Chapter 26: Card Houses

Al certainly knew his horses. His personal horse, Rohan, was a gorgeous chestnut stallion. I eagerly rubbed his velvety nose.

"Oh Al, he's beautiful!"

"I thought you might like him. You're so tiny though, you'll need a much smaller horse."

I barely resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him. It wasn't my fault Catherine du Pont was so small. I had been above average height for a woman back home, okay?

"Whatever you do, don't insult me with a pony."

He coughed to hide the laugh that slipped out but I caught it anyway and scowled.

"Don't look at me like that. You rode a mare back in the earldom, right?"

Yes I did. A beautiful dappled gray one I called Apple. I suddenly felt a pang of longing for my lost horse.

I nodded and he led me to a different stall in the stables that housed a small palomino mare. I gasped in delight. She was so pretty!

"She's very gentle but knows how to go fast when warranted. The perfect horse for someone your size," Al said with a grin.

"I'll have you know that I could beat you in a race," I said stiffly, not appreciating the constant jabs at my height.

"I'll take you up on that sometime. You're not dressed for riding now."

He was right. I didn't have the proper skirt or boots since I was stuck in yet another cage courtesy of the countess to present me as a pretty package at the palace.

"Then what do we do now?"

"Die of boredom," he said seriously. "There isn't much to do around here aside from drink tea and read."

I sighed. As expected. His situation really wasn't all that different from mine.

Though I was annoyed at him for wanting to run away since he was supposed to be the hero of his novel, if he was anyone else I wouldn't have blamed him at all. People aren't meant to be cooped up like this.

"How do you manage to get out?"

He looked around to be sure no one was eavesdropping before whispering a reply.

"There is a certain tree with low-hanging branches close to part of one of the walls out back that never seems to be guarded. I'll show you another time. There will be too many eyes on us today."

I frowned. It wasn't even lunchtime yet. What were we supposed to do for the rest of the day?

Remembering how easily my brothers had accepted that one card game from my world gave me an idea. It was better than nothing. I sighed and resigned myself to long days ahead.

"Do you have a deck of cards?"

"Cards? Playing cards? I suppose I can find one but I have never played any games."

Oh yeah, this guy is super isolated in the novel. Even better. I was about to make his day.

I grabbed his hand and dragged him back inside. "Come on, I've got loads to teach you, young padawan!"

"What's a padawan?"

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Oops. "It's like an apprentice. I'm about to teach you the art of playing cards a la Katie. No one knows these games but me."

Excitement shone in his eyes. No wonder he brought me here. The poor guy really did need a friend.

He wasn't supposed to find one in me though, that was what Marcy was for! But I felt sorry for him so here we were, sitting in the library with a deck of cards.

"First, we're going to play Fifty-Two Pick-Up," I said seriously.

"How is that played?" Al asked, leaning forward with interest.

I held up the deck. "There are fifty-two cards here."

I threw them up in the air so they scattered like the money rain you see on bad game shows. "Now pick them up!"

I hadn't pulled this trick on anyone in about ten years but oh, the look on his face! I cackled so hard I nearly broke the cage.

"That really isn't funny, Katie," he said crossly but his tone belied his true feelings because I saw the hint of an amused smile on his lips.

"Everyone needs to be tricked like that at least once," I said while wiping tears of mirth from my eyes. "Come on, let's pick them up so I can teach you a real game."

We worked together to gather all the cards I scattered before I taught him some real games. Games you could play with just two players, like Speed and Go Fish.

Al was absolutely enthralled. He wasn't very good at Speed, which made sense because you needed practice controlling your wrist, but he ended up wiping the floor with me in Go Fish after just a few rounds.

"Do you know any more games?" he asked eagerly after a couple hours had passed.

I wracked my brains trying to think of other two-player games off the top of my head but couldn't think of any so I suggested we build a card house instead.

I watched him curiously as he worked. He didn't even get frustrated when it kept collapsing in on him. Instead I could practically see the wheels turning in his head about how to do it better next time.

Someone so persistent…how had he ended up in such a terrible position inside the palace? He seemed just as diligent a person in that moment as Prince Franz, who eventually became king in the novel. I couldn't exactly ask him either.

'Hey, why is your characterization so inconsistent with the original novel? And why are there so many plot holes about you even though you're one of the main characters?' That would never work.

Al sighed with satisfaction. "Look, Katie! I made one four levels high!"

Indeed he had. Four levels high was about the best I could do and that was after years of practice. This guy was a natural.

He looked so proud of himself, like a little kid, so I responded as if he were one. "Nice! Why don't you try five levels this time? That's much harder."

He nodded and went back to concentrating on card construction. I slumped back in my chair. So my job here was to entertain Al until we figured out an escape plan? That wouldn't be so hard.

What would be harder is getting the plot back on track and that was more important than sticking to Al's plan. The livelihoods of thousands of people were at stake here!

I was a bit surprised by this guy's true personality. He was certainly funny and charming but he was also a bit childlike and not nearly as altruistic as the novel had portrayed him.

Al was selfish enough to want to run away and live his own life. Not that there was anything wrong with that in a normal situation but he's the hero! He's supposed to be better than everyone else.

Feeling unaccountably annoyed that I had to fix what I had unintentionally broken, I petulantly blew over his card house.

He didn't see me so he thought it had fallen over on its own. It was nearly done, too. Dumb, confusing prince. He deserved to have his card house knocked over.

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