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Charlotte frowned doubtfully Wellington rubbed the back of his neck like a schoolboy

“Oh, I do try to ht theht on a ship full of very angry people and just unpowder”

TWENTY-ONE

The Princess in the Tower

This cell was much nicer than Branwell and Anne’s had been

There were plush red and blue chairs and a neat red and blue bed with a red and blue brocade canopy A round table covered in a red and blue cloth and a sapphire tray full of breakfast leftovers stood beside the biggest chair All along the thick stone walls of the vast roo tapestry It draped down in panels between the s, reaching up to the ceiling and down to the floor Each panel showed a ly woven with a million tiny, brilliant threads Their na in silver There was Ochreopolis in gold thread, and Port Ruby in crimson, and the Plaid Lands in black and brown and white, and some very violet place called Lavendry-on-Puce, and Verdopolis in emerald There were others, too, places they had never been but iined a thousand tiued over their na their borders, their castles, even their local trees and fruits Regina and Lake Elseraden and Almadore and Zamorna and Calabar Wood and the Isle of Gaaldine and Ascension Island and the Isle of Philosophers and the Isle of Dreams

The whole world hung in that room Their whole world

Bran stood on tiptoe and reached out toward the Ascension Island tapestry He couldn’t help it It was just right It wasn’t any loud color like Port Ruby or Verdopolis Just brown earth and green leaves and black chimneys and the blue sea

“Do you see it, Annie?” he whispered His throat had got all thick and tight He couldn’t na up inside him the way he and Charlotte had named the place on the tapestry “That’s e at the back of Papa’s copy of The Iliad”

“Ooh! You sneak!” Anne sucked in her breath “I’ll tell! And get your hand out of the bars, idiot!”

He snatched his fingers back “You won’t tell, or I’ll tell Tabitha you fed her Christarden!”

Anne started laughing She thought you probably weren’tany noise Bran’s face went red with being laughed at He hated anyone laughing at him How did other people stand it?

“Bran,” Anne giggled helplessly “Who cares about the cake or the

badgers or the silly old Iliad? We’re in jail! We’re already in all the trouble we can be!”

“I did draw it,” Bran gru up there on the banner in silk andpalm trees Nobody else does theer and better than me”