Tad went to the Library of Love and found Claire sitting on her stool watching Zaen in the globe. He waited next to her until Della appeared. His legs ached so he squatted down to see what would become of his clients.
Zaen bowed and asked Della if she would grant him a private audience. She nodded and the two of them moved off side-by-side across the lawn. They stopped at a stone fountain where they sat next to each other.
“Della, you know how I feel about you, but if you don’t love me and never will…” Zaen lowered his head. “I’ll leave you be. But I wanted to give you something before I go.” He reached into his tattered trouser pocket, drew it out again, gently took hold of Della’s hand, and pressed an item into it.
Della looked down at the object in her palm. A smile slowly spread across her lips, reaching her eyes.
“I figure even though it’s not as beautiful as you are, not worthy of you at all, you might like to have it, anyway. It’s a friendship bracelet so you’ll always know no matter where life takes you, your friendship has been the most important treasure of my life.” Zaen nodded at the item in Della’s hand. “The white horsehair represents how we met, when you got your first pony. The red is when that stallion you had to have threw you off and I caught you…the first time you smiled at me. And the black is from the mare I gave you…I picked her because she’s regal on the outside but the most beautiful and sweet spirit on the inside…just like you. Then there’s one bead for each of us. See, I carved your initials and mine…took me a lot of evenings to manage that. For years I tried to find the perfect gift, something that would be good enough for you. But there wasn’t enough gold or jewels in all the realm to express how much you mean to me and how much I’ve enjoyed the precious moments I’ve had with you when you come for your daily ride. To me this is the real Della.”
A tear trickled down Della’s cheek. She wiped it away, sniffled a little and smiled at Zaen, eyes twinkling. “I didn’t believe you really loved me. It was all poetry and pretty words but…you never did anything that I knew in my heart was enduring love. Not until now.”
“I would have given you gold and diamonds if I had them.” Zaen shrugged one shoulder.
“That’s not what I wanted.” Della’s eyes were misty. “What I really, really wanted was someone who would trust me with everything they didn’t have, to believe that I was capable of loving them back with all my heart. I needed that. When everyone thinks you’re a spoiled twit who only cares about gold and jewelry…”
“I always knew you better than that.”
Della shook her head. “For all your thousand proposals you never showed me. Your words were about how you saw me but never did you express that you knew how I saw myself.” She leaned over and squeezed Zaen’s hand. “This bracelet represents who I want to be to the man I marry, not a prize to be won through valiant effort…not a trophy of your own greatness. I didn’t want to be wooed. I wanted to be treasured always.”
“You didn’t want me to write you poetry because…” Zaen gazed into her eyes. “…you thought I was insincere?”
“I did. Maybe it was headstrong of me, but I would never set my heart on a man who didn’t love the real me. All the pleasure I felt in our daily encounters I couldn’t let turn to romance. I simply hardened my heart. I never expected you to love me.”
“But I proposed to you a thousand times.”
Della laughed. “And I thought you weren’t counting. But romance isn’t the same as love, I think.”
Zaen snatched her hand. “Della, I love you, the real you, more than the first time I saw you, more than the first time I caught you talking to your horse and jumping hedges when your mother wasn’t looking. I’ve loved you each day more than the day before. It only took me a thousand and one tries to find your heart…and that’s what I call a bargain.” He slid off the fountain onto one knee. “Della de Courville, will you be my friend for life? Will you marry me?”
Della turned her face away as tears began to trickle down her cheeks. “I’ll marry you, Zaen, without any gold and without any jewels. Just yourself…as long as you promise to first and forever be my dearest friend.”
Zaen pulled her into his arms and whirled her around. “I do, I do.”
When he put her down again the lady’s overjoyed face sobered. “I confess to feeling some sadness that you won’t be pursuing my hand anymore.”
Zaen lifted the hand in question and brushed his lips across its bare knuckles. “Not true, my love. When we are married I’ll write to you a letter each day declaring that you’re the only woman in my world, just in case you’ve forgotten since the day before, and reminding you of my many fine qualities as a husband, just in case you’re thinking of becoming cross with me.”
A smile crept to Della’s lips. “I suppose I could live with that. And after pursuing my hand for twenty years, I feel very confident you’ll never grow tired of cherishing it.”
“I won’t grow tired of it. As your best friend I also promise to share all I have with you. And so there’s something you need to know about your mother and father…Have you ever heard the story of the jinn of the lamp?”
Chapter 15
Tad woke up to the sun shining brightly through his bedroom curtains. He sat up and stretched into a yawn, recalling last night’s sweet dreams of magic kisses and happily ever after. As he did so his stomach rumbled its plea for breakfast.
This was the latest he had ever slept and the longest he had ever gone without food. He had simply been too beat after settling matters between Della and Zaen. It was such a romantic ending but he would have to watch it in the globe again since he hadn’t been able to fully appreciate it in his frazzled state.
He lingered over what was now lunch since mid-morning had already come and gone. Each bite of chicken, cheese and tomato sandwich, turnips with butter sauce, and a slice of apple pie baked in a crumbly crust was paradise itself. The meal revived his enthusiasm for the ensuing argument he would soon have with Claire over which of them had solved the case.
The birds and Wigamus were gathered around Claire when he landed in the Library of Love. They were enjoying a picnic on the table next to the ledger.
“I just want you all to know how much I appreciate your help,” Claire was saying as Tad sneaked up behind her.
“Thank you, dear,” Nan replied.
“You are the first agent to ever feed us,” Sev said.
Wigamus twitched his tail as he sniffed at his plate of unidentified slices of green, vegetarian things. Apparently the kitten disguise did not compel him to eat like a feline.
Pip gulped down a beakful of what had probably been coppleberry pie before he poked it to bits. “Best pie I ever had.” He glared as Tad. “Some people are rude enough to eat without offering any to others.”
Claire did not bother to turn to look at Tad as he approached. “You’re all very welcome.” She pointed to a basket on her right. “And that’s for Mr. Grump as consolation for not being able to solve a case without my help.”
Here it was, the start of an epic battle. Tad cracked his knuckles. “I suppose you can take credit for mislaying my gift to you so that your landlord found it. But I purposefully bought it, so—”Claire’s lower lip jutted out at him.
“Don’t even try.” Claire turned her head to glower at him. “That is just plain sad. I’ll admit to a draw in this particular instance due to unforeseeable circumstances. We’ll just have to make a new wager on the next case.”
“Yes, I heard you decided you did not need one another.”
Tad and Claire whirled around at the sound of Lady’ Love’s voice.
She was standing next to the ledger with a rather mischievous look about her. “I do have secret snitches, you know.” The Lady looked distinctly at Tad. “And no, it wasn’t Pip…or Sev…or Nan or Wigamus. In fact, I instructed them to leave you to your own devices on this case so you could learn your lesson. But the two of you truly believed I would take sides against my own servant
s, decide who is most valuable?”
Tad’s heart was thrumming as a small boy who had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Claire’s face flushed a little.
“And then you put yourselves through quite the ordeal only to end up right back where you began…with neither of you acknowledged as being more important than the other.” Lady Love glided closer to Claire. “You cannot solve a case without Tad.”
Claire lowered her head. Tad felt his own grin peeking out.
“And you…” The Lady moved toward Tad and stared right into his soul. “…cannot solve a case without Claire. You see, I am a great sneak. I entwined your magic so that neither or you can work apart from the other.” She smiled that smile of hers. “But it was amusing to watch you try…So much trouble for naught.” And then she whirled away in a flurry of rose petals.
Claire muttered something under her breath. Tad felt he concurred with whatever she had said. So he was stuck with Claire and she was stuck with him. What a calamity. But at least he could have some fun with her. “At least I was right about one thing. Tante Iezavel turned out not to be human.”
“Of course she isn’t,” Claire replied.
“What…But you said…” Tad tried to recall the exact conversation.
“I said your fear of her is irrational, not that she’s human.” Claire sucked in a breath with a tsk tsk tsk at him. “Yet another instance of your selective hearing. But I won’t bother writing it in my journal since the fact of the matter is well established. Besides, I was only recording your antics for Imogene.”
Tad’s smile turned upside-down. “How can you serve me up to her like that? She’s a cracked pot. And to that she has added being a half-fairy thing.”
Claire’s lower lip jutted out at him. “My complaint was that she enjoys making people think she’s a loon. Just being a jinn or a half-fairy or whatever doesn’t mean you have to be creepy. But she enjoys studying humans so we have a common interest in research. She’s harmless, really.”
“Studying us means she’s plotting.”
“For what?”
“For her species to take over.” Obviously.
Claire giggled. A warm feeling arose in Tad’s chest at the sound of it. “She’s much too kindhearted and I wouldn’t hear a word against her…even if she were a dracovere.”
“You mean a feydragon?”
“That’s not the correct scientific term.”
“I don’t see what dracoveres or feydragons or whatever they’re called have to do with real magical persons.”
Claire arched an eyebrow at him.
“You think feydragons are real?” Tad searched her soul for trickery. But her gaze was steady and no dimples peeked out on her cheeks. “I thought scientists didn’t believe in mythical creatures?”
“Several scientific expeditions have uncovered—”
“There you go again. Why can’t you ever just believe in something without scientific evidence?”
Color filled her cheeks but her dimples still didn’t appear. She looked away, blinking slowly, thoughtfully. “Why can’t you ever believe in scientific evidence?”
They stood for several moments not saying anything.
“I had better get going?”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Don’t forget your basket.”
“Thanks, I…I’m sure it’ll be delicious. And say hello to Tante…Imogene for me.”
Mid-afternoon was an especially good time to think about life and love. Tad took a stroll through Roselle’s favorite field and his own happy stretch of stately trees lining the road back home. He turned down the path leading to his cottage and kicked the rocks strewn in his way, hands stuffed into his pockets as he mulled over the lessons this case had brought.
He admitted to a slight disappointment over not understanding why Della hadn’t fallen in love with Zaen at first sight as he had with her, but tried to encourage himself over having at last explained the predicament of his own love life. Ladies were unpredictable souls, that was all. Roselle had not truly fallen in love with him and he was man enough to acknowledge it now. He lifted his eyes and set his jaw. But he would win her over, just like Zaen had done with Della. Even if it took a hundred such cases. Even if it took a thousand distressing nights as Lady Love’s avenging agent. A smile stretched his lips. And in the meantime he would take great delight in provoking Claire and her dimples. Even if it took a thousand and one clever ripostes.
He felt he hadn’t won their last argument, though, and Claire had given him a basket of goodies. He needed to settle the score before he could sleep. A man had no business accepting gifts from a lady other than his true love or thinking of how her eyes twinkled when she was plotting mischief.
As if by magic he suddenly saw the one clue he had missed. He flashed to his garden shed and dug around until he found the items he had cast aside weeks ago as if they were naught. Just as he suspected, things were not as they had first appeared.
Moments later he was at Claire’s door, banging on it with his fist. She jerked the door open and scowled at him as if he were a lunatic.
“I was right about the intruder being a magical sort. I figured out what they were after,” he said in a rush.
Claire’s expression softened. “So you did bring something home from the library?”
“Not at all. As usual, it was you who are responsible for my troubles.”
She arched an eyebrow in defiance.
Tad held out his left hand and uncurled its fingers. “Look familiar?”
Claire’s gaze settled on the items he thrust out. Her face took on a contemplative expression.
A heap of green and gold lumps glowed in Tad’s palm.
She huffed. “Beans?”
“Seeds, my mad apprentice….Seeds.”
Avenged Fairy Tales Series
Avenged Fairy Tales is a true serial read for fans of true love, frivolous things, magical mysteries, and happily ever afters. Each case is resolved in a single book but Tad and the gang continue their adventures from story to story.
At First Sight
Megala
Sweet Nothings
A Thousand and One
My Fair Slave
Lumpy
Notorious
Shifting Tides
Hot Lips
Awkward
Crystalline
Perfectly Innocent
Avenged Fairy Tales Series Page
For more adventures dealing with mischief and magical hierarchy, see the Wings series, a collection of standalone stories that take place after Tad receives his happily ever after and further explore the mysteries of magical hierarchy.
Next in series, My Fair Slave, a bow to Cinderella and the Elves and the Shoemaker.
Go to My Fair Slave on Amazon
A Thousand and One Page 10