mother will be beside herself with fright thinking you are wandering out here on your own.”