Honor

Chapter Eight: Set Fire to the Rain

Princess Annie awoke the next morning to a loud thunderclap that echoed dully around the stone walls of her large, bedchamber. Awake with her eyes closed, she heard her maidservant, Reva, quietly enter her chamber and light a fire in the hearth. Finally, Annie rose. She winced slightly as her feet touched the cool marble floor.

"I have an idea," she suddenly announced from her bedside as Reva stood and turned to face the Princess. The idea had come to Annie the night before at the ball. The fire crackled merrily in the hearth now.

"An idea for what?" the maidservant inquired. She moved to make the vacant bed as she spoke. Annie always had ideas, most of the prone to causing trouble. Reva was sure this was no exception, but it was better to hear the Princess out first before commenting.

"On how to get out of here, of course."

Annie moved to the window to gaze down as far as possible. Hands on her hips she looked from the bed to the window, as if measuring with her eyes. The bed was against the wall next to the window. There were at least three sheets on the bed, plus a large comforter and several extra blankets stashed underneath the bed itself in case she should get cold. She gauged the distance from the window to the ground to be about forty feet, and the blankets, large things that they were, probably would cover only about thirty feet of that. That left a ten-foot drop for Annie to reckon with.

"Don't bother making the bed now, Reva."

Reva looked up at her, clearly shocked, "But it's so high," she exclaimed, having caught on as soon as she saw Annie by the window, "And that storm...! You can't!"

"I'll need one of your dresses," the Princess continued, obviously pretending not to have heard, "All of mine are too fancy, I'm afraid," She moved into Reva's chamber as she spoke. She emerged with a plain dress that any village girl would wear, "This will do."

The maid watched in detached horror as the Princess began tying the sheets together to form one long rope. Annie tied one end to the bedpost and dragged the rest over to the window. Abandoning it for a moment, she slipped out of her nightgown and into the dress selected from Reva's closet.

"This is madness," Reva choked out finally, "Pure madness, Annie!"

Annie gave her a wry smile, "Well, they do say that there's a fine line between genius and insanity. You know as well as I do that I love treading along that very fine line. I would say this is my version of both."

The dress was simple, a white peasant top giving way to a dark green skirt. It was more comfortable than any of Annie's own dresses, and she found herself enjoying the freedom of movement it allowed.

"Shouldn't you at least wait until nightfall," Reva cried as Annie started towards the window. She quickly moved towards the older girl, "To leave now would be foolish! Especially with that storm, you'll catch a dreadful cold if you go out in that rain!"

"I'm not staying one more minute in this awful French court," declared the Princess, "Oh, now, don't worry so much, Reva. I'll be fine, even if I have to live out the rest of my days as a village girl. Besides, the storm is going to let up soon anyway, it's been going for an hour or two already, it can't last too much longer."

With that, Annie thrust open the large windows and threw the coil of sheets-turned-rope over the edge into the pounding rain.

Not looking back, Annie grabbed the rope and slowly lowered herself out of the window and down the rope into the rain. She made her way down the sheet-rope rather quickly. She 'oofed' slightly when she dropped to the ground. As Reva watched anxiously from the window, Annie quickly ran towards the castle wall. The Princess ran her hands along the slick stone. She scaled the wall with slight difficulty due to the wetness, but made it to the top. She swung her legs over the wall and, with one last glance over her shoulder at Reva's face in the window, the Princess disappeared over the other side into the dawn. The whole escape took little more than five minutes.

Suddenly the full impact of what had just happened hit the astonished maidservant. She dashed towards the door, and threw it open with a swift cry of, "Sir Auggie, Sir Arthur—..."

—And found herself face-to-face with Prince Jai with one hand raised, poised to knock. Off to either side, Arthur and Auggie could be heard chuckling lowly. Reva stepped outside. She quickly pulled the doors shut behind her to prevent him from seeing into the empty room.

"Ah, um, Your Highness," Reva managed to say. She felt the deep blush creep up into her cheeks, "What brings you to the Princess's chambers at this hour of the morning?"

'Not now,' she screamed mentally at him.

"I wanted to speak with the Princess," He replied, his eyebrows came together in confusion, "Is something wrong?"

He watched keenly as the maidservant visibly paled. Arthur and Auggie noticed too, and their muffled laughter abruptly stopped.

"O-of course not, why on e-earth would anything be w-wrong, my Lord?"

This was said a little too loudly from the surge of adrenaline. Reva knew how fake it sounded, but it was too late to take it back now.

"Well then, I would like to see her. Please let me pass."

Jai moved to go around Reva, who in turn moved to block his path. He moved the other way and forward a bit, trying to duck in, and she moved again to block him, consequently pressing their bodies together.

Fighting the imminent blush, Reva stammered out an excuse, "The Lady is still in her bedclothes, Sire, and it wouldn't be proper for you to see her."

The Prince stared at her with raised eyebrows. She was at eye level with him, making it hard to break eye contact in their present condition. This proved uncomfortable for the both of them, so eventually he sighed and spoke, "Very well. I shall return later to see her."

He turned and left, striding off the corridor. His feet made quiet shuffling noises.

As soon as he was out of earshot, the guards wheeled on the maidservant, eyes wide and faces anxious.

"What's wrong?" Arthur asked as he bore down on her.

"Is the Princess okay?" Auggie pressed. He looked worried.

In response, Reva swung open the chamber doors and allowed the men to enter. He led them to her bedchamber. Taking in the scene immediately, both guards rushed to the window and looked down at the rain-soaked sheets that were slapping an uneven rhythm on the carved stone wall.

"She's gone then," Arthur confirmed everyone's thoughts. He turned to face Reva, who gave a nod in agreement, not capable of words at the moment.

"We have to go after her," voiced Auggie. He continued to stare vacantly out the window towards the rising sun.

"You go," Arthur told him, "Reva and I will remain here and try to keep people out of this room. If anyone finds out, we'll all get in serious trouble."

Auggie nodded once, and gave Arthur a grateful smile. Then he leapt over the window ledge and slid down the rope. He took off across the lawn the second he touched the ground.

"Are you worried about her?" Arthur's voice sounded far away to the maidservant.

Reva realized the question was meant for her and she turned to Arthur slowly and nodded.

Arthur gave her a reassuring smile, "It'll be okay. If anyone can bring her back, it's Auggie. He obviously cares deeply about her."

"I hope you're right," Reva whispered as she moved to look out the window. She watched the sky as the storm cleared up and the morning started to break free into sunlight, "I may be only a maidservant and she may be the Princess, but she's the best friend I've ever had."