‘Where is Agnes?’ asked Anne, jumping up.
The Applewoman was nowhere in the room. Yet they had all seen her leave the King.
Giles, still a little crazy with happiness, grabbed Barbara by the hand and dragged her wildly down the stairs to look for Agnes.
Luke and Anne followed. There were a thousand questions they all wanted to ask her: Where she had been all these years; how she knew the King was sick; how the cat came to the Countess’s apartments; how the shell got into the pocket of the tunic. And no end more.
Round and round and down the dizzy, winding stairs they went, gabbling like a lot of children out of school.
But at the bottom they found the courtyard empty under the silent stars.
Agnes was gone.