Hidden Beauty

Chapter 7

She turned to look back at the castle, and guessed from the location of the sunrise that was just peering over the horizon that she exited the eastern side of the castle. Mostly it was just windows, all dark, but on what looked like the second floor she saw a large veranda jutting out over her head. She tried to remember what Maddie had told her about the eastern side of the castle. Was that the side with the ballroom? Perhaps it was, because as she walked further she noticed the morning light glinting off of what looked to be floor to ceiling windows.

Shame she never got to see the inside of it. Mable wrinkled her nose. Then again, Master Theo would probably throw a ball the minute he found out she was gone.

Mable continued on, pleased that eastern side of the castle was the side closest to the woods. She was even more delighted when she noticed what looked like a path that led through the heart of the woods.

Maybe this was where she got lost on her way here, Mable thought excitedly, conveniently forgetting that it had taken her a long longer to find the castle that first night, and she had not been on a path. She started walking a little faster, easier to do now that she was in among the pine trees. The snow wasn't as deep here.

She followed the little path for a while, her eyes adjusting as the sun crawled higher into the sky. The woods were less shadowed now, and she could make out a squirrel scuttling around in the brush. Birds started to rise and twitter in the trees, and as she smiled when she saw a flash of red, a cardinal, among the pines. This was the kind of morning walk she had been expecting when she went out two days ago. She brightened as the castle got further and further behind her.

After a while meandering through the woods, the path led her to a clearing. Mable was startled to see a little farmstead, complete with barn. A wooden fence ran around the front of the barn in an oval, the snow cleared so Mable could see the churned mud in the center. Empty troughs were interspersed along the fence line. Close to her was smaller version of the barn, and Mable heard sleepy clucking from inside.

Curious now, Mable waded through the snow towards the fence. A few feet from the barn was a little stone hut with straw thatching, smoke drifting out of a tin pipe on the roof. That must be where the farmer, or caretaker, lived. Mable went over to a small window that was on the side of the barn, and looked inside. She could just see the dark shapes of the cows, and she could see a few pigs grunting over in a small pen in the corner. A cow looked up and lowed at her.

She left the window, and started to wander towards the front of the barn. This farm probably belonged to the castle, she mused. It was too small for a commercial farmer, and since the castle's residents couldn't leave, it stood to reason they needed to get meat and eggs from somewhere. They couldn't just go to the grocery store.

Well, she didn't recall running into a farm two nights ago, so she must be headed in the wrong direction. She aimed for the western side of the woods, still angling away from the direction of the castle. The sun had come up now, and Mable was relieved to feel the warmth of it on her face. She might not know where she was going, but at least it was not a blizzard this time.

She thought of Jeanne and Colette. She hoped they weren't too worried about her. They had probably gone to the police, and Mable sighed. She bet that she would have to deal with questions about where she'd been, and what was she supposed to say to that? She certainly couldn't tell them she's been at some castle in the woods. They'd commit her before she could go ahead and tell them about the closet that took her to wherever she wanted to go.

Jeanne and Colette wouldn't believe Monsieur Lune's explanation about the fairies and Master Theo's curse. Colette would probably tell her the years of looking after their father had driven her crazy. Mable couldn't blame them; if someone had told her they found an enchanted in the woods, she would think they were crazy too. Fairies and curses were just made up stories, and the idea that there were fairies living in these woods, kept hidden for centuries, seemed ludicrous.