Chapter 6
BY THE TIME Nellie pulled the door of the servant corridor shut behind her and stepped into the palace yard, the weather had taken a turn for the worse.
A biting wind blew the first snowflakes of the year over the city. They whirled against the darkening sky, dark specks that blew through the street in little eddies. It wasn’t cold enough yet for them to settle, and they melted as soon as they hit the ground, but they were a reminder of the season to come.
Nellie clutched both sides of her coat against the wind with her left hand. The hessian bag she held in her right hand was too big for her coat to fit over the top, but she could hardly carry its contents in plain sight. The guards would ask where she was going with a couple of half-eaten loaves of bread and a bowl of cooked
