It had taken days to travel from Camden, and today they had a long carriage ride out from Everwick. Lucy wondered if they would ever get there, and heaved a sigh.

"Are you alright there, Lu?" asked her older brother.

"Yes, Bernard," she said. "But we've been driving for days and days, and I'm so tired that I forget where we're meant to be going."

"To the Wild Wester Lands," said the middle-aged woman next to Lucy, stirring from where she had apparently been asleep. "And no doubt we'll all be murdered in our beds, or eaten by wolves!"

Bernard frowned at her in annoyance. "No, Nurse May – we're going to the Kingdom of Westmoreland. It's most unlikely there will be wolves prowling about in the middle of summer."

"What about the murder?" asked Lucy, looking as if she rather relished the idea of murder and wolves.

"Castle Avalon has excellent security, I'm sure," said Bernard firmly.

"Avalon? Like in the stories?" said Lucy, her face alight.

"No, that Avalon was supposedly Glasstown, where they hold the big festival every Midsummer," Bernard informed her.

"Can we go there one year?" asked Lucy hopefully.

"When you're older," promised Bernard. "It's a bit ... wild for a little girl. Anyway, Avalon just means apples in the Old Language. There's an Avallon in France, too. Double L."

"So it's not magic, where we're going?" Lucy asked, disappointed.

"No, but I've been told it's very pretty," Bernard said. "It's in the Lakelands, so lots of lovely water surrounded by green hills."

"I thought I would be going to Castile for the summer again," said Lucy, with an air of regret, because she had been hoping to see her niece, Princess Charlotte, the second daughter of Lucy's eldest sister, Queen Alice of Castile.

Lucy and Charlotte were the same age, both liked books and horses, spent most summer holidays together, and wrote each other copious letters containing all their most intimate secrets, so they naturally considered themselves to be best friends.

"Well, this time it's a bit different," Bernard said. "Your brothers are spending the summer in Bjarma, and Pip and I are taking Clarissa to Everwick for ...for a while."

"And what about me?"

"I thought perhaps you were old enough now that you might like to have your own little holiday," Bernard said, a hum of nerves in his voice. "It was very kind of King Meriadoc to send you an invitation."

Just then the palace guards who were travelling on the outside of their carriage called a halt, and Bernard got out to speak to the head guard. Lucy had been taught it was wrong to listen to other people's conversations, but if the window was open and she rested her head near the window for a breath of air, she couldn't help hearing a little, could she?

"Your Majesty, I thought I should tell you, there's been reports of bandits in this area," the guard said. "I hope we can reach the castle before it's too dark."

Bernard cast a look at the carriage and said with a sharp rebuke, "Please, keep your voice down. I don't want you to frighten my little sister, or her old nurse."

Bandits! Lucy thought, a shiver of excitement up her spine. That would be something worth seeing, and a story she would tell back home in Camden again and again.

On my last holiday, we had to escape from bandits. No, that was too tame. We were travelling to Castle Avalon when we were attacked by bandits, and had to fight them off with our bare hands.

Lucy practised giving a superior little toss of her head, imagining herself saying, Of course, the Lakelands are quite beautiful, but the bandits there can be very troublesome at this time of year.

Bernard and the guard moved further away from the carriage and their conversation became quieter, so that Lucy couldn't hear, even when straining her ears as hard as possible.

A few minutes later Bernard returned, saying, "Alright, we're starting again now."

"What did the guard want, Bernard?" Lucy asked.

"Just discussing distance and travel times," Bernard said calmly. "The carriage will be going a little faster now, to make sure we reach the castle before nightfall."

"Why before nightfall?" asked Lucy innocently.

"So we don't miss supper," Bernard said shortly, giving his sister a suspicious glance.

Lucy reached into the bag beside her and took out an old leatherbound notebook and a well-chewed pencil. She began a fresh chapter of the novel she was writing, The Adventures of Princess Lucinda.

Princess Lucinda had run away from her palace when she was ten years old because she refused with scorn the suggestion from her nurse that she eat a lowly bowl of rice pudding. Lucy had been writing it for three years now, and every chapter had brought her heroine a life of increasing excitement ...

Notes

Bernard repeats the popular belief that the legendary Avalon was Glastonbury, with its Tor the Isle of Avalon at a time when it was surrounded by wetlands. However, there are several other candidates, including a fortress in Cumbria.