The Guard Read online

  “I don’t think so. Pay attention to things you’re seeing and hearing, as always, and feel free to contact me directly if you think anything is off.”

  Their faces were all eager, so ready to please.

  “You’re a wonderful soldier, Officer Leger,” Anne said.

  I shook my head. “Just doing my job. And, as you know, Lady America is from my province, and I want to look out for her.”

  Mary turned to me. “I think it’s so funny that you’re from the same province and you’re basically her personal guard now. Did you live near her in Carolina?”

  “Sort of.” I tried to keep our closeness vague.

  Lucy smiled brightly. “Did you ever see her when she was younger? What was she like growing up?”

  I couldn’t help but grin. “I ran across her a few times. She was a tomboy. Always outside with her brother. Stubborn as a mule, and as I remember, very, very talented.”

  Lucy giggled. “So basically the same as ever,” she said, and they all laughed.

  “Pretty much,” I confirmed.

  Those words made the feeling in my chest grow even more. America was a thousand familiar things, and beneath the ball gowns and jewelry, they were all still there.

  “I should get downstairs. I want to make sure to catch the Report.” I reached across the girls to pick up my hat.

  “Maybe we should come with you,” Mary suggested. “It’s almost time.”

  “Certainly.” For the staff, the Report was the one time television was permitted, and there were only three places to watch: the kitchen, the workroom where the maids did their sewing, and a large common room that generally turned into another workspace instead of a place to commune. I preferred the kitchen. Anne led the way there, while Mary and Lucy stayed back with me.

  “I did hear something about visitors, Officer Leger,” Anne said, pausing for a moment to share. “But that might only be a rumor.”

  “No, it’s true,” I answered. “I don’t know any details, but I hear we have two different parties coming.”

  “Yay,” Mary said sarcastically, “I know I’m gonna get stuck with tablecloth steaming again. Hey, Anne, whatever you get assigned with, can we trade?” she asked, scurrying up to Anne as they got in a debate over their yet-to-be-determined tasks.

  I held out my arm for Lucy. “Madam.”

  She smiled and looped her hand through, sticking her nose in the air. “Good sir.”

  We moved down the hallway. As they chatted about errands that needed to be done and dresses that needed hemming, I realized why I was almost always happiest when I spent time with America’s maids.

  I could be a Six with them.

  I sat on a counter with Lucy on one side and Mary on the other. Anne hovered, shushing people as the Report began.

  Each time the cameras got a shot of the girls, I could tell something was wrong. America looked dejected. What was worse, I could tell she was trying not to look that way and failing spectacularly.

  What was she so worried about?

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lucy wringing her hands.

  “What’s wrong?” I whispered.

  “Something isn’t right with my lady. I can see it in her face.” Lucy pulled one hand up to her mouth and started chewing away on a nail. “What’s happened to her? Lady Celeste looks like a cat on the prowl. What will we do if she wins?”

  I put my hand on the one in her lap, and miraculously, she stilled, looking bewilderedly into my eyes. I got the feeling that people ignored Lucy’s nerves.

  “Lady America will be fine.”

  She nodded, comforted by the words. “But I like her,” she whispered. “I want her to stay. It seems like everyone leaves when I need them to stay.”

  So Lucy had lost somebody. Maybe a lot of somebodies. I felt like I understood her anxiety problems a little better.

  “Well, you’re stuck with me for four years.” I gently elbowed her and she smiled, holding the tears in her eyes at bay.

  “You’re so nice, Officer Leger. We all think so.” She dabbed at her lashes.

  “Well, I think you ladies are nice, too. I’m always happy to see you.”

  “We’re not ladies,” she answered, looking down.

  I shook my head. “If Marlee can still be a lady because she sacrificed herself for someone who mattered to her, then you certainly can. The way I see it, you sacrifice your life every day. You give your time and energy to someone else, and that’s the exact same thing.”

  I saw Mary peek over before focusing on the television again. Anne might have noticed my words as well. She looked like she was leaning in to hear.

  “You’re the best one we have, Officer Leger.”

  I smiled. “When we’re down here, you three can call me Aspen.”

  CHAPTER 10

  STARING AT THE WALL LOST its excitement about thirty minutes in to standing watch. It was well past midnight now, and all I could do was count the hours until sunrise. But at least my boredom meant that America was safe.

  The day had been uneventful except for the final confirmation of the coming visitors.

  Women. So many women.

  Part of me felt encouraged by that news. The ladies who came to the palace tended to be less aggressive physically. But their words could probably start wars if said in the wrong tone.

  The members of the German Federation were old friends, so we had that working in our favor securitywise. The Italians were wild cards.

  I’d thought of America all night, wondering what her appearance on the Report meant. I wasn’t sure I wanted to question her about it, though. I’d leave it to her. If she got the chance to share, I’d listen. For now, she needed to focus on what was coming. The longer she stayed at the palace, the longer I had her with me.

  I rolled my shoulders, listening to my bones pop. Just a few more hours to go. I straightened and caught a set of blue eyes peeking around the edge of the hallway. “Lucy?”

  “Hello,” she answered, coming around the corner. Just behind her, Mary followed holding a small basket in her arm, the contents wrapped with cloth.

  “Did Lady America ring for you? Is everything all right?” I reached for the handle to open the door for them.

  Lucy put a delicate hand on her chest, seeming nervous. “Oh, everything’s fine. Um, we were coming to see if you were here.”

  I squinted, moving my hand back. “Well, I am. Do you need something?”

  They looked at each other before Mary spoke up. “We just noticed you’ve been working a lot of shifts the last few days. We thought you might be hungry.”

  Mary pulled back the cloth, revealing a small assortment of muffins, pastries, and bread, probably overspill from breakfast preparations.

  I gave a half smile. “That’s very nice of you, but, one, I’m not supposed to eat while I’m on duty, and, two, you might have noticed that I’m a pretty strong guy.” I flexed my free arm and they giggled. “I can take care of myself.”

  Lucy tilted her head. “We know you’re strong, but accepting help is its own kind of strength.”

  Her words nearly took the breath out of me. I wished someone had told me that months ago. I could have saved myself so much grief.

  I looked at their faces, so much like America’s that last night in the tree house: hopeful, excited, warm. My eyes moved to the basket of food. Was I really going to keep doing this? Alienating the few people who genuinely made me feel like myself?

  “Here’s the deal: if anyone comes, you wrestled me to the ground and forced me to eat. Got it?”

  Mary grinned, holding out the basket. “Got it.”

  I took a piece of cinnamon bread and bit it. “You’re gonna eat, too, right?” I asked as I chewed.

  Lucy clasped her hands together enthusiastically before hunting through the basket, and Mary quickly followed suit.

  “So, how good are your wrestling skills?” I joked. “I mean, I want to make sure we’ve got our story straight.”

 
; Lucy covered her mouth, giggling. “Funny enough, that’s not part of our training.”

  I gasped. “What? This is important stuff here. Cleaning, serving, hand-to-hand combat.”

  They chuckled as they ate.

  “I’m serious. Who’s in charge? I’m going to write a letter.”

  “We’ll mention it to the head maid in the morning,” Mary promised.

  “Good.” I took a bite and shook my head in mock outrage.

  Mary swallowed. “You’re so funny, Officer Leger.”

  “Aspen.”

  She smiled again. “Aspen. Are you going to stay when your term is up? I’m sure if you applied, the palace would want you as a permanent guard.”

  Now that I was a Two, I knew I wanted to keep being a soldier . . . but at the palace?

  “I don’t think so. My family is back in Carolina, so I’ll probably try to serve there if I can.”

  “That’s a shame,” Lucy whispered.

  “Don’t get sad just yet. I still have four years to go.”

  She gave a tiny smile. “True.”

  But I could tell she hadn’t really shaken it off. I remembered Lucy mentioning earlier that people she cared about tended to leave, and it felt bittersweet that somehow I’d become important to her. She mattered to me, too, of course. So did Anne and Mary. But their connection to me was almost exclusively through America. How had I become significant to them?

  “Do you have a big family?” Lucy asked.

  I nodded. “Three brothers: Reed, Becken, and Jemmy, and three sisters: Kamber and Celia, who are twins, and then Ivy is the youngest. Plus my mom.”

  Mary started covering the basket again. “What about your dad?”

  “He died a few years ago.” I’d finally gotten to a place where I could say that without it tearing me apart. It used to feel crippling, because I still needed him. We all did. But I was lucky. Sometimes fathers would simply disappear in the lower castes, leaving those behind to fend for themselves or sink.

  But my dad did everything he could for us, right up until the end. Because we were Sixes, things would always be hard, but he kept us above a line, let us maintain some pride in what we did and who we were. I wanted to be like that.

  The paychecks would be nicer at the palace, but I could do a better job of providing if I was at least closer to home.

  “I’m sorry,” Lucy said softly. “My mom died a few years ago, too.”

  Knowing Lucy lost the most important person in her life reframed her in my mind, pulling everything together.

  “Never quite the same, is it?”

  She shook her head, eyes focused on the carpet. “But still, we have to look for the good.”

  Her face came up, and there was the faintest whisper of hope in her expression. I couldn’t help but stare.

  “It’s so funny that you said that.”

  She looked to Mary and back to me. “Why?”

  I shrugged. “Just is.” I popped the last bite of bread in my mouth and wiped a few crumbs off my fingers. “Thank you, ladies, for the food, but you should go. It’s not exactly safe to be running around the palace at night.”

  “Okay,” Mary said. “We should probably start working on those wrestling skills anyway.”

  “Go jump on Anne,” I advised her. “Never underestimate the element of surprise.”

  She laughed again. “We won’t. Good night, Officer Leger.” She turned to walk down the hall.

  “Hold on,” I urged, and they both stopped. I nodded toward the wall that held a secret passage. “Would you take the back way? It’d make me feel a lot better.”

  They smiled. “Of course.”

  Mary and Lucy waved as they passed, but when they got to the wall and Mary pushed it open, Lucy whispered something to her. Mary nodded and scurried downstairs, but Lucy came back to me.

  She fidgeted with her hands, those little tics surfacing again as she approached.

  “I’m not . . . I’m not good at saying things,” she admitted, rocking a bit on her feet. “But I wanted to thank you for being so nice to us.”

  I shook my head. “It’s nothing.”

  “Not to us, it isn’t.” There was an intensity in her eyes I’d never seen before. “No matter how many times the laundry maids or the kitchen maids tell us we’re lucky, it doesn’t really feel that way unless someone appreciates you. Lady America does, and none of us were expecting that. But you do it, too.

  “You’re both kind without even thinking about it.” She smiled to herself. “I just thought you should know it was significant. Maybe to Anne more than anyone, but she’d never say it.”

  I didn’t know how to respond. After struggling for a moment, the only thing that came out was, “Thank you.”

  Lucy nodded and, not sure what else to say, headed for the passage.

  “Good night, Miss Lucy.”

  She turned back, looking like I’d given her the best present in the world. “Good night, Aspen.”

  When she left, my thoughts turned back to America. She’d looked so upset today, but I wondered if she had any idea how her attitude changed the people around her. Her dad was right: she was too good for this place.

  I’d have to find a time to tell her how she was helping people without even knowing it. For now, I hoped she was resting, unworried about whatever had—

  I whipped my head, watching as three butlers ran past, one tripping a bit as he moved. I was walking to the edge of the hall to see what they were running from when the siren sounded.

  I’d never heard it before tonight, but I knew what that sound meant: rebels.

  I sprinted back and burst into America’s room. If people were running, maybe we were already behind.

  “Damn it, damn it, damn it,” I muttered. She needed to get dressed fast.

  “Huh?” she said sleepily.

  Clothes. I needed to find clothes. “Get up, Mer! Where are your damn shoes?”

  She flicked her blanket off and stepped right into them. “Here. I need my robe,” she added, pointing as she adjusted her shoes. I was glad she understood the urgency so quickly.

  I found the bundled fabric at the end of her bed and tried to make heads or tails of it.

  “Don’t bother, I’ll carry it.” She pulled it out of my hands, and I rushed her to the door.

  “You need to hurry,” I warned. “I don’t know how close they are.”

  She nodded. I could feel the adrenaline pulsing through me, and though I knew better, I jerked her back, embracing her in the dark.

  I pushed my lips to hers, locking her to me with a hand knotted into her hair. Stupid. So, so stupid. But right in a thousand ways. It felt like an eternity had passed since we’d kissed this deeply, but we fell into it so easily. Her lips were warm, and the familiar taste of her skin lingered in them. Underneath the faintest hint of vanilla, I could smell her, too, the natural scent that clung to her hair and cheeks and neck.

  I would have stayed there all night, and sensed she might have done the same, but I needed her to get to the safe room.

  “Go. Now,” I ordered, pushing her into the hallway, not looking back as I rounded the corner to face whatever was waiting for me.

  I unholstered my gun, checking in both directions for anything out of place. I saw the swish of a maid’s skirt as she ducked into one of the secret safe rooms. I hoped that Lucy and Mary had already made their way to Anne and were hidden in their quarters, far away from danger.

  Hearing the unmistakable sound of shots being fired, I ran down the hall toward the main stairwell. It sounded like the rebels were contained to the first floor, at least, so I knelt at the corner of the wall, watching the curve of the steps, waiting.

  A moment later, someone ran up the stairs. It took less than a second for me to identify the man as an intruder. I aimed and fired, hitting him in the arm. With a grunt the rebel fell back, and I saw a guard bolting up to capture him.

  A crash down the hall told me that the rebels had found the side s
taircase and had made their way to the second floor.

  “If you find the king, kill him. Take what you can carry. Let them know we’ve been here!” someone yelled.

  I moved as quietly as I could toward the resounding cheers, ducking into corners and surveying the hallway repeatedly. On one of the peeks back, I noticed two more uniforms. I motioned for them to get low and move slowly. As they got closer, I saw it was Avery and Tanner. I couldn’t have asked for better backup. Avery was a hell of a shot, and Tanner always went above and beyond because he had more than most of us to lose if he didn’t.

  Tanner was one of the few officers who came into the service married. He had told us again and again how his wife complained that he wore his wedding ring on his thumb, but it was his grandfather’s, and they had no means to resize it. He promised her it was the first thing he’d spend his money on when he got home, along with a better ring for her while he was at it.

  She was his America. He was always focused because of her.

  “What’s going on?” Avery whispered.

  “I think I just heard their leader. Ordered men to kill the king and steal what they could.”

  Tanner stood, holding his gun by his ear. “We need to find them, make sure they’re heading up and away from the safe room.”

  I nodded. “There might be more than we can handle, but if we stay low, I think—”

  At the other end of the hall, a door crashed open, and a butler raced out with two rebels behind him. It was the young butler, the one from the kitchen. He looked lost and horrified. The rebels were holding what looked like farm tools, so at least they wouldn’t be able to fire back at us.

  I turned, steadied my weight, and aimed. “Down!” I shouted, and the butler obeyed. I shot, hitting one of the rebels in his leg. Avery got the other, but his shot, intentional or not, looked much more deadly.

  “I’m going to secure them,” Avery said. “Find the leader.”

  I watched the butler stand and bolt for a bedroom, not caring that anyone could easily get in or out. He needed the illusion of safety.

  I heard more shouts, more guns going off, and knew this was going to be one of the bad attacks. My mind became sharp, more focused. I had one mission, and that was all I could see.