My Contrary Mary by Cynthia Hand

Author:Cynthia Hand [Hand, Cynthia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperTeen
Published: 2021-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-THREE

Ari

“Papa,” Ari said, gently touching Nostradamus’s shoulder. “Papa, wake up.”

Her father opened his eyes. “Galileo?”

Sigh. “It’s still just Aristotle, Papa. You have to get up now. It’s time to leave.”

“Leave?” Nostradamus’s bushy white eyebrows furrowed. “But I’m quite comfortable here, thank you.”

“Queen Catherine has expelled us from the palace. You remember, Papa? And now all our bags are packed, and we’re ready to go back to Mama and the house.”

If they were still at the house, which the crown had always paid for.

If they couldn’t stay there, she didn’t know where they’d go. There wasn’t a lot of available, affordable housing for a famous ex-prognosticator, his failure of a daughter, wife, and five other children. Ari had heard that Calais was nice this time of year.

Nostradamus sat up. “I told you, Catherine cannot expel us if she’s no longer the queen.”

Ari nodded. “Yes, but last I checked, Catherine still is the queen, Papa. So we must go.”

There was a knock at the door, and Greer slipped inside, her expression grave.

She’d been out job hunting all morning.

“Did you have any luck?” Ari asked. She gulped. She was going to miss Greer. Who else would be willing to try every single one of her potions? “Do you need me to write you a recommendation?”

The ex-assistant shook her head. “No. I—No one’s told you, have they?”

“No one’s told us what?” Ari tried to exchange glances with Nostradamus, but he just looked expectantly at Greer. “What’s happened?”

“It’s the king,” Greer said quietly. “He’s dead.”

“See?” said Nostradamus. “I told you so.”

Ari sank down onto the sacks of oats as Greer related exactly what had happened to the king. It was not good. It was also exactly as her father had predicted. Ari was a little jealous.

“Congratulations,” said Nostradamus to Greer when she’d finished speaking. “You’re hired again. Now can you make me a cup of tea?”

“Yes, sir.” Greer flashed a relieved grin. “Thank you, sir. Right away.” She started digging around in the stacks of boxes to find the teacups and a pot to boil some water in. Ari stoked up the fire, her mind reeling.

What a week she’d had. Dancing with Liv, drugging the king of France, betraying Queen Mary. Well, those last two made it seem like Ari was a villain. But she wasn’t.

She would wager there was a 99 percent chance that she wasn’t the villain of this story. Of course, that depended on Queen Catherine being the good guy, considering Ari had been working for her. And really, Ari couldn’t think of one person who would define Queen Catherine as being the good guy, not even Ari.

The ugly truth was, Ari had blinded the king, and then the king had died in a jousting competition because a splinter of wood had pierced his eye.

It felt, in some ways, like her fault.

Greer got the tea started. Ari stood over the pot, watching the water boil. She loved how a watched pot boiled. She found it comforting that some things in this world were so predictable.

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