The courtyard was so packed with people—nobles and commoners alike—that the carriage couldn’t get through the main gate. No matter how much the coachman yelled and pleaded with the assembled crowd to move out of the way, they refused to budge. I had to climb out and make my own way into the courtyard while the coachman took the long way around to get to the stables.
There was still plenty of time before I needed to meet Auguste for our rendezvous in the little alcove where I’d seen Severine and Alexandre arguing, so I stayed to watch what was happening. I wanted to clear my head before I saw him again anyway.
We had decided we would find a way for us to be together—no matter what. The thought thrilled me and scared me at the same time. Even if he had no land or title, the king would never allow a son of his to suffer. Surely we would be able to make a home in the country somewhere. I was used to cooking and housework, and we would not need very much. All I had to do now was make sure Louis did not pick me to be his bride. That couldn’t be too hard. There were twenty-four other girls who would die to be chosen.
Once again, I was grateful for my small stature as I made my way forward. While a carriage might not have been able to pass, I was able to push through the throng with ease. No one paid me any attention anyway, too fixated on the spectacle taking place in the center of the courtyard.
Inside the loose ring formed by the crowd was a carriage. Standing beside it were two women. One had her head in her hands, shoulders shaking, while the other stood in front of her as if attempting to shield her from the crowd. I wasn’t close enough to make out who they were, and it was so tightly packed at the edge of the circle that there was no way I was getting any closer.
“What’s happening?” I asked the woman standing next to me, a wicker basket filled to the brim with cabbages perched precariously on her hip.
The woman glanced at me and looked away, only to snap her head back to stare at me.
“Aren’t you one of the ladies the dauphin is courting? Lady Cendrillon? The one who ran away from the ball?”
“That’s right. Do you know what’s happening here?” I asked again, wanting to move away from questions about my controversial reputation.
“You’ll be happy to hear this. Two girls have just been banished. You missed the first one being forced out, but you’re right on time for the second.”
“Do you know why they’ve been banished?”
“The first one is said to have been caught using a love spell on the dauphin. Nothing new about that. Everyone and their mother has been trying to use so-called magic spells on the king and the dauphin.”
“Who was it?” I asked.
“Paulette’s the name, I believe.”
I gasped.
“And this one was having an affair with another noble.”
Now all the breath fled from my lungs in a rush. It made sense that having an affair with someone else while courting the dauphin would be an offense worthy of banishment, but I hadn’t thought I would see it enacted right in front of me.
“The king demanded that this girl, Mathilde, and her family leave immediately, but her father decided to argue the punishment instead. Eh, I’m not complaining. Court goings-on were getting awfully stale. We’ve needed a little livening up.”
Lady Paulette and now Lady Mathilde. Both of them were friends of Diane. Paulette was a little too obsessed with witches and magic, and Mathilde just wanted someone to pay attention to her. Diane was going to be devastated. She and Mathilde and Paulette had been friends since childhood. Would Diane even be allowed to see them again? I couldn’t imagine being forbidden from seeing Elodie or Marius.
“Look,” the woman said, pointing toward the front of the courtyard. “There’s the girl’s father. I don’t know why he thought arguing with the king was going to go well for him.”
Two expressionless guards were holding a lavishly dressed nobleman by either arm, dragging him toward a carriage. He wasn’t putting up much of a fight, but he was unleashing a litany of abuse aimed primarily at the guards, a safer proxy than the king, who had handed down the punishment. Laughter erupted from the crowd. No one would dare laugh at a noble in his hearing distance, but he was so thoroughly disgraced that there would be no consequences.
The guards deposited Mathilde’s father in front of the carriage and returned to the palace without a backward glance. The nobleman yelled something at their retreating backs, then turned his anger on Mathilde when the guards ignored him. After a bout of yelling that only made Mathilde sob harder, her father ushered his family into the carriage. There was to be no begging people to get out of the roadway this time. The carriage set off at a speed that was, frankly, unsafe, and didn’t stop for to wait for people to move, forcing them to scatter so they weren’t run over.
“She’s getting what she deserves,” said a familiar voice from right beside me.
I jumped when I turned to see the woman I had been talking to gone and Severine in her place, an uncomfortably chipper smile on her face. I had to take a few embarrassingly audible deep breaths to calm down enough to speak.
“Do you really have no heart?” I asked, focusing less on the question and more on coming up with an escape plan. The less time I spent talking to Severine, the better for my sanity.
“I have eyes,” said Severine. “You really should be paying more attention to what’s going on around you. Does something have you distracted?”
I didn’t like the superiority in her tone. Severine had nothing to feel smug about, not after I had come upon her and Alexandre plotting to use a love potion of their own.
When I didn’t respond, she continued. “The dauphin is rightfully very possessive of his things. You, me, Mathilde, and all the other girls he’s courting belong to him. That’s the way he sees it, like it or not. The only one to blame for Mathilde’s banishment is herself. She’s actually quite lucky. The king could have ordered her to be executed for the disrespect to his son. Monseigneur was furious enough that the option was surely on the table.”
My palms were cold and clammy, my stomach queasy. I kept my face turned away from Severine. She would pick up on my distress immediately, and I couldn’t have that. I couldn’t be weak in front of her or Lady Catherine.
“I have to go,” I said absentmindedly, taking off into the quickly dispersing crowd before Severine had a chance to reply.
I needed to get away from her. I needed to find Auguste.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Auguste was waiting exactly where he said he would be, in the forgotten alcove tucked away among the twisting paths of the gardens, on a cracked marble bench pushed up against one of the hedges. As soon as he spotted me enter the alcove, he stood up, eyes bright, and reached for me.