Chapter Twenty-Six:

The Search

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(The Night of the Feast)

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Harriet threw herself into the chair next to Adelaide's, slumping so that way her chin touched her chest. She let out an annoyed huff through her nose, getting the attention of the princess.

"You're bored, aren't you?" Adelaide asked, calmly adding another stitch to her embroidery. Harriet scowled at the embroidery. How was Adelaide even able to sit still for so long?

"Yes!" Harriet said, jumping back out of her chair and beginning to pace. "Why can't we go and take a peek? What could it hurt?"

"It wouldn't hurt anything, you just can't risk getting caught. Sophia told us to stay away so that way she can try and get Frederick and Clara together."

"I don't see what that has to do with us not taking a look inside the dining room."

"If Clara is too busy scolding you for eavesdropping on a situation you shouldn't be, she's not exactly going to be spending time with Frederick is she?" Adelaide stated cooly.

"Why don't you try to find a book to read?" Amelia suggested, picking her head up from where she had been reading one of Adelaide's old books. Princesses in pink dresses danced on the cover and Harriet rolled her eyes.

"I don't feel like reading," Harriet protested. She frowned, and then scowled at the door of Adelaide's room before walking up to it. "I'm doing it."

"Harriet-"

"What? There is nothing to do except read and stitch flowers! I don't want to stitch flowers, I want to see what's happening!" Harriet said, her arms crossing over her chest. "They won't catch me, I know they won't." Adelaide sighed loudly, putting her embroidery on the table beside her.

"Alright, but if you get caught, don't say we didn't warn you," she said, and Harriet's face split into a grin. She hurried over to the door, not waiting to look if the hallway was empty before leaving the room.

She was free! She, Adelaide, and Amelia had been cooped up in Adelaide's room for over an hour, waiting for the feast to be over so they could hear news of whether or not Clara and Frederick had finally got together. Harriet had tried to read, and she had tried to mimic sword-fighting stances from the book Frederick had given her, but it wasn't the same without her sword. It didn't take long for her to grow bored.

The halls of the palace were nearly empty except for the occasional servant, and Harriet couldn't help but smile at her luck. As if she was going to get caught. That would be ridiculous. The servants were supposed to be on the lookout for three ladies, as Adelaide, Amelia, and Harriet weren't supposed to leave Adelaide's room, but they wouldn't expect a girl in boy's trousers.

Harriet smirked slightly at that thought. She certainly wasn't a lady, and now, she almost didn't have to pretend to be one.

She was just rounding a corner, when suddenly she ran head first into someone, causing both of them to stumble and fall in a tumble of red hair and lanky limbs. Harriet groaned as she tried to sit up but found that she couldn't as the other person was on top of her... and they smelled.

"Would you get off?" She grimaced as the person situated their weight slightly.

"Sorry! Sorry, I'm getting up!" The person said, their voice apologetic. Harriet let out a sigh of relief as their weight finally got off of her and the smell went away. She flipped around onto her back, getting to her feet hurriedly, but upon looking at the person she had run into, she paused.

He was a servant boy, that much was obvious by his clothes and the dark smudge on his face that looked suspiciously like dirt or... Harriet decided she didn't want to think about it. However, the clothes weren't what made her pause.

The boy, whoever he was, was just barely taller than her with a lanky form and red cork-screwed hair to rival Harriet's. He even had blue eyes that looked almost gray. Harriet had never met anyone who looked so much like she did in her life but standing in front of him, she was certain she had found her male doppelganger.

"Who are you?" They both asked at the same time, and the boy blushed, putting a hand on his head to try and flatten the hair sticking up from it. Harriet's lips twitched into a small smile. She knew from experience that it was best just to let it be.

"Sorry. I'm Mark, Mark Greenfellow," the boy, Mark, said, holding out a hand for her to shake. Harriet gave it a swift pump, not hesitating.

"Harriet Corden." They boy's eyes widened.

"You mean you're the sister of the prince's mistr-"

"She's not his mistress, he loves her," Harriet said icily, glaring at Mark. He had the good grace to look sheepish.

"Sorry. I just- Um. Right," Mark responded, looking incredibly uncomfortable. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be in the princess' room?" Harriet's glare darkened to a scowl.

"If you say a single word-"

"I won't! Promise. It must've been awfully boring." Harriet gave Mark a calculating look.

"Yes, it was. That's why I wanted to go take a look at the feast." Mark swallowed, and frowned slightly, looking at Harriet with a strange expression.

"Um. Well, the dining room is that way," he said, pointing in the opposite direction of where Harriet had been going. It was Harriet's turn to flush slightly. "I can take you there if you want. I have to head in that direction anyway."

Harriet paused, thinking. On one hand, she didn't have the highest opinions of him, after all, he had called Clara Frederick's mistress, but on the other hand, she didn't really know how to get to the dining room. Not to mention, it might come in handy to have someone who looked almost exactly like her around.

"Fine," Harriet said. "Well. what are you waiting for? Lead on."

Mark nodded and started to hurry down the hallways, Harriet keeping pace with him easily. They had just reached a turn in the hallway, when Mark grabbed her arm, pulling her behind a pillar.

"What are you doing?" Harriet said, swatting at his hand.

"You want to eavesdrop right?" Harriet nodded in answer. "Then you can't very well do it from the main doors. C'mon."

Mark walked over to one of the wall sconces, looking behind him to make sure Harriet was following. Turning back to the sconce, he pulled on it, and Harriet had to hold in a gasp as the wall gave way to a dark passageway.

"Stay close to the wall, and watch your step, there might be a few rats hanging about," Mark said, leading the way into the passageway. As soon as Harriet was through the entryway, Mark reached across her and touched something, making the panel slide shut.

"How did you find this?" Harriet asked as she shuffled around, doing her best not to trip in the pitch black darkness that filled the secret passageway.

"My mum showed it to me. She works in the kitchen. She says it's a family tradition, to pass on the knowledge of the passages. Her mum showed her where the secret passages were, and so on for generations."

"Does anyone else know about these?" Harriet couldn't help but ask. To have that sort of secret that was passed down through the ages... she wished her family had something like that.

"A few of the other servants, but that's it. The royal family doesn't even know about them, as far as us servants are aware. I think they used to, but their family has forgotten." The pair fell silent for a moment before Mark grabbed Harriet's arm. "We're here, hold on."

There was the sound of some shuffling around until finally a stream of light came rushing into the passageway, allowing Harriet to see it in the dim. The passageway itself was made entirely from stone, but where they were standing was in front of a wooden panel that looked almost like a door.

"Is that a door?"

"Yep. It's actually covered by a painting of the third generation of Kings and Queens from this line. If you take down the painting you can get to the door. It used to be an escape route hundreds of years ago when Ecrivenia was constantly getting raided due to its small size."

"Who was it raided by?"

"Carigan," Mark responded. "They never found this passageway, but they did find one of the ones by the stables about a hundred or so years back. I doubt anyone from either royal family remembers it though."

"Hmm. Do we just lean towards it to look in?" Harriet asked, referring to the hole in the door and the painting.

"Yes. This painting hangs right over the servant exit, so there might be people coming out now and then, so we need to keep quiet."

Harriet nodded and then leaned closer to the hole in the wall, her eyes immediately landing on her sister's back as the dining room came into view. She almost let out a gasp. Clara looked beautiful, and from where she was watching she could see the glances that Frederick kept on sending her.

He looked like a fool in love, and his friend, Prince Leopold seemed to think so as well, as he kept on smirking at Frederick. Frederick didn't seem to appreciate his friend's opinion as every time he caught Leopold's smirk, he scowled.

Clara and Sophia had their heads together and seemed to be conversing quietly, neither noticing the nonverbal communication going between the two princes. Sophia seemed to be speaking earnestly, and Harriet watched as Clara turned slightly red. She bet she knew what they were talking about. Only one subject ever made Clara blush like that, and that was the subject of Frederick.

Harriet watched as her sister turned back to her plate, hiding her face from view. She could just barely hear Prince Leopold say something to her, and she could hear a little of Clara's response about it being red, whatever that meant, but she could clearly hear Frederick's words.

"I'd advise you to eat it, Lady Corden. It is the second to last course and the next isn't all that large." Harriet didn't hold back her smile as she saw her sister hesitantly try the food on her plate, but what really made her grin was the slightly concerned look on Frederick's face. Clearly, he had noticed Clara's odd habit of not eating when she was nervous, though if Harriet had to guess, Clara hadn't realized that Frederick had noticed.

Harriet couldn't hear much of the conversation after that and was just about to ask Mark if they could leave when suddenly, a choking noise came from directly underneath the portrait. Harriet and Mark exchanged a glance and together they peered down at the servant man who was slowly turning purple.

Out of the corner of her eye, Harriet watched as Clara made to stand up, but was held back by Frederick. However, what really caught her attention was the person several seats down from Clara. Unlike the rest of the people at the table, this man had gotten up from his chair, and instead of moving towards the choking man, had moved in the direction of the far left corner of the room.

"What's in the left part of the room?" Harriet hissed hurriedly to Mark, making sure to keep her voice low just in case, so no one in the dining room would hear them.

"The entrance to one of the old passageways to the stables, why?" Harriet's eyes widened.

"A man just made his way towards it! C'mon! I think he was the one who tried to poison Frederick!" Harriet pulled Mark away from the portrait, not bothering to let him close the peephole. They were then clambering down the stairs within the passageway, and soon enough, Mark had opened the door back to the main part of the palace.

"Is there a quicker way to the stables than that passage?"

"Yeah, but the entrance is by the main hall."

"Who cares? Let's go!" Harriet made to run, but Mark pulled her back.

"Wait, no, it's this way," he said, leading the way towards the entrance hall.

Both Harriet and Mark were nearly out of breath by the time they reached the hall, but Mark quickly opened the new passage, making sure to close it behind them before they began to run again.

Harriet nearly tripped more than three times, as there were a lot more steps than she had anticipated and the passage was darker than the other one, but eventually they reached the end. Mark and Harriet burst out of the passageway before Mark tackled Harriet to the side into one of the horse stalls.

"Shh! He's right there!" He hissed in her ear, and Harriet nodded. She carefully got to her feet and peeked over the side of the stall. The man had lanky black hair, and a tall figure and Harriet had to clamp a hand over her mouth as she recognized him as one of the diplomats from Carigan.

Her muffled gasp made a small noise, and she ducked quickly as the man looked over to where she and Mark stood before turning back to the horse he was saddling.

"Is there a way to get to the outside of the stables from here?" She asked quietly, feeling slightly relieved when Mark nodded.

"Where is it?" He pointed the door out to her, and she began to sneak towards it until he grabbed her wrist.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to lock him inside! That way he can't escape," she explained in a hurried whisper.

"I'm coming with you then. There are two exits that he could leave by, and once you shut one of them, he'll hurry towards the other."

Harriet nodded and then proceeded to lead the way to the servants' exit of the stables. Slipping through the door, she blinked in the starlight and then turned to Mark.

"Okay, you take the closest one and I'll take the farther one. When you see my signal close the door."

"Wait, what's the signal?"

"I'll wave my hand at you," she answered, before darting down the side of one of the stables, careful to keep her head low just in case the man could see out one of the windows.

Sneaking closer to the stable door, she waited a moment, taking a quick peek inside the stable to see where the man was. The horse was properly saddled, and Harriet's eyes widened as she saw him beginning to mount the horse.

She quickly waved her hand wildly in front of the exit, and then as fast as she could, slammed the stable doors shut with a bang. Her hands fumbled with the latch, but eventually, it shut properly, and she used all of her strength to pull the wooden bolt across the stable door so that way the man had no way to open it.

Panting slightly she stood back to admire her work with a grin plastered on her face. She was about to run back to Mark when suddenly, there was a hand on her shoulder.

She jumped, giving a little shriek, and turned around to see it was Prince Leopold staring down at her.

"What are you doing out of the palace?" He asked her sharply. "There has been an attempted assassination, you should be in your room."

"I know! That's why I followed the man who tried to poison Frederick!" She explained hurriedly, not really wanting to get in trouble. She watched as Leopold's eyes widened almost imperceptibly.

"You followed the assassin?" His voice was filled with incredulity. "Why on earth would you do that? You could've gotten hurt, or killed!"

"I wouldn't have-"

"How do you know? If he had seen you a moment before you shut that door, I can assure you he would've tried to kill you, and he wouldn't have missed his mark," Leopold spat, grabbing her by the upper arms and shaking her slightly. "Do you understand what could've happened?"

"Yes!" She answered, her eyes meeting his intense stare. "But everything turned out alright didn't it? We caught him! He can't try to hurt Frederick anymore!" She said, her voice rising. Why was he upset with her? She was just trying to help. Leopold heaved a sigh, and let go of her, taking a step back, his face looking older than it should have.

"Harriet-"

"Miss Corden, thank you very much," she snapped, not caring that she was talking to a prince. Leopold raised his eyebrows at her but otherwise, didn't comment on it.

"Miss Corden," he amended. "What you did was brave, I'll give you that. But bravery isn't everything. You want to be a knight?" Harriet nodded. "There are many obstacles in your path if you want to become one, not least your gender, but more important is your way of thinking." Harriet bristled at his words.

"I can think perfectly fine."

"Yes, when you take the time to. Good knights do not make judgments without thinking them through first. Rational thinking is just as important as bravery, in fact, in a way, it is its own kind of bravery. It takes courage to make an action like the one you did tonight, but it takes true bravery to know the possible consequences and effects of your actions and accept them for what they are and still make that same decision."

Harriet simply stared at him. She understood the consequences fine! The consequences were that he could've gotten away! That he could've hurt Frederick or Clara. She couldn't have gotten hurt. She glared at the prince, she definitely didn't like him half as much as she thought she had.

"I understand just fine," she said, and she watched as Leopold gave her a very knowing look. He clearly didn't believe her.

"Fine, but do you understand the reason why it can't be you who found the man?" This gave Harriet a moment of pause. "You and your family are not trusted by the King and Queen, not yet, even though this event no doubt spells the end of Frederick and Sophia's engagement. If you were to be the one to find and capture that man," Leopold said, pointing towards the stable door, "You would be questioned. Possibly even tortured, because how could a little girl like you know how to stop an assassin?"

"I am not a little girl! I stopped him. Sure I had a bit of help but-" Harriet was cut off by Leopold putting up a hand.

"I am not saying that you didn't. I'm saying that the King and Queen won't believe it."

"But if you backed me up-" Harriet paused, getting a good look at Leopold's expression. He wouldn't back her up. That is what this was all about. He was going to take her and Mark's hard work and claim it for himself, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. After all, she was just a little girl. She was thirteen! She fought the urge to punch him. Maybe she should.

"I'm sorry, but I can't. I like your sister, she is good for Frederick, the perfect kind of wife and the best friend and confidant he could wish for. I won't stand by while her little sister gets hauled off to be questioned because she simply wanted the glory of being the hero." Leopold then turned away and made a motion with his hand. "Mr. Greenfellow, please escort Miss Corden back to her room. If you don't, I promise you I will hear of it."

Mark came out of the shadows and frowned apologetically at Harriet as he grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

"Let go of me! This isn't fair! That was our hard work!" She protested, squirming in his grip, but Mark didn't let go. Eventually, as she watched Leopold begin to gather men to help him open the stable door and catch the assassin, she stopped fighting, allowing herself to be lead back up to the steps.

"He was just trying to keep you safe, you know," Mark said quietly once Harriet had calmed down. Harriet scowled at him. "Don't look at me like that, it's true. The King would never believe that you and I caught the assassin. It's just not very likely that a servant boy and a girl dressed like a boy could catch an assassin. Not to mention, we'd have to explain how we knew there was an assassin in the first place."

Harriet looked away from Mark, upset at his words, but not because of what they meant, rather because he was right. The King wouldn't have believed her, and Mark would've had to give up his family secret to the King. That kind of secret wasn't meant to be told to kings, especially not that one. He'd just abuse the knowledge like he abused his power.

Harriet snuck a glance over at Mark, taking in his downcast expression. He wasn't so bad really, he had helped her after all. She looked back towards the palace looming up above them. Who knew? Maybe he'd become a good friend.

She let out a sigh as they finally made their way to the palace's back doors. At least she knew there was one good thing that came out of all of that. Frederick was definitely not engaged to Sophia anymore.

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So. A lot happened. What do you think of Leopold? Was he right to stop Harriet from taking the credit? Were you surprised that is was Harriet and Mark who caught the assassin? Tell me your thoughts in the comments!

The song is "Destroying the Locket," by Alexandre Desplat. It is from the movie "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part One." (In case you haven't noticed by now, my favorite composer is Alexandre Desplat.)