Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“There is another nursery, then.” The vision came to Elizabeth clear as day, of Antonino playing in a quiet nursery. She turned to the guard. “Princess Charlotte’s rooms, where she stayed with her husband before she left this world. Where are they?”
“She was not often in residence, my lady.”
“But when she was!”
“Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold kept rooms in the old part of the house,” said the man, flushing at her sharp tone. “Some way off for a little child to wander.”
“Show me.” Elizabeth felt a pull, like a hand beckoning her. Like wind pushing behind her. “Please, show me the way.”
Chapter Twenty
Gifts
“You mustn’t worry,” said Elizabeth. The four of them hurried after the king’s guard, down quiet corridors less ornate and spacious than the newer areas of the palace. “Antonino is not in danger. He’s not in peril, or I’d feel it.”
“Feel it?” Felicity clung to her, still panicked.
“I’d feel the disturbance.”
“But if he is not here?” said Carlo. “If someone has taken him for ransom, taken him away, you could not feel—”
“He’s here at Buckingham. I’m certain he’s here.”
“But this is too far for him to walk, surely,” Felicity said. “He would not have gone this far on his own.”
“Little boys have great energy, especially when fueled by biscuits and punch.”
And he had not gone on his own, if her hunch was correct. She prayed it was. Felicity’s tears hurt Elizabeth’s heart. A mother’s love was no small matter. She allowed herself, just for a moment, to touch her still-flat belly. I love you already. I think I understand.
“The Saxe-Coburg suite of rooms began here,” said the guard. “And continued down the hall. This was her calling room.” He gestured farther. “Prince Leopold’s study.” They walked on. “His chambers to the left, and hers to the right. Her dressing room is there, and her bedroom beyond that.”
“The nursery?”
The staid guard betrayed a flicker of emotion. “It was set up, my lady, but never used.”
“I know. Which room is it?”
“I believe it’s behind her bedroom, madam, which is through the far door.”
Elizabeth strode to the entrance he indicated, followed by the others.
“I’ll need to go fetch a key,” he called. “They keep these chambers locked.”
She arrived at the door and found it ajar. “There’s no need. It’s not locked.”
“But…” He sounded puzzled. “It ought to be.”
Felicity moved past Elizabeth into the room. A curtain was pushed to the side, admitting light that fell across Princess Charlotte’s old bed. Elizabeth did not sense the princess here, did not sense any life here. For a stricken moment, she thought she might be wrong, then she saw the door on the far wall, wide open. The door to the nursery. Felicity flew through it and let out a cry before the others could catch up.
There was little Antonino kneeling on the floor, stacking blocks he’d pulled from an upended trunk. A crib lay still and empty, covered by dusty gauze. A rocking chair, a table, a chaise, all covered, unused. But somehow the sturdy toy box had been spilled open, its offerings spread across the floor.
“Mamma. Pappa.” Antonino held out a block. “I’m building un castello.”
“Oh, you frightened us.” She took him in her arms, hugging him tightly. “Nino, you frightened us so.” She questioned him in Italian. “How did you get here?”
“The lady showed me. She gave me toys.”
A curtain fluttered, drawing the guard’s attention. “Who has been in here?” he muttered. “These rooms are supposed to stay locked.”
“What lady?” asked Prince Carlo.
Elizabeth strained to remember her schoolroom Italian, to understand the child’s answer. “The floating lady in the green dress,” he said, preoccupied by his blocks. “It was a big dress. It sparkled when she showed me the way.”
“Which guest attended in a green dress?” Felicity turned to them, asking in English. “A sparkling green dress?”
“No one I can remember,” said August. Carlo shook his head.
“Could it have been one of the servants?” she asked the guard.
He finished fastening the window. “Begging your pardon, Your Highness. None of the servants wear sparkling green.”
But Princess Charlotte had worn green. She’d appeared to her father, the king, in her favored green dress. The hair on Elizabeth’s arms stood on end. She turned to the gauze-covered rocking chair to discover a faint ghostly specter sitting upon it, gazing at her.
She gasped and stepped back. The others in the room peered at the place she looked.
“What is it?” asked August softly. “What do you see?”
“The lady in green,” she said. “The lady who led him here.”
She noticed then that the woman held a baby, an infant clasped to her chest. It stirred and she cradled it closer, adjusting its swaddling. His swaddling. This must be Charlotte with her ill-fated firstborn.
“You do not see her in the chair?” she asked the others.
They shook their heads, silent.