Page 28 of Enchanted Kingdom
“Jorah,” he began as soon as Gwen was out of earshot.
“Your Grace.”
He let out a sigh. “Please look at me.”
I did, not even realizing that I had been focusing on my shoes.
He gave me a winced smile. “Redo on the walk soon?” He asked it so quietly that only I could hear him.
My eyes burned again, this time with how nice he was being to me. Had I been a pouting brat all evening? Yes. But while others took every opportunity to tear me down or remind me of my standing, he had taken every opportunity to make me feel welcome. “Yes, please,” I whispered with an unladylike sniffle.
“Sleep well, Jorah,” he said, a barely-there smile on his lips.
“You too, Your Grace.”
I was finally dismissed. I wasted no time making my way back up to my room, Wallace of course in tow. I knew there was another guard that took over for him while I was sleeping, and Wallace was sure to be ready to be off babysitting duty, so he said nothing about my brisk pace.
Silvia was waiting for me. She helped me out of my dress and accepted my vague excuse of being tired as the reason I was quiet and let me fall into my monster of a bed.
I laid there reliving the day. The conversation with Renna in the common rooms. The surprisingly nice walk with Prince Keiran, and then Prince Krewan’s cruelty. I found that though I was exhausted, I couldn’t fall asleep.
The thought that kept pestering me was wondering if Prince Keiran had lived in Nerede and had been just anyone, would I have given him a chance?
I found I didn’t much like the honest answer.
It was much easier to just hate all the Enchanted. It was much easier to sulk.
An hour later with sleep nowhere close, I heard the snoring again. I rolled my eyes. How nice this must be for the Savaryn women. Sleeping in the castle, wearing elaborate gowns, knowing that they were most likely to be chosen as the next queen. And not having to worry about the scrutiny of being from the lower levels.
I threw the covers off me and got out of bed to look out the window, feeling more than irritable. Was I mad because no one seemed to see the injustices done to the lower levels of the kingdom and how I was treated? Or was I actually—honest to goodness—jealousof the Savaryn women?
I sat on the floor at the window in my silky pajamas and stared up at the stars that looked so much closer up on the mountain than they did back home. I continued listening to the snoring, silently cursing whomever it was that could sleep so soundly throughout this.
But as I turned my head to listen better, I made an odd realization. The snoring wasn’t coming from the wall of the bathroom, the wall I shared with the woman a room over. It also wasn’t coming from the direction of the door to my gigantic sized room.
As I focused and really listened in, I realized it was coming from the area of my fireplace.
Why was my fireplace snoring?
Getting up, I quietly stepped over by the fireplace and found that, sure enough, the snoring was loudest over there. I wondered if the sound was actually coming from a room below me and traveling up the chimney shaft.
But I had also read far too many books for this moment. What was a castle without a secret passageway of sorts?
I was barely breathing as I made my way over to the shelving. I didn’t even know what I was looking for, I just looked for anything that looked like a lever or a switch.
For almost ten minutes I quietly searched while listening to the snoring drone on. I was probably out of my mind. Why would someone be in a secret passage right outside of my room? That didn’t even make sense.
But as I moved the last few books aside, I saw a small rectangle in the wood. It looked like a hidden storage box.
I tried to pull it out, but it wouldn’t budge. I tried sliding my short fingernails along the edges, but that didn’t work either.
I applied pressure on one corner of the rectangle, trying to angle the bottom outward, when there was a clicking noise. It turned out you needed to push and not pull, after all. It was a simple button.
The bookshelf itself slid forward a few inches.
Knowing I didn’t hear snoring anymore, there was no sense in trying to be stealthy now. I also should have waited to do this until morning when I didn’t hear snoring outside the fireplace wall, but it was too late now for such rational thoughts.
I peeked my head into the space, not sure what I would find.
