Getting down to the stables in many ways was easier than Rose thought. After all the excitement the night before and the laborious yet fruitless search during the day, everyone was exhausted. This made the watch far less vigilant.
The only real challenge for the princess had been getting out of her room. This was due to the hall outside being filled with the king's loyal guards. After talking to the princess earlier, Captain Rabert had dismissed half the men for the night, yet far too many still remained. Rose had to be clever.
Her solution in the end was far less clever than she would have liked. "Going out the window like some thief in the night," she mumbled to herself. A small smile graced her face. "Perhaps it is a family trait."
The long, thick cords holding back the curtains of her room made a perfect rope for her descent. Or so she believed, since she had never actually tried it. Tying the two lengths together, Rose then looped one end around her bedpost. The vanity had been her other option—everything else had too wide of a girth—but the spindly legs of the mirrored table seemed far too flimsy.
With everything in place, she prepared to leave.
'This cannot be too hard,' she told herself. 'Every damsel in distress and imprisoned princess escapes out of a window at some point. If the fairy tales can do it, so can I.'
Rose pressed her lips into a determined line. After draping her bag onto her arm, she gathered up the rope and moved stealthily to the window. Peeking out into the darkness, Rose observed that everything seemed quiet.
Listening to some of Caitlyn's advice, the blonde had managed a small rest before departing, and it was now the dead of night. 'The perfect time to get into position.' At least that is what she believed. Parting the curtains slightly, she tossed the rope out of the window and let it dangle for a moment.
When one called an alarm, Rose slipped between the slit in the fabric and sat on the wide ledge. She closed her eyes. In the quiet, she could almost swear she heard Caitlyn snoring softly.
After one last-ditch effort to sway the princess, the lady-in-waiting had taken a sleeping draught and gone to bed. It was more than the brunette's nerves could take. She wanted no more part in what her mistress planned to do. Looking down from the dizzying height, Rose was beginning to question her sanity as well.
However, her mind was made up. She flung her legs into the open air. The motion was nearly catastrophic. One of her slippers, which were slightly too big since they belonged to Caitlyn, came loose from the heel of her foot. If not for the quick curling of the girl's toes, the entire shoe would have gone careening down into the darkness below.
Rose stifled a gasp. It had been too close a call. Taking off her shoes, she tucked them into the carpet bag. They would go back on her feet only once she reached the ground. Then, when everything was sorted, she took one last deep breath and wrapped the cord tightly around one of her hands.
'I can do this,' she told herself. She rolled onto her stomach and pressed her bare feet up against the stone below the ledge. If she could get a good hold, it would make things easier. But easy was not usually in Rose's vocabulary.
Her soft feet were no match for the rough stone, and when she tried to put even the slightest weight on them, they slipped from their tiny perches and hung free.
"Oh!" the princess gasped. Her body began to fall freely from the ledge and make a hasty descent toward the ground. If not for the wisdom to wrap her hand in the cord, Rose's journey would have been over then and there.
Instead her whole body whipped violently against the sudden stop, her arm screaming in pain as she dangled like a fish from a hook. Rose gritted her teeth. 'Just great.'
After using her chin to scoot the bag further up her arm, the princess grabbed at the rope with her other hand. She pulled at the knot that had been formed by the sudden drop, hoping to reestablish the bloodflow to her hand. Unfortunately, the cord released all at once, giving her another fright as she fell through the air once more.
Even with both her hands striving, the rope burned through her palms like fire on dry tinder. The knot at the end of the second cord was quickly coming toward her. After that their would be no more rope. It had only been long enough to get her down one floor, after all.
The princess dragged her feet against the wall, searching for what she knew would be coming soon.
Sure enough, the window of the level below opened like a welcoming cave. Rose's feet caught the ledge, slowing her slightly. But it was enough. Her bloodied hands clung to the bottom knot of her escape rope as she hung somewhere between safety and doom.
Rose tiptoed her feet until her toes could grab onto the inside of the ledge. She hooked her toes beneath the arm of the ornate chair that sat there and pulled herself even further inside. At last she was able to release the rope without falling to her death.
"The fairy tales lied," she spat bitterly, looking down at her hands. It would be a miserable couple of days until they were healed. Taking a deep breath, Rose tried to focus on what was important. She would soon be on her way to see her brother. A little pain would be worth it in the end.
With new resolve, she ghosted through the remaining parts of the palace and out to the royal stable. The stable master had been long in bed and no one else knew that Rabert was sending Cole and Philip on an errand for her.
All she needed to do was ready her horse and then hide in the hay until it was time to leave. The lovely mare nickered quietly when Rose approached. "We are going on an adventure," she whispered softly. "Let me get you ready."
After preparing the horse, Rose lay down in the hay, drifting off quietly to the sound of her horse's breathing. The hay was not nearly as soft as her own bed, but sacrifices needed to be made. It wasn't until a swift kick landed in the hay that she was startled awake. It was morning.
"You the new stable hand?" the stable master growled angrily.
Rose shot up from the ground looked frantically around. The pen a few stalls down, which had held two proud war horses, now lay empty. She had missed her chance!
"Oh!" she cried, as more hay came flying at her. The stable master did not seem amused by her laying down on the job.
"Don't just laze around, girlie. There is work to be done," he scolded. "You'll have no breakfast until you muck out the stall and take the princess's pretty pony for a stroll through the woods."
'He really doesn't recognize me!' Rose was astonished. With her hair tied up and her face and clothes dirtied by the stone wall and the stable's ground, she no longer looked regal.
What's more, the man had given her the perfect exit and not even realized it. Perhaps she could still catch up with the soldiers and complete her journey. It was worth a shot.
Hiding her face, the girl nodded timidly before the man who was supposed to be her master.
His face softened. "Don't let it happen again," he said quietly, "and we will forget the whole thing."
Rose took the reins of the mare and headed out of the stable. In her new attire, the guards barely looked her way as she exited the gate and walked toward the king's forest. The princess requested that her horse be taken out every morning to roam freely, and she had never been so happy to have made the request.
For today not only would her horse roam free; they both would.