The Toy Prince

11. Ursula

She couldn't go back to the palace. She couldn't bear to face the people who were no doubt concerned for her. Instead she sat on a bench in the nearest park she came across after walking in the opposite direction of the palace. With no one she knew around to judge her the tears fell freely.

She had no idea how long she stayed on that bench. Once the tears had dried up she was exhausted and the sky was already darkening. She glanced at her watch to see that it was half past four. An hour and a half until the arranged meet time. Would they still be going through with that? Did it really matter? She had no way of getting to Strindz anyway. Her best option was to go to the palace and wait there until she heard from Josephine or Adler.

She started walking in the direction of the palace. At some point she noticed that she was starting to feel like she was being watched. It was the one feeling she'd learnt to identify pretty quickly after two years of Niklaus stalking her.

To test her theory, she ducked into a crowded café and waited to see if anyone would pass by. To hide what she was doing, she held up a menu and pretended to peruse it.

None of the people walking past immediately stuck out to her. She was just beginning to feel like she was being paranoid when she saw someone she was sure was circling back. It was a man dressed in a pair of grey suit trousers, white shirt and black overcoat. He'd walked past the café and had doubled back. Now it looked like he was searching for something or someone. The uneasy feeling in her stomach intensified. He was looking for her. Of that she was certain. She stayed in that café until the man walked away again. This time she was going to follow him. She wanted to know who he was and where he was going.

Almost immediately she found that she wasn't very good at surveillance. Her follower had given up looking for her so he started walking at a brisk pace as if he was late for something. She decided to call him Fast Man until she knew his name. Ursula found it hard to keep up with him but somehow she managed to keep a good ten meters behind him. Every now and then she had to duck into an open doorway or stand directly behind someone because Fast Man looked over his shoulder.

And how do you not know that he doesn't know you're following him, huh? He could be leading you into a trap.

The stone on her bracelet wasn't even remotely warm though. It had warned her twice before so surely it would now if she was in danger. It was that trust in her bracelet that pushed her to keep following him.

Fast Man carried on walking for another fifteen minutes before coming to the one place she hadn't expected him to go. He strode right through what she thought was a service door as if he was meant to be there. She was still going to follow him through the door when a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Don't follow him."

"Let go of me!" she shrieked, pulling her arm out of Niklaus' grasp. "What are you doing here? Following me again?"

"Yes. After you left Axel came to the house. He offered to free me because his conscience is playing on him."

"Bully for you."

Niklaus rolled his eyes at her. "Axel warned me about Felix. He thinks he's working for my Father and the whole thing is a trap. My Father wants to control all the people who could be in line to the throne after Axel's gone."

"And why should I believe you? After what you've done to me?"

"You have no idea what it's like for me in there do you? It's dark, I'm completely alone and I've been trapped in there for over forty years. Do you know what isolation does to a person? No, of course you don't. You could never hope to understand and whilst I know what I did was wrong I wasn't in my right mind when I did. When I started to see how scared you were I stopped. Now I am telling you this because I don't want you to get hurt and my Father will hurt you to get what he wants."

His outburst had startled her completely. It made her ask some deep questions about what she thought she knew and she didn't like any of it. She didn't like that he was making her rethink her anger at him. She had a right to feel angry at him. He'd tormented her, made her a prisoner in her own home and made her put her life on hold. She would never forgive him for doing that. She couldn't forgive him.

But what she could do wasn't important right now. What was important was getting her Oma back. If working with Niklaus would get her back then that was something Ursula was going to have to stomach.

"Just supposing I say you're right. What do we do about it?" she asked.

Niklaus stared at her, a rabbit in headlights.

"Don't look so shocked. I wasn't sure about this whole meet up plan from the start. The adults all planned it."

"We need to get to Strindz. The meeting will definitely happen now and you're going to show up there with my prison. They won't be expecting that."

"That's your plan?"

"Not all of it," Niklaus replied with a very serious look on his face. She didn't like it one little bit.

"I bloody hate heights!" she shouted down to Niklaus who was holding the bottom of the ladder. "Why couldn't you have climbed up here and got this?"

"I can't touch the thing," Niklaus shot back.

"Not bloody likely," she muttered under her breath.

Her balance was terrible so it surprised her that she managed to successfully get the nutcracker and climb back down the ladder without falling. When her feet touched the ground she was extremely grateful.

She pulled the nutcracker out from the crook of her arm. It was even more ugly up close and personal. She was tempted to just smash it on the floor right away so she wouldn't have to look at the ugly face anymore. She couldn't do that just yet though. She had to wait until the exact time or Niklaus' plan would not work.

"You sure this is going to go well?" she asked, looking up at him for reassurance. She found none in his face.

"I hope it will."

"You're really crap at the pep talk."

Niklaus grimaced. "Forgive me. It's my first time."

Ursula rolled her eyes. Three days ago she'd been convinced that coming to Germany was her fresh start. She would be getting away from her stalker and reclaiming her life. She certainly never imagined she would be trying to save her Oma from a madman and working with her stalker to do so. Life had really thrown her a curveball.