When Elena had finished eating her breakfast she opened up the bundle she had brought with her, and unfolded the clothes she had Borrowed from Ezrah. She quickly slipped off her own dress and put the borrowed clothes on. Ezrah's clothes were off course way too big for her, but with some clever tucking and tying in strategic places they would be fine, and anyway no Peasant boy ever had clothes that fitted. She bound her breasts with a sash so that they would not be noticeable. Finally she pulled on her boots, put on the hat and went to look at her reflection in the pool nearby.

Elena felt more or less pleased with the results of her disguise. She would just about pass for an ordinary boy on a horse, except for her hair. Her braid was just too long and thick to be hidden under the hat. She would have to cut it. She hesitated. It would grow again she decided and cut her braid in half. She buried the piece she had cut off as Donna Augostina had taught her to do, and tied the remainder into a fashionable Queue and was now satisfied with her reflection.

Feeling safer, in her disguise, Elena bundled up her spare clothes and food, and packed them on the horse. She needed to be going. She knew she needed to put more distance between the camp and herself. Ezrah might just be annoyed enough to try and follow her, although it was unlikely he would do so for long.

As she rode she found herself thinking of the past. Her thoughts strayed to the time she had spent in Sweden, and how different her life would have been had he lived! At the time they told her that he had not suffered. That the fall from the horse had killed him instantly. And so, there had been no annulment, and therefore no marriage. When her father had come to fetch her home to Venice, he had been very kind and gentle with her. He had shown great understanding and had not blamed her. Instead he had bundled her into a carriage and they had begun that nightmarish journey through central Europe. They had been forced to stop in Poland, and she had been ill for weeks afterwards, and still remembered very little about that time, but when they had told her of the second death she knew that something inside her had also died, leaving a large gaping hole where hope had once been.

Elena forced herself to stop thinking of that time and to concentrate on her present situation. Not sure where she was going to go, she climbed higher into the mountains hoping to get her bearings from the landscape.

She knew that she could not go back into the Veneto, so reaching her Grandfather at the Malcontenta was out of the question, let alone going back to Venice! She could probably travel through Lombardy without too much trouble, and reach Milan, where she knew the Austrian governor, Archduke Ferdinand quite well. But from there where would she go? France? Maybe she could stay with her friend Olympe de Gouges, but Paris was weeks of travelling away. From Paris she could easily get to England, but England was even further away. On the other hand she did have friends in the south of France. So that was another possibility. Off course she could just make her way from Milan to Genoa, and find a ship sailing to Naples and Sorentina. She had enough gold with her carefully hidden away for that, so that was another option. Then again, if she went down on the other side of the mountains she would also be in Hapsburg territory, and she had friends in Vienna.

Pondering her choices Elena made her way up the mountain, where she planned to stop for the night.

(With thanks to The Misty Mountains in the Calas Galadhon Park)

Dear reader here is a possibility for you to be interactive with this story. Where do you think Elena should go???