"Anne Aurora Westingfield! Are you naked?"
Her oldest sister's voice interrupted her day dreaming.
"Don't call me that!"
Danielle sighed and said "Quinn. Are you naked?"
Quinn tucked her bare, albeit covered by a half-healed bruise on her shin and a scraped knee, but nonetheless naked, back under the cloak she was wearing.
"No, of course not. See?" Quinn pulled aside the edge of the patched cloak. Her sister leaned around the boatman's body and saw the bottom of the garment just above Quinn's knee.
"You might as well be naked, Quinn! What happened to the dress you were supposed to put on?"
"I was reading and I lost track of time. You said we had to go right then and I just grabbed my cloak and my satchel and ran down the steps to meet you," Quinn answered.
"And what's in that satchel that was more important than your dress?"
Quinn rummaged around in the worn leather bag at her feet. "A book I found on the top shelf of the library, a couple of candles and ..." Her voice trailed off as she bent down to the bag again. " Apples," she said with a smile, holding one up in the moonlight.
Danielle shook her head and turned her attention back to the mouth of the man guiding the boat down the gently flowing river. Quinn trailed her fingers in the water, watching the moon reflected in the dark water ahead. The boat seemed to be sailing to the moon. She smiled at the thought.
The boat floated to the dock and bumped gently against the wooden planks. The boatman helped the sisters step onto the boardwalk leading up to the castle. A uniformed guard bowed to the princesses as he opened the door. The princesses walked through the halls of the castle.
Quinn blinked in the bright light of thousands of candles reflected in the many mirrors hung on the walls of the ballroom. The first few nights she'd sat in the corner of the vast room, watching her sisters dance all night. No one ever asked her to dance, or paid much attention to her at all. Last night she'd left the ballroom and began to explore the castle.
It was quite an interesting place. She'd found a staircase leading up to the gallery where she'd spent a good portion of the night watching her sisters pair off with their princes. Quinn had listened to the sighs and rustling of clothing as the couples drifted off the dance floor and into the rooms adjoining it.
Quinn climbed the steps to the upper floor and opened a door she hadn't noticed before. Another set of stairs, much narrower and darker than the ones she'd just left, awaited her. She took a candle from her bag and lit it with one of the candles on a nearby table.
She began climbing the steps, stopping once to brush cobwebs from her face. The stairs circled up and up for what seemed to Quinn to be miles. At last she reached the top where a small door was slightly open. Quinn went through the small door, short enough that she bumped her head as she passed through.
She found herself on one of the turrets of the castle. She peeped over the parapet. Wispy mists of pale grey fog surrounded the castle. Quinn looked up. A silvery crescent moon floated in the sea of twinkling stars. Her candle guttered and went out in the cool breeze.
"Rats!" Quinn turned to go back down the steps to relight her candle.
"Ooof! Quinn! Watch where you're going! You almost pushed me over the wall!"
"Jerome!" Quinn cried. She would have recognized his voice anywhere. Jerome was one of the stewards of her father's castle. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing," Jerome replied. "I spent all day riding from your father's most distant property. I put my horse away, turned around and bumped into you. Where are we?"
"I'm not exactly sure. A castle someplace. Danielle wakes us up and we all come here. The other sisters dance and well, um, do other things. I just watched them the first night and now I..."
"The first night? Quinn, how long have you been coming here?" Jerome's tone was a mixture of surprise and horror.
"It's been days. Since you left, I think," Quinn replied. She shivered in the cool night air and wrapped her cloak more securely.
"You're cold. Let's go down where it's warmer. We can see if we can get this whole thing straightened out later." Jerome took her hand and led her over to the door she'd entered. He tugged on the handle, but nothing happened.
"Quinn, the door is locked. Where's the key?"
"Key? I don't have a key. It was open when I came up here."
Jerome pushed and pulled on the handle, pounded on the door and yelled to no avail. The door remained shut and no one came up the stairs to rescue them.
"It appears we are to remain here until someone notices you didn't return to the ballroom."
"Oh. That could be a very long time. No one knows I'm up here."
"Surely someone will miss you, Quinn."
"No, I don't think so. They were all very... um... b-b-busy when I left." Quinn's teeth began to chatter.
"We'll worry about that later. Right now, we need to get you warm." Jerome picked up the bundle from his feet and pulled out a tattered blanket. "It's not much, but it should help. Come here."
Jerome draped the blanket over Quinn's shoulders. "Warmer?"
"Oh, yes. But what about you? Aren't you cold, too?"
"A little, but I'll be fine."
"Here," Quinn said, opening up the blanket and tugging Jerome close to her. "We can share."
"No, Quinn. That wouldn't be proper. You're a princess of the realm and I am but a poor steward, and a foundling at that."
"Jerome, you are so much more than that. You are my best friend. And you shouldn't be cold when there's a perfectly good blanket we can share. Look around you. We're all alone. Who's going to know if my behavior is proper or not? Besides, I'm sure they're all used to my behavior by now. I have a very hard time being a proper princess. Most of the time I don't even try anymore."
"But still ..." Jerome protested.
"No," Quinn interrupted. "Please share the blanket. We'll both be much warmer, you know."
Quinn opened the blanket and Jerome stepped reluctantly into its warmth, adjusting the folds to envelope them both.
"Isn't this better?" Quinn murmured.
"Yes," Jerome replied. "Now, tell me more about this place."
"I don't know much more than I've already said. Danielle wakes me in the middle of the night. I change into my best dress and dancing slippers. Well, not tonight, but all the other nights..."
"Surely you have something on under that cloak." Jerome's voice sounded vaguely shocked.
"Of course, I have something on. Why do people keep asking me that?" Quinn grumbled.
"I suppose even you wouldn't leave the castle without wearing a dress." Jerome chuckled at the thought.
