The Truth-Teller's Tale

  I, of course, never attempted such deception.

  The one person besides our mother who never got us mixed up was Roelynn Karro. If she came upon my sister sitting under the chatterleaf tree, she would drop to the ground beside her and say, “Hello, Adele.” If she encountered me in an uncharacteristic moment of silence, she would say, “Good morning, Eleda. What are you thinking about?” She didn’t even appear to be scanning for the tell-tale physical signs—the placement of the hair part, the arrangement of the mismatched eyes. She just seemed to know which sister was which.

  The summer we all turned fourteen was an unhappy one for Roelynn. Her father, who had already begun to restrict her free time, watched her even more closely. He hired tutors to instruct her in foreign languages, governesses to teach her how to behave in society, and seamstresses to dress her in all the finest clothes of the season. It was a rare afternoon when she could find a few hours to slip away and visit the old friends she had been forbidden to see.

  One week, Karro took Roelynn to Wodenderry so that she could meet the queen and be introduced to all the gentry. We knew before she left that she was dreading the trip, for she crept to our house in the middle of the night and threw chatterleaf pods at the window of our third-story bedroom. I was the first one to wake up and peer down at the shadowy yard.

  “Who’s there?” I demanded. “Go away or I’ll call my father.”

  “Shh! Eleda! It’s Roelynn.”

  “What are you doing out so late?” I made no attempt to hide my astonishment. “You shouldn’t be here! At this hour!”

  “I want to talk to you. Wake up Adele and come down.”

  It was against my nature to sneak out of the house, but I did poke Adele in the ribs and tell her who waited below. The two of us made our way with some caution down the steps and out the kitchen door. Roelynn had already taken a seat on a blanket she’d spread under the kirrenberry tree. That meant that whatever she wanted to talk about was something that I would have to do my best not to discuss later, with anyone except Roelynn or Adele.

  “What’s wrong?” Adele asked as we dropped to the ground beside her.

  “My father’s taking me to Wodenderry tomorrow,” she said.

  Both of us nodded. We had not had a chance to visit with Roelynn for at least two weeks now, but that news had been on the lips of everyone in Merendon. “And what will you do while you’re there?” Adele asked.

  Roelynn hunched her shoulders. “Meet all his merchant friends, I suppose, and all the gentry folk he’s managed to scrape an acquaintance with. Oh, and be introduced to the queen and her husband.”

  Adele and I exchanged glances by insufficient moonlight. “And Prince Darian?” I asked.

  Roelynn shrugged again. “I don’t know! I would think so! Although maybe the queen wants a chance to look me over first and decide if I’m good enough for her son. Or maybe the queen doesn’t even know that the prince is destined to marry me, and this is all some grand fiction made up in my father’s head. In any case, we’re to have tea at the palace one day, and then we’re going to some formal dinner there another day. It will be dreadful.”

  “What are you going to wear?” Adele asked.

  Roelynn cheered up a little at that. “Oh, the most beautiful new dresses! I wish you could come by the house and see them. One is a very deep pink with flowers embroidered all along the bodice, and the other is a pale green edged in antique lace. And I have all sorts of new hats and gloves and ribbons to wear when I’m not out dining with the queen.” She relapsed into depression. “But it will still be horrid. The whole trip. I don’t want to go.”

  Adele looked thoughtful. “We could—aren’t there some herbs you can take that would make you sick? You could swallow them as soon as you got home tonight. You’d have a fever by morning.”

  I stared at my sister. “Pretend to be sick? Of course she can’t do that!”

  Adele ignored me. Roelynn said, “Yes, I thought of that, but I don’t have any such herbs. And I hardly have time tonight to run out and find an apothecary who might stock them.”

  “Anyway, your father would just make you wait a week or two and then reschedule the trip,” I said. “You can’t be sick all summer.”

  “Maybe it won’t be so bad,” Adele said. “I rather liked the queen when we met her two years ago.”

  “You’ll probably see Melinda,” I said. “I think she’s in Wodenderry right now.”

  “I don’t want to go to Wodenderry,” Roelynn said in a stubborn voice. “I want to stay right here.”

  There was a strange tone in her voice that caught my attention. “What’s so special about right here?” I asked suspiciously.

  Roelynn drew her knees up to her chin and loosed a dramatic sigh. “The most wonderful man,” she said in a dreamy voice. “Roger. Who would want to have tea with a stupid old prince when Roger is right here in town?”

  “Who’s Roger? Where did you meet him?” I asked.

  “He’s—he’s tall and he’s beautiful and he speaks with this accent—north country, I think it is—and he has the kindest smile. He can ride any horse in the stables. All the dogs love him, and the stable cats, the ones who won’t go near anyone, will sidle up to Roger and ask to be fed from his hand.”

  I raised my eyebrows, because this didn’t exactly sound like the description of a wealthy tradesman’s son. “Where did you meet him?” I asked again.

  “In my father’s stables.”

  “Does he work there?” I demanded. “Is he a groom?”

  “A groom does an honest day’s work,” she said, ruffling up in anger.

  “So he does, and so does a blacksmith, and so does a cobbler, but you’re not going to marry any of those,” I said briskly. “Even if you don’t make a match with Prince Darian, your father would never allow—”

  “My father! I am so sick of my father!”

  “Well, I don’t blame you; he’s a very difficult man. But if you think he would ever, ever, allow you to carry on any romance with a stable hand—”

  “My father can’t tell me what to do,” she said mutinously.

  Adele and I exchanged glances again, because that was patently untrue. Adele spoke up for the first time in quite a few minutes. “Well, certainly you can carry on a romance with this Roger in secret, at least for a while,” Adele said in a comforting voice. “Eleda and I will help you.”

  I almost said No, I won’t, but I realized that Adele was doing her best to calm Roelynn down, and that this might not be the best time to be blatantly factual. Adele continued, “But I think if you don’t do some of what your father says, he’ll never let you out of the house again. You’ll have to be very careful if you want to keep seeing Roger. You’ll have to act like a very dutiful daughter. Then he might not watch you quite so closely.”

  “Yes—you’re right—that’s true,” Roelynn said, thinking it over. She brightened a little. “So if I go to Wodenderry—”

  “And behave very well,” Adele interpolated.

  “Then, when I come home, I’ll have lots and lots of time to spend with Roger,” Roelynn said happily. “Yes, I think you’re right. I’ll have to go to Wodenderry after all.”

  Since it was already obvious that she would have to go to the royal city, we were both relieved when she reached this conclusion. We spent the next twenty or thirty minutes discussing what sights she might see in the city, what exotic foods she might try, and whether or not she would really get a chance to meet the prince. We might have talked that way for the next two hours, for all I know. But suddenly—right in the middle of a debate about plain satin slippers versus embroidered linen ones—a voice spoke out of the darkness.

  “Roelynn? Is that you? It better be, because this is the last place I’m looking.”

  We all stiffened under the silent shadows of the branches, but none of us felt any apprehension. It was a voice we all recognized, belonging to Roelynn’s brother, Micah.

  Roelynn glared in his direction, n
ot bothering to stand up. “Yes, it’s me,” she said in a surly tone. “Why are you looking for me? Go home!”

  He pushed his way through the trailing branches, which parted soundlessly beneath his hands. It was hard to see his face in the poor light, but the tone of his voice made it easy to guess its expression: weary and annoyed. That was generally how he looked, in any case, when dealing with his sister. “I’m looking for you because your maid came looking for me and said you weren’t in your room, and she was going to go wake our father. I said, ‘No, don’t bother, I know right where she is, let me go find her.’ But if I’m not back in another few minutes, I imagine she’ll wake the household, and then I suppose you realize what kind of nightmare you’re in for when you do bother to wander home.”

  Roelynn gathered her skirts in her hand and jumped to her feet. Adele and I followed suit. “Yes, indeed! How awful that would be! Let’s go home right now.”

  Micah put his hand on her arm as if to pull her out from under the tree, and then he paused and looked back through the darkness. It was the strangest thing. It was as if he spoke to Adele and none of the rest of us were there. “I expect Roelynn to behave like a little fool, but I thought I could count on you,” he said, and now he sounded weary and disappointed. “I would have thought you would have taken care of her for me.”

  I stared at him in blank astonishment, but Adele seemed entirely composed. “I helped you more than you know,” she said. “Don’t be angry with me.”

  Roelynn was tugging on her brother’s arm, anxious to get home before her father was alerted. “Good-bye, Adele! Good-bye, Eleda!” she called once she was out from under the encircling branches of the tree. “I’ll come find you when I’m back and tell you all about my adventures! And about—about—anyone else I happen to talk to.”

  Adele laughed. I frowned. Within seconds, Roelynn and Micah were lost to darkness.

  I turned on my sister. “What did that mean?” I demanded.

  She was tranquil. “What?”

  I waved a vague hand. “Micah. And you. And how he thought he could count on you. When have you ever even spoken to Micah? Why would you?”

  She laughed again. “You don’t have a very high opinion of him.”

  “Well, he’s so—I mean, all he ever does is bustle about on his father’s business. He’s always busy. He’s always frowning. He always looks worried. I mean, what would I have to say to him? What would anyone?”

  “He’s a very good brother,” she said.

  I waited, but she had no more to offer. “That still doesn’t make him interesting to talk to.”

  She shrugged. “Well, it was kind of him to come looking for Roelynn,” she said.

  “It will be interesting to hear what kind of adventures she has in Wodenderry,” I said.

  Adele laughed. “Oh, I think it will.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Roelynn was gone a week. I thought about her every day, but I didn’t have much time to wonder how her trip was going. The inn was always very full during the summer travel season. Merendon was a popular destination, for it was a large city built along a harbor, and merchant ships brought all manner of exotic merchandise to the local shops. There were other amenities to be found on the crowded streets—several very fine restaurants, one theater that performed classic dramas, any number of pubs and dress shops and jewelers. Situated as it was on a well-traveled road, near the stables, a celebrated pub and a dozen shops, our inn was considered an excellent place for a traveler to spend a few nights in comfort and style.

  Whenever we weren’t in school—which we weren’t in the summer—Adele and I were pressed into service as maids, laundresses, cooks, clerks, and accountants. My father was more likely to have me count the money, knowing I would be scrupulously exact as I tallied the sums; Adele more often greeted customers when they first arrived, since she was less likely to point out that their boots were muddy and their clothes disarranged from travel. Both of us were reasonably good cooks, though Adele was apt to be creative with a recipe, while I followed all instructions. However, neither of us liked to clean.

  I was extremely displeased one day that week to find five guest rooms in need of cleaning and my sister nowhere in sight. I changed the bedsheets and swept the floors and dusted the furniture in all five rooms before Adele returned. I heard her footsteps going past me on the stairs to our third-floor bedroom, so I dropped my broom and hurried up after her. I was just in time to see her closing the bottom drawer on the old dresser located on her side of the room.

  “Where have you been?” I asked furiously. “I’ve been cleaning all afternoon! Five whole rooms!”

  She turned quickly, her back against the dresser, and gave me that unreadable smile. “I’ll clean tomorrow,” she said. “Or I’ll do all the dishes tonight. Your choice.”

  I came a step closer, instantly alert. “Where have you been?” I asked again.

  “Out.”

  “Running errands?”

  “Yes.”

  “For Mother and Father?”

  She didn’t answer that. She rarely lied to me outright, since I could always tell when she wasn’t telling the truth. She just found ways not to tell me what I wanted to know.

  “What kinds of errands?” I said. When she was still silent, I added, “You may as well tell me. I can see you’ve put something in the drawer. I’ll just look for it as soon as you’re gone. And if you move it somewhere else,” I continued, “I’ll just keep looking and looking until I find it. You know how good I am at finding things.”

  She hesitated a moment, then sighed and nodded. She knelt on the floor and I knelt beside her as she pulled out the bottom drawer. There, under her best undergarments, most precious ribbons, and the velvet box containing the painted miniature of Princess Arisande, she had hidden a small cloth bag. I opened my hands, and she shook a few dried leaves into my palms.

  “What is this?” I said. “Some kind of herb, I can tell that, but what does it do?”

  “It makes you sick,” she said. “It gives you a fever and turns your stomach.”

  I looked at her, astonishment holding my whole body rigid. “Like you were telling Roelynn about the other night?” She nodded. “But why would you want any herbs like this? We don’t need to trick her father anymore.”

  Adele shrugged and carefully picked the withered leaves from my hands. Placing them back into the bag, she set the cloth into the drawer and closed it tight. She didn’t stand up, though. “There might come another time,” she said softly, “when someone needs to feign illness. When it seems like the right answer to a wrong situation.”

  “I can’t imagine such a time,” I said, frowning.

  She came to her feet, shrugged again, and smiled. “No. Well, you wouldn’t,” she said. “Come on. We’d better go down and help Mother with dinner.”

  The first news we obtained about Roelynn’s trip to the city came from Melinda. After the Karros had been gone for a week, the Dream-Maker arrived at our inn, having just left Wodenderry a few days before.

  It was some time before we could ask her how Roelynn was faring. First she had to be lionized by all the guests already staying at the Leaf & Berry, who confided in her their deepest desires. Then she had to spend a few hours catching up with all her special friends from Merendon, who seemed to know exactly when to drop by. It was well past ten o’clock at night, and Adele and I were just finishing up the dinner dishes, when Melinda made her way back to the kitchen to visit with the family.

  “Well, Hannah, I hardly need to ask you how things are going,” the Dream-Maker greeted our mother, who was reviewing her ingredients for tomorrow’s meals. “The inn looks prosperous, as always, and your girls are growing up to be the most remarkable young ladies. I would think you’re very proud of them.”

  “Indeed, Bob and I both are, but they’re still young enough to make mischief now and then,” Mother replied. Mother loved us, but she didn’t think we were perfect, as Father did.

&
nbsp; “Anything else you’d wish for?”

  “Bless me, I can’t think of a thing.”

  “I know what I’d wish for, and I know you can grant it,” I said, laying down my dish towel and going over to sit beside Melinda at the small family table. Adele sat beside me. “Information about Roelynn! How is she doing in Wodenderry?”

  Mother joined us at the table, bringing a pot of tea and four cups. “Yes, do tell us,” she urged. “Everyone in Merendon is dying to know.”

  “Did she meet the prince? Are they going to make a match of it?” I asked.

  Melinda rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Indeed, no, she did not meet the prince, and Lirabel was quite angry about it, too,” the Dream-Maker said. She accepted a cup of tea from my mother’s hands and sipped it with such daintiness you would have thought she was in the queen’s dining room that very moment. “She was supposed to meet him, you understand. Lirabel had arranged two quite ordinary events at the palace during which both Darian and Roelynn could be present. They would get a chance to say hello, and it would not be very awkward, and no one would know that Roelynn had been carted down to Wodenderry for the prince to look her over as if she was some kind of mare he was considering purchasing for the stables—”

  “Melinda!” our mother exclaimed.

  Melinda sniffed. At times like this, her noble features seemed very pronounced. “Well, that’s how it always seems to me, like some kind of breeding competition. You should have seen the men the old king paraded through the palace when he finally decided it was time to marry off Lirabel. And then, wouldn’t you know, she ended up marrying a young man she’d known since childhood—noble enough, but hardly a great match—and her father was not at all pleased about it. But you couldn’t change her mind, and I didn’t blame her. Better pick a man you can be sure loves you than a man who will treat you badly, even if he does come dripping in gold and owning half the shipping rights to the kingdom.”

  “But what about Roelynn?” Adele said gently, not at all interested in these old tales but more diplomatic than I would have been. “And the prince.”