Chapter Twelve:

Moving Camp

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"Ten-thousand? Are you sure?" Leopold said, his face showing its lines now that it was daylight.

Upon their arrival in the camp and the sharing of their news, Harriet and Garreth had promptly been ordered to clean up and rest with orders to be up before dawn. It was since dawn that they had been in the King's tent, and Harriet's hungry stomach was more than protesting the amount of time they had been there without food.

"As sure as we can be. It's a rough estimate. It might've been more than that," Garreth answered, reclining back in the chair provided for him.

"And they've captured Mr. Filbert and Mr. Codey?" Both Harriet and Garreth nodded. Harriet watched as Leopold sunk lower in his seat, his fingers squeezing the bridge of his nose. If Harriet had thought Leopold had looked stressed before, it was nothing compared to now.

Taking in his appearance, she felt a pang of sympathy for the man. He had a lot resting on his shoulders before, and now they'd added to it with their news. However, Harriet knew that given the choice, Leopold would always rather know what he was dealing with. He was big on taking all facts into consideration when he made decisions.

"Is there any way we could rescue them?" Harriet asked, breaking into whatever Leopold had been thinking. He looked up at her and frowned.

"Short of winning the war, no."

"But we can't just leave them. Who knows what they might've done to them already," Harriet said doing her best not to sound like a petulant child. Garreth cleared his throat, getting both Leopold's and Harriet's attention.

"I'll just see myself out. I haven't had breakfast," Garreth said, and neither Leopold nor Harriet said anything as he left, both too focused on the subject at hand.

"You're right, we don't know what they might've done to them already. For all we know they might already be dead," Leopold reasoned, but his words did nothing to assure Harriet. Instead she paled. Of course she had known that their death was a possibility, but that didn't mean she wanted it to be all but confirmed by him.

"Yes, but they also might not be," Harriet protested. "Isn't saving their lives better than just- just leaving them?" Harriet's voice cracked towards the end, and whereas Leopold had been as stiff and regal as ever throughout their conversation, he seemed to soften as he saw how pale she was and heard the way she talked.

"Mr. Greenfellow, if I could guarantee their safety, the rest of my men's safety, or even the certainty that we will win the war, I would. The only thing I can promise is that if everything turns out well, after the battle I will personally help you look for your friend the best of my abilities, but that is all I can offer."

Harriet nodded, her jaw clenched not from anger, but from holding back her instincts to cry. She didn't know what she was more emotional about, the fact that even Leopold thought that Oliver might be dead, or the fact that despite that he still offered to help. Harriet straightened her posture. She needed to snap out of it. She was acting like Clara.

"What if I was to go and save them?" Harriet said. "I wouldn't take anyone else with me, not if you didn't want me to." As soon as her words passed her lips, Leopold's eyes snapped up to stare at her sharply.

"You want me to let you go save your friend? Even though I know it leads to certain death?" Leopold questioned, though Harriet had a feeling it was rhetorical. "No, absolutely not. I'll not have you throw your life away on a slim chance. Use your head. What do you think will happen if you get caught?"

Harriet remained silent, her lips pursed and her eyes not quite meeting his. Leopold walked around his desk to tower over her, standing far closer than Harriet had ever seen him do.

"What sort of King would I be if I let my best soldier kill himself before the battle even started? Think about your family, the person you fancy. What would they say if they knew you wanted to do this?"

Harriet did what he asked, but she knew he had no idea just how familiar he was with the people back home waiting for her. Clara would be furious. Amelia and James would be upset. However, she knew both Frederick and Mark would just be resigned. They'd be the ones to help her do it. After all, that's what older brothers were for.

She didn't have anyone she fancied waiting back home for her. She tried to ignore the pulling in her gut reminding her that she had never had anything even slightly like that. She did her best to not listen to the traitorous voice in the back of her head telling her that the reason they weren't back home was because they were right in front of her, but even in her head she scoffed at that. It must be the lack of sleep.

"They wouldn't be pleased," Harriet finally decided to say, her shoulders slumping as she admitted it out loud. "Fine, I won't, but I will be taking you up on your offer to help me. So don't be surprised when the instant this is over I come to find you."

"I won't be. Now, it's probably best if you return to your tent. We'll be on our way shortly and I need everyone to help pick up and pack everything."

"We're leaving?" Harriet asked. She hadn't heard anything about it until that instant.

"We are. The enemy is too close for my comfort, especially since with our forces are separated as they are by expanses of land." Leopold shuffled around some papers on his desk, not looking at her as he said his next words. "I suggest you go get ready. We'll be leaving to join forces with the second and third group from Ecrivenia as soon as possible."

"Of course," Harriet said. "Goodday." She bowed her head slightly at him, and then turned on her heel to leave his tent. Her stomach felt queasy as she left the tent, and even more so as the cold morning air brushed over her skin and the sound of men already hard at work taking down the tents reached her ears.

She had felt a little sick the whole time she was in there, but it was even worse once she left. However, she knew what it was. She felt guilty. Harriet knew where Oliver was, she knew how to save him, but yet she was deciding not to. That didn't rest well with her, but as one of the men called for her to help, she started over and tried to forget it. She shoved away the thought that told her it was survivor's guilt.

In less that three hours everything was packed and ready to go, and Leopold was assigning the order. Apparently, there was a special way that they needed to travel which meant that they both needed to be ready to defend themselves at any time, but also moving fast enough to reach their destination. Leopold placed Harriet beside Garreth at the back of the line, and before they knew it they were on their way.

However, no one except Leopold knew where they were going. Harriet didn't know if he had caught wind of the men who were traitors, or if he was just being cautious, but either way, no one knew where they were going. They didn't even know how far they were supposed to be traveling.

As they were at the back of the line, Harriet and Garreth were given the silence that came with it. Their closest companions were the horses they were walking behind, and even they weren't that loud. Clark was situated on top of Harriet's shoulder, and was affording her a welcome distraction but all the same, she was doing her best to think of a way to bring up the questions she had for Garreth. Thankfully, he seemed to sense her discomfort.

"I know you have questions, what do you want to know?" He asked her bluntly, and Harriet pulled her attention away from the mouse nibbling on her hair to meet his eyes.

"Who are the other traitors?" She asked and she watched as Garreth did his best not to frown.

"The men we shared a tent with, as well as Mr. Anders and Mr. Kane."

"That's it?"

"Those are the only ones I know of." Harriet frowned at that. He had been a spy. How had he not known all of the others?

"But shouldn't there be more? Was there someone in charge? Why don't you know of any more?" Harriet rapidly fired off questions, causing Garreth to sigh and run his hand through his short hair.

"Yes, there are more, but those are the only ones that I know of. No one except the man in charge knew who everyone was, and no one knew who he was."

"Why not?"

"Because, we got our orders through messages, we never saw him face to face. We all assumed he was a high up official or something. In fact that is what the others still believe," Garreth said, watching the rest of the procession. "I'm still in contact with them, but as of right now the orders that were given to us are merely to wait until after the battle to make the next move. Apparently, we'd know when it was our time to make our move, though I don't know how."

"After the battle? Not during it? And how would you know?"

"I'm assuming that we'd get our orders during the battle. No one has any idea what those orders might be, though we're assuming that it's a failsafe for if Marenta and Ecrivenia win. Why else would we wait until after the battle?"

Harriet's brows furrowed at that. The idea of a failsafe made sense, but she didn't like it. That meant that even when the war was over, it wouldn't be over, even if they won. If this was how far Carrigan thought ahead, she hated to see what else they had lined up. It sounded almost like she'd be fighting them for the rest of her life, granted she actually lived through the war.

"That makes sense, but I don't like it. I feel like we'd have a hard time convincing anyone of the plot once the battle, which is obviously going to happen soon, was over. They'd be convinced we won and too tired and joyous to agree with us."

Garreth nodded along with her, but stayed quiet. Harriet could only guess at his thoughts but she had thoughts of her own to ponder. Leopold would probably be easy to convince, as he'd always been somewhat paranoid, but the rest of the war council would not be. They were the oblivious sort, and Harriet wasn't too keen on dealing with them.

Not to mention, if the war never truly ended, that would mean that she would never get to return home, or try and find Oliver, or go back to being just Harriet. It was odd to admit, but she missed it, acting like a girl, even though she never really did that much.

She missed her hair being long, and arguing with Clara about what dress she'd be forced to wear, but she missed her conversations most of all. She missed her little arguments with Clara, her teasing with Frederick, her banter with Mark, and even the ridiculously deep conversations that James was obsessed with having.

However, even with all of that, she was somewhat glad for the conversations and relationships she had within her secret life of a soldier. Clark was definitely a highlight of the whole thing, and so was Oliver and Garreth, though Garreth was a long time coming. But it was her changing relationship with Leopold that she was both fond of and confused about. She had started out with her grudge, but now even she had to admit she respected him, and it seemed like he respected her.

Yet, he didn't even know who she really was. She mentally flinched at what his reaction would be if he found out his best soldier, Mr. Greenfellow, was the same little girl who he had stopped from taking credit for stopping an assassin, but grown up.

Though, Harriet thought to herself, he probably wouldn't be too surprised once he learned of it. Harriet was known for making reckless decisions and leaping without looking. Her decision to join the army fit right in with what he knew her personality to be, though he would never know how hard the decision actually was for her.

That was the odd thing about all of this. Her family back home, as well as Leopold, Mrs. Landon, and even to an extent, Gardenia, probably thought she didn't think about it all. That she was being selfish and reckless, and all of those things she didn't want to be. She had thought about it and weighed her options just as much as any other soldier, and she supposed that would be her argument when they found out.

A sudden thought struck her, however. If she died in battle, they would never know. Eventually they'd figure out that she couldn't stay at Mark's forever, but they'd never know what happened to her, unless Mark told them anyway. She had just decided to think about the subject more to find out a way to let her family know if she died, when the line came to a stop.

Standing on her tiptoes she could just make out the Ecrivenian flag billowing in the breeze and as the line began to move forward towards the entrance to their new camp, she could see the top of Leopold's head at the front. As Garreth and Harriet got closer to the opening to the camp, Harriet noticed that Leopold was talking with his hands, something he only ever did if he was comfortable.

However, she didn't realize why until they came right up to the entrance and she saw who he was talking with. Her stomach churned, her face paled, and she did her best not to run forward and hug the man Leopold was talking to for all she was worth. After all, he wouldn't even know who she was.

It was her brother-in-law, King Frederick.

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What do you think of Harriet's reactions to the conversations? What do you think will happen once she talks to Frederick? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Anyway, if you want to see more of the stories being featured by the show, click on the external link and it will take you to their profile! Additionally, thank you to LuvSailorMercury, britainkalai, danikanakker, NayaRS, reality_check_101, kbstclair, and stpolishook for the congratulations! Make sure to go check out all of their stories! Trust me, they are amazing.