The Bravest Princess

  This book is dedicated to Victoria Wells Arms, my

  guiding light; Brett Wright, who makes new beginnings

  joyful; Kim, who makes me laugh and keeps me going;

  Ellie, who helps me choose; Kevin, my techno-wizard;

  and my fans, who always want to know

  what happens next.

  Contents

  Map

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  A Note on the Author

  Also by E. D. Baker

  Map

  Chapter 1

  Annie stopped at the top of the stairs and smiled when she saw the noisy bustle in the courtyard. While once she might have disliked the commotion, now she thought it was wonderful. For sixteen years her father had refused visitors for fear that one might bring a spinning wheel that could trigger the curse on his oldest daughter. After the curse took hold and everyone else was sleeping, Annie would have given anything to hear the shouting and see the flurry of activity. Now, with the curse ended and her sister about to get married, the entire kingdom had reason to celebrate, and visitors from all over were flocking to the castle.

  “Good!” Gwendolyn said as she approached Annie from behind. “You aren’t doing anything. Go find Beldegard’s sisters for me. A guard told me that he saw the twins out here. I’m having wreaths made for their hair, and I want the woman who’s making them to see the girls so she can choose the right flowers.”

  “First of all, I am doing something,” said Annie. “I’m looking for Liam because we have an important errand to run. And second, why don’t you send a footman to find the twins? I don’t even know what they look like.”

  “They’re eight years old with dark hair like Beldegard’s. How hard can they be to find? I’m sending you because they’ll come if you ask them to, but I’ve been told that they really don’t listen to servants. Please, Annie? Just tell them to come see me,” Gwendolyn said, turning on her “I’m so sweet and innocent” look. “I really don’t ask that much of you, and this is such a little thing.”

  “That’s not true! You’re always asking me to do things for you. Didn’t I just get your husband-to-be turned back from a bear to a human? I’ll find them, but then I can’t do another thing until I run my errand with Liam.”

  “That’s fine,” said Gwendolyn. “Just tell the girls to hurry. I want to approve the flowers, and I don’t have all day to wait for the twins to show up.”

  Annie sighed. Her sister seemed to have become friendlier toward Annie while they were searching for the dwarf who had turned Beldegard into a bear, but the old Gwendolyn had returned at the approach of her wedding. Annie hoped that the newer, nicer Gwendolyn would be back after her honeymoon.

  Annie was looking for the girls when she spotted Liam walking out of the stable.

  His face lit up when he saw her. “Are you ready to go?” he asked. They had commissioned a goldsmith to make a pair of chalices as a wedding gift for Gwendolyn and Beldegard. Annie wanted to pick up the gift herself so it would remain a secret.

  “I was, but Gwennie asked me to find Beldegard’s sisters. She said that they’re out here somewhere. It shouldn’t take long to find them if you help me look. They’re eight-year-old twins with dark hair like Beldegard’s.”

  Liam nodded. “I think I saw them a few minutes ago. They look a lot like their big brother. If I remember correctly, they were over by the dovecote.”

  Turning to the far side of the courtyard, Liam led the way through the crowd. When they reached the small, round tower, the girls were nowhere to be seen.

  “Hang on,” Liam finally said. “Could those two girls be the twins?” He pointed to a pair of girls with long braids making their way through the crowd.

  Annie glanced past the dovecote to the open area behind it. “It’s possible, but there’s nothing back there except a practice field and the dungeon wall. Where do you think they’re going?”

  “I can’t imagine, but they aren’t the only ones going that way,” said Liam. “Look!” A stream of children of all ages was heading across the open space between the dovecote and the castle wall. When a toddler began to cry, an older girl scooped him up to take him with her.

  “They’re stopping at that cell window,” said Annie. “Are there any prisoners there now?”

  Liam frowned. “Your father told me that the only prisoner in the dungeon is Granny Bentbone. Her cousin Mother Hubbard came to see her yesterday.”

  “I think we should see what’s going on. I don’t trust Granny Bentbone one bit.”

  “Then we’d better hurry,” said Liam. “Who knows what the old witch will say to the children.”

  Annie bunched the hem of her skirt in one hand, and together she and Liam dashed across the practice field to where the children were gathered in front of a cell window. As Annie drew closer, she thought she heard the soft hum of magic underlying a familiar voice. Pushing gently through the group of children, she knew why it was familiar. Granny Bentbone, the witch who had lived in a gingerbread cottage and locked children in cages before eating them, was speaking through a little barred opening.

  “I’m in here by mistake, dear ones,” the old witch was telling the children. “If you let me out, I’ll make you some delicious candy!” Annie’s father had sent his knights to arrest her and bring her back to the castle only days before.

  “She’s using magic; I can hear it,” Annie murmured into Liam’s ear. “That must have been how she lured children to her cottage in the forest. We have to tell Father. I’m sure he’ll want to move her.”

  “Even the smallest child couldn’t get through that window; the bars are too close together. They’d have to go into the dungeon to let her out, and they’ll never be able to get past the guards,” said Liam.

  “I wouldn’t count on that.” Annie glanced behind them at the children still headed their way. “I’m putting an end to this right now. Excuse me,” she said, squeezing past some little boys. When she reached the wall, she remembered that the windows were set so high that neither a prisoner looking up nor a passerby looking down could see much.

  “Children, you’ll have to move away from here,” Annie told them. “You shouldn’t talk to this woman.”

  “She promised us candy!” cried a little girl.

  “Then she made a promise that she cannot keep. Don’t listen to anything she says. She is not a good person. And as for you, Granny Bentbone,” Annie said, turning back to the window, “leave these children alone, and stop trying to talk them into helping you.”

  “But I don’t know why I’m here! I’ve done nothing wrong!” wailed Granny Bentbone, sounding old and frail.

  Annie pursed her lips, not sure what to say. She knew that the elderly woman had difficulty remembering things, although now and then her memory returned for a short time. Either Granny really couldn’t remember what she had done, or she was lying to get the children’s sympathy. Annie could no longer hear the hum of Granny Bentbone’s magic, but from the expressions on the children’s faces, the old woman no longer needed it; they already wanted to help her.

  “Go on, children,” said Liam, shooing them away. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Where are Beldegard’s sisters?” Annie asked Liam.

  “They left when you first told them to,” said Liam. “It’s just as w
ell. We have to tell your father about this. I’m going to send a guard back here to keep everyone away from the window.”

  Annie and Liam found the king in his private chamber talking about the progress of the wedding preparations with Queen Karolina and Princess Gwendolyn. The king looked bored and seemed to welcome the interruption. He smiled as they entered the room, but his expression grew grave when Annie said, “We have to do something about Granny Bentbone. We were looking for Beldegard’s sisters when we noticed that a group of children had gathered around the witch’s cell window. When Liam and I followed them, Granny Bentbone was using magic to draw the children to her and promising them candy if they let her out of the cell.”

  “I was going to have her executed,” said the king, “but Mother Hubbard demanded that I be lenient in judging Granny Bentbone. If I execute the old witch, Mother Hubbard intends to bring a plague of insects on our linder trees and destroy the crop for the year.”

  “I can’t believe this happened the day before my wedding!” cried Gwendolyn. “I wanted everything to be perfect! I’m going to have only one wedding, and I want it to be the most beautiful wedding anyone has ever seen.”

  “And it will be,” assured the queen. “Halbert, what did you tell Mother Hubbard?”

  “Just that I’d find an alternative to execution,” said the king. “But I can’t keep Granny Bentbone locked away for the rest of her life if she’s going to summon children to her anyway. I don’t know what I’m going to do now.”

  “I might have a suggestion,” said Liam. “You could send her to that tower where Annie was held prisoner. It’s in the middle of a forest, and no one lives anywhere near it. There are no doors, and the only windows are at the top. No one can get in or out of the tower without something to climb, and I doubt the old woman could scale it even if someone gave her a rope.”

  “That’s a marvelous idea!” said Annie. “Granny Bentbone isn’t strong enough to climb down anything, and from what I’ve seen, her magic isn’t very strong, either.”

  “What about Beldegard’s sisters?” asked Gwendolyn. “Did you tell them to come see me?”

  “I’m afraid the girls left before I could talk to them,” said Annie. “They were among the children who had gone to see Granny Bentbone, and we told them all that they couldn’t be there.”

  Gwendolyn stomped her dainty foot and pouted. “I asked you to do one little thing and you failed! Are you trying to ruin my wedding?”

  Queen Karolina frowned. “Gwendolyn! Annie was trying to stop Granny Bentbone from harming the children. It’s not surprising that she wasn’t able to take care of your errand. I’m just glad she noticed what the witch was doing. Thank you for warning us, Annie,” she said, turning to her younger daughter.

  Gwendolyn sighed in a loud and dramatic way. “Does everything have to be about Annie? Tomorrow is supposed to be my special day!”

  Queen Karolina cast her older daughter an annoyed glance. “Annie didn’t ask for this to happen.”

  There was a knock on the door, and a guard poked his head into the room. “A messenger just arrived, Your Highness.”

  At a gesture from the king, the guard opened the door wide to admit a man carrying a satchel. “I bear two messages from the princess Snow White, Your Majesty,” said the messenger. “One is for Princess Gwendolyn, the other for Princess Annabelle.”

  “I wonder what this is about,” Annie said, reaching for her message. Breaking the seal, she spread the parchment open. “Snow White wants me to come visit her the moment I can get away. Her father wants her to choose a prince as soon as possible.”

  “Read mine, too, Annie,” Gwendolyn said, handing her message to her sister. Like most princesses, Gwendolyn had never learned to read. Although she had often made fun of Annie for learning the skill, she usually turned to her sister when she wanted something read to her.

  Annie took the message. “Oh, that’s too bad,” she said. “Snow White and her father are unable to attend the wedding. I wonder what’s going on. Something must have happened to keep her from coming here and made her father want her to find a prince right away.”

  “I can’t imagine what it could be,” Gwendolyn said. “But I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime, could we please concentrate on my wedding? It is tomorrow, you know.”

  “Yes, we know!” everyone said at once.

  Chapter 2

  “Annie, wake up!” Gwendolyn shouted, hopping onto Annie’s bed.

  Annie opened one bleary eye and peered at her sister. “It’s still dark out. Why do I have to wake up so early?”

  “Because I need to talk to you about Beldegard.” Gwendolyn stretched out on Annie’s bed and turned to face her sister. “Do you think I’ve been hasty in agreeing to marry him so soon? I met him only a few weeks ago.”

  Annie sighed and opened her other eye. “Ordinarily, I’d say that you and Beldegard went way too fast, but you know he’s the love of your life. He has to be, because it was his kiss that woke you from the curse.”

  “But I hardly know him! What if he likes things that I don’t? What if I don’t like his friends or don’t get along with his relatives?”

  “You’ll work it out. I think that finding one’s true love is so rare that you shouldn’t let anything get in your way.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Gwendolyn admitted. “I really do believe he’s perfect for me. I get tingles all over when he kisses me, especially now that he’s human! Come on, Annie. Get up! I’m getting married in five hours, and there’s still so much to do!”

  Annie sat up as her sister hopped off the bed and was surprised when Gwendolyn hugged her. She was sure that if she counted on one hand the number of times any member of her family had given her a hug, she’d still have fingers left over.

  “I love you, Annie, and I think you’re a wonderful sister. Thanks for our little talk,” said Gwendolyn.

  Stunned, Annie watched Gwendolyn dance toward the door. As far back as she could remember, this was the first time her sister had ever said she liked her, let alone loved her. All those years before the curse ended, Gwendolyn wouldn’t let Annie near her and made cutting remarks about Annie whenever they were in the same room.

  “Oh, and one more thing,” Gwendolyn said, stopping by the door and turning. “Please don’t do anything to disrupt my wedding.”

  Annie glanced out the window as her bare feet touched the cold stone floor. It was still dark out, and the guards had torches lit by the drawbridge and gates, although when she crossed the room and leaned over the window ledge, she could see the first glimmer of daylight in the east. It looked as if no one else was awake, but she knew that the cooks had been busy for hours preparing the wedding feast, seamstresses had been up all night putting the finishing touches on Gwendolyn’s and the queen’s gowns, and a small army was already working on the flowers that were to decorate the great hall.

  Even as Annie put on her very best gown, she heard the sounds of the castle stirring. Voices rose and fell as people hurried through the hall. A querulous voice outside her door complained about torn stockings. Someone dragged something heavy that bumped and scraped against the floor.

  Annie slipped from her chamber, hoping to get something to eat before she got caught up in the bustle of activity around her. When she reached the great hall, she found that most of it had already been decorated with masses of fragrant roses and lilies. She waved at some of the people working in the hall. Growing up with a family who treated her like an outsider, and nobility who had as little contact with her as possible, Annie had spent much of her time with the servants’ children and learned a lot from watching the servants work. Her parents weren’t happy that she was on such close terms with them, but Annie didn’t care.

  Annie smiled at Marie, the maid who was in charge of the flowers. Marie knew everything there was to know about flowers and picked fresh blooms every day from the queen’s garden. Queen Karolina’s fairy godmother had created the garde
n when Karolina married King Halbert, making sure that the new queen had fresh flowers all year long. As Annie passed by, Marie was telling three footmen where to place several baskets of flowers while she whipped together bouquets using blossoms from water-filled buckets.

  Annie looked around as she walked down the aisle between the rows of benches that filled the center of the hall. The tables, which normally stood in two long rows, had been pushed against the wall behind the columns that supported the balcony, where the musicians would be playing. Colorful banners fluttered from the ceiling, garlands of flowers were draped over the balcony railing, and great copper bowls sat on the tables, their blossoms spilling down the sides like froth from over filled tankards. The scent of the flowers mingled with the fresh beeswax candles in the wall sconces and the sweet-smelling herbs covering the floors, making the entire hall smell like summer.

  Two tables had been left at the opposite end of the hall from the dais for the use of anyone wanting breakfast. Annie spotted Prince Emilio, one of the princes she had met while looking for Gwendolyn’s true love. Annie joined him, and a moment later, a harried-looking kitchen helper came to the table carrying a pot of porridge. Setting a bowl in front of Annie, the girl began to ladle out a serving. Annie glanced at the porridge, which was laced with burned bits scraped from the bottom of the pot.

  “Is there anything else to eat?” she asked the girl.

  “I’m sorry, Your Highness,” said the girl, dropping another scoop of porridge in the bowl with an audible plop, “but that’s all there is this morning. The cooks all have their hands full fixing the wedding feast.”

  “I can’t eat that slop,” said Prince Digby, who had been Gwendolyn’s only suitor before the curse took hold. “It looks like something a cat—”

  “Don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Annie told him. “Some of us are actually going to eat it.”

  Digby smirked and opened his mouth to continue when a little girl seated at the end of the other table turned to her mother and said, “Momma, I don’t feel so good.”