O utside the Dark Castle, Nell's wicked stepmother continued to live as she 
pleased and to entertain visitors. Every few weeks a ship would sail over the 
horizon and anchor in the little bay where Nell's father had once kept his 
fishing boat. An important fellow would be rowed ashore by his servants and 
would live in the house with Nell's stepmother for a few days, weeks, or 
months. In the end, she always got into shouting arguments with her visitors, 
which Nell and Harv could hear even through the thick walls of the Dark Castle, 
and when the visitor had gotten sick of it, he would row back out to his ship 
and sail away, leaving the wicked Queen heartbroken and sobbing on the shore. 
Princess Nell, who had hated her stepmother at first, came to feel sorry for 
her in a way
and to realize that the Queen was locked into a prison of her own making, even 
darker and colder than the Dark Castle itself.