The other servants told Viviane if she didn't shut up, they'd refuse to speak to her as well. She flounced off in a huff, but did shut up about it, and didn't speak to Pip. She wasn't stupid enough to commit social suicide for someone about to leave. But if anyone complained about Pip, her mouth got a dangerously closed look, as if it had been snapped shut upon the words she wanted to say.
It was a hard and lonely time for Pip. With everyone ignoring him, he had plenty of time to brood about Bernard, and sigh over their kiss. But he had to be practical and think about what to do next. He had ten gold coins saved, enough for a room at an inn, and to buy some art supplies.
He would have to spend all day drawing and painting, and sell everything he did, just to make enough to live. He wouldn't give up – he would wash dishes and sweep floors to pay for his room, he would sell clothes pegs dollies or bunches of wildflowers on street corners to get by.
The day after Bernard's birthday party, a proclamation went out from the palace, saying that they were urgently seeking a young woman named Raven LaMidnight, believed to be a circus performer, who had disappeared in baffling circumstances.
They were concerned for Miss LaMidnight's welfare, and asked anyone who knew her whereabouts to contact the palace, with a rich reward for anyone able to produce Raven. Gossip said that the prince had fallen in love with the girl, but lost her. It was one of the most romantic and mysterious things to happen in Camden for many a year.
Only Pip knew that there was no point looking for her, because she didn't exist. She wasn't even a girl, and the prince had set his heart upon a phantom. That's what he told himself, anyway.
**********************
Four days after the banquet, Pip was helping to clean up after breakfast when Mr Smedley came to him, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Pip, there's someone in my office to see you," he said nervously. "Stop what you're doing and go there straight away. Don't keep them waiting."
Pip stared, and wondered if Zarvic had come to see him. He almost ran to Mr Smedley's office, tapped on the door, and came in when a man called to him. He stood in the doorway, unable to believe it.
It was Bernard, looking extremely tall standing behind Mr Smedley's desk with one hand behind his back. He was wearing a pair of brown corduroy trousers, an old cream knitted jersey, and riding boots. His curly brown hair looked messy and windswept, as if he'd already been out on his horse.
"Your Highness," said Pip, giving a deep bow, and closing the door behind him.
"Smedley told me your name is Pip. Is that right?" Bernard asked, idly turning over pages on the desk.
"Yes, sir. Pip Lenoir, sir," Pip said.
"Nice name. Is that the name you've always had?"
"Yes, sir. My parents called me Pip, sir."
"I believe I have something of yours, Pip," said Bernard, producing a silver shoe from behind his back . "Do you recognise this?"
"How ... how did you find me?" Pip stammered.
"It was obvious, really. The head of the guards came back and told me they had only managed to find a boy from the kitchens wandering about barefoot, and returned him to Mr Smedley, none too tenderly."
Pip gave a rueful look at the memory.
"I asked him what the boy looked like. He said of middling height, thin, long-nosed, fair-haired, pale-skinned, with large blue eyes. I thought it had to be you, and came to see Smedley this morning, asking if he had any kitchen boys of that description. He said there was only one it could be – a boy named Pip Lenoir he had just sacked for prowling around at night, with a feeble story of being healed by a strange man, and wanting to see royalty at their banquet."
"I'm sorry, sir. I'm truly sorry," said Pip, feeling as if he was about to start crying.
"Your godfather knows magic, doesn't he?" Bernard asked casually.
"Yes, sir. He gave me potions to change my appearance."
"He changed you ... into a girl?"
"No, sir. I was a boy all along, sir," Pip said. "The potion only changed my hair colour, and the clothes I was wearing."
"Have you got the other shoe?"
"Kicked it under a hydrangea bush, sir."
"The story you told me about your grandmother leaving you money, only the lawyers took it all. That was true?"
"Yes, sir," said Pip, looking straight into Bernard's eyes.
"Then Pip, I am afraid my family has wronged you terribly," said Bernard sombrely. "Because it means that our lawyers took your money, and forced you to work in the palace kitchens."
"That wasn't your fault," Pip said.
"Pip, please believe me when I say my father had no knowledge of this," Bernard said earnestly. "Father was appalled when he was told about it, and he has got rid of that law firm. The palace uses Tolpuddle and Charter now. And Father has instructed me to offer you this."
Bernard unclipped a heavy leather purse from his belt, and tossed it onto the desk. Pip looked confused, and didn't pick it up.
"It's two thousand gold coins, Pip," said Bernard. "Enough for you to buy a house, and start a business. Or you might like to travel, or study. It's up to you what you do with it."
"But it was only two hundred gold coins, sir," said Pip, still not touching it. "That's too much money."
"Think of it as compensation for the theft of your childhood, and for the suffering you endured," Bernard said.
Pip eventually picked up the purse, but he didn't open it or look at the money.
"And there's something else, Pip," Bernard said, with the face of someone determined to do the right thing, no matter how distasteful it is. "You said that you fell in love at first sight a few years ago, but the man in question went abroad the next day."
Pip looked up sharply, but only nodded.
"I will send messengers through all the kingdoms and empires, searching for this man," Bernard said, as if reciting a lesson he had learned by rote. "I will not rest until you are reunited with him, and have your chance at true love."
"There's no need to do that," Pip said at last. "Really, there isn't."
"Only tell me the man's name, Pip, and I will have the messengers sent forth immediately," Bernard insisted.
"His name? He told me his name was Rue," said Pip, and gave Bernard an impudent little smile.
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