Of course she had forgotten her hat. In her haste to get out of that awful palace, she had left her hat hanging complacently on the hatstand.
Angelina simply had to wear that hat today. Mrs Leone was holding a garden party, with the theme as purple. The grey coat she had had on last week when they visited the Allards, with its matching hat, was the only thing that would possibly match her lavender dress.
Angelina looked at the clock ticking on the parlour wall. She had thirty minutes before she was due to depart with her mother. Easily enough time to go over to the palace and retrieve it. She was still convinced that there was someone in there, but the hat was just inside the door, and it wouldn't be very difficult to grab it and run out again.
She set off, a breeze messing up her long waves, all the way through the woods and to the palace. She stopped short in front of the door. Why had she not told her father about her suspicions of there being someone in the palace? He would most certainly have investigated.
She shook her head. He wouldn't care about that. His primary concern would be why she was in the palace to begin with. And besides, in the off-chance that she was wrong about there being someone there, he would think worse of her than he already did. No, this suspicion was for her to know, and her only.
She pushed open the door as quietly as possibly, difficult, due to the run-down hinges and silent entrance hall. She spotted her hat. It had been blown off the stand by some wind winding through the broken windows, but was lying in a thankfully dust-free patch a few metres away. She crept in to get it and brushed off a few bits of dirt, then placed it on her head, pleased. She turned to leave when she heard a sound.
A sound that chilled her to the bones, that made every nerve in her body tremble in the utmost terror. Her eyes widened, her fingers quivered at that horrible, terrible noise.
A noise she'd heard many times. But never in such circumstances.
"Angelina," it came again, more urgently.
She didn't know whether to turn around or not, or just run. But she could do neither. She was paralysed.
"Angelina, please, don't be frightened. We don't mean you any harm! Just please, talk to me. Hear me, I'm on the stairs."
Angelina hesitantly turned around, her breath shallow. Standing on the stairs was a beautiful young woman, probably about twenty. Her hair was long and blonde and excessively curled. Her dress was pale blue and floaty, hovering down to her feet and embroidered lavishly in gold. But she didn't look...real. She didn't look quite solid, as if she could sink into the floor partway. But she stood there, perfectly upright, her whole being covered in a silvery sheen, her face urgent and slightly desperate.
She took a few quick steps towards Angelina. Angelina started, but her feet remained on the decaying floor.
"Who are you?" she whispered, trying and failing to sound fierce.
"My name is Vivienne. Please, we need your help desperately. We are in terrible, terrible danger, as are the secrets we hold," Vivienne began.
"Who is we? How do you know my name? And what secrets?" Angelina demanded, her pride returning a bit.
"Well, we are a collection of dead princesses. Your name is written on the inside of your hat. And we hold the location of every hidden treasure in the world, anything that could make a man rich beyond his wildest dreams, in our knowledge," Vivienne answered promptly. "Please, stay and listen. There's much more to the story and you must meet the others like me."
"I can't stay. I have to be somewhere in twenty minutes."
"Oh. I see. Well, I'll give you a brief overview of why we require your help. There are books, books which hold the key to the destruction of our existence and the revelation of our secrets. The books have remained untouched for centuries now, but just recently they have been rediscovered. We are dead, and we require a living member to interact with the outside world where we cannot. We were hoping that you could do it."
Angelina was speechless. The princess, Vivienne, observed this.
"Well, please can you come back tonight? We can explain everything then. Do you promise? Please, I beg you."
Angelina nodded, albeit hesitantly. These princesses, whoever they were, didn't seem to mean her any harm. She may as well hear them out. "I'll be here at eleven o'clock."
With that she turned and left, not looking back to the palace at all. She joined her mother at the front door and tried to act normal, all through the carriage ride, through the talking with people, through the meal at the garden party. But her mind was truly off somewhere else, back in that palace, mulling over dead princesses and ancient books and ghostly beings.
God knew what that night would bring.
YOU ARE READING
The Dead Princess Society
General Fiction"Perhaps someone had seen her. Watched her wander through the hallowed place. Then purposefully, audibly walked away, to let her know that she was not, in fact, alone the whole time as she had thought." Angelina Valliant is burdened with a controlli...
