Realizing her hideout was gone, Clara had a horrible realization. All the money she had stolen, save that which she had taken tonight, was lost. Not good. She needed to make sure this didn't happen again. Not seeing anyone out in the darkness, she once again climbed up into the trees. They had been tracking her. They had to have been. How else could they have found the hide out? You couldn't reach it unless you climbed a tree that reached the ledge the cliff cave was on. That meant she wasn't as smart as she thought she was.

Working her way to the orchard, she quickly stripped. Pulling on a dress, she took the clothes that she had been wearing and bundled them up. Tying them to her thigh with her dress covering them, she picked up her basked of apples and herbs and hurried back to the village. The first thing she did there was get rid of the evidence.

Going silently from house to house, she slipped bits of coins into each person's woodpile. When they woke up in the morning and got wood to make a fire for breakfast, they would have a nice surprise. Finally placing some in her own wood pile, she went on inside. Burning the purses that the coins had been in and pulling up a floor board where a box could hide her outfit, she went to bed.

*****

Lord McCarthy bowed again, "You are a fortunate mother to have a daughter such as her."

Joining them, Stan bowed to the royal family. He had a black eye from the robbery the night before, but nothing else was out of place. "Princess Athena, may I have the pleasure of the next dance?"