The Glass Castle (26 page)

A pause the length of the Salt Sea made Avery think of a thousand things she should say. But if she had learned nothing else from this entire ordeal, it was that truth mattered above all.

“You,” she choked. She wanted to say more, but she couldn’t.

She tried to swallow, but the room began to spin, and she couldn’t hold his knowing gaze. Neither could she fight the urge to flee.

Avery turned and hurried away, leaving Tuck standing there alone.

Chapter 39

Sudden Death

Avery and Kate were sorting items in the kids’ store the next day when a shaken girl appeared in the doorway. “The old woman is dead!”

“What are you talking about?” Avery asked.

“She was working downstairs and just fell over.”

Kate dropped the glass bowl in her hands, sending shards of glass in every direction. She turned and ran for the hall, and Avery followed.

The girl led them to one of the bunk rooms on the boys’ side where Kendrick was waiting for them. Together they knelt over a metal grate in the floor, and he cranked open the slats.

Sure enough, the old woman lay on the floor below, eyes wide and staring.

Adult staff gathered around the body and talked in hushed tones. Something about the situation seemed wrong, but Avery couldn’t determine what it was.

No panic. No surprise. No sadness.

The adults agreed they should say the woman had died of heart failure, and soon another arrived with a blanket and covered her body. The group of adults skittered away, talking quietly among themselves.

Kendrick shut the grate.

“Now we won’t get any more answers from her,” Avery said. “We’re on our own.”

“Not necessarily,” Kendrick said, adjusting his glasses. “Let’s see if she receives a memorial or any mention in the news bulletin. Maybe we’ll learn more about her than we would otherwise.”

“Do you think she died of natural causes?” Avery asked.

“No,” Kendrick said, “but I don’t know who would have killed her or why. We should learn who would profit the most from her death. Why would someone want the old woman dead?”

Avery couldn’t shake the thought:
I requested a meeting with her. Someone didn’t want her talking to me. This is my fault.

“She knew too much,” Kendrick continued. “Maybe she was planning to tell the truth.”

Avery’s blood turned to ice. She changed the subject—

“What will we do without a direct adult link in the castle? How will we know what tasks need to get done?”

Kendrick shrugged, and for the first time since they’d met, he startled Avery by looking directly at her. For a moment, Avery couldn’t speak. Her mouth hung open, but no words came. She finally forced herself to ask a question so the situation would return to normal.

“What could she possibly know that would jeopardize her life?”

Kate spoke. “She knew more about the king’s first wife than anyone alive. She cared for Queen Elizabeth and the newborn heir.”

Exactly as Edward said.

Then she would have recognized the necklace I was wearing in the woods. She would have known it belonged to Elizabeth. Did that necklace mark me?

Kendrick closed the grate, and in that moment the oddest thing happened. Perfectly poised Kate burst into full, body-racking sobs. Holding her stomach, she bent forward and allowed the grief to swallow her whole, hot tears coursing down her cheeks and pooling on the floor.

Avery grabbed her arm. “Kate!”

In a strange reversal of events, she held her friend the same way Kate had held her on the first night in the castle.

But Kate would not be comforted. Not until Avery helped her to her bed did the crying stop, but she never offered an explanation. In one afternoon, Kate the wise young woman became Kate the sad young girl, and Avery stood guard at Kate’s bedside to watch over her.

Once Kate was sleeping soundly, Avery pulled out her pages of handwritten notes.

In addition to Kate’s unusual behavior, Tuck had notified the council that he wanted to interview each thirteen-year-old to see if any immediate connections surfaced with Queen Elizabeth. He wanted to be proactive at locating a possible heir among them without the kids knowing what he was doing.

Avery suspected now, though, the interviews were unnecessary.

With pen in hand, she added Kendrick’s eyes to her list of mysterious castle facts:

One is brown and the other blue.

The old woman did not receive a memorial, nor any mention in the news bulletin. Once her body was removed from the castle, she was gone, literally and figuratively—along with any hope of knowing more of her secrets. Subsequently, the castle door to the outside world—the one she used to transport children—was bolted shut.

Several days after her death, the king and queen again traveled on business.

With a scout posted at the gallery door, Avery worked on the theme song for the Olympiad. She had spent several nights tossing and turning, humming and making notes.

She was unhappy with everything she tried. Nothing seemed worthy of the event.

Most of her creative sessions ended in a snowstorm of wasted parchment and promises to never play music again.

Now, back at the organ, Avery took a deep breath.

“When you face a problem,”
her mother had always said,
“begin with what you know.”

And so she warmed up with something her parents had created, a simple tune they paired with whatever lyrics struck them at the time. Sometimes they used it to sing of going to sleep, at other times to sing of cleaning the house or pulling weeds in the garden. They had used the tune for every occasion since Avery was a little girl.

She was certain the tune never belonged to the first queen because it had evolved over the years as the lyrics changed. The tune brought a smile to her, and soon she was ready to try composing again, hoping to write a song worthy of the greatest games on earth.

When the king and queen returned, word spread through the castle that the king had an important announcement.

A new heir on the way?
Avery wondered as she made her way to a grate that overlooked the Great Hall.
Will Angelina finally receive her wish? Will this put an end to the madness? Is this the moment history will be written?

Kate was waiting at the grate when Avery arrived, her face sad and swollen. She was wearing an uncharacteristically plain black dress.

They knelt to wait for the news.

“Are you okay?” Avery whispered.

“There is something you should know,” Kate said. “But you must promise me you will never speak of it to anyone.”

“Of course.”

“The old woman was my grandmother.”

Avery’s eyes grew wide. Kate was wearing the black mourning gown.

Her mind began racing.

If Kate was the granddaughter of the old woman, Kate had grown up in the castle—or at least made frequent visits. No wonder she had so many answers. No wonder she
knew things.

She probably knows far more than she’s admitted.

“I’ve been waiting for the right moment to tell you,” Kate continued.

“Are you an orphan?” Avery asked.

Kate nodded.

“Are you thirteen?”

Slowly, Kate shook her head.

Something between them shifted with this shared knowledge.

Avery wanted to ask questions—a million of them—but crowds gathered below, pushing in around the king’s throne, and excited voices rose. Soon a flourish of trumpets sounded and the beaming king appeared to low bows and enthusiastic applause.

Avery found herself giddy.

The king thanked everyone for coming, and—like the kids throughout the castle—the crowd seemed to hang on his every word.

“I am excited to announce that the Olympiad is close at hand. I have decreed that all residents of the kingdom—from the oldest to the youngest—shall be free to attend. No one will be denied entrance into the greatest games on earth. For this one moment in our history, we will set aside rank, and all classes will be free to cheer on our contestants side by side. I want you all to be there!”

He raised a gold cup as the crowd cheered wildly.

“Age will not matter. Wealth will not matter. Men and women, boys and girls are welcome.”

Again the crowd erupted, and Avery heard the clanging of bells and the cheering from outside the castle walls.

Kate clapped the grate closed.

“What are you doing?” Avery asked. “I want to hear the rest! This is good news!”

“When will you understand that nothing with this king and queen is that simple? It’s got to be a trap. Angelina has encouraged him to invite everyone so that
she
can find someone.”

Avery looked into Kate’s sad eyes.

She would not say it now, but it was a risk she was willing to take.

The need to stay in the castle was strong, but the need to find her family was stronger.

When the Olympiad opened, she would be there, with or without Kate’s approval.

Chapter 40

The Idea

Tuck and Avery hadn’t spoken since their surprise meeting in the great room.

Tuck smiled as she approached, and when they were finally alone in the dining room, he pulled out a chair for her.