Chapter 6. Okay, wow! Just wow… I got so many reviews… you guys are great! I'm really excited that people are liking this story. Sorry I took so long to get this chapter up. I had school, band, and life in general. Fortunately for all of you (and unfortunately for me) I'm sick and am out of school, providing me with lots of time to update. Now, not to worry, the last chapter was definitely not the end of this fic, but I guess you realized that already since I posted this chapter.

Here's some information about Francis which I find quite interesting. Francis had exactly 4 sentences in the book. They are as follows: "Serves him right, he just left his tack on the ground. His horse was covered with sweat. That's no way to treat a good horse." (56) and "He didn't like what happened yesterday," (64) He dies by page 84. It's sad really… he's such a fun character! Okay, on with chapter six!

Disclaimer: All the characters, places, and some of the events in the story come from Alanna: The First Adventure, part of the Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce. Everything belongs to her.

Alan was a girl. He was sure of it, as sure as he knew his own name.

Francis slipped out of bed, and silently he began to pace the length of his room.

It all makes sense now, Francis thought, all the …abnormalities. The strange things he, gods no, She did.

Francis' head was spinning as he went over the past few weeks, making sense of all the clues he should have noticed. How could he have been so blind?

Still part of him refused to believe it. His friend Alan a girl? It couldn't be. Why, it was insulting to even be thinking such things!

Francis slipped into his bathing chamber and splashed shockingly cool water onto his face. The water always seemed to calm him down. As he made his way back into the main chamber there was a knock on the door. Francis' first thought was that it was Alan, that somehow he, somehow she knew of his revelation.

"Who-who is it?" he managed to croak.

"Who do you think it is Francis?" said Raoul as he opened the door. He looked around the room expectantly, then shook his head a smile playing on his lips. "For a moment there, I almost thought that you might have a girl in here, the way your voice was."

"No," Francis said quickly, "No girls in here." He winced as his voice squeaked out the word 'girl'.

Raoul laughed outright. "Now you've got me thinking that maybe there was a girl and she climbed out the window."

Francis forced out a chuckle. "Sure Raoul." He set to tidying his bed to avoid drawing attention to his shaking hands.

"Francis, you know, I'm all for keeping things tidy, but this isn't exactly the time for that. It's almost dinner." Raoul said idly, cleaning a bit of dirt out from under his nails with his belt knife.

Francis stared at him blankly for a moment before fully comprehending his words.

"Dinner!" he exclaimed, rushing to do everything at once. He had to serve Duke Gareth in ten minutes and here he was in a wrinkled tunic and his work breeches!

"I was wondering how long it was going to take you to remember." Raoul laughed. "He opened Francis' trunk and began to rummage around. "You clean your hair and teeth. I'll find your uniform."

Francis rushed to obey, happy to have a friend like Raoul. For a while, he almost forgot about the dream.

He and Raoul made it to the kitchen just in time to hear the toll of the last summoning bell. Francis was a bit disheveled, but was overall presentable.

As soon as he trotted into the sweltering, loud kitchen, a serving man shoved a tray with a finger bowl and a towel into Francis' hands.

"Hurry up! The Duke isn't the most patient man and the other lads just left."

Francis nodded and rushed to do as he was told. The dining hall was alive with chatter. Late autumn was among the palace's busiest times. Working knights took the season as an opportunity to lounge in the luxury that their status deserved while their women threw themselves into the delicate games of court. He didn't know much about where his path would lead him, but Francis knew that he would never fit into the hustle and bustle of court.

In this single chamber alone, Francis knew that there probably was enough fabric to clothe all of Tortal, and maybe a bit of Scanra too. There were the bland wools of the north, which he was accustomed to, light silks in brilliant colors for the nobles from the southern cities of trade, and the more practical cotton garbs of those who spent most of their time in court. It was amazing how much you could learn about a noble by how they dressed.

With the ease of long practice, Francis weaved in and out of the other pages and squires as he made his way up to the head dais where the Duke and Duchess sat comfortably at the right hand of Gareth's sister, the Queen. Quickly, he bounded up the steps of the platform on which the head table rested before slowing his stride. Something felt off about his balance, though Francis couldn't quite place it. He would have to figure it out later.

"Your Graces," he said cordially as he executed his best bow.

"Ahh, thank you Lord Francis," The Duchess said as she daintily cleaned her fingers in the bowl. She had on a brilliant crimson gown with contrasting silver trim and jewelry. Francis knew this to be one of her favorite gowns since she seemed to wear it the most often. It was rather flattering on a woman of her beauty. When she finished, Francis offered the fingerbowl to the Duke.

Francis let his gaze wonder over the rest of the table until they met a pair of sparkling sapphire blue eyes. Jon grinned at him, covering his smile with his napkin. Francis shot him a questioning look, which Jonathan replied to by pointing discretely to the ground by Francis' feet before covering a laugh by sipping at his wine.

Blindly, Francis looked for what the Prince was laughing at on the ground. He had greater things to worry about than Jon's source of amusement; Alan's being a girl for one! As Duke Gareth dried his hands, the towel dropped to the ground. When he reached to pick it up, Francis reddened at discovering what was wrong. He made a quick escape back to the kitchen where he took off his boots and switched them to their proper feet.

He made his way back into the Dining Hall with the soup course feeling much better on his feet. Having reached the head table with no further surprises, Francis was confident that he could make it through the meal despite the crazy thoughts running through his mind. That was until he spotted her.

She was laughing at an unknown joke as she served the soup to Sir Myles. Francis looked for some hint, any clue that could allow him to identify Alan as a girl, but there was nothing. She hid her true identity well.

When his foot made contact with the back of a visiting noble's chair, Francis knew he was done for. He pitched forward, having lost his balance and felt the platter carrying the soup bowls fly out of his grasp into the air. The first bowl shattered harmlessly on the floor, but the second continued in a deadly arc aiming right for the Duchess of Naxen. Francis averted his eyes as he heard the splash.

But for a couple of gasps, there was absolute silence.

"Nond," Duke Gareth growled, turning a dangerous shade of purple as his wife shrieked in delayed surprise.

"Sir, I'm truly …" Francis gasped.

"Go. Now."

It was all he needed. Francis shot like a bolt from a crossbow off the dais. He bumped into several of his friends before he found and exit and made his escape. His feet churned steadily beneath him until he realized that they were no longer beating against the stone of the castle, but grass. Francis slowed to catch his breath and to figure out where he was.

Moonlight reflected off one of the stables' many troughs, lighting up the ground around it with the help of torches strategically placed on the walls. Eyeing the cool water, Francis unceremoniously plunged his head into the trough then plopped down in a near by pile of hay.

He didn't know how long he had been running, exactly how many people he had run over, or how he was going to explain his sopping head. All he knew was that his life was over.

I dropped a bowl of soup onto the Duchess of Naxen's head! Gary's mother! The Training Master's wife! The Queen's sister-in-law! Francis brought his knees to his chest and curled up into a tight ball, not caring how he might look to any passerby.

What had come over him? He may have made some horrible mistakes before, but never anything like this. In fact, he had been chosen by the Deportment Master to serve on the Duke's table for exactly that reason!

Francis winced as he replayed what had happened over and over in his mind, especially the Duchess' shrieks and the Duke's quiet rage. He was going to be kicked out for sure. No Nond in the family's history, which dated back even before the Book of Gold, had ever failed their knight training. His father would have been so ashamed.

"I suppose there's a first time for everything," he muttered dejectedly to himself, tossing pieces of hay into the trough. "Just like there's a first time for there being a female page!"

There was the root of all his problems. It was all Alan's fault! If he had just been a lad like he was supposed to be, Francis would have never been distracted and gotten himself into this mess in the first place.

Girls were not supposed to be knights! Everybody knew that! They were supposed to marry, and have children, take care of the fief, and, and die cranky old women safe in their beds, not run around risking their necks doing knights' work! Alan had no right to be at the palace. Besides, it was treason to lie to the royal family! Why, Alan had lied to all of them! She'd pretended to be Francis and their circles' friend when it was all just a lie to make her masquerade as a boy more believable!

Feeling betrayed and angry, Francis stood up and dusted himself clean of any stray bits of hay. He knew what he had to do. He was going straight to Gareth the Elder.

He would explain why he had made the mishap and make sure that the Duke relieved him of a certain redheaded liar.

Humm, didn't expect this chapter to go that way… I'll have to wait and see where this leads. A bit cliffy, don't you think? Review and I'll update as soon as I can get my thoughts down into words!