Midnight in Everwood(52)

Marietta, on the other side of the door buried within a sugar wall, hesitated. It seemed she had inadvertently pursued the captain to a lovers’ tryst. Her breath caught in her throat.

She turned to leave.

‘You must take greater care. If the king knew of your role in the rebellion—’

Marietta paused. It seemed the captain’s paramour knew his secrets. She attempted to listen closer but the sugar step crunched beneath her ballet slipper.

The door whipped open. The warm honeyed glow of the interior framed Captain Legat.

‘Of all the foolhardiness—’

‘I apologise,’ Marietta said. ‘I held no notion of what I was intruding upon.’ She lowered her eyes.

After a harsh sigh, the captain pulled her inside and shut the door. ‘You had better not speak a word of this to anyone, do I make myself understood?’ His golden eyes shone hard with fury.

Marietta inclined her head. ‘I shall be the height of discretion.’

‘Allow me to introduce you to Robess.’ The captain met Marietta’s eyes. ‘The leader of the rebellion.’

An older woman radiating authority, Robess scrutinised Marietta in much the same manner as Madame Belinskaya observed her turnout. She was tall and wore her silver hair pinned up in a bun, and was adorned in a matching silver jacquard suit. The quaint sugar-room felt too small for her all-consuming presence. Her steel gaze flicked to Captain Legat as she murmured, ‘The wanderer?’

Marietta retained a check on her surprise. ‘You have heard mention of me?’

‘My son keeps me informed on all the occurrences at the palace,’ Robess said.

Marietta’s surprise deepened. She noted the sculpted cheekbones Captain Legat had inherited from his mother, the smooth sureness of their composure, their height.

‘I shall leave you be,’ Robess said, departing through a smaller second door. ‘I imagine you possess much to discuss.’ Her composure melted a little, revealing a mischievous twinkle.

Captain Legat cleared his throat but Marietta was too distracted to discern his mother’s words. Her exit had afforded a glimpse of what lay through the second door: a printing press. With a sherbet’s-fizz of realisation she knew she’d infiltrated the rebellion’s headquarters.

‘I knew you belonged to the rebellion,’ she said quietly. ‘Though I well understand why you did not share the fact with me.’

‘Come, I shall escort you back to the palace. The king will be wanting to know where his dancer is.’ He guided her to the door then hesitated.

‘Then we shall concoct a story on how you rescued me from a band of dastardly rebellers.’ She dropped her voice. ‘Your secret is safe with me, captain.’

His eyes lingered on hers. ‘Call me Legat.’

‘After you have spent the past few moontides referring to me as a mere wanderer? I think I may prefer calling you captain,’ she said with a flicker of a smile. An arched brow.

His answering smile set something deep within him aglow. It danced straight through her.

‘Whatever strikes your desire, Marietta.’

An endless winter’s night reigned over Everwood. King Gelum’s envoy of sleighs had already poured across the ice bridge and back to the palace, leaving Marietta and the captain riding in a lone sleigh. The streets had emptied and Marietta felt as if they were the sole inhabitants of the world.

The paths were lit with globes of frozen ice that flickered with enchantments, lighting the way through the snow-coated valley. When the marzipan-cobbled path curved, the captain followed it, driving a team of miniature reindeer that pulled the small sleigh. Marietta inhaled the scent of firs, snow and sugar, glancing up at the sky. It was silvered with stars. Which belonged to Pirlipata’s armoured princesses? She hadn’t thought to ask. She was unused to unfamiliar skies and so very far away from home.

‘It must be difficult to be away from your mother in such dangerous times. You must wish you were closer so you might protect her,’ Marietta said.

‘I do. I look to her as if she were one of the great stars shining down on us, illuminating my path.’ The captain’s voice slunk lower, more honest. ‘I spend every day compensating for my role in preventing the last orchestrated attack on King Gelum’s rule. If I had not saved his life—’

‘You were so young,’ Marietta said softly. ‘You could not have known.’

His look at her was pierced with anguish. ‘Yet it led to his fear of an uprising. It was the moment in which he banned printing presses from Everwood, hoping a lack of education, of organisation, would thwart future rebellions. And it has worked thus far.’

Marietta’s heart hurt for him. ‘Until now. You will succeed this time, I know it.’

‘And what of you? I’m curious to learn more about from where you hail.’ Captain Legat glanced at her, his bronze hair gleaming in the light of the lantern suspended above the sleigh. Marietta’s stomach twisted and she glanced down. ‘Do you miss it?’ he asked.

‘There are aspects that I miss.’ A series of unwanted images flashed through her mind’s eye. Drosselmeier’s chipped-ice stare, seeking her out across a dark theatre, his fingers creeping into her hair, his breath hot against her neck. ‘I miss my ballet studio and my brother dearly. And though your food and drinking chocolate are simply marvellous, I oft find myself desperate for a cup of coffee.’