Language Lessons

Marie had thought the prince had left already when she started picking up fallen plates, a small gesture against the dismaying mess, but she turned around and there he was, almost causing her to drop them and have to start all over again.

 "Your friends seem to have left without you," he said, quite pleasantly. "Perhaps I could walk you back?"

Marie thought quickly. This presented a possible golden opportunity, combining two of her current favorite activities: being around the charming German boy, and being away from the rest of the cirque. "Oh, I'm not the least bit tired yet, and if I go back they'll make me go to bed," she said. "Maybe you could show me around the castle for a bit first?"

The prince laughed and agreed, on the condition that she take him around the circus grounds sometime before the show, which of course Marie couldn't object to at all, except that they would have to take caution to avoid the acrobats' cabin, because they might see him and invite him inside and then who knew what would happen?

Marie didn't say that, of course, but she laughed and blushed a bit at the mental image. The prince was offering her his arm, and she blushed all the harder to think he might have mistaken her laughter to be at him. She would have to ask Lottie for advice on interacting with non-circus boys at practice.

They strolled through the castle, and Marie amused herself in her usual way; as the prince described boring portraits and old furniture for her, she scanned the rooms for hiding places, secret tunnels, things that could be used to scale the outside wall were one to escape out the window. It was something between a hobby and a habit of hers, and the castle was a fantastic new challenge.

"It's beautiful," she said, responding to the prince's description of a tapestry, though really she was thinking of how one might climb up the bookcase next to it and jump on someone coming through the door, giving plenty of time to get out of the room despite the lack of other exits.

The tour was short; soon enough, the prince unlocked the door to his study, and suggested they call for tea, and she could tell him about life in the circus. They settled down in a pair of chairs by the fire, and he started to ask about where they had recently traveled. She was just through the story about how they'd been run out of town by the police for nearly murdering a competing circus's ringmaster, embellished quite a bit and her own role somewhat exaggerated for the prince's benefit, when there was a knock at the door. The prince opened it, and Marie saw an unfamiliar man - someone from dinner, perhaps? - standing outside. He whispered in German, and the prince nodded.

"Please excuse me," he said. "I'll be back in just a moment."

He'd hardly closed the door behind him when Marie jumped to her feet. She didn't understand how people stood still for so long as they seemed to expect them to here. And her cleverly tied up dress was becoming less and less comfortable by the moment as her careful layers loosened. She adjusted it, and then, when the prince hadn't yet returned, decided to do some looking around. The room was impeccable - nothing out of place, hardly a painting on the wall, just a lot of heavy wood furniture and thick books on shelves. But there was a note left out on the desk, and Marie supposed it to be fair game, if he'd left it out like that. She decided she would try to practice reading, and impress Asmodeus with her German.

Soon enough, the prince returned, exclaimed at the time, and called for a servant to walk her home. He seemed somewhat distracted, not even apparently noticing that Marie had left her seat (though when she heard him turning the knob, she'd moved to the bookshelf, to pretend to read the titles.) Marie thought to remind him that he'd offered to walk her himself, but his friend was waiting just outside, and he seemed anxious to leave, though he smiled just as graciously as ever, and kissed her hand when someone arrived to walk her out. "Good night. I'll see you tomorrow, I hope?"

Marie, rendered inarticulate, blushed and nodded.

Alexandra's room was, well, occupied, so Marie slept in the acrobat's cabin, where both Lottie and Lin were, well, elsewhere, probably also occupied.

Alisa woke her with a cup of tea and a piece of toast. "Are you all right?" she asked as Marie groaned and pulled herself upright. "I heard you got in trouble, and then you were here instead of with Miss Lupei, so I worried..."

Marie groaned again, this time at how quickly word of last night's fiasco had spread. "Oh, whoever told you was exaggerating. It was fine," she assured Alisa, through a mouthful of toast. "The prince even took me on a tour of the castle! I saw his room, and... oh!" She closed her eyes suddenly, leaving Alisa no less concerned. Marie had successfully deciphered one word on the prince's note, and had been working on another one, and she wanted to remember to tell Asmodeus about it. It took a moment, but eventually she pulled the two words back up, and, feeling quite triumphant indeed, jumped to her feet.

"Thank you for breakfast, Alisa!" she said, and hurried out of the cabin to Asmodeus's just a few yards away.

She pounded on the door, and to her surprise Asmodeus opened it quickly - she'd half-expected him to be still asleep and hungover, and had been looking forward to waking him. "I'm sorry," he said, before she could even open her mouth. "I didn't mean to leave so suddenly, I just --" he stopped, then looked down to spot Marie. "Oh. You're not Alexandra."

"I'm not," Marie confirmed, raising her eyebrows. "What did you..."

"Nothing at all," Asmodeus cut her off, before she could finish her question. "Can I help you, Marie? I'm a tad busy." He held up the bottle.

"Yes!" Marie said brightly. "I was reading the prince's papers last night..."

"You were what?" Asmodeus interrupted again, his generally downcast expression turning into a somewhat more alarmed one.

"Well, he invited me into his room," Marie said, as if this explained it all.

"He did what?!" Asmodeus exclaimed. "Marie, you can't... I mean... Did you..."

Marie, who had been too distracted to think of untoward things which one might suppose to happen to an unchaperoned young woman alone in a young man's room, even just his study, had no idea what Asmodeus was babbling about.

"I didn't cause any trouble or break anything," she sighed, certain he was accusing her of knocking over a lamp or something. "But listen! I was looking at his papers trying to sound out the letters, like Alexandra was showing me. And I figured out one word - it said "zircus," which I think must be "circus," like us - but then there was one, and I figured out what it sounded like, but I didn't know what it meant, and I thought you might." She frowned with the effort of remembering. "Er... mor... dung. That was it. I thought it must be something gross, since it has "dung" in it, but I wasn't sure. Do you know it?"