Page 9

“L ADY HATH STUMBLED on this midnight dreary, with a pallor frightfully pale and weary.” A somber, melodic voice floated through the encompassing darkness.

“Duly noted, my feathered friend,” came a second voice, lighter and quick. “Are you sure we haven’t some sal-volatile in there?”

“I know nothing of your hoped-for salt, though with your plan I find a fault. To keep her from awaking groggy, ’twould be most prudent to make her soggy.”

Something hard thumped on the ground by Cath’s elbow, followed by a quiet slosh of water.

“No, Raven, we are not throwing a bucket of water on her. Keep looking. Haven’t we a ham sandwich? Or some hay? That always worked on the King.”

Rustling, fumbling, clanks and clatters.

A sigh. “You know what? Never mind. We’ll use this.”

The rustle of foliage followed by the snap of a branch. Something soft tickled the tip of Cath’s nose.

She squirmed, turning her head away, and caught the faint perfume of roses.

“Aha, it’s working.”

She wrinkled her nose. Her eyelids squinted open. Darkness and shadows swirled in her vision. Her head felt heavy, her thoughts disoriented .

“Hello,” spoke one of the bleary shadows, sharpening into the court joker. He lifted the soft-petaled rose away from her face. “Are you all right?”

“Nevermore,” said his Raven, who was perched on the edge of a metal bucket.

The Joker cut him a glare. “Don’t be rude.”

“’Tisn’t rude to rebuke an arbitrary greeting, a nonsense question upon first meeting. To be all right implies an impossible phase. We hope for mostly right on the best of our days.”

“Exactly,” said the Joker. “Rude.”

The Raven made an unhappy noise. Spreading his massive wings, he leaped up into the air and settled on a high branch of the rose tree instead.

The Joker returned his attention to Catherine.

He had removed the three-pointed hat and his wavy black hair was matted to his head in places and sticking out in others.

The light from a nearby garden torch flickered gold in his eyes, still thickly rimmed in kohl.

He smiled at her, and it was the friendly sort of smile that reached to every corner of his face, drawing dimples into his cheeks, crinkling the corners of his eyes.

Cath’s heart tumbled. During his performance, she had been hypnotized by his magic, amused by his tomfoolery—but she had not realized that he was also quite handsome.

“I’m glad the rose worked,” he said, twirling it in his fingers. “I suspect this would be a different sort of meeting had we been forced to use the water bucket.”

She blinked, unable to smile back as the shadows shifted across his face. It wasn’t just the firelight. His eyes really were the color of gold. The color of sunflowers and butterscotch and lemons hanging heavy on their boughs.

Her own eyes widened. “ You. ”

“Me,” he agreed. He cocked his head to the side, frowning again. “In all seriousness, my lady, are you…” A hesitation. “… mostly right? ”

She felt it again, that internal tug she’d had during the dream, telling her that he had something that belonged to her, and she had to catch him if she were ever to get it back.

“My lady?” Setting the rose aside, he touched the back of his hand to her brow. “Can you hear me? You’re very warm.”

The world spun again, but this time in a delicious, time-stopping way.

“Perhaps I should call for a Sturgeon…”

“No, I’m fine. I’m all right.” Her words were sticky and her fingers fumbling, but she managed to grasp his hand before he pulled away. He froze, dubious. “Though I can’t feel my legs,” she confessed.

His lips twisted to one side. “Mostly right, after all. Let’s not tell Raven he was correct, or he’ll be insufferable the rest of the night.

” He glanced down. “I can almost guarantee that your legs are still attached, though there is an awful lot of fabric disguising them. I’ll go searching for them now if you’d like me to. ”

His expression was innocent, his tone sincere.

Catherine laughed. “That’s quite generous, but I’ll go searching for them myself, thank you. Can you help me sit?”

Still holding her hand, the Joker scooped his free arm beneath her shoulders and lifted her upward.

She spotted his hat lying upside down not far away, and scattered around it an odd assortment of junk.

Glass marbles, a wind-up monkey, handkerchiefs, an empty inkwell, mismatched buttons, a two-wheeled velocipede, the silver flute.

With a quick pat, Cath confirmed that her legs were indeed still present. Her toes began to tingle.

“Your hands are like icicles.” The Joker draped her fingers across his palm and started to massage them—working from her knuckles, across the pad of her thumb, along her wrist. “You’ll feel better when your blood is flowing again.”

Cath inspected the Joker, his messy curls, the point of his nose. He was sitting cross-legged on the grass, hunkered over her hand. His touch was shockingly intimate compared to the touches she was used to—those brief, civilized encounters during a waltz or quadrille.

“Are you a doctor?” she asked.

He looked up at her and smiled that disarming smile again. “I’m a joker, my lady, which is even better.”

“How is that better than a doctor?”

“Haven’t you ever heard that laughter is the best medicine?”

She shook her head. “If that’s so, shouldn’t you be telling me a joke?”

“As the lady pleases. How did the joker warm up some hands?”

She shut one eye and considered, but was quick to give up. “I don’t know. How?”

“By being a warm, handsome joker, indeed.”

Her laugh was unexpected, punctuated by the unladylike snort that Mary Ann often teased her about. She tore her hand away from him to cover her nose, embarrassed.

The Joker’s entire face lit up. “Can it be! A real-life lady with a laugh like that! I believed you were naught but mythological creatures. Please, do it again.”

“I will not!” she squealed, her face reddening. “Stop it. The joke wasn’t even funny, and now I’m all poked up.”

He schooled his face, though his eyes still danced.

“I meant no offense. A laugh like that is richer than gold to a man of my position. I’ll make it my life’s work to hear the sound again.

Every day, if it pleases you. No—twice a day, and at least once before breakfast. A royal joker must set the highest of expectations. ”

Her pulse skittered. Twice a day? Once before breakfast?

A new sort of blush blossomed across her cheeks.

Noticing the look, the Joker released her hand, almost sheepish. “That is… you are the one, aren’t you? ”

She stared at him, and in his eyes she saw the lemon tree that had grown in her bedroom overnight, its branches twisted around her bed’s canopy, heavy with sun-ripened fruit. “The one?”

“The future Queen of Hearts?”

The giddy euphoria left her in a single, painful breath. “I beg your pardon?”

“Oh, you needn’t beg.” Doubt crept across his brow. “Shall I apologize? I didn’t mean to be forward. It’s just that the King intended to ask for a lady’s hand in marriage during tonight’s ball, and… with your gown, I suppose I’d assumed…”

She looked down. Her skirt was a bright red nightmare engulfing her. “Did he say which girl he intended to ask?”

“No, my lady. I only know it was to be a daughter of a lord, though that hardly narrows down the list.” He leaned back on his hands. “What were you running from before?”

“Running from?” She forced a withering smile. “I was only wanting some fresh air. The ballroom can get so warm on nights like this.”

His eyes pinned her to the grass, growing concerned. “The King hadn’t yet made his announcement when you left?”

“I’ve heard nothing of it.”

She shivered, not quite guilty at the lie. What was happening inside the ballroom? Had the King called her up? Were they looking for her?

She glanced back toward the castle, surprised to see how far she’d run. The gardens seemed to stretch for miles and the ballroom windows glowed in the distance. She wondered about the crash she had heard and hoped Cheshire wasn’t in trouble.

The Joker rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe it is you, then. Perhaps I should escort you back…”

“No! No. Um.” She laughed uncomfortably. “I’m sure he meant to ask someone else. His Majesty has never shown me any particular interest. ”

“I find that difficult to imagine.”

“It’s the truth.” She cleared her throat. “This might be a peculiar question, Mr.… er, Joker…”

“Jest. My name is Jest. My lady.”

“Ah—I’m Catherine Pinkerton.”

“It’s been a rightmost pleasure, Lady Pinkerton. What was your question?”

Cath fluffed the voluminous red fabric around her legs to give her fingers something to do while they went on feeling tingly and wanton. “Have you and I met before?”

“Before tonight?” He cupped his chin in his hand. “It seems unlikely.”

“I thought so as well.”

“Do I seem familiar?” His dimples made an appearance again.

“In a way. Most peculiarly, I do believe I dreamed about you.”

His eyebrows lifted. “About me?”

“It is strange, isn’t it?”

“Quite.” The word was subtle, surprised. He looked briefly unnerved, like when he had first spotted her and her red dress amid the sea of black and white. The self-assured visage slipped, just momentarily. “Perhaps we know each other in the future and you’re only remembering backward.”

She pondered this.

“So?” he prodded.

She blinked. “So what?”

“Was it a good dream?”

“Oh.” Her lips puckered in thought, but then she realized he was teasing her. She scowled. “To be frank, I found it rather dull.”

“Ah, but you can’t be Frank. You’ve already told me that your name is Catherine.”

“I’ve changed it. ”

His laugh was unoffended. “At least the memory of this dream has brought some color back to your cheeks. You were white as a dove when you fainted. I’m sorry if Raven frightened you.”

She remembered the shadow stretching across the castle lawn—the hooded, ax-wielding figure towering over her. She shuddered. “No, it wasn’t Raven. It was… I thought I saw… nothing.”

“I see nothing all the time.”