Page 57 of To Steal the Sun

Gwen took off at a careful walk, heading for the closest patch of concealing trees. Once out of sight, she angled toward the stables.

“If we’re throwing them off with the scent of manure…” she murmured in answer to the question no one had voiced aloud.

She walked all the way into the stables, and Charlotte expected the horses to start screaming and whinnying in terror. But they must have grown used to the presence of bears in their vicinity because they barely reacted at all.

Gwen stopped below a ladder that led up to the hay loft. They took turns stepping straight onto it, climbing one at a time. When they had finished, Gwen rubbed her side against the lower rungs, hopefully covering their scent.

“But what about you?” Easton leaned over the side, looking down at her.

“There’s an empty stall on the end. I’ll sleep there,” she called quietly back.

Easton twisted to look at Charlotte and Henry, and she could read his thoughts on his face. Thankfully, Gwen spoke before Charlotte needed to.

“You stay up there,” she told him. “Don’t even think about coming down to join me.”

Charlotte gave him a sympathetic look as he nodded with resignation. She felt selfish, but she was glad it wasn’t Henry down there, so close and yet too far. After so many stressful days apart, she wasn’t ready to have him more than an arm’s length away.

CHARLOTTE

It took her longer to fall asleep the second time, but she managed it in the end. And when she woke, the first brush of the morning was already past.

She bolted awake, staring from Henry to where Gwen now slept beside them. Easton sat to one side, keeping watch over her.

“What are we still doing here?” She gasped and lowered her voice. “Aren’t there grooms down there by now?”

Henry shrugged. “No one came. I guess the grooms are all captives.”

Gwen stirred, nodding sleepily at Henry’s comment.

“We needed to give Gwen a chance to rest,” Easton said. “She was awake all night keeping watch over us.”

“But now we need to get to the basement.” Charlotte’s stomach rumbled on cue, making her flush. “Ignore that. I don’t need to eat.”

“We should eat.” Gwen sat up and stretched, yawning. “I’m sure the grooms have something stashed in their office. Let’s go check.”

They found a whole basket of apples and a large hunk of cheese that they divided four ways.

“I’ll admit, I feel a lot better after that,” Henry said, and Charlotte nodded agreement.

The day before, it had been easy to sneak through first the grounds and then the palace. In hindsight, it had been too easy, the way cleared for the rebels to walk into the trap.

Now, the grounds teemed with guard patrols. They were everywhere, even if their steps lagged, and they kept rubbing their eyes as if they’d already been on duty all night.

“Thank goodness they’re all so tired,” Easton whispered as they once again dove into a clump of bushes to hide. “Otherwise we’d have been caught by now for sure.”

They finally made it into the actual palace, but that only meant substituting empty rooms and storage cupboards for bushes. By the time they reached the entrance to the basement level, Charlotte’s nerves were stretched so tight they were about to snap.

Two guards stood on either side of the door. Their attitude was far from alert, but they were awake, and they had swords at their sides.

“There’s no way to sneak around those two,” Gwen said. “There are only two doors down to the basement level, and if this one is guarded, the other one definitely will be. This is the back entrance.”

Charlotte looked Henry and Easton up and down. “You’re a prince, Henry, and you were a courtier’s son at least until you were thirteen, Easton. Do you both have combat training?”

The two men exchanged a look before nodding simultaneously.

Charlotte shrugged. “Then I think we’ll need a direct confrontation this time. There are only two of them, and they won’t know what either of you look like, so they won’t be sure who you are at first.”

“I’d rather not leave dead bodies in our wake,” Gwen said queasily.

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