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Something stirred in the darkness up ahead.
A large animal had hunched over something in the center of the tunnel and now raised its head, its eyes flashing on us.
Its blue-gray eyes.
The wolf growled from somewhere deep in
its belly as we rushed past it, its breath forming a white shroud.
“Hurry!” I cried.
Pierre leaned forward in the saddle, urging Diamond up the dark slope.
Behind us, the black wolf watched us go. I heard his mouth smacking on something he was eating. Something he must have dragged down here to finish off.
Then he started after us.
“Go, Pierre! Faster!”
Pierre pushed Diamond harder and we lunged forward. The enormous wolf loped after us in greater strides. It would sink its teeth into us in seconds.
“GO!”
Light filled the end of the tunnel as it formed a steeper angle, where extra logs had been laid. I felt a touch of the sun’s warmth as we neared the opening. The wolf slowed and skidded to a halt, letting us flee.
We burst out of the upper end, my heart pounding as I gasped for breath.
“Helena!” Papa thundered, his angry voice bringing a strange sense of calm. “What did you think you were doing?’ Valiant barked and growled at the hole behind us.
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Monsieur Leóne trotted up to us, his eyes wide beneath his wild, unkempt hair. “Do you realize what might have happened? Who knows what might be in there?” I had never seen him so agitated.
Pierre was flustered. “Papa, there was something! There was – !”
“Let’s go home!” I interrupted. “We’re really sorry, Papa. Monsieur Leóne. We won’t do it again. Let’s just – Let’s just hurry home so we can get to the banquet.”
“But –!” Pierre burst.
“Pierre, we made a mistake. We shouldn’t have gone in there. Let’s just go home, all right?
Let’s just go home.”
He breathed deeply in and out, staring at me in fright.
“Helena. What happened?” Papa asked.
“We – We almost tripped. On a tree root.
Almost fell over. We got scared. That’s all. Let’s all just hurry home and forget about it, all right?
Please?”
Pierre looked from me to Papa and
Monsieur Leóne. He slowed his frantic breathing as Valiant watched the tunnel with a murmuring growl. He stared at me again, then back at the quiet hole. “All right. Let’s forget about it. For now.”
“Just don’t try anything so foolish again,”
Papa said. “You might both have been killed.”
Pierre led Diamond away. I squinted over my shoulder.
From deep within the darkness, the blue-gray eyes shone as if studying our every move.
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7.
Papa pulled our wagon up to the front of the tavern. The sign above its hitching post said La Maison de Touraine. We sat for a moment, listening to the raucous men laughing and shouting inside as Papa regarded Mama.
She sat rigid, drawing her shawl closer against the evening air, her chin angled up. “I simply can’t understand why it had to be here, of all places. After we waited all winter for the Duke to arrange this. I thought we were supposed to be 61
honoring someone. What’s honorable about surrounding ourselves with a lot of drinking?”
They had been silent for most of the ride.
At first I thought Papa was still angry at me for riding through the tunnel with Pierre. Then I remembered how Mama felt about alcohol and the place Duke Laurent chose for Francois’ banquet.
Besides, I had already promised Papa I would never do it again. And I meant it.
I still pictured those blue-gray eyes, shining as they had chased me and Pierre. As they had watched us leave the grassy cliff. Entering that tunnel again would be like jumping into the wolf’s mouth.
The tavern’s double doors flew open with a bang and I yelped as two
