"So, be prepared to flee for our lives tomorrow?" she said, when the door had closed again.
"Once we give the documents to the Overseer, we don't dare come back."
MERRIGAN REFLECTED there were some benefits in having very little to call her own. She could leave the house with her two bags hidden under her cloak, and no one to suspect she had no plans to return. She put the finished clothes on the table, neatly folded, ready for pressing, and wished for a moment that she had left some undone details on each piece. She never had remembered the spell for the collars, but yes, this judgment falling on the judge was far better than choking him for moons to come.
"I don't suppose you can arrange for the seams to start unraveling once we're far away and safe?" she murmured as she looked around the library one last time. Bib just riffled his quiet, papery laughter.
In the kitchen, she asked Flora and Fauna to take care of pressing the clothes, then announced she was going to do some shopping in town before she returned to finish the last bit of hemming work. Cook nodded to her, but didn't turn away from the soup he was stirring. When she climbed into the wagon with Rosco and Oscar, she had to fight not to take one final look and wave a cheerful goodbye to this rather sad, if grand household.
The baker looked thinner, when Merrigan walked into his shop. He finished sliding a tray of buns into the tall rack standing next to the counter, and his welcoming smile struck her as somewhat pitiful. She remembered overhearing him talking to Judge Brimble about his bakery suffering because of the nasty rumors. And then how the judge and Swickle laughed together over those same rumors and the baker's reaction.
This man had been kind to her, without knowing she was a queen. Didn't that deserve some reward?
"Why did you want to ride with me to Carnpotz?" the baker asked as he led her to the small, rather flour-dusty wagon behind the bakery. "How did you know I was going today?"
"I overheard you telling Judge Brimble. I was working in the room over his office."
"Ah." He offered her his hand to help her climb up, and tugged a pad over onto the seat before she sat down.
"I want you to know," she said, once they had put two streets between them and the bakery, "I think all those lies people are telling about your shop are awful. Your bread is the most delicious I have ever eaten."
"Thank you." He patted her hand. "You didn't say why you need to go to Carnpotz."
"Actually, I'm fleeing the judge. The things I overheard discussed in his office make me fearful for my life."
"What sort of things?" He frowned, but Merrigan suspected he wasn't quite as surprised as he should have been.
"He helped Swickle cheat that good boy, Corby, out of his inheritance, for one thing."
"Hmm, I don't find that hard to believe at all. Why would that frighten you?"
"I'm an old woman alone, a stranger in these parts. We all know from the fables that cheating and lying and injustice eventually ..." She sighed. "They gain enough weight that eventually some magic intervenes. I don't want to be blamed when that justice strikes. Judge Brimble is not so foolish it wouldn't eventually occur to him that someone sitting above his office could hear all his schemes."
"Hmm. Wise."
They rode in silence for another hour, until she saw the sign indicating Carnpotz was over the next hill.
"You should know," she said, touching his arm, "that I overheard Swickle and the judge plotting to take over your bakery. They're the ones spreading the nasty stories about your bread."
"I am not surprised," the baker murmured. He pressed his hand over hers on his arm. "Yesterday, he claimed he wanted to become partners, that he would provide the flour and ensure the quality was of the best. He offered me a contract to sign, and then was most upset when he learned I could read."
"He was counting on your not knowing what was in the contract," she guessed.
"Took it away before I could read anything, and said he would bring it back for me to sign in a few days, after I had time to think about his generous offer." He nodded twice. "I guess I'd be signing away my livelihood. Thank you for warning me."
"Would you do something for me?" she said, after the wagon had climbed to the top of the hill and the much larger town of Carnpotz spread out before them.
"Gladly."
"I have been helping the serving girls, Flora and Fauna, practice their reading. If the Overseer believes me and acts against the judge, will you make sure they find good positions elsewhere, and continue their studies?"
"Again." He patted her hand. "Gladly."
Merrigan couldn't understand why she felt like crying. At the same time, a curiously light sensation settled in her chest. What was wrong with her?
She was out of that gloomy, stifling household, back out in fresh air and sunshine. She had a friend to advise her and help her, someone who understood her. Why shouldn't she be in a better mood than she had been since long before Leffisand died and she lost her throne?
"IT'S THE CURSE," BIB whispered, once he and Merrigan were alone in the room where the Overseer's secretary had led them.
"What do you mean?" She nearly leaped up from the wooden bench with the dark blue cushion that was very welcome after the long, bumpy ride into Carnpotz. "Are we going to be imprisoned? They can't force you to disgorge the papers, can they?"
"Oh,
