He looked around. Far ahead, on the castle steps, he could see his fellow villagers lining up to enter. But there was still no sign of Pat. It would soon be too late. The doors would soon close behind the villagers, and he feared he would not have the courage to approach all alone.
He could see, too, three odd processions of foreigners approaching from different directions. They looked like nobility, surrounded by their courtiers, but it was strange, the way they moved, hopping and prancing, and there was not a royal look to any one of them.
She was not coming, he thought miserably. She had decided against coming. He looked down the winding path, but it was empty, and his shoulders slumped in disappointment. So many losses in his life, the schoolmaster thought. His mother's death. The disappearance of his beloved little sister. The day that his father turned his back on him and ordered him out of his life. Each memory flooded through him now as he stood alone at the gate and realized that the lively schoolgirl would not be joining him on this night.
Arrange your face to hide your feelings. That was what he had been taught to do, and he did it now. He straightened up, swallowed to force back the feeling of tears that had surprisingly begun to well in him, set his face in stern lines, and walked forward, all alone, to the castle.
***
Far below the banquet hall, in the kitchen, the three singing serving girls waited at the foot of the stairs for their signal. They were wearing new embroidered pinafores and were very, very nervous. Mmmmmmm, they hummed together very quietly, readying their voices. Mmmmmmmm.
In the back corridor, Tess the chambermaid watched with admiration as the pulley boy lifted tray after tray with a steady grip on the thick rope. The creamed pigeons ascended. Then the carved goats. The artichokes, tray after tray. A line of servants moved each delicacy by assembly line from the kitchen to the pulley. Tess stayed carefully out of their way, but she was astounded at how swiftly and seamlessly everything moved.
"THE VILLAGERS IS IN!" Cook called. She had gotten the word, relayed down the staircase from footmen.
"Now?" the singing girls asked.
"Not yet. Not till they calls for you," Cook said. She retied the sash on the youngest, then patted the starched bow into a perky shape.
Tess watched the muscles in the pulley boy's arms. The heavy task seemed effortless to him. The salmons were moving up now.
"What does the banquet hall look like?" she asked the elderly serving boy, who was in his rocker with a blanket over his arthritic knees.
"You seen above-stairs," he said irritably.
"I've seen the princess's bedchamber," she told him. "That's all."
"All marble and crystal and silver and gold," he said. "Big chandeliers. Chinese vases. Tapestries. Fancy stuff. All needs polishing and tidying all the time."
"Blimey," the chambermaid breathed. "I wish I could see it."
"KING AND QUEEN IS IN!" Cook reported loudly.
"Now?" asked the triplets.
The Birthday Ball
"Not yet. Queen has to blow kisses and such. And there's still the suit—Wait," Cook said, and went to get a message from the footman.
"SUITORS IS IN!" she bellowed.
"Now?" asked the singing girls nervously.
"I told you! Not yet! The princess ain't in yet! Wait till they calls you!"
Mmmmmm, they hummed, to calm themselves. Mmmmmm.
"Them suitors is horrible," Cook said to everyone. "All the footmen sez so. They seen 'em comin' in."
"Oh, the poor princess," Tess murmured. "And she must choose one tonight.
"I wish I could see," she said again, longingly. "I wish I could watch." But the chambermaid had been ordered to stay below-stairs.
The pulley boy heard her. "Food's all up," he said. "If you want, I could lift you up by the pulley and you could peek."
"By the pulley?" she asked in astonishment.
He grinned. "Sure. I did it fer my brother once, just playin' around. Got him all the way up, no problem. You don't weigh no more than him. No more than a roast goat. I'm strong."
She looked again at his muscular arms and nodded. "I know you are," she whispered.
"PRINCESS IS IN!" Cook shouted. She turned to the singing girls. "Get ready." The trio began to take deep, calming breaths.
A hush fell in the kitchen. The pulley was silent, all the food having been lifted. The cook was silent, waiting for the signal. The singing girls were silent, breathing deeply to assuage their nervousness. The elderly serving boy rocked silently.
Tess tiptoed across the corridor. The pulley boy put his finger to his lips, whispered "Shhh," and helped her into the opening, where carefully she arranged herself on the tray.
"It'll be dark," he whispered, leaning into the place where she now crouched. "And when I start lifting, them ropes'll make a creaking sound. Don't be scairt of it."
"I won't," she whispered back. "I'm very brave, like Alice in the book, and used to odd things."
"A fer Alice," he said to her, and grinned.
"B fer brave," she replied, and he began to pull.
"There's an interruption!" Cook listened attentively for a moment to the message delivered by the footman, then passed it on to the triplets, explaining, "Someone came late. The doors was already shut. But they let him in, so now he has to take his seat. It'll be just another minute."
She waited, listening again, then added, "It's the schoolmaster."
***
The pulley passage was narrow and very dark, as the pulley boy had explained it would be. Tess, crouching uncomfortably on the tray, found herself holding her breath as she moved slowly upward through the castle walls. The tray swayed and scraped against the stone walls on either side, but the hold on the rope was firm and steady. She felt a small draft as she passed the pulley passage door on the second floor; then, finally, she reached the third, and could hear, far below, the sounds as the pulley boy fastened the rope tightly to secure her there on the dangling tray.
"You all right, then?" He was whispering, but the hollow passage carried the echoing whisper up to her.
"Fine!" she called back. She leaned over the edge and could see a light at the bottom outlining his head in the open pulley passage door far below.