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)
“This is her room. Her nursery. Princess Charlotte.” She felt August’s touch and jumped. “No, it’s all right. I don’t mean to frighten all of you. But I believe… I believe she brought Antonino here. She seems terribly lonely.”
Felicity had gone pale. “Can I take him away now? We must get back to my other children.”
The ghost in green rocked her baby and regarded Elizabeth, deep feeling in her expression. Her aura was sad.
“He may not wish to leave the toys,” said Elizabeth, ruffling Antonino’s hair. “But yes. Perhaps all of you ought to go.”
“I will stay,” August offered.
“No, I think…” She didn’t understand why she had to be alone with Charlotte’s specter, only perceived it was necessary. “It will only be a moment. She will not last here long.”
“Addio,” called little Nino, waving a hand at the figure his parents were unable to see. “Thank you for the toys,” he added in English.
Carlo and Felicity hustled him from the room, following the guard, who’d already fled.
“I’ll be outside the door if you need me,” said August.
She nodded, sparing him a glance before looking back at the figure. Elizabeth feared if she looked away too long, Charlotte might disappear. But when the others left, the princess’s glowing outline seemed to grow stronger. She rearranged her baby, still holding it close to her breast.
“A polite little boy. Little Nino.”
The words came to Elizabeth, not aloud, but within her mind. She nodded. “He is a prince,” she said. “There was some worry when he went missing.”
“He might have been my little boy, if he’d lived and grown a few years.” A pause. “I would never have hurt him.” The words were softer, wisps of thought.
“Of course you wouldn’t have hurt him,” said Elizabeth. Then, “You are so very sad.”
“I miss my husband,” said the specter. “We loved each other so much. We were barely wed when I departed this earth with my child. Oh, I loved him.” Charlotte’s outline grew sharper still, until Elizabeth could see her eyes as if in life, see the very detail of her lashes. “You know what it is to love.”
Elizabeth nodded, her throat going tight.
“My husband cannot see me now,” said the princess. “I have tried…”
“I’m sorry. That must pain you.” She took a step closer. “Your father saw you once, in your beautiful green dress.”
A brief, ghostly smile. “I remember. He was full of laudanum. Have you ever seen a ghost before?”
Elizabeth paused. “Perhaps. But not like this.”
“We can appear to those with your gifts. Leopold does not have such gifts. He won’t see me.”
“Perhaps he would, but the pain is still too great.”
It was hard for Elizabeth not to lose her composure, feeling Charlotte’s longing, her shattering grief. Why, if she were to leave August so soon in their marriage… If she were to perish in childbirth…
Her pulse increased with sudden panic.
“Do not fret,” said Charlotte. “You will birth the babes inside you with ease.”
Elizabeth wrapped her hands around her middle. “Did you say babes?”
“There are two in there, dear. You didn’t know?”
“How do you know?”
“I see many things from this vantage point. Your children will be born healthy, and you and your husband shall live long lives together, along with your friends.”
Was she truly hearing Princess Charlotte’s disembodied words, or making up her own to comfort herself? “Your Highness, h-how can you foretell what hasn’t happened?”
“You’ll see, dear lady, after you die. But that won’t be soon.” She faded a little, like a cloud moving across a sunny patch of grass. “You will tell the young boy’s mother I am sorry? A moment of weakness, to lure him here. I have my own son with me, so I should be content.”
“He seems a lovely child.”
“He is a sweet, handsome babe.” She fussed with his blanket a moment, then her liquid gaze flicked sideways, toward the door. “Your husband worries. He waits for you. You must go.”
“What about you, Your Highness?” Elizabeth took another step closer to the flickering spirit. “Will you stay here? Perhaps you do not know…you were mourned awfully when you died, by everyone. Is…is there any way I can help you?”
Charlotte’s ghost inclined her head, a slow, deliberate movement. “You are kind. I am assured one day I shall be at peace. When my husband joins me, perhaps.”
“I hope that will be soon.” Elizabeth realized what she said and shook her head. “No, I don’t mean that your husband should pass on soon, if it is not his time—”
She heard ghostly echoes of laughter between their two planes of existence, and a faint, happy gurgle from the infant. “Goodbye, Elizabeth,” said Charlotte’s ghost. “I wish you well.”
The apparition grew exceedingly bright for a moment; Elizabeth dipped into a curtsy. By the time she rose and lifted her head, only the faintest outline remained. The lost princess finally faded entirely, holding her baby boy close in her arms.