A Fairy Tale for Big Girls – 21. chapter

Mark let Lili sit down in her chair. She did so without a word. He bent down so he could see her face.

“Be a good girl today,” he whispered, more caring than reproachful, and without a trace of anger he stroked her face. He returned to his seat without another word and checked on her with one more glance. She was pale, staring straight ahead in despair. He knew she must feel as though he had pulled the bottom card from a carefully built house of cards. But he did not want to deal with it now, nor could he. He had to continue his conversation with Martin, and he did.

Until, after a short while, he caught movement from the corner of his eye. He lifted his head to see Elena walking toward their table. She glared at him with open hostility and stopped.

“May Your Majesty permit me to leave? I am tired,” she said, a combination of polite words and a hostile voice. He wanted to strangle her, but only nodded instead. He watched her pass Lili and set the goblet of wine she had been clutching down in front of her with a thud.

“Then enjoy it!” she snarled.

Lili lowered her gaze from Elena’s scowling face to the goblet and saw a small slip of paper sticking out beneath it. She had barely had time to decide how to take it from there unnoticed when Elena moved on and Mark called out.

“Elena!”

She stopped at once and turned.

“Your Majesty?”

Lili froze, and so did Elena when he commanded,

“Drink that wine.”

For two, perhaps three seconds, there was silence. Lili stared rigidly at the note. Elena walked back around the table and stood directly before Mark. Both he and Martin watched her closely, so that soon neither of them had Lili in their line of sight.

“I don’t understand why Your Majesty wishes this,” Elena said innocently, though suspicion hung heavy in the air, as if poison might have been added to the drink. She kept both their gazes on herself. Lili leaned forward slightly, snatched the note from the table in a swift motion, and slid it into her sleeve.

“Do as I told you!” Mark raised his voice just as Elena, unlike him, noticed that her message was safe. She reached for the goblet and drained it in one swallow, not daring to bang it down as she set it empty on the table.

Mark hid his surprise behind satisfaction.

“You may go.”

Lili watched Mark sink into thought, then signal a maid to pour more wine. He soon returned to his discussion with Martin, leaving Lili ample time and opportunity to pull out the note unnoticed. She read it through in astonishment, hid it again, and began to think feverishly.

She let her goblet be filled, then filled again. Mark noticed the third refill and looked at her in surprise. When she realized it, she took a sip insolently, staring him in the eye over the rim of the goblet.

“Careful,” he warned in a lecturing tone. “Wine brings headaches in the morning.”

“Is that a problem?” she asked, her voice already touched by drink.

He raised an eyebrow, looking her over again.

“No. I have simply never seen you drink more than one cup.”

Lili stood rather unsteadily and grabbed a vase of flowers. She dropped back into her chair and placed the vase squarely between herself and Mark.

“Then stop staring!” she snapped, though the flowers hardly hid her face, and she waved to the maid again.

Mark hesitated, pursed his lips, then chose to let it be. Lili started on another cup.

“How ironic,” she said after a while and stood. She swayed, steadied herself on the table, then moved carefully in front of Mark.

“This is the first time I’m allowed to go to the privy alone, and right now I would appreciate company.”

She slurred her words badly and braced her palms on the table. Mark looked her over with displeasure.

“Why do you think you may go alone?”

She shot him a murderous look.

“You know very well what you just did!” She grinned desperately. “You’re very sure I wouldn’t let someone get hurt because of me. And I am certain you would be willing to do something vile just to show me your power. You are the lord here, are you not?”

It was plain she could hardly stand, and Mark knew anger would be useless now.

“I told you everything would be as I want it. Doing this the nice way didn’t work with you. You forced my hand. So I repeat: it matters not whether Elena helps you or not. I will not even look into it. If you disappear, she will hang.”

She opened her mouth in fury, then thought better of it and said nothing. Slowly she turned and made her way toward the privies with a very uncertain, swaying step. Mark watched her, still astonished, until she vanished behind the door.

“Well. This is new,” he said dryly. “How did all that wine even fit inside her?”

“She will vomit,” Martin replied.

Minutes passed, then more. Mark’s gaze kept returning to the door.

“Isn’t she taking a little too long?” he frowned.

Martin only shrugged. Mark waited a little longer, but nervousness finally won out. He looked around for a lady to send after Lili and rose. He did so clumsily, shifting the entire table and knocking over several vessels. His eye caught the vase Lili had pulled close earlier. For a few seconds he stared in confusion at the deep red liquid spilling from it. He watched it soak into the cloth, spreading wider and wider, until it touched the wine carafe of the same color and confirmed his suspicion. The vase held wine. Lili had not been drinking it. She had been pouring it away. His heart skipped a beat.

“She is not drunk!” he shouted and ran for the door.

Chaos followed. Mark did not find Lili in the privy, as he had expected, and without stopping he ran into the corridors where he had once chased her before. His heart hammered as he realized her partial knowledge of the way only widened her lead.

Martin shouted several orders, and most of the armed men rushed from the castle in all directions.

Mark flew through the now heavily guarded gate on an unsaddled horse.

Martin sent guards after Elena and froze when they returned without her.

Mark already knew two horses were missing from the stables. He drove his mount on relentlessly, even as he understood the same truth as his friend at the castle. An army searching every corner had little chance of catching two women riding hard in some unknown direction.