“Is that so?” He turned his face away from me, clearly embarrassed about something. I couldn’t imagine what.
“Yes, in the parlor dish cabinet,” I carried on, hoping that my nonchalant tone would ease his bashfulness. “There’s a hidden compartment behind the lower cabinets. I found it by accident when I hid inside it, but I never opened the compartment. Your father once mentioned hidden documents to Lawrence, so I would wager that’s where they are located.”
Elias’s red complexion faded away, and he looked far more focused, and perhaps, a tad impressed.
“That’s incredible, Aurelia,” he praised. “I’ll inspect it, after I load you safely onto the courier wagon.”
A smile spread across my lips from his appreciation. “Looks like we have a busy night ahead of us, then.” I winked at him, taking in another bite of my food.
“Indeed, we do.”
The brisk night air sent shivers across my neck and I pulled up the hood on Elias’s black cloak. The cold caused my ankle to ache a little more than usual, but I could still apply some pressure to it. I sat in the midst of the manicured gardens, hiding behind a particularly large rosebush. Elias was perched directly across from me on a garden chair, holding Bear by the collar.
A large yawn escaped me as I readily watched the moon position itself overhead. It had to be midnight by now. The sound of clattering hooves confirmed my suspicions, and Elias shot me a knowing look.The courier was here.
A modest wooden caravan rolled up the pebbly path—smaller than I had imagined. The shadows of two men were visible on the coach box, one clearly steering the two gray stallions, and the other most likely an assigned guard. A nervous flutter intruded my stomach as I watched them pull up to Lord Oberon’s post box inside the front gate.
As the guard climbed down from the box seat, Elias passed me one final look before moving into action. I held his gaze longer than I probably should have, but there was so much I wanted to convey to him before I left. I wanted to share my fear with him, my excitement, my nerves, my adrenaline, and most of all, I wanted him to know how badly I didn’t want to say goodbye. But in the short moment he held my gaze, all I could do was smile bravely as he mouthed two words to me.
Good luck.
With his last words, he directed Bear toward the front gate. The dog instantly obeyed his master’s command and took off barking toward the two men. Bear’s hasty greeting sent the two men into a panic. The guard instantly drew his sword from his hip while the driver scrambled atop the wagon for higher ground. Before any harm could come to our beloved companion, Elias rushed up to his dog in a bewildered panic.
“Bartholomew! Heel!” Elias screamed breathlessly. I silently applauded his acting skills as I scurried through the brush.
“Is this your hound?” the guard interrogated Elias with a deathly tone.
“Yes, sir,” Elias confirmed, huffing dramatically. “He snuck out through a window of all things. I thought I might look for him before returning to bed, and that’s when I heard him bark at you poor gentlemen.”
The driver nervously clamored down from the roof, never taking his eye off the now-calm Bear.This was my chance.
I crept closer to the back of the caravan while Elias continued to engage the guard. Luckily, a hundred-and-ten-pound dog was an excellent distraction. As I approached the opening, I was delighted to find that the guard had already unlatched the wooden hatch. My ears picked up on the faint traces of the gentlemen bidding each other goodnight.It was time to hurry.
I awkwardly stumbled into the back of the wagon, careful to be mindful of my sensitive foot. The interior was lined with organized crates, all engraved with different districts, and towns. I slid behind the first opening I could find just as the guard opened the hatch.
My breathing halted as the man wordlessly shifted through the crates. He casually filed the letter into the appropriate crate, never once investigating the deeper portion of the cabin. When the hatch finally closed, I let out the breath I had been restraining.
“We did it,” I gasped softly.
This was it... I was finally going to gain my freedom.
A cluster of tears welled up in my eyes from the utter exhaustion and relief that washed over me. I cried in the back of the wagon. I was truly happy to be on my way to a new life, but at the same time, a terrible pain wouldn’t stop attacking my heart.
Elias’s face was all I could think about during the bumpy ride. He had risked everything to give me a life he had once escaped. Everything he did was to help me do what I wanted, but now I selfishly wanted something else...
I wanted to be with Elias.
I knew it was beyond selfish, it was greedy. No, it was impossible. More than anything, my heart longed for Elias to be in the back of this wagon with me. I wanted him and Bear smiling alongside me while we set off on a new adventure together. It had been so long since I had possessed a true friend—someone I could talk to as just Aurelia, not Lady Lockly or anyone else. The last friend I had gained ended up becoming the queen, and that hardly allowed time for weekly afternoon tea chats.
Wait a moment, the queen...
My eyes flicked around in the dark, searching amongst the crates. There wasn’t enough light to read the engravings, so I trailed my fingers across each crate until I could make out the etching. Stack after stack, I went over each carved letter until I finally recognized the label I was looking for.
Isalla Capitol City, Royal Palace
A pleased smile graced my lips as I carefully unstacked the crates. It proved to be a rather difficult task in the back of a moving wagon, but soon enough I had my chosen crate unearthed. Once I could reach the lid, I slid the top off and fingered through the documents. Picking an entirely random one, I dug around further in search of a writing utensil. Nothing came up from the first crate, so I poked around each of the others while I returned them to my stack. It wasn’t until the second-to-last crate that my fingers brushed against the dull point of a carved graphite pencil.
The pencil was tied to the binding of a package, mostly likely to aide in a return letter for a poorer part of the kingdom. I pulled the pencil from its binding then situated myself next to the hatch. The tiniest sliver of moonlight passed through the cracks in the door, so I used that to align my words.