Arletta arrived at the bottom of the staircase, breathless. To her surprise, Brother Simon was close behind her—too close. She shuddered, wanting him to keep well out of her space. Feeling her way around the small stone enclosure, she breathed a sigh of relief to find the stone with a thick, protruding piece of mortar.

“The portal is this way, Princess,” Brother Simon said.

“There’s a safer way out of here,” she replied, adding, “It goes to a tunnel beneath the castle…” under her breath, she whispered… if you can fit…

“Where does it exit?” he asked.

“From the south wall,” she replied. She shivered again. Brother Simon’s voice had changed. It no longer rasped in a high tone, but was deep, even.

“Who are you?” she called in the darkness, feeling even more betrayed.

“Can you not guess?” he replied.

“It’s too dark to see you, but your voice has changed… I don’t know you, do I?”

“Without my balding wig and all these blessed cushions… let me take them out of this silly dress thing… and I’ll take it off now—I’ve a pauper’s tunic beneath it… we will both be paupers now… and at last I have rescued you…”

Arletta gasped, recognizing his voice. “Steele? You… you… were Brother Simon?”

“I’m good at it aren’t I?” he boasted, adding sadly, “My brother, Fred, called me the master of disguise. I miss him so much… I cannot think about it. I’m so glad you are out of the castle… though it’s so dark down here that you can’t see me, I am bowing to you princess…”

“I’m a pauper now—remember?” she said, feeling light-headed. “Perhaps I’m a pauperess, if you are a pauper? Steele? I could hug you for being you, and I could slap you—you fooled me…”

“I want to hug you Princess, but I think we should escape first… Grahgor will be furious when he finds that you’ve gone and he’s left with your maid…”

Arletta felt like laughing. She asked, “You think Grahgor will find out?—I’ve never met him…”

“I don’t want you to meet him either! He has spies in your castle already… one of the guards, Davin did not know it, but one of them was sent there by Grahgor— they called him Rodrik—he heard it all, there in your bedchamber. Unless Joan is a wonder at bribery, she will be dead before nightfall!”

Arletta twisted the rough protrusion with both hands and a small section of the wall swiveled open. “Here,” she said, “this is the way to the secret exit in the south wall. From there we can escape into the forest. I’ve ridden there many times and my brother showed me the paths by which to escape… if we ever had to… I do hope Father and Waylon get away to freedom…”

Arletta shook her head. To think of her father and brother, riding away from their home kingdom like escaping bandits. She wondered if they thought of her. If only they had stayed and put the castle into siege… She felt frozen in thoughts of concern for them, for innocent families trapped in Klavon with the barbarian and his army taking over. Then, indignation swamped her, with resentment towards her father and brother for their treatment of her. The sudden surge of contrasting emotions threatened to reduce her to tears. With a sob, she dropped her face into her hands. Before she drew another breath, she found herself wrapped in Steele’s arms. He gently kissed her and a dozen new questions flew into her mind.

She drew back, asking, “Why didn’t you tell me right away who you were… when we were in the cell… when you shook me to awaken me?”

“How could I not have kissed you like this?” he asked and kissed her again.

She pulled away and asked, “But why the charade?—Brother Simon!? So old and fat, and sick…”

“Do you think you could have hidden your knowing it was me, from Joan?”

“You knew what Joan was doing, changing to my princess role?”

“Yes, now hush…”

He kissed her again, then drew back and said, “Let’s hurry, or we won’t get anywhere if I keep this up…”

Dashing away her tears, she laughed. So much had gone wrong. But now, she felt sure, everything would be all right. “I will like being a pauper,” she said.

“You will be my pauperess!”

“Then you will be my pauper!”

“Let’s follow the tunnel,” he urged.

~ • ~ • ~

When Arletta and Steele stepped out from the opening in the wall, the afternoon sunlight blinded them. They waited until their eyes stopped watering and they could focus. Thick bushes grew by the wall where they stood and as the sound of horses grew louder, they crouched and waited.

Releasing his protective hold, Steele whispered, “Stay here; I’ll go and see if the way is clear, or not…”

He was back soon, grasping her hand and urging, “Come, it’s clear enough. We’ll run as fast as you can run, to the forest.

Across the wide castle road they ran, down a rugged rock-strewn hill to the forest road, which parted the narrow neck of forest in two. Each side of the road, the forest fanned out wider and wider until it filled a valley ahead, stretching as far as the eye could see.

A horn blew and Arletta called out, “I forgot the guards on the wall. They’ve seen us…”

“They won’t know who we are,” Steele replied, “we should not have run, I know that. Kissing you made me forget everything! … It always attracts attention… running that is…” He turned to look back and said, “Horsemen are coming from around the other side of the castle!” He quickened their pace.

Soon they ran on the wide forest road. “We take the third path on the right,” Arletta called, drawing Steele to that side of the road. She felt reassured by the firm grip of his hand around hers and lengthened her strides as he drew her along.

Steele did not wait for the third path on the right, but firmly pulled her across the road and ran with her down the first path on the left. Their feet raced around the first bend and Steele led her off the path into low ferns and brush beneath ancient forest trees. “Lie down!” he commanded as he flattened himself into the forest floor.