Murder at Fontainebleau by Amanda Carmack

Author:Amanda Carmack
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-04-15T11:08:54+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

The corridor in the far wing of the palace was quiet as Kate made her way to her chamber. It was late; the evening had gone on long, with card games, wine, and sweet delicacies in Queen Catherine’s rooms, and Kate had been asked to play her English songs again, even as the Barnetts retired early. She felt weary, her mind heavy, but she felt she had learned much about French manners, French relationships.

The only light was from a few torches flickering in the shadows. The air was cold. A sound like a low, harsh sob echoed between the bare walls, and Kate thought of tales of restless ghosts roaming palace halls, touching mortals with their icy fingers. She shivered and hurried her steps toward her own door.

But it was not a spirit who was crying—unless it was a spirit who could also blow its nose and sigh. At the end of the corridor, just beyond Kate’s chamber, there was a small alcove with a window set in the wall. It was half concealed by a velvet drape, yet Kate glimpsed the embroidered hem of a pale satin gown, the toe of a velvet slipper. Another sob shivered through the air.

Kate worried that someone was ill. “Hello?” she called our carefully. “May I help?”

There was a sudden, surprised rustling, and a pale face peeked around the edge of the drape. It was Amelia Wrightsman who cried there in private. “Oh, Mistress Haywood! You did startle me. I thought everyone was abed by now. I didn’t want to wake my aunt, so I came here.”

Kate hurried to Amelia’s side. “Are you ill? Should I fetch Mistress Berry and her possets?”

Amelia frowned. “Nay, not her. I am not ill. I just needed a quiet moment.”

“Oh,” Kate said, embarrassed that she had intruded. Quiet moments were few and precious in palaces. She started to turn away. “I am sorry. I shall just—”

“Do stay for a moment, Mistress Haywood! Unless you are very tired and must seek your bed. It’s not as comforting being alone as I thought it would be.”

Kate studied Mistress Wrightsman’s face. She looked very different from when she was laughing and dancing in company. Her eyes were reddened with crying, and she seemed younger, unsure of herself. Just as Kate so often felt. “Of course I can stay.” She sat down next to Amelia on the narrow window seat and arranged her skirts around her. “Fontainebleau is beautiful, but also rather cold and lonely, I have found.”

Amelia gave a wry laugh and wiped at her eyes. Her lacy handkerchief wafted the scent of her violet perfume. “Crowded palaces are the loneliest places of all, I think.”

“Mayhap you are right. I’ve found I can always lose myself in music. It can feel like an entirely different world, even in a banquet hall filled with people.”

Amelia sighed. “I do envy you such an escape.” She wiped at her eyes again, and her shoulders seemed to stiffen, as if she found her armor and wrapped it around herself.

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