White Roses a.b

chapter 7

'Lady hath stumbled on this midnight dreary, with a pallor frightfully pale and weary.' A sombre, 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 Ash'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 Ash'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 Ashley. 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. Ash'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 the sky.

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.

'It's the truth.' She cleared her throat. 'This might be a peculiar question, Mr . . . er, Joker . . .'

'Andy. My name is Andy. My lady?'