with him. Your father is against it, but I say you cannot stop love.”
I hesitated, blushing. “I don’t know that I love—”
“I know. Maybe that will come. Maybe not. But let me assure you that you will sacrifice a lot to be with him. If it’s worth it, make the sacrifice. If it stops being worth it, let go. You’re young. Go have fun.” She smiled. She studied herself once more in the mirror, then turned and added, “And make sure he drives carefully. And don’t get pregnant!”
“Mom!” I gasped.
“Kidding. Sort of,” she said as she chucked my chin and kissed me. She looked like she had more to say, but my father hated when she was late, so she grabbed her shawl and beaded bag, then left for the opening of a gallery.
I’d been trying to put my mind back on the movie when the theater lights flicked on suddenly and guards came swarming at us. They surrounded our seats, and two grabbed each of us by the arm and pulled us out of the theater. Hamlet was shoved into one car and I was thrown into another. I could see guards pushing Hamlet’s head below the seat as they sped off.
“Assassination attempt on the king,” the guard driving me explained. “We’ll meet up at the castle.”
We pulled into the garage under the castle, where the king, Gertrude, and Hamlet, whose car had arrived ahead of mine, were waiting.
Gertrude stepped forward and said, “Your mother… There was a shooting.” She stopped and looked at Hamlet’s father, who nodded his encouragement. Wringing her hands, Gertrude continued, “She’s… she died.”
The power of the last word knocked me to my knees, and everyone rushed forward. The king put his hand on my shoulder, as did Hamlet. I looked around frantically, hoping to find a direction in which to run. But I couldn’t think clearly and the garage was dim and cement walls surrounded us. I sobbed uncontrollably, grabbing and squeezing Hamlet so hard, my arms hurt. I was sure if I let go, I would faint or die myself. My cries echoed off the walls and made me weep all the more for hearing my own anguish.
My parents had been riding in the limo that an assassin believed the king would be riding in. Misinformation from someone inside the castle. The informant didn’t know that my mom would be on time for once, and that she and my father, not the king and queen, would be the first to leave for the event. If my mother had stayed to chat with me for just a few minutes longer, all of our lives might have been different. But she hadn’t.
We never found out much about the assassin. As far as we ever knew, he worked alone and was a former soldier who had become convinced that the only way to save the kingdom was for Claudius to be king. “Long live King Claudius!” were his final words before his execution. Maybe that was why I always dreaded Claudius. Or maybe it was because he was a jerk who hated kids.
“Gertrude,” I said wearily, “I’m happy to be your bridesmaid, okay? What color is the dress?” And with that, the dressmaker brought out an assortment of fabrics, most the color of babies’ bedrooms.
I spent the morning of the wedding in Gertrude’s private rooms as a team dressed and made up both of us, all while Gertrude stressed. “Hamlet’s not here yet?” she asked, tapping her fingertips together.
A servant standing at the door answered, “No, ma’am, not yet.”
She turned to me, messing up the work her hairdresser had just begun. “Ophelia, is he coming?”
I answered, “I have no idea.”
“He didn’t say anything?”
I put down my coffee and thought of how to tell her again not to expect him. I didn’t want to say what he had actually said, that he would rather be thrust onto a thousand spikes than watch his mother betray his father’s memory with this display of incest. “When we first discussed it… he implied that he wouldn’t be here.”
“Oh. Lately?”
“He won’t talk to me, so I don’t know.” Once he found out that I intended to be in her wedding party, he had hung up on me and wouldn’t pick up when I called back. I had texted and e-mailed but got no reply. I’d considered driving to talk to him, but Gertrude had kept me too busy with wedding plans. And my keys had disappeared. I suspected my father, but