Abby the Witch (31 page)

What was she
thinking in there?

'Right now I'd
rather be with a pack of hungry wolves,' he offered and was more
than glad when she almost smiled at his words. 'Or fighting a wild
bear in a snowstorm,' he added with a smile of his own.

This time she
did giggle and the wine in her glass tipped along with her petite
shoulders. 'So you heard about what the maids were saying about you
and the Princess then?'

'Oh yes.
Eloping to wind up fighting a bear and dying in a blizzard – I
heard all about that. And frankly, dying in the snow
after being mauled is just a notch above being eaten by sharks. The
past hates me.'

She finally
made eye contact with me. 'You aren't going to die in a shark
attack anymore, that would have only happened if we'd stayed in the
future.'

He looked at
her, about as evenly as he could manage at the moment. 'No, neither
am I about to elope with the Princess and end up fighting woodland
creatures.' He'd said it about as clearly as he could, putting so
much emphasis on ‘no’ it sounded like a command.

She nodded.
'Okay.'

'Yeah.'

She looked at
her drink again. 'Yeah.'

'Abby?' he
took a breath.

She looked up
so fast she must have been expecting him to tell her the greatest
secret in the universe. Her pretty grey eyes were so alight with
desperate interest, it was almost as if….

'Pembrake?
Abby?'

He knew that
voice.

His
mother.

Both he and
Abby turned to see Lilly Hunter push through the crowd to get to
them. Her eyes were rimmed with red. Karing was moving several
steps behind her, more like a bodyguard than a fiancé.

'Abby!'
Lilly's voice was high, but it had lost its usual happy edge.

Karing came to
a rest behind them and his face was drawn and slack, with a look a
widower might give at the sight of his dead wife's ring.

It wasn't hard
to see that both of them, though they were holding it in, were
distraught.

A nervous,
shivering twitch took to Pembrake's stomach.

'It's so good
to see you,' Lilly put out a hand to Abby and touched her shoulder
lightly.

Abby was
clearly as shocked as Pembrake felt, and switched her eyes quickly
from Lilly to Karing. 'What's happened?'

'Oh,' said
Lilly, obviously not wanting to draw attention to whatever had
shocked the couple into a bitter silence. 'Nothing….'

Karing cleared
his throat. 'I didn't really expect to see you two at the
Ball….'

Pembrake bit
into a polite smile. Karing was under the impression they were both
poor, wasn't he? When they'd run into him on Esquire Street both he
and Abby had looked like they had been dragged up from the dregs of
the slumps, especially Abby with her thin arms and baggy clothes.
But now they were dressed in fine clothes and looking like–

Pembrake
shifted his eyes back to Abby's dress. She looked like she should,
he thought finally. Dressed up in that blue dress, with her hair
pulled up and her neck adorned with a beautiful necklace – she
looked like she was supposed to. Finally a young woman and not the
dower, age-loving witch she fought so hard to show the rest of the
world.

'Oh,' Abby
smiled awkwardly, 'Pembrake's a guest of the Princess,' she
volunteered a little too candidly, 'and I've just… found myself
here by other means.'

Karing cocked
an eyebrow. 'Really? You two aren't here together?' he looked at
Pembrake, and was that disapproval tugging at the corner of his
eyes? 'You're here with the Princess?'

Pembrake
didn't want to say yes, it felt like admitting some terrible
misdemeanour to… his father. 'Ummm, well….'

'It's
complicated,' Abby jumped in, 'but what's wrong with you two.
Honestly, Lilly, you look pale.'

His mother
didn't really look like she could handle telling anyone the truth
right now. She looked on the verge of tears. 'I… we have some bad
news.'

Abby looked
confused for a moment. 'You've cancelled your engagement, haven't
you?'

Lilly nodded.
Karing gave the barest, most rejected of smiles.

'Why?'

'It's not
proper for a woman of my place to....' Lilly's lips were moving so
stiffly her voice sounded like it was popping, 'marry a man like
Karing.'

Never did
anyone look more dejected than Lilly at that moment.

'But why? You
don't believe that?' the passion was beginning to creep back into
Abby's voice and she was looking at Lilly with those fiery
eyes.

She couldn't
stand injustice, could she? Living on the streets in a city that
hated her, surrounded by people that would rather see her at the
bottom of a pit than alive and a well – and she still allowed
herself to be incensed by other people's woes.

'Don't really
have a choice,' Karing looked over his shoulders at the other
guests with dead eyes. 'Decree of the Colonel.'

Pembrake
blanched. He twisted his hands into the tightest fists he'd ever
made. 'The Colonel? How is this any of his business?'

Karing looked
nonplussed by Pembrake's rage. 'He's Lilly's Uncle.'

Everyone
looked at Lilly.

Pembrake held
it in, just. The Colonel… he was related to the Colonel?

'Surprising,
ha? Lilly had never told me either.' Though his statement seemed
bitter, Karing didn't appear to be taking a jab at Lilly. It was
clear that his feelings of loss and dejection were simply bubbling
to the surface in his every action.

Nor had his
mother ever told him. Pembrake stared at Lilly now.

The
Colonel?

Abby sniffed
politely, or sombrely, or carefully – he couldn't be sure. But she
took a step towards Lilly and grabbed her arm tenderly. 'Who's the
Colonel to tell you what to do though? He's only an uncle, surely
you have more say in the matter.'

'He's only the
right-hand man to the King, he's only to be the leader of the
Guards, he's only one of the most powerful people in Bridgestock,'
Karing was staring off into the middle distance, like a scarecrow
waiting for the black birds.

'But, Lilly,
surely there's something you can do? Surely there is something?'
Abby looked as desperate as Pembrake felt. But she was showing it,
she was doing something; he could hardly move.

'Pembrake!'
the Princess' voice rang out behind him. 'Where have you got to?'
she reached him and hooked her arm into his.

Abby took a
step back from them, drawing closer to Lilly.

'Who are these
people?' the Princess screwed up her nose as she looked around,
finally settling her eyes on Abby and cocking her head. 'Oh, I
hardly recognised you. What are you wearing, and what have you done
with my dress?'

Abby played
with the fingers of one glove. 'I um….'

'Oh whatever,'
the Princess turned to him, 'we have to go, Pembrake, and meet some
of my friends.'

Karing looked
up at him, apparently pushing aside his own feelings for the
moment. The look he gave Pembrake was clear: his brow was drawn
taught, his eyebrows flattened, his lips as thin as a line.

It seems his
father did not approve.

'Pembrake,
come along,' the Princess tugged and tugged.

He didn't have
an option, did he?

Abby caught
his eye, cocked her head gently to the side and nodded. As the
Princess looked away for a moment, having the attention of a
hyperactive three-year-old, Abby mouthed 'balcony' and 'later'.

He looked at
his father and mother once more, and left with the Princess.

For the rest
of the night Pembrake felt cold with dread, hot with anger, and
bubbling with frustration. He dutifully attended to the Princess,
even when he saw the Captain of the Guard return to Abby's
side.

He was related
to the Colonel and the pleck had been the reason his
parents had never stayed together. The Colonel had been the reason
his mother had hung off the arm of Mr Hunter, no doubt some
suitable dignitary that the Colonel had wanted to impress, with
limp indifference. The Colonel was the reason Abby had been headed
for starvation and a lonely demise.

The Colonel
was responsible for it all.

In the warm
ballroom, Pembrake chilled for the rest of the night.

~~~

Abby spent
most of the rest of the ball trying not to slap the Captain of the
Guard; Martha had given her various warnings, but none could match
the reality of the man himself. If Abby had ever entertained the
idea that Pembrake was a dastard rouge – then she had been sadly
mistaken.

The Captain of
the Guard was in a league of his own. He spent most of the night
watching Pembrake and waiting for him to turn around, and when he
did, the Captain would surreptitiously wind a hand around Abby's
back and draw her closer.

She wanted to
drive her heel into his foot and secure a bucket of ice-cold water
to throw over his face.

She tried to
be polite, tried to smile without daggers in her eyes, but couldn't
manage most of the time. They did not really talk, simply stood
varying distances apart depending on which direction Pembrake was
looking at the time.

She wouldn't
say that she had ever had an understanding with the Captain of the
Guard; she'd known from the outset what kind of man he was, after
all. But something had become clear tonight, to both of them: they
were only interested in using each other.

The Captain
had no doubt seen her and Pembrake leave for the balcony, and would
be a fool if he thought for a moment that Abby was interested in
the Captain. No, he knew Abby was only trying to get to the Ball,
just as she knew he was using her to get to the Princess and
Pembrake alike.

'You are
frosty tonight, little mouse.'

Abby looked up
and swilled the untouched wine in her glass. 'As are you,
Captain.'

'Really,
mouse, after I bought you that dress and brought you with me to the
Ball – well I'd hoped you'd be a little warmer towards me.'

Abby let her
eyes drift towards Lilly and Karing who were standing apart, both
hunched over with defeat.

There wasn't
anything warm about this ballroom.

'Perhaps I
find it cold in here.'

'Well we could
always go somewhere warmer.' he flicked his fringe to the side and
smiled dashingly, though his heart didn't appear to be fully into
it, and his eyes flickered with fatigue.

'Tell me,
Captain,' she turned to him, 'would you do something for me?'

She enjoyed
watching him flinch back with confusion. 'Umm, certainly,
mouse.'

'Could you
please cut the pleck. I'm not stupid Captain; you yourself
said I was clever. I know you're only interest in me lies in
drawing the attention of the Princess. So could we please stop
pretending?'

The Captain's
eyes were wide and he coughed clumsily. 'My, my, you are cold
tonight… but, as always, refreshingly clever. I suppose it is true
that I may have an ulterior motive in acquainting you.'

She crossed
her arms.

'But I assure
you it is secondary to my primary desire.' His usual lecherous
smile was back in place.

'And I assure
you that it isn't. Seriously, do you honestly think you'll get the
Princess' attention by flirting with someone else? If you like her
so much, why don't you just tell her?' Abby felt her cheeks flush
with righteousness.

'This is quite
rich coming from you, mouse. Are you honestly that innocent? Do you
not know how courting works, mouse?'

Abby's cheeks
grew a touch hotter; he was looking at her imperiously, after
all.

'Apparently
not. Let me fill you then. There are games that we play and they
are quite fun. But if you for once don't respect the rules, if you
for once blow the mystery of the game and proclaim to everyone that
is simply a farce – you lose. I admit that the Princess is in
my sights,' the Captain spoke with a low secret voice, 'but
according to the rules of play, I'm keeping my cards close to my
chest.'

'And
bluffing,' Abby said weakly.

'And
bluffing,' the Captain said as he drew closer.

He wouldn't
would he? He wouldn't.

Somehow the
Captain had secured a hand under her chin and was angling it
up.

Pleck!

He was looming
like a storm in her sights, an inescapable, terrible storm.

The Captain
leaned closer, until he was no further away from her lips than a
centimetre.

'Ow!' he
suddenly snapped away. 'What on Earth?'

Somehow, some
impossible how, Charlie was darting behind her legs, having bitten
the Captain firmly on the leg. 'What on Earth is a cat doing
here?'

Abby
squeaked.

The Captain
looked apoplectic, and people were beginning to stare.

By now Charlie
had darted deftly between the crowd and towards the balcony doors.
Before he made it through them, he shot Abby a triumphant look and
appeared to bow low. Then he was off through the doors headed no
doubt for safety.

She had no
doubt that Charlie would be able to outwit the Captain of the
Guard. That cat knew how to hide from trouble.

The Captain
was now marching through the crowd trying to draw the attention of
the staff. He looked like he'd be busy for the time being.

Abby touched a
hand to her lips and rocked back on her feet. That had been close,
that had been so unnervingly close.

'Abby,'
Pembrake caught her arm and twisted her around.

'Pembrake,’ it
wasn't my fault she blurted suddenly, sure that he was about to
berate her. 'He was just so fast.'

He looked
confused but didn't let go. 'I don't think you understand – it's
almost midnight. I've managed to distract the Princess for now. The
Gov said that midnight would be important,' he was looking into her
eyes with that concentration that always made her blush, 'why, what
were you talking about?'