She would not give up. There must be something else she could do. She had exhausted her ideas for making her own garden more spectacular, but what if she somehow made Beatrice’s garden less so? The thought came into her mind so suddenly that she felt adrenaline shoot through her. Could she sabotage Beatrice somehow? And if so, would she? It would be such a wicked thing to do, especially to a woman who had once been her friend. Yet Rosa’s first royalty was not to Beatrice, but to Ada.

She cries for you incessantly …

Eustace’s words echoed inside her head and Rosa felt something harden inside her. She would trample over a hundred friends to get her daughter back safely. Her little girl was all that mattered now. An idea slowly began to form in her mind. She longed to put it into action that very night. But the pink blush of dawn was already starting to stain the sky, and she knew it was too late today. It would have to be tomorrow.

Soon, she promised herself. Soon I will have Ada back with me and we will be gone from this dreadful house of wings and wickedness.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

A heavy weight seemed to press down upon Rosa for the entire day that followed. She wished she did not have to do such a thing and that her garden had been glorious enough to win on its own merits. Perhaps, even now, it still was. Perhaps the Spider Queen would prefer Rosa’s carousel to Beatrice’s plums. But she wasn’t going to take any chances.

And so that night, when her garden closed at 4 a.m. and all her guests had left, she did not return to the house as usual, but departed from Raven Hall on a horse of her own. She saddled the mare herself, collected a large sack and her clockwork dragon and slipped out quietly. It was a half-hour ride to Half Moon House, the dragon flying in her wake and, as expected, everything was quiet when she arrived. Beatrice’s garden closed much earlier and her guests had all departed hours ago. There was no one to stop Rosa from passing through the plum gate, with the clockwork dragon slinking along at her heels.

Later she told herself that she had not picked the dragon because of his fire. She’d picked him because he was more frightening than a raven, but less conspicuous than her clockwork bear. He could also keep up with her horse better and provide her with protection, should anyone find her there and try to restrain her whilst the police were called for. Certainly she never meant for anything in Beatrice’s garden to be damaged or hurt in any way. Her plan was simply to steal the plums. She would keep them at Raven Hall and see that they were returned to Beatrice once the competition was over.