Chapter 53.5 Handmaiden Eloise Interlude

Eloise had expected something more impressive.

By the time Princess Lirael told her to keep an eye on Olive, Eloise had already heard enough about the girl to build someone much more interesting in her head. Olive had resisted the Crown's signature spell, Authority. She had somehow managed to humiliate Loren. Her father was captain of the Grovekeepers, her parents had conveniently left Tillshade just before the royal party arrived, and everyone they questioned about the girl seemed to be hiding something.

Taken together, it sounded like the beginning of something. Eloise had expected someone mysterious.

Instead, Olive was walking through the village carrying a basket.

Eloise watched from the shade beneath the edge of a roof, one shoulder pressed against the wall. Across the road, Olive stopped to say something to a woman carrying folded cloth. The woman answered, Olive laughed, and then she continued walking.

That was it. No secret meeting, no suspicious package, no coded message slipped beneath a door. Just a girl carrying a basket.

Eloise shifted her weight and immediately regretted it when one of the jeweled clips in her hair pulled at a curl. She reached up and freed the strand.

Much better.

Olive turned onto a narrower road, and Eloise followed, moving from one patch of shade to another. She stayed behind a cart while Olive passed a pair of villagers, then waited beside a tree until the girl had moved farther ahead.

Whenever Olive's attention swept across the village, it lingered on armor, the church, sometimes the road leading toward the forest.

Never Eloise.

Olive didn't seem to know she existed, which made following her remarkably easy.

By midday, Eloise had learned that Olive knew everyone in Tillshade, stopped to look at animals far more often than was reasonable, and was apparently willing to abandon whatever route she had been taking if something interesting crawled beneath a bush.

Loren had been bested by this girl.

Eloise smiled to herself. She was never going to let him forget it.

Olive turned suddenly, and Eloise slipped behind the corner of a building before the girl's gaze reached her. A strip of sunlight caught the toe of her shoe, but the rest of her remained in shadow.

Footsteps approached.

Eloise held still as Olive passed close enough for her to see the little stitches along the edge of the girl's sleeve.

Olive never looked over.

Eloise waited another few breaths before following.

Perhaps there really was nothing to find.

That would be inconvenient.

Lirael had not ordered her to discover a conspiracy. She had only asked her to observe Olive, but returning with several days' worth of information about baskets and beetles would still feel like a failure.

***

Eloise had followed Olive back to the church expecting, finally, to discover why the girl kept disappearing inside.

Then Olive climbed into the attic and stayed there.

Eloise sat on the landing outside with her back against the wall and her legs tucked beneath her dress. She lasted almost half an hour before removing another jeweled clip from her hair. The curl immediately escaped and fell across her cheek.

Good for it.

She turned the clip between her fingers.

Nothing had happened behind the attic door. No visitors, no whispered conversation, no suspicious scraping. Nothing.

Eloise leaned her head back against the wall.

Why would anyone voluntarily spend this much time in a room?

Olive was grounded, apparently, but that explained why she was not allowed into the forest. It did not explain why she kept shutting herself away when she had an entire village available to her.

Eloise would have understood if someone were forcing her. Lirael had spent half her life in rooms because someone else had decided she belonged there. Lessons, meetings, fittings, meals with people she did not like, conversations she could not leave because leaving would itself mean something.

Olive could walk out whenever she wanted.

Yet there she was.

Eloise waited, eventually balancing the jeweled clip across two fingers just to give herself something to do. It fell, and she caught it before it struck the floor.

The door above remained closed.

Eloise narrowed her eyes at it.

This had somehow become suspicious simply because it was so dull.

Eventually, footsteps moved inside.

Eloise stood, smoothed her skirt, and slipped into the deeper shadow beside the wall. The attic opened, and Olive emerged looking perfectly ordinary.

Eloise stared at her as she descended the stairs.

That was becoming irritating.

***

Eloise found a place where the shadow of a neighboring roof hid most of her body while still giving her a clear view of the general store. With so many villagers gathered above the streets, disappearing among them had been easier than following Olive along the road. Not even the knights' gazes landed on her. Nobody was looking for one more girl on a rooftop, especially once the forest began to burn.

This had been very convenient. The children all sat together talking about their goals and expectations. Creating a dossier on them would be the simplest thing in the world.

Curiously enough, it was her target who talked the least, mostly encouraging her brother.

Why?

The first lights appeared beneath the trees, then multiplied as conversation faded around Tillshade.

Eloise forgot Olive entirely for several breaths.

Flame moved through the distant forest in patches, red and orange beneath the canopy. Then something rose from it.

One burning creature became ten. Ten became hundreds, until the sky filled with them.

Eloise leaned forward before remembering she was supposed to be hiding. Red, gold, green, violet, and blue lights swept above the forest. Some climbed higher while others followed the smoke, their burning wings turning the night into something alive.

The roofs erupted in cheering.

Eloise laughed with them. She couldn't help it.

For a little while, it did not matter that she was supposed to be spying on anyone.

Then she found Olive again.

That was not difficult.

Olive was sitting beside Emma.

Very closely beside Emma.

Eloise's attention narrowed.

Oh.

Well.

This was much more interesting than the attic.

Emma was supposed to be watching the Emberwings, and she mostly was.

Mostly.

Olive was worse. Every few moments, her attention wandered from the burning sky to the girl beside her. Then, whenever Emma looked back, Olive suddenly found something fascinating somewhere else.

Eloise covered her mouth.

Loren had somehow neglected this crucial part of his investigation. She would have to inform him that his dangerous mystery girl became incapable of behaving normally when seated beside a pretty girl.

Their shoulders touched.

Neither moved away.

Eloise's amusement softened.

The Emberwings swept overhead again, covering the rooftops in shifting color. Olive's brother grabbed both girls into some laughing tangle before letting them go, and Emma settled beside Olive again afterward, closer, if anything.

Then their hands found each other.

Not dramatically. Their fingers simply met between the chairs and remained there.

Eloise watched Olive glance down at them.

She knew that look. Not because she had seen Olive make it before, but because every girl knew that look. The sudden awareness that one's own hand had become the most complicated object in the world.

Eloise smiled.

Then, unexpectedly, something inside her twisted.

Lirael would have liked this.

Not merely the Emberwings.

This.

Sitting on a roof with badly arranged chairs and crumbs scattered everywhere. Laughing too loudly. Having someone's shoulder press against hers without an attendant deciding whether it was appropriate. Holding a girl's hand because she wanted to.

Or a boy's.

Or no one's.

It did not matter.

If Lirael sat this close to someone, people would notice. If she held someone's hand, people would ask what it meant. If she asked someone to spend an afternoon with her, there would be questions about families, intentions, advantage, reputation.

Even Eloise was not simply Eloise when she sat beside her.

She was her handmaiden.

Her friend too. Her real friend.

But the first thing anyone else saw was still the handmaiden.

Eloise rubbed her thumb against the edge of the jeweled clip she had forgotten she was holding.

Below, Olive was gathering courage for something. That was obvious too. The girl kept starting to turn toward Emma, stopping, then staring at the Emberwings as though one of them might descend and save her.

Eventually, she turned.

“Emma, would you go on a date with me?”

Eloise heard that much.

Emma's answer was quieter, swallowed beneath the noise of the roofs and the rush of burning wings overhead, but she did not need to hear it.

Olive's entire face changed.

Emma stayed beside her.

Their hands stayed together.

Eloise looked back toward the church.

For the first time since Lirael had given her the assignment, she wished she were there instead. Not because Olive had done anything dangerous, but because Lirael was somewhere inside while two ordinary girls sat beneath a burning sky and were allowed to be ordinary.

The feeling was ugly enough that Eloise almost resented Olive for it.

Almost.

***

The next strange thing happened before sunrise.

Eloise nearly missed Olive leaving the church. Only the soft closing of the door drew her attention. Olive crossed the square carrying a bucket, moving with the purposeful speed of someone who was absolutely doing something she was not supposed to be doing.

Finally.

Eloise followed.

The bucket went to the well, then the stables, where Olive actually began doing chores.

Eloise's hope faded.

Of course she did.

She watched from the long shadow beside the stable while Olive fed the Grubbears and cleared part of their pen. Then Olive stopped halfway through and checked around her before slipping behind the stable.

Eloise straightened.

There you are.

She followed far enough to see without leaving the shade.

Olive set the bucket on the packed dirt and pulled back her sleeve.

A strange vine curled around her wrist. Thin green vines wrapped around Olive's arm among small leaves, with a larger bud resting above her wrist.

Olive pointed them toward the ground.

Nothing happened.

She adjusted her arm and tried again, then spoke quietly to them.

Still nothing.

Eloise settled against the wall.

Perhaps this would also take an hour.

Then the bud moved.

Eloise's attention sharpened.

Something shot from Olive's wrist and struck the dirt.

Olive froze, then crouched immediately, not celebrating but inspecting. She leaned closer to whatever had landed, studying the ground. The vines reached after it, and Olive stopped them before adjusting the bucket and beginning to arrange things around the tiny object.

Eloise watched more carefully now.

The magic that followed was not particularly impressive by itself.

The girl yelled, “Growth,” and vines simply burst from the earth.

A farmer's magic.

What was more impressive was what happened next.

The vines wrapped around the bucket, lifting and twisting around it as they thickened. More growth joined the first until the container disappeared inside a tightening mass of green.

The bucket bent.

Olive stared, then threw her arms into the air.

“Yes!”

Eloise pressed her lips together.

When Loren had followed her, he had described Olive using a similar spell, but then it had been on a bush. Now it seemed as though the girl had been considering that event and had figured out how to use it anywhere.

Certainly not the actions Eloise expected from a scared little girl. She would have thought Olive would stick close to the Grovekeepers instead.

But no.

She had snuck off to prepare a spell for her own protection.

Olive dropped beside the plants, talking excitedly to the vines on her wrist as though they had personally won some great battle together.

***

Later that morning, Olive crossed Tillshade quickly, disappearing around buildings often enough that Eloise had to abandon subtlety twice just to keep up.

Eventually, she found the Grovekeeper Eric.

This was the one who had confronted Loren, the one who barred their knights from entering the forest.

Whatever he told Olive excited her, because she immediately went looking for people.

Eloise followed at a distance as Olive went from child to child.

Eventually, she stopped beneath the shade of a tree.

A boy about Eloise's age had noticed Olive before Olive called to him. Eloise was almost certain of that. His head turned toward her, then very deliberately turned somewhere else.

Olive hurried over and told him about the training. Eric had agreed to start teaching them, and she wanted Jorren there.

Jorren answered with considerably less enthusiasm than his face had shown before Olive reached him.

Olive either did not notice or chose not to comment.

Considering everything Eloise had learned about her, she suspected the former.

When Olive finally hurried away, Jorren watched her go for several breaths too long before apparently remembering he had somewhere else to look.

Eloise grinned.

Then Olive passed directly beside the tree.

Eloise flattened herself against the shaded side of the trunk. Olive's gaze swept past her without pausing, and she continued down the road.

Eloise felt her spell shatter.

She considered casting another one on herself, but she did not want to waste her second cast.

The spell had been Eloise's specialty for years now. It did not make her disappear. If anyone was actually searching for her, they would see her.

But light did not catch properly against Eloise's skin or the gold stitching of her sleeves. Her shoes met the earth without quite enough sound, and her dress barely whispered when she moved.

The spell did not let her stand in the middle of the road and vanish. Eloise still needed walls, trees, shade, crowds, anything that gave another person's eyes somewhere more interesting to go.

If Olive knew Eloise was following her, the spell would be utterly useless.

But Olive was not looking for a handmaiden.

She watched for knights. She watched the church. She watched for the princess.

Eloise was simply easy to overlook.

She waited until Olive was several paces away before stepping out from behind the tree.

“It was like when you fancied someone and they didn't even know you existed,” Lirael had said when she first heard Eloise's explanation.

Eloise nearly laughed aloud.

***

By the time sword training began, Eloise had started to form an opinion of Olive.

She was strange.

Not dangerous, not yet anyway, but strange.

And now she had apparently decided that meant she needed a sword immediately.

Eloise stood beneath the shade near the edge of the training ground and watched Eric demonstrate a downward strike.

The children copied him.

Then they did it again.

And again.

Eloise waited for the lesson to move on.

It did not.

Swords rose, came down, stopped, then rose again.

One of the younger children groaned, and Eric told them to keep going. Another adjusted aching fingers around the grip. Someone shook out an arm between repetitions until Eric noticed and told them to raise the sword again.

Eloise's own shoulders began to hurt sympathetically.

Olive had looked disappointed at first.

That had been almost funny.

She had arrived with all the determination of someone preparing for war and discovered that sword fighting apparently consisted of chopping the same patch of air until one's arms stopped working.

At least, that was what Eloise assumed from Olive's face.

The first dozen swings looked like everyone else's. Her grip needed correction. Once, her blade stopped too low. Another time, her feet moved when they should not have.

Eric corrected her.

Olive fixed it and swung again.

As the lesson continued, the children grew quieter. Not disciplined quiet, but tired quiet. Even after they used their spell to keep going, their breathing filled the spaces between Eric's instructions. Wood shifted against palms. Shoes dragged across dirt. Someone muttered something under their breath and earned a warning.

Olive swung again.

Her breathing had changed too.

Eloise noticed because she had been waiting for some sign that the girl was somehow finding this easier than everyone else.

She wasn't.

Sweat darkened the hair near Olive's temples. Her shoulders had begun to tremble slightly when she lifted the practice sword, and her fingers opened and closed around the grip whenever Eric's attention moved elsewhere.

It hurt.

That part was obvious.

The strange part was Olive's face.

Eloise frowned.

Olive raised the sword, but her eyes were not on Eric.

They were not on the blade either.

They seemed fixed somewhere beyond the training ground.

The sword came down.

Eric called for another.

Olive raised it again, and for a moment something changed in her expression. Not pain or frustration. Something almost like consideration, as if someone had asked her a question.

The sword came down again.

Eloise stopped leaning against the wall and watched Olive's eyes.

There.

They moved again, not toward anything in front of her. They tracked slightly to one side, paused, then returned.

Her body never stopped.

Raise. Down. Stop.

Then again.

A girl beside her let her sword fall to the dirt.

“My arms hurt.”

“So do mine,” someone else complained.

Eric gave them a brief rest.

Olive lowered her sword with everyone else. Her arm hung at her side and her fingers shook, yet her expression remained distant.

She blinked and suddenly looked irritated.

Eloise glanced toward Eric.

He hadn't said anything.

The irritation vanished just as quickly. Then, inexplicably, the corner of Olive's mouth lifted.

Just slightly.

Eloise searched the training ground.

Nothing had happened. Nobody had made a joke. Nobody was even talking to Olive.

The girl was standing among a group of exhausted children, staring at nothing and reacting to something Eloise could not see.

A cold little feeling crawled across the back of Eloise's neck.

Eric called them back into position.

The complaints started immediately.

Olive raised her sword.

Her shoulders visibly protested the movement.

Her face did not.

The blade came down, then rose again.

Her breathing was harder now, and a bead of sweat ran down the side of her face. Her wrist bent wrong on one strike. She corrected it before the next.

Eloise had seen stubborn people before.

Lirael was one.

By Lumisiel's name, Eloise could absolutely be one.

This was different.

A stubborn person endured something by focusing on it. They gritted their teeth, forced themselves through the discomfort, counted breaths, glared at whatever was hurting them as though anger could make it end faster.

Olive did not look as though she were enduring the training.

She looked almost asleep on her feet, like someone simply going through the motions.

Another strike.

The wooden blade cut through the air, and Olive's eyes shifted again.

Eloise wondered what the girl could possibly be thinking about.

Another child groaned.

Olive did not.

Her sword came down again and again until Eloise stopped counting.

By then, she no longer cared whether Olive was any good with the weapon.

The only thing that mattered was how she kept going with that faraway look in her eyes.

Her body was present.

Eventually, Eric called an end to the exercise.

The other children responded immediately. Shoulders collapsed, swords lowered, and someone dropped theirs entirely before flexing both hands with a groan.

Olive lowered hers more slowly.

For several breaths, she remained standing exactly where she had trained.

Then she blinked.

The distant look disappeared.

She glanced around the training ground as though checking something, rolled one aching shoulder, and followed the others.

That was all.

Where had the excitement gone? The disappointment? The girl who had been most excited to train with a sword had been utterly disappointed, and then what? She had simply steeled away her emotions?

Eloise stayed in the shade after Olive left and watched the training ground empty.

For days, she had been asking herself the same question.

Why Olive?

A girl who resisted Authority. A girl who could stand in a training ground with trembling arms and aching muscles while her eyes followed things that were not there.

This wasn't normal.

Eloise pushed away from the wall.

Loren had been right.

Olive was more than she seemed.

***

Truly suspicious behavior.

The girls stood there smiling at each other until Olive finally held out her hand.

Emma took it.

Eloise shifted farther behind the corner of the church.

She had known this was coming. She had heard Olive ask Emma during the Emberwings.

That did not mean this wasn't some kind of subterfuge.

Eloise watched Olive lift her free hand.

Light bent strangely around the two girls.

Eloise's attention sharpened.

For a moment, the torchlight warped around them until the shapes of their bodies became difficult to separate from the churchyard behind them. It was not invisibility. It seemed more like holding a mirror in front of yourself. The distortion itself drew the eye if someone knew where to look.

Eloise almost felt offended on behalf of concealment magic.

Her own spell softened everything. Light, movement, sound. It left nothing obvious for the eye to catch.

Olive's looked as though someone had taken the world behind her and smeared it across her body.

The two began slipping away from Tillshade.

Eloise stared after them.

Olive was sneaking out of Tillshade with Emma for the date Eloise already knew about.

But she couldn't live with herself if she left now and later discovered they had actually been attending some secret gathering in the woods.

They could even be cultists.

Cultists planning an attack.

Yes.

She needed to investigate this further.

She certainly didn't want to follow two girls on their date.

***

The forest made everything harder.

Olive's spell disappeared once they were far enough from Tillshade, which helped, but Eloise still had to keep enough distance that neither girl heard her.

Leaves and twigs crunched beneath her feet, and there were entirely too many creepy crawlies hiding in the dark. Eloise held back a shudder.

Fortunately, the girls were terrible at noticing anything except each other.

Unfortunately, they were also terrible at talking to each other.

For the first several minutes, almost nothing happened.

Olive and Emma walked hand in hand through the dark forest.

Silently.

Eloise followed behind them, also silently.

Every so often, Olive looked toward Emma.

Emma looked toward Olive.

Neither said anything.

Then both looked away.

Eloise almost suffered secondhand embarrassment merely watching them. Besides, if they didn't say anything, what was she supposed to report?

Eventually, Olive led Emma to the river and sat beside her near the bank.

Eloise settled farther back among the trees, keeping the trunk of one between herself and the girls.

They finally started talking, but Eloise was too far away to hear what they were saying and couldn't risk getting closer. There was no cover near them.

She could still see Emma pull her knees closer.

Olive stopped fidgeting.

Emma kept talking.

Whatever she was saying, it was not part of an awkward first date anymore.

Olive shifted closer until their shoulders touched.

Eventually, the conversation softened, then stopped.

Eloise stayed where she was.

***

Olive led Emma uphill and pressed her boot into the ground.

Green light bloomed beneath it.

Eloise leaned around the tree.

Emma stepped forward.

Another patch glowed.

Then another.

Within moments, Emma was walking in circles through the moss just to make it light beneath her feet.

Eloise smiled before she could stop herself.

Olive was watching Emma instead of the moss.

Of course she was.

Emma crouched and pressed her hand down. Green light spread around her fingers, leaving a glowing print behind when she lifted it.

Olive immediately crouched beside her and did the same.

Eloise shook her head.

She had followed Olive through Tillshade for days trying to understand what the girl was hiding, and apparently the answer tonight was glowing moss.

Olive looked absurdly pleased with herself.

Eloise's smile faded a little.

Lirael would have loved this.

She pushed the thought away before it could become anything larger.

Ahead, Olive stood and offered Emma her hand again.

They continued deeper into the forest.

Eloise followed.

Because she had been ordered to.

Obviously.

***

The first ribbon made Eloise stop.

Olive brushed against something hanging in the darkness, and a clear note sounded.

Another answered farther away.

Eloise frowned.

She could barely see the girls anymore, and that became a problem almost immediately.

A scattering of notes sounded ahead.

Emma laughed.

More notes rang through the darkness, followed by another burst of laughter.

Then footsteps.

Then considerably more notes.

Eloise stayed near the edge rather than entering farther. Her spell made her difficult to notice, but if she entered, the noise would give her away.

Inside, Emma laughed again.

A terrible crash of mismatched sounds followed.

It was just a date.

Eloise couldn't lie to herself any longer.

A rather ridiculous one, but a date.

Eloise stayed anyway.

***

When the girls finally stumbled out of the grove, Emma's hair had come loose in places. Olive's was no better. Their clothes had shifted from all the running, and both were breathing hard from laughing.

They collapsed onto the glowing moss.

Eloise remained beneath the trees.

Emma reached toward Olive's hair and pulled something from it.

Eloise suddenly became fascinated by a completely unrelated tree.

This was no longer relevant.

She had already gone much farther than necessary.

There had to be some limits.

Behind her came a soft movement.

Eloise resisted looking.

Then a startled sound.

She turned.

Both girls tumbled together through the glowing moss, leaving a broad streak of green behind them.

Eloise lurched forward before catching herself.

They rolled once, twice, and finally stopped with Olive on top of Emma.

Neither moved.

Eloise stared.

No.

Absolutely not.

She turned away again.

She was not watching this.

There were royal investigations, and then there was hiding behind a tree spying on a child.

And yet Eloise did not leave.

Somewhere behind her, Olive made a small sound.

Then came another sliding noise.

A splash.

Eloise spun around.

Olive was sitting in the river.

Emma stared at her.

For one breath, there was silence.

Then Emma folded over laughing.

Eloise slapped a hand over her own mouth.

Any dignity the moment had possessed vanished with Olive into the water.

The fight began immediately.

Water flew everywhere.

Eloise retreated behind the tree as Olive turned and kicked another sheet of it toward Emma.

This was the girl who had resisted Lirael's Authority.

The girl who had humiliated Loren.

The girl who had crushed a bucket with vines after figuring out how to use a strange little creature to place seeds for her.

The girl who could swing a sword with trembling arms without emotion.

Emma caught Olive's sleeve.

Olive splashed her directly in the face and ran away.

Eloise stared.

***

Eventually, the girls exhausted themselves.

They climbed from the river soaked from head to toe, found a patch of grass beside the water, and dropped onto their backs beneath the stars.

Eloise stayed farther away this time, far enough that their words became murmurs mixed with the river.

She could still see them.

After a while, Eloise slowly covered her face with one hand.

Then she peeked between her fingers.

Emma was smiling.

This was unbearable.

Olive had rolled onto her side.

Eloise's eyes narrowed.

Emma did not move away.

Oh, for the love of...

Eloise turned around.

Enough.

She had learned everything she was going to learn tonight.

Olive was not meeting conspirators. She wasn't sneaking out to investigate the dungeon or contact anyone suspicious.

She was trying to kiss Emma.

Eloise crossed her arms and stared resolutely into the forest.

This was privacy.

She respected privacy.

Mostly.

Sometimes.

A clatter came from the road.

Eloise turned instinctively.

Wheels rattled over uneven ground beyond the trees.

Lantern light flashed between the trunks.

Behind her, the girls went silent.

Eloise shifted around the tree to see the road.

A carriage was approaching Tillshade.

The light swung with its movement, passing once between the branches, then disappearing.

Olive stood.

Eloise glanced toward her.

The carriage came closer.

Olive ran.

She was moving before Eloise had fully understood what had happened, sprinting through the trees toward the road.

Eloise stepped forward. She needed to hear what was happening. This might be what made the entire night worth it.

Olive had already reached the road, completely oblivious to everything except the carriage. Her attention was fixed ahead, her wet clothes clinging to her as she ran.

The carriage slowed.

Two figures practically jumped out before it had fully stopped and caught Olive between them.

The woman reached her first, chestnut-brown hair falling in long waves around a dress patterned in warm reds and oranges, fading into greens and browns toward the bottom. Even in the lantern light, Eloise could tell the woman was quite fetching.

The man wrapped his arms around both of them a heartbeat later. He was broad-shouldered, dressed in scuffed leathers that looked somewhere between armor and workwear.

Between them, Olive nearly disappeared.

Eloise still couldn't hear what they were saying.

She took one careful step forward, then another, moving slowly enough that neither parent had reason to look toward the trees. Her spell softened each footfall as she crept closer.

“Oh! And this is Emma,” Olive said, gesturing Emma forward. “She's mine, um...” She lowered her head.

“It is very nice to meet you, Emma,” the man said.

Then, as if to assist Olive, the woman asked, “And who is your other friend?”

Eloise remained very still.

Her spell was still there. She could feel its familiar softness around her, dulling her presence, quieting the little movements of her clothes.

Perhaps they hadn't actually seen her.

It did not matter.

The man's head turned past Olive.

Toward the trees.

Toward her.

Eloise considered hiding.

That would make this worse.

Much worse.

She straightened instead and attempted to smooth her dress. The fabric was already creased from crouching in the forest, one shoulder had gone crooked again, and several purple curls had escaped their jeweled clips.

She probably looked exactly like what she was.

Princess Lirael's handmaiden.

Hiding in the forest.

At night.

Near their daughter.

Who was soaking wet.

On a date.

Eloise closed her eyes for half a second.

This was an investigation.

It had been an investigation.

There had been legitimate reasons.

Very legitimate reasons.

All four of them now turned their heads to stare directly at Eloise.

Whatever dignity she had managed to preserve through several days of hiding behind buildings, sitting outside an attic, lurking on rooftops, following children through the forest, and definitely not watching them almost kiss disappeared completely.

Eloise gave them a small, polite wave.

This looked terrible.