I tried distancing myself from Al after that. I needed time to think.
For the next several days we played a game of cat and mouse where he would try and track me down and I would do my best to hide. I was doing a fairly good job but it was incredibly difficult because he knew the castle better than I did. I couldn't hide in the library, my quarters, or the stables because he would look for me there.
Mariela wasn't much help either because when she wasn't having tea with the queen and Rosenia she was holed up in Franz's office taking on some of his workload. I hid out in there a couple of times before Al came looking for me.
It was incredibly awkward. When he knocked on the door and poked his head in I dove underneath the desk and scrunched myself into as tight a ball as I could considering my cage and corset.
"Alpheus, what brings you here?" Mariela asked serenely, as if her friend had not scurried beneath her abandoning any semblance of dignity.
