A Grimm Curse: A Grimm Tales Novella (Volume 3) (16 page)

Chapter
1
9

“I leave for a few
days and look where you end up.
”

“HE’LL BE IN TOUCH!” Cynthia spat from her usual spot near the window. She had to stand on her bed then push herself up on her tiptoes to look out. She couldn’t see much, just a stretch of grass and
the
bottom of the red brick wall that bordered the castle grounds. Her hands wrapped around the bars helped to keep her balance. “How can you sit there so calm!”

“Practice,” Rapunzel said, perched serenely on her neatly made bed, her hands kitting and purling in a blur. They’d been in the small dungeon cell for over twenty-four hours. It was a nice lockup, as prisons went. Top floor, warm beds, three meals a day that rivaled Ann’s cooking, and anything they’d asked for—within reason. Rapunzel quickly took advantage of this and obtained several books from the library as well as yarn and needles to pass the time. The guards made every effort to give them privacy, but the fact remained they were in a small stone room the size of two carriages stuck together—with bars on the door.

Rapunzel worked the yarn with a clicking cadence that usually soothed Cynthia, but she was going stir-crazy.

“Why don’t you read out-loud,” Rapunzel suggested.

Cynthia sighed and jumped off the bed, finding the book she had started earlier and flipping to the third chapter of
A Scandal in Bohemia.

The clomp of several pair
s
of men’s boots echoed down the hall. Cynthia put down the book expectantly. It wasn’t a mealtime, although the guards did make occasional rounds past their door.

Prince Wilhelm’s handsome face appeared on the other side of the bars, flanked by two guards who he quickly dismissed.

“Wilhelm!” Cynthia flew to the door.

He reached a hand through the bars and she grasped it.

Rapunzel stood and gave a brief curtsy, “Your highness.”

“Are you being treated well? They’ve had strict instructions to do so.” He cupped her cheek in one hand and ran a tender thumb over her brow.

Relief swelled in Cynthia. She was actually glad to the see the prince and felt a sudden, fierce affection for him despite his disappointing actions at the carnival.

“There’s been a mistake. Can you please have the guards bring the keys? They’ve arrested me for trespassing.”

“Ah, I can’t pass up this opportunity when I have your undivided attention,” he grinned at her. “You are hard to pin down, after all.”

Was he flirting with her? She’d been in the same clothes for two days and forced to use a chamber pot in the corner of the room.

He knelt on one knee, drew a velvet box out of his pocket, and flipped it open to reveal a diamond of obscene proportions.

No, no, no. He could
not
be proposing.

His dark eyes twinkled as he pulled his grin into a mock-serious expression.

“Cynthia Wellington, your beauty swept me off my feet the very first time I saw you
—”
—“

Cynthia doubted that. He
’d
laughed at her the first time he saw her.

“—and while we haven’t know each other long, I’ve fallen
in
love with your spirit and
your
independent ways. I feel like you make me a better man. I know that my love will only grow, if you do me the honor of becoming my wife.”

It was a beautiful proposal and for a second, Cynthia waffled. It would be easier just to accept his offer. Then the bars that separated her from Wilhelm came back into view and she came to her senses. He was proposing to her from behind a locked cell door after letting her cool her heels in a dungeon for a day.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Wilhelm, open this door!” Cynthia shook the bars in his face.

The teasing smile slipped just a fraction and his eyes narrowed.

“That’s hardly an answer.”

“This is hardly the time or place for a proposal,” Cynthia snapped.

“I can see you weren’t expecting this,” he said standing up, snapping the box shut, and brushing at his knees with a frown. “I’ll give you time to consider.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “I’m not marrying you.”

“I’ll give you time to consider the
correct
answer.” He sighed and shook his head at her. “Do you know how many people would kill for this opportunity?”

“So go ask one of them.”

“Ah, but now it’s a matter of pride. You know, I didn’t realize until I had to hunt you down you were the daughter of the late Lord Wellington. Had I known that odious woman was your stepmother, I would have steered well clear of you.” He gave an exaggerated shiver. “She’s always been the worst of the lot, weaving a very sticky web to try and catch a husband for her repulsive daughters.”

Cynthia bristled at his referring to her stepsisters as repulsive. They could be, of course, but only Cynthia got to call them that.

“But you’re cut from a very different cloth. We’ll see how long it takes you to find generosity in my offer.” The prince strode back down the hallway. “Take away their bedding and restrict them to two meals a day,” she heard him say to a guard. His steps were a little more heavy and quick than they were coming in.

Cynthia waited until the hall was silent before collapsing on her bed and burying her face in her pillow. Rapunzel sat beside her and rubbed small circles of comfort into her back. “You were brilliant,” she said.

“No I wasn’t,” Cynthia mumbled into her slipcover. “If I hadn’t lost my temper I would have accepted his offer and then made a run for it like you did. Now we’re stuck in here.”

Rapunzel shrugged and continued to run her hand along Cynthia’s spine. “Perhaps, but I don’t think it would have worked. Prince Wilhelm is much smarter than my prince. I think he would have seen right through any false promises.”

“You know, his proposal was almost word for word what my prince said to me,” Rapunzel mused.

Cynthia’s head popped up off the pillow. “You’re kidding.”

“No,” Rapunzel shook her head with a laugh. “I swear they must all attend some kind of creepy prince classes. The phrase that sticks in my mind is, ‘You make me a better man.’”

“Well, what’s wrong that?” Cynthia said, sitting all the way up. “The proposal was beautiful, even if it was given by a detestable man.”

“The proposal was just empty words
,
.
” Rapunzel said, staring at the slice of grass outside their window. “You don’t want to marry a man who says you complete him. You want a man who will do whatever is in
your
best interest. That it’s his choice. That is true love.”

By the time the sun set Cynthia was ready to fly apart. Her agitated heart, the new memories that kept popping into her head at bewildering intervals, and the days of inactivity after she had been run off her feet for six years piled on her until she was ready to combust.

“Try to sleep,” Rapunzel said, leading her to the bare mattress the guards had left them. “Things will look better in the morning.”

“Things
won’t
look better in the morning,” Cynthia said dully. “There’ll still be a lecherous prince waiting outside these bars to marry me.”

The prince thought he was doing her a disservice by removing all the bedding, but what he didn’t realize was the bare mattress was better than what she usually slept on. She did drift into a fitful sleep after tossing around for what seemed like forever. So the slight noise
at
the door
of
their cell swinging open made her eyes pop open. She sat up in bed, squinting in the low moonlight that filtered in through the small, barred window. It wasn’t very late. The moon had just risen. The door indeed stood open, but no one was there. Nothing stirred. Was this some sort of trick?

A rustle of cloth and a young man wearing a blue cloak appeared in the middle of the room. Cynthia filled her lungs to shriek, but the youth was grinning at her so widely, with so much familiarity, she paused.

“Forget me already?”

His voice was the same, but clearer, lighter. When he spoke she sprang off the bed and
wrapped
him in a fierce hug.

“Remi.” His name came out as half sigh, half sob into his chest. 

“I leave for a few days and look where you end up,” he whispered, shaking his head at her.

She pulled back and looked up to study the face she felt like she knew so well. His wide grin and mischievous blue eyes that looked like they always held some secret joke were familiar, even when not in frog form. But his severely short
,
sandy hair and fresh shave didn’t really match her vision of him.

She reached a tentative hand to brush a stray hair from his forehead. He ducked his head in that shy embarrassed way she knew so well. “Marcella wanted me cleaned up after I transformed back. I was a pretty shaggy mess.”

“It worked then
.
”
The
smile on her face
grew
to match his.

“Come on, I’ll tell you about it after I get you out of here,” he whispered. “Wake up Rapunzel.”

Her friend was
a
little leery of the young man in their cell until Cynthia murmured in her ear.

“Wait a second,” Remi whispered, pulling up the hood of his cloak and vanishing. Where in world had he gotten such a thing? Cynthia tried to recall if she’d ever heard of a vanishing cloak before, or any other magical item even close to that powerful. He had a lot of explaining to do.

Remi reappeared a minute later. “It’s clear, come on.” The three of them wove their way out of the dungeon. Remi pulled his hood back up and stayed invisible. He led Cynthia by the hand, who in turn held on to Rapunzel. Remi often paused before guiding them around corners. And once or twice he dropped her hand with a soft, “Stay here,” returning a minute or two later to escort them past guard
s
who had fallen into a deep sleep at their posts.

They made it to a steep staircase that Cynthia recognized, and sure enough, Remi stopped at a landing and threw off his hood, reappearing and hustling them into the vast palace kitchen. The same green-eyed woman who’d helped her escape the prince the first night of the feast stood fidgeting in the quiet kitchen.

“The guards will make their rounds any minute. Hurry,” she said hustling them down the cabbage-smelling corridor. “You’ll remember about my son?” she asked Remi as she opened the door to the kitchen garden.

A man appeared in the open door buried underneath an enormous basket. It was too late to change course, and the small group collided with him.

The basket tilted and fish tumbled into their legs, tangling their feet. There was quite a bit of noise and whispered apologies while the group untangled themselves from the fisherman.

“I won’t forget,” Remi said in an undertone to the green-eyed woman, easing a flounder off his boot and hurrying the girls away.

Chapter
20

“We do have had a lot of practice sneaking out of this place
.”

“I THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE best to stay off the road,” Remi said, leading them from the grounds of the castle and into the forest. He smiled down at her feet. “And I’m glad to see you have shoes on. I figured I had a fifty-fifty chance.”

“We do have had a lot of practice sneaking out of this place,” Cynthia said, almost heady with the scent of pine, open sky above her, and Remi beside her again. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, so talk.”

“Where do you want me to start?” Remi asked squinting at the dark path in front of him. The moon wasn’t as bright as it was a few nights ago and the moonlight didn’t shine as clear through the branches.

“What happened when you left?” Cynthia asked, holding a branch aside for Rapunzel.

“Marcella took me with her, very reluctantly I might add. They have so many retainers and servants with them, they’d rented out a mansion on the edge of town. She tried to ditch me more than once, but her brother the king—say what you want about the man he’s a stickler for rules—made her follow her promise to the letter. That first night was beyond awkward, I can tell you. One of my conditions was that I could sleep on her pillow, so I did, but she refused to even sit on the bed with me there. She kept saying I was slimy.”

“You’re not slimy,” Cynthia said. “I mean—you weren’t.”

“That kind of reasoning got me nowhere with Marcella,” Remi said. “And spending a night out of her comfy bed did nothing to improve her mood.”

“So what did you do?” Rapunzel asked from the back of the group.

Remi shrugged his shoulders, a gesture that was almost lost in the dark. “I just kept talking to her. She was pretty much giving me the silent treatment. But I went on and on about my family, my crazy older brothers, how I grew up, my favorite foods, the grumpy tutor that used to switch me before class even began, ‘to get my head on straight,’ he used to say. Anything that popped into my head. And finally, she said something back.”

Cynthia peered at his face in the dark. A funny little smile turned up the edges of his lips as he remembered. For some reason, that smile was like a knife twisting in her heart.

“What did she say?” she asked instead.

“I was telling her the story of how I got changed into a frog and she said, ‘that was stupid.’”

Cynthia bristled but Remi laughed.

“When I agreed with her—because let’s face it, not my finest moment—she told me the story of when
she
and the king were little and they’d gotten into the kitchen and messed with a visiting dignitary’s soup…” he shook his head. “Anyway, she still wasn’t thrilled to have me around, but she started treating me more like a person and less like a smelly object the cat had
dragged
in.”

Out of the corner of Cynthia’s eye, she noticed Rapunzel watching her expression carefully. Cynthia hadn’t been holding back her feelings as much since the disastrous first night of the feast. But she employed her old skills and put on a smooth, unconcerned mask.

“Then at dinner earlier today I asked her to pass the butter, and I think, for a second, she forgot it was a frog asking. She just thought of me as Remi. Without even looking up, she slid the dish over. A small explosion ignited with me in the middle of it. I felt like I was being stretched out of my skin. Not painful, just strange and uncomfortable. And there I was, naked as the day I was born, on the dining room table.”

Cynthia didn’t bother to hide anything at this statement and a peal of laughter ran
g
through the dark trees. She stifled it in a hurry. They were still pretty close to the castle.

Remi grimaced over his shoulder. “Yeah, I thought you’d love to hear about that. I’ve given the servants plenty to talk about for weeks.”

“So how did you know where I was?” Cynthia asked.

“It wasn’t easy. I left as soon as I could to find you without being a complete ogre, but you weren’t at home,” Remi said, slowing down so he could walk next to her, even though the path really wasn’t wide enough.

“You didn’t knock on the door?” Cynthia asked, picturing Lady Wellington’s vivid, angry face.

“I did not live with you for over a week and learn nothing,” Remi said, rolling his eyes. An expression he couldn’t use as a frog. “I snuck in the kitchen and pretended I was looking for a job, asked a few nosy questions. They were only too happy to relive your arrest. That’s how I knew Rapunzel was there too.”

“That still doesn’t explain how you walked right to our cell, or this,” Cynthia said, fingering the incredible cloak. It didn’t feel like any material she’d come across before.

“That’s were Marcella really became invaluable.” He glanced at Cynthia’s disbelieving face. “No one knows better than me how difficult she can be when you first meet her, but she’s got a lot more to her than that.”

He said this in a kind, but firm tone and did not invite argument. In that moment Cynthia felt the shift in her place in Remi’s life. There was still the friendship and trials of the last week that bound them together, but the solidarity was gone. Somehow in the last several days, Marcella had usurped that position.

“They’re used to seeing her around the castle, and no one thought anything about it when she went in and started gathering information. The
y
didn’t even realize she was doing it. The prince bragged about locking you up himself. Asked her to stay a few more days so she could attend the wedding.”

Remi’s voice had gone hard, and she realized how worried he’d been about her. No one needed to convince her of Prince Wilhelm’s depravity.

“Marcella also provided the sleeping powder than knocked out the guards,” Remi said.

Cynthia wasn’t even going to ask how she’d gotten her hands on that.

“She gave you the cloak too?” Rapunzel asked, rubbing the fabric between her fingers like Cynthia had done.

“Oh no, that’s an apology present from my brother,” Remi said, raising his eyebrows at Cynthia and smiling. “My parents got your letter.”

“I’d forgotten all about that.” Cynthia allowed herself a small smile. At least she’d done something right.

“But instead of writing back, they sent someone to follow your bird—“

“Weston,” Cynthia supplied.

“Right,” Remi agreed. “And that someone happened to be Laron.”

“Please tell me he knocked on my stepmother’s door,” Cynthia asked.

Remi gave her a knowing look at her eager tone. “Not only did he knock on it, he introduced himself as the son of King Landry.”

Cynthia chuckled. “Poor Laron.”

“Being in your
stepfamily’s
clutches for ten minutes is the
least
of what he had coming,” Remi muttered. “I think he was half temped to promise one of my brothers to Portia if it would get him the hell out of there. To make a long story short, after hunting around for several days, he found me at Marcella’s, newly human, and not thrilled to see him.”

“But
—”
—“
Cynthia prompted, knowing him too well.

“But,” Remi agreed with a reluctant smile, “he was repentant and had been on his own adventure the last few months. He’d done a favor for a king and is now engaged to his oldest daughter.”

“What kind of favor?” Rapunzel asked.

“Found out why his twelve daughters were wearing out their slippers,” he snorted. “Have you every heard of anything so ridiculous? They were sneaking out to an enchanted castle every night and dancing their shoes to pieces.”

“Weird,” Cynthia agreed.

“He got this cloak from an old witch to help complete his task. My parents—
convinced
him it might be a good peace offering.
”
“

“Looks like a good way for you to get yourself in more trouble,” Cynthia said.

Remi gave her an appraising look. “That’s exactly what Marcella said.”

“Sounds like she knows you pretty well, then,” Cynthia said. And she even managed not to sound grudging.

“Listen,” Remi stopped and glanced around. They were almost to the edge of the woods. “Sit a second.” He pulled her to a half decomposing log and she lowered herself on the ferns that had taken root there. Rapunzel unobtrusively wandered down the path out of earshot.

“This thing with Marcella, it doesn’t change my offer. I’d like you to come to Landry Keep. For as long as you want. Laron has already started for home and knows all about you. He’ll let my parents know to expect you. They’ll love you.”

Cynthia was tempted—oh, how she was tempted. This was the way out she was looking for. She wouldn’t have to go back to her old life whose disturbing memories would tumble in her head and make her loose her train of thought. She wouldn’t have to marry Prince Wilhelm. She never had to see her stepfamily again.

Except—

“What is this thing with Marcella? Do you love her?” Normally, Cynthia would never have asked this of Remi, never been that forward. But she was running out of time and had some life changing decisions to make. She needed to know everything.

“I’ve only known her for a few days,” he said, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck in a familiar motion. “But I know I
could
love her.”

“How can you possibly know that?” Cynthia frowned at him.

He shrugged. “Because you choose who you love.”

Cynthia stared at him disbelieving.

“I know I’d be good for her. She’s had a hard childhood despite growing up as a princess. She’s constantly surrounded by people but she’s lonely. She lost her parents when she was young and her brother
really
doesn’t
really
have time for her…”

Remi trailed off and found her eyes. She knew him well enough to read what he wasn’t saying out loud in his expression. Was this okay? He was trying to be honest with her and not hurt her at the same time.

“She’s not as strong as you,” Remi said.

So he’d marry the person who needed him the most. And it wasn’t Cynthia.

Of all the noble, bone-headed things to do. She wanted to despise him for it, but how was she supposed to hate someone so selfless?

“Then you’ve found your happily ever after, after all,” she said with no trace of bitterness.

“I’m glad you see it that way,” Remi said with relief.

She was a big enough person to try and be happy for Remi while her heart ached for what could have been. That left her with only one option. The prince would find her, no matter where she went in this world. If she’d been married perhaps… She shook her head, no use crying over what wasn’t going to be.

“Will you go to Landry Keep then?” Remi asked. “I’m going with Marcella to Redstone Rock for a month or so
, so
we can get to know each other better, but I’ll be home after that.”

Cynthia shook her head and she thought Remi understood. Being a third wheel for the rest of her life held no appeal.

“The prince will find me, he’s got a magic mirror he can track me with. I’ve got to get somewhere he can’t follow me, preferably before he wakes up.”

“Where’s that?” Remi asked, looking alarmed.

Cynthia considered telling him about the dreams, the memories that kept washing into her brain, her entire other life she dreaded going back to. It would have been a relief to share it with him, but she decided it would be more of a burden on him than anything. She didn’t want to sway his decision to stay with Marcella with guilt over her circumstances.

“I’ve discovered distant—family. Out of the country. I’ll be traveling to them,” Cynthia told him instead.

Remi looked confused and a little suspicious, but he nodded. “Will they treat you well?”

“Yes.” Cynthia conjured up a memory of her father; one from before her mother and sister died. He’d loved his family with a fervent intensity. It was probably why he was so lost when most of them died. She’d had a wonderful childhood—both times, she realized. “Yes, I think they’ll be glad to see me.”

She could tell Remi wanted to pry further, but he nodded instead. “Good.” He stood and pulled her off the log, gripping her hand as he looked down at her. He dipped his head and placed a kiss, soft as a light wind on her cheek. “I’ve wanted to do that since you rescued me.”

Cynthia closed her eyes and absorbed the feeling that kiss left, hoping it would carry her through what she had to do next. When she was sure she wouldn’t cry, she opened her eyes.

“It’s time to go see my mom.”