Page 42 of The Lion Duke's Proposal
Six pairs. Three sections. Three riddles. One challenge at the center. The first team to solve all three and complete the final task would claim the prize.
Julia didn't need to hear the rules twice.
The crowd surged toward the maze entrance in a cheerful, jostling mass. Lord Blackwell's hat immediately slid over his eyes, and Poppy caught his arm before he walked into a hedge. The lady accompanying the Marquess of Thynne had gathered her skirts and was already pulling him toward theopening with a focused expression that suggested she played to win. Somewhere behind Julia, two young lords from Northamptonshire were arguing about which of them would navigate, neither of them apparently willing to concede the point long enough to actually move.
She and the Duke entered at a steady pace.
The hedges closed around them immediately, tall and thick, swallowing the noise of the lawn in a matter of seconds. The path curved left, then straightened into a cool green corridor where the light filtered down in long strips. She could hear other teams nearby, footsteps and voices bouncing oddly off the walls, but she couldn't see anyone.
The first riddle was mounted on a small board at the initial fork.
I have cities but no houses. I have mountains but no trees. I have water but no fish. I have roads but no carriages. What am I?
She read it once. "A map."
The Duke glanced at the board, then at her.
"The indicator confirms it." He nodded at the small painted arrow beneath the answer. "Right path."
They moved.
"I had a great deal of practice finding my way through the hedges as a child," she said, as they turned and the corridor opened into a slightly wider stretch. "My mother's family had a maze at their estate in Shropshire. I spent every summer there."
"You appear to have used the time productively."
"I always intended to win at something." She kept her eyes on the path ahead, watching for the next fork. "Poppy was better at painting and music, and all the talents a young lady is meant to accomplish. I was rather more suited to competition."
"And did you win?"
"Consistently." A pause. "Though Poppy has always maintained that I cheated."
"Did you?"
She considered the question with appropriate gravity. "I memorized the layout the summer before I started winning. I would argue that it constitutes preparation rather than deception."
He said nothing for a moment. When she glanced at him, there was something quiet in his expression that might, on a less guarded man, have passed for amusement.
They rounded a corner and came upon the second riddle, posted at the entrance to a narrower passage where the hedges leaned inward overhead.
The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
She read it. Stopped.
It was simpler than the first and should have come to her immediately. It did not. She stood with the words in front of her and felt something else press in alongside them, some thought that the riddle had snagged and wouldn't release.
The more you take. The more you leave behind.
She thought of her mother's house in Shropshire, which she hadn't thought of in months. She thought of Poppy saying, “I just want this moment. Just the two of us, like it always was. She thought of how much she had taken from the life she used to have, piece by careful piece, in order to keep both of them standing. And she thought of everything she had left behind to do it.
"Footsteps."
She came back to herself. The Duke was looking at the board.
"Yes," she said. "Footsteps."
He glanced at her briefly. He did not ask what she had been thinking about that brought her to this conclusion. She was grateful for his silence.
The indicator pointed left. They followed it into the narrower passage, and here the space between the hedges forced them closer together. Their arms nearly touched. She did not move away. Neither did he.
