The Crown (5 page)

“Do you think I came just to see you?” she whispered to Speckle, scratching his ear. “Sweet horse.” She gave him a friendly pat and headed deeper into the outer ring.
Poor Speckle,
she thought,
he was definitely not the reason she visited the stables this day and every day.
An unsteady blush blotched its way up her pale cheeks. Wardley now spent most of his time training the horses and the Cards; therefore, Dinah was spending more and more time with the horses as well.

Wardley Ghane was training to be the next Knave of Hearts—a fancy title for the commander of the Heart Cards, but to Dinah, he was so much more than that. He was her best friend . . . and the boy she loved. Tall, with long brown curls that brushed the top of his bold eyebrows, Wardley Ghane was as devastatingly handsome as he was skilled. He rode his ebony saddle as if he had been born atop a horse, and he could pull a blade from his belt with the greatest of ease. He was a fearsome warrior, a proud bearer of the King’s coat of arms, and a deft Card who could navigate the politics and pitfalls that would inevitably come with ruling over the Heart Cards at such a young age. He was being trained by Xavier Juflee, the current Knave of Hearts, who was widely known as the best swordsman in all of Wonderland.

Wardley was the King’s favorite of all his young Cards, and maybe someday, Dinah hoped, something much more. She longed to make Wardley her husband one day, which would make him the King of Hearts beside her. The line of succession decreed that when a king and a queen ruled on the throne, they ruled until death, or until they gave up their throne. If a king or queen died while ruling—as Davianna had—then the first-born child of that union, upon his or her eighteenth year, would rule beside the widowed parent until the child married. At that time, the older king or queen would give up the throne, and the newly married rulers would take the throne together. Gazing at Wardley’s face, Dinah longed for the day when her father would step down to her husband. To Wardley, hopefully. Much to Dinah’s surprise, it seemed the day she turned sixteen he began to make her heart clench in want with each lazy smile, each friendly hug. One day, she looked at him and wanted more of him—she wanted all of him. The change in her demeanor generally bewildered him, so she tried to keep her fawning to a minimum when they were together; but at night she lay in her bed, imagining his lips on hers, the weight of his body pressed against her. His name was always on the tip of her lips, her desire for him unbridled. She loved him and, in a way, always had. He waited for her now, munching on a handful of berries in the shadow of the palace, already mounted on his dazzling white steed when Dinah emerged from the stalls.

He deftly adjusted his cloak and armor as he was already suited up for his training with the Cards. On the breast of his white uniform sat a red square with a black heart upon it, the King’s blazon. Corning, his blindingly white horse, gave a slight buck as Dinah’s black cloak leapt in the winter wind.

“Whooaa there.” Wardley tugged his red reins before smiling down at Dinah. “He sees you almost every day, and yet that black cloak always makes him jumpy.” He reached down and patted Dinah’s braid. “You look nice today!”

She felt a heat rush through her body, warming her to the tips of her toes. Wardley always made her feel that way.

“What are you doing out here on this freezing morning?”

Dinah gave a shrug. “It’s not that cold. You’ve never been a winter person. I like winter. Here, I brought you warm tarts.”

Dinah removed the steaming pastries from the folds of her cloak. The raspberry jam had already leaked through the cheesecloth, and its scent filled the yard.

Wardley licked his lips. “Oh Dinah, you are too good. This is just what I needed. You’re incredible, you know that?” He took the pastry from her hand and shoved it eagerly into his mouth in one terribly messy bite. Powdered sugar dusted his top lip. Dinah smiled shyly as she circled a pink heart in the snow with her boot. Seeing Wardley was sometimes the only happy part of her entire day.

“My father came to see me this morning.”

“And he was horrible to you, as always?” As Wardley spoke, puffs of tart flew out of his mouth and floated down onto Corning. Dinah gave Wardley an amused smile.

“Must you always eat as if you were starving?” She pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and handed it up to him. He wiped his mouth and smiled. “Sorry. If you must know, I am always starving.”

“You know my father—he would have to speak to me to be horrible. He came in, had some angry words with Harris, and stormed out, but not before he threw my tray of food on the floor.”

Wardley stopped eating and narrowed his eyes. “And then you gave the tarts to me?”

Dinah smiled, her white teeth gleaming against the pink snow. “No. Those are fresh from the kitchen. I threw away the food—well, rather, Emily did.”

That was the short version of the story. Really, Dinah cowered in a corner while her father shouted at Harris all the things that Dinah was doing wrong and the depth of his disappointment in her. She wasn’t pretty, she was stupid, she wasn’t a lady, she wasted her time daydreaming and exploring the castle, she was horrible at croquet, she was unfit to rule. . . . As the King struck Harris with his huge open hand, Dinah withered onto the floor. When the King turned on her, she covered her face and spun away. Her father left with a disgusted sneer. His rages came more and more frequently now, it seemed. When she was a child, he had always been cold and distant, but begrudgingly polite. Now, he openly hated her in front of her servants. The King of Hearts was still cordial in public, but his seething loathing was like a black undercurrent, sucking the color out of every party and public gathering of the royal family. Dinah avoided him at all costs, and even Harris and Emily had learned to stay far away from the King of Hearts and his fiery temper.

Back in the stables, Dinah sat down on an overturned bucket with a huff. “I hate him. He’s terrible.”

Wardley dismounted his horse with one smooth kick of his leg and wrapped his free arm around Dinah, the other holding fast to his practice sword. “I know your father isn’t a great father all the time.”

“Or ever,” replied Dinah sullenly. “He’s not the way a father is supposed to be. He’s not anything like your father.”

Wardley gave an understanding smile. Unlike Dinah, he adored his gentle father. “I know. But the King must love you; I’m sure he does . . . in his own horrible way. Ruling Wonderland isn’t for the fainthearted, and the crown weighs heavy, you know that. You are his daughter, his only viable heir, and someday he will see you for the. . . .” He seemed at a loss for words. He patted her cheek lightly, and Dinah stopped breathing. “For the fierce woman that you will become. The Queen of Hearts. A good and just queen, and a doting sister. I see you growing stronger each day, and someday he will see that.”

“Someday,” she grumbled, “is not today.”

Wardley jumped up and drew his sword. “Then you should tell him so. Today! I command it.”

Dinah stood and grabbed a broom handle leaning against the stable door and shook off her black cloak. She took a fighting stance and swung her broomstick at Wardley. He parried and leapt to the side.

“I will! I’ll tell him, ‘Father! You are getting slow and mean in your old age. You are no longer the warrior you once were. Give me my kingdom already, you beast! Then I will defeat the Yurkei, once and for all!’”

Their swords rang together, wood on steel, through the stables and out into the yard. It was a complicated and perfected dance, one they had done thousands of times before. Wardley spun and easily deflected her downswing as Dinah caught him lightly on the hip with the side of the broom handle.

“Ow! That was hard!” he laughed.

He was distracted momentarily, and Dinah swung hard for his head. Wardley ducked and easily lopped off the top of her broom handle with his sword.

“You always go for the head. Always with these ill-planned swings,” he lectured. “It leaves you open. Wait for the RIGHT opportunity, and then go for the strike. Don’t go for it the minute you have any opening. You’re too impulsive. Xavier has been working with me on identifying my weaknesses, and that, my friend, is yours. It will be the last thing you do in a battle.”

Dinah smiled and brushed a string of black hair out of her eyes. “I’ll never be in battle. Croquet is the closest I’ll come to that, I imagine.”

“A queen should know how to defend herself,” Wardley answered, picking up the broom pieces from the stable floor. “Even if all you do is listen to complaints and grow fat eating warm tarts on your throne. The King of Hearts is a seasoned warrior. He might not be a great father, but I know him as a commander. He is every bit the unyielding man Wonderlanders say he is. You shouldn’t be so hard on him. You should hope to be LIKE him in that matter.”

“I’m hard on him?” Dinah flung her broken stick away. “I’m hard on HIM? He looks at me only with disgust and contempt. He treats Harris awfully, and gods know what WOMEN he has up in the mistresses’ chamber every night. . . .”

Wardley pushed his sword into the dirt and grabbed Dinah’s arm. It gave a passionate tremor under his calloused skin. “Dinah, BE QUIET.” He gave her a gentle shake. “You could be put in the Black Towers for saying such things. I know you haven’t had the best time without your mother, but this obvious hatred for your father could get you, or even worse, ME, killed.”

The thought stopped the argument rising in Dinah’s throat. She would never do anything to hurt Wardley. Never. Wardley had been her constant companion and playmate, ever since she could toddle around the castle on chubby legs. When they were younger, Harris and Emily left her frequently with Wardley’s mother, a lady of the court, and the two children would scamper off chasing birds and pudgy hedgehogs that roamed the palace grounds. Wardley taught her how to wield a sword, how to ride Speckle, how to pee outside, and how to eat a tart without her hands. To a child, Wonderland Palace was truly full of marvel, and exploring its secrets together had brought Dinah more joy than any other part of her childhood. Wardley was hers and hers alone, something her father could never take from her. Not that it mattered much. The King of Hearts doted on Wardley and encouraged his fine abilities. He tolerated their friendship and almost encouraged it by his lack of anger toward Dinah when Wardley was around. One day, Wardley would be the Knave of Hearts, the commander of the Heart Cards. And maybe, if everything went as planned, he would marry her and be her King. He would love her.

Dinah turned that last wish in her heart as she scowled at him. She did not like being lectured about her father. “I’m leaving,” she snapped. “I don’t need to be told what to do by a boy with sugar powder all over his face.”

Wardley grinned. “Dinah, c’mon. . . .”

“NO.”

She pulled her cloak over her pale-gray dress lined with red hearts and tucked her long black braid back into the hood. “That’s the last tart you will ever get from me. Who are you to lecture the Princess of Wonderland? No one, a lowly stable boy.”

Wardley pushed his hair back from his forehead and gave her a knowing smile. “Alright, but I’ll still be hungry tomorrow.”

“Goodbye.”

“Dinah, wait!”

Her heart throbbed in her chest as she turned back to him. He leaned against the side of Corning, his face close to hers, whispering, “You can’t say anything like that about your father again, unless we are outside of the palace, or in our box in the Heart Chapel, do you understand? I’m serious.”

Dinah saw a rare glimpse of fear in his chocolate-brown eyes. She gave a sigh. “I won’t, I won’t say anything to get you in trouble, I promise.”

“Good.” Wardley gave her shoulder a friendly squeeze. “I enjoy having my head.” He pulled Corning over by his red reins and mounted up. “Will you come see me again tomorrow, after training?”

“Perhaps. If I have time. I probably won’t. Tomorrow is the Royal Croquet Game.”

“Ah yes, your favorite day of the year.”

Dinah grimaced. She hated the Royal Croquet Game. “Perhaps I can find a way to hit Vittiore with my mallet.”

“Go easy on her. I think your father scares her. She seems terrified all the time.”

“He should scare her. She’s a bastard child, unworthy of a minute of his time. I hope she dies of wheezing fever.”

Wardley looked off into the distance, focused on something Dinah couldn’t see. “You don’t mean that. So, you’ll visit me tomorrow, maybe after croquet? Or I’ll see you at the game.”

Of course, of course,
her heart sang,
I will see you every day!
She gave a shrug.

“Good. Before I forget, I have something for Charles. Can you give this to the Mad Hatter himself?” He handed Dinah a tiny wooden seahorse. He had whittled it himself; there was truly nothing Wardley couldn’t master.

She turned it over in her hand, admiring his craftsmanship. “He’ll love it.”

Wardley wheeled Corning around and out into the winter air. “See you tomorrow!” he declared. She smiled and waved as he joined the ranks of Heart Cards, marching in silent formation toward the courtyard, their steps echoing in harsh, single notes. Xavier Juflee patted him hard on the back as they galloped to the front of the line.

Dinah tiptoed out of the stable area, back into the circular labyrinth. As she rounded the endless curves and switchbacks of stalls, she allowed a smile to play across her face. One year ago, in the bright Wonderland sun, Wardley had given Dinah her first kiss, a light brush of his lips over her top one. They had been under the Julla Tree, a massive red skeleton with silky mulberry leaves and buzzing black fruit that opened and closed every hour. As children, they had climbed the Julla Tree hundreds of times, to play Tribes and Cards, or to spy on the ladies’ bathing quarters. Now, they escaped to the leafy shelter to have a minute of stillness with each other—Wardley from his endless training, and Dinah from her lessons and, sometimes, her father.

It had been summer then, and Dinah was sixteen years old. The lunch trumpets had sounded from the Royal Apartments and Dinah had reluctantly dropped the fruit she had been snacking on and slipped down the tree. Her ankle twisted at the bottom and she fell, cutting her leg open on the tree’s thorny roots—fat fingers that twisted up from the ground to protect the tree. Wardley followed her and gently wiped the blood from her leg with his hand.