From The Ashes (The Ministry of Curiosities #6)(11)

"And if I don't?"

Her mouth twitched in what I suspected was an attempt at a smile. "Back in the dungeon you go."

Or I could escape. But it was far too cold outside for me to survive very long without shelter. I could sell the engagement ring and use the money for accommodation and travel, but I had to find a buyer first, and one willing to pay its worth. The nearby village of Inglemere was too small to have a jeweler with the funds to buy it. I must keep to my original plan of escaping in springtime when the roads were better and I wouldn't freeze to death if I needed to spend the night outside.

I ignored the voice of protest whining in my head and gathered my resolve. "I apologize, Mrs. Denk."

"For your willful behavior." When I merely nodded, she said, "Go on, say it."

"I apologize for my willful behavior yesterday. It won't happen again. I promise not to disrupt class, counter your orders, or speak unless spoken to. I'll be on my best behavior, and throw myself on your mercy. Please forgive me, Mrs. Denk." If I was going to commit, I might as well go all the way.

She glared down her nose at me. After several beats, she stepped aside. "You may go."

I hurried out of the kitchen to the room I shared with Alice. She smiled when she saw me. "She set you free!"

"After I groveled sufficiently."

She pulled a face and turned her back to me. "Lace me."

I concentrated on tying her corset laces. "Are you all right after your ordeal?"

"Perfectly fine, but I feel so responsible. The door is completely smashed and everyone was so terrified."

I didn't tell her about the damage done to the castle's towers. She felt awful enough as it was. "No one was harmed, that's the main thing." I finished tying her and turned her to face me. I caught her hands. "I'm going to tell you something that very few people know about me."

"That you see ghosts?"

I bit my lip. "More than that."

Instead of looking horrified, she seemed morbidly fascinated. "How thrilling. You have my utmost silence on the matter, Charlie. I promise I won't tell a soul."

"I'm a necromancer." I told her how I could raise dead bodies and control spirits, none of which caused her to shrink away, revolted. She listened intently as I told her about my real mother, my adoption, and my eventual arrival at Lichfield.

"He abducted you!"

"That's the part of my story that disturbs you?" I laughed. "Alice, you're wonderful. Yes, he abducted me but I became aware of another side to him. Perhaps. I think." I waved off the topic, having no wish to dredge it up at that moment. I'd spent an entire morning hardly thinking about Lincoln. It felt like progress.

"I've never met anyone who can see ghosts before," she said as she put on her dress. "And Meredith can too?"

I nodded. "There are others here with supernatural abilities too. And then there's you."

She plopped down on her bed. Our room was small, hardly wide enough to fit both our beds plus the washstand and a narrow chest of drawers we shared. There was no fireplace, and only an embrasure in the window in which to sit.

I sat beside her. "Tell me about yourself, Alice. Tell me why your dreams came to life."

She sighed. "I don't know why, and they haven't always come alive. That was only the second time. The first was just before my parents sent me here. I've always had vivid dreams, you see, even as a child, and always about the same world and creatures. I'd wake up, convinced I'd had tea with the Mad Hatter or met the Cheshire Cat. Mama told me I was being ridiculous and dismissed them as mere dreams. Everyone did. I believed that too, but then the queen became involved."

"The Queen of Hearts?"

She nodded. "Nasty woman, always wanting to cut off people's heads for every slight, no matter how small, and based on flimsy evidence. I pointed out the bias in one of her so-called trials and the next thing I knew, she ordered my arrest. I ran off, but she sent her soldiers after me. I had that dream several times until one day I woke up and my parents were in my room, screaming at me, trying to wake me. The soldiers had come to the house looking for me."

"Bloody hell. Sorry," I added with a wince. "Old habit. What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything, but the very next day, my parents sent me here. They called it a finishing school." She peered up at the ceiling and shook her head. "More like a prison."

"Did they explain why? Did they discuss the dreams with you?"

"No, but they must have connected the soldiers' presence to my dream, otherwise they wouldn't have been so desperate to wake me."

"You didn't ask them why you were that way?"

She shook her head. "My parents aren't people you discuss that sort of thing with. They're very conservative, and appearances are important to them. More important than me," she mumbled into her chin.

I closed my hand over hers. "I'm sure they love you."

"Do they?"

"Of course. You're their daughter."

"Am I?" She sniffed and peered at me through teary eyes. "I don't look like either of them. My mother has red hair and my father's dark. They're both quite short too."