“ It was decided as the eldest daughter, Esha must be married first. She was given to the surviving brother—Dalaja’s promised husband. Neither girl was happy with the arrangement, but Dalaja stood by as the obedient daughter and loving sister as Esha was married to her betrothed.
“That night, as Dalaja wept bitter tears for the loss of both her sister and husband, her father tried to comfort her by explaining he had made new arrangements. When she came of age in a year , she was to be married to a very powerful, rich man of much renown in the region.
“As a dutiful daughter, Dalaja knew she should be grateful to her father for making provisions for her future. But the man in question lived far from her family. He was old and already had several wives. This was not the life she wanted for herself. For several days Dalaja was in turmoil. She wanted out of the situation, but found no recourse. The vast, unforgiving desert hemmed her in physically . Her position as a young, unmarried woman gave her no rights, no freedom.
“Then, when all hope seemed lost, a strange man appeared. He came from the dessert like a mirage, light skinned and wearing strange clothes. He sympathized with Dalaja and offered her a solution: her freedom and her memory for a new start, a better life. Desperate and naïve, she willingly took this form of slavery over the one her father offered. ”
Here Rapunzel stopped her story and tore her eyes from the fire. She met Cynthia’s gaze.
“What happened to Dalaja?” Cynthia asked. “What’s the end of the story?”
“The end?” Rapunzel asked. “I don’t know yet. Don’t you understand? I am Dalaja.”
Chapter
1 8
“ We can all ignore each other very politely .”
“YOU CAN’T BE , . ” CYNTHIA SAID. But her denial wasn’t as firm as she’d hoped it would be. Could this be the reason her dreams seemed to o real, felt so familiar? “Are you saying these dreams we’ve been having—they’re memories?”
Rapunzel nodded. “They’re starting to surface. The magic he laid on us long ago is no longer holding. Either it is weakening or we are starting to fight it.”
“Wait. Magic? Who’s magic?” Cynthia said, feeling like the floor was crumbling beneath her and she was spiraling down a dark hole.
“Herrchen,” Rapunzel said drawing her shoulders forward and curling into herself .
The name meant nothing to Cynthia.
“Don’t you see?” Rapunzel clutched both of Cynthia’s hands in hers, desperate to make her understand. “We have been trapped here in these lives that are not our own, in this place that is foreign to us. In a moment of weakness, we gave a mad man permission to tear us from ourselves.”
Cynthia tried to extract her hands from Rapunzel. She realized why her last letter hadn’t really sounded like her. Perhaps she had taken something that was making her confused. “I don’t — ” —“
“We have to go back. I have to make it right!” Rapunzel dropped her hands and her fervent stare turned toward the fire. “You don’t believe me now, but I think you will soon.”
They went to bed in uncomfortable silence. Long after Rapunzel’s breathing grew soft and even, Cynthia struggled against sleep—terrified of what her dreams might tell her.
Cynthia woke long before Rapunzel. She didn’t even have the energy to make a fire, so she sat shivering in her thin nightgown, watching the moon track across the sky and the sun rise. When Rapunzel opened her eyes and picked up her head, she laid a warm hand on Cynthia’s arm.
“You believe me now.”
“I watched my mother and sister die last night,” Cynthia said, hollow and emotionless. “I watched my father crumple and become a shadow of the man he once was. A strange man saw my pain and offered me a way out…”
She didn’t realize that at some point during her monologue tears started to track down her face until Rapunzel pulled her into a hug and they plopped onto her shoulder.
“What are we going to do?” Cynthia sobbed.
Cynthia’s stepfamily had trundled home at some point during the night . Cynthia hadn’t bothered to lock the door to the basement. She took Rapunzel upstairs and they made themselves comfortable in the guest room and took long, hot showers in the forbidden family bathrooms while the house slept on.
When Lady Wellington inevitably stormed into the room, hair wild, eyes puffy, bathrobe askew, Cynthia was ready for her. An angry stepmother seemed like a kitten after what she’d been through over the last few days. She was more than done with her entire family. And one way or another, she wasn’t going to be in this house much longer.
“What makes you think —” —“ Lady Wellington began to shriek.
“Stop!” Cynthia yelled holding up both hands. Rapunzel froze at the vanity like a rabbit that hoped if it held still, the predator would pass it by.
“Let’s skip the tirade. Yes I’m in the guestroom, yes I know I’m not supposed to be. You could threaten me with demeaning, unending tasks, which I have no intention of doing ever again. Or, you could lock me in my room and feed me nothing but bread and water,” here Cynthia took the brass key out of her pocket and waved it in her stepmother’s face. “But we know that didn’t work out well last time.”
Lady Wellington opened and closed her mouth several times. Her face changing colors at an alarming rate that would have put a chameleon to shame.
“So why don’t we all just agree to let Rapunzel and I stay here for a few days. We can all ignore each other very politely, and then I’ll be out of your hair forever.”
Lady Wellington’s face landed on a beet red color. She stared at Cynthia like she didn’t know who she was, then slammed the door hard enough to shake a picture off the wall.
Rapunzel stared at the shards of glass and pieces of frame on the floor. “That went well.”
A faint rap on the front door had the girls exchanging glances. In Cynthia’s experience, visitors brought trouble.
“ The witch who locked me in the tower is sure to be looking for me,” Rapunzel said. “I didn’t go home because of it, but she might think to look here.”
“There’s more than one person looking for me,” Cynthia sighed. “Come on.”
She led Rapunzel to the butler’s pantry where the small window overlooked the front stoop.
“It’s not for me,” Rapunzel whispered with some relief as the girls peered down at the extravagant carriage and dark head of Prince Wilhelm.
“It’s for me,” Cynthia grumbled. The prince had her shoes in one hand, her handbag in the other. “How did he —” —“ Cynthia flashed back to the night in the garden when he’d snuck up on her. He’d said he’d had to borrow a magic mirror to locate her. Looks like it could find her anywhere.
A servant opened the door and the prince’s words floated clearly to the girls ’ hiding place.
“Is Cynthia at home? She seems to have misplaced a few of her things.” Wilhelm held up her shoes with a grin, and the stupefied servant just stood and stared. Having a prince show up at your front door was alarming enough. Having one ask for a servant must have overloaded her brain.
“Come on,” Cynthia muttered, leading Rapunzel downstairs and through the kitchen. As the y passed through the halls she could hear Lady Wellington rushing to the door, cooing at the prince to come inside. Alarming thumps were coming from Portia’s room. Lady Wellington must have put her on alert the prince was at the door. Cynthia had neither seen nor heard Coriander in days.
The kitchens were just gearing up for lunch preparations, and Cynthia looked around for Ann. She wasn’t in the middle of the fray, which was odd.
“Nora,” Cynthia snagged the arm of the pretty redhead with freckles splashed across her nose. “Where’s Ann?”
The girl flopped a brace of geese on the counter and brushed down from her apron. “She went hunting truffles this morning. She was tired of hearing us whine how hard it was,” she said with a grin. She shrugged, “Haven’t seen her since, but she’d better show up for lunch. I can’t coo
k the p á t é by myself.”
Cynthia could hear the prince’s voice in the house. Lady Wellington must have lured him into her web. “Hurry,” she said, ducking out the kitchen door and hurrying to the back of the manor property. They passed through her derelict little garden and Cynthia felt another pang of loneliness as she passed the little pond where she’d brought Remi. They ducked under the low hanging branches of the pines and Cynthia led them to a little clearing just out of sight of the garden with two tree stumps and a host of wildflowers.
“I never thought I’d see this place again,” Rapunzel said, folding herself on one of the stumps.
“How many hours did we spend here, pretending to be fairies, or maidens lost in the woods while Mother worked in the garden?” Cynthia said, turning her face to the sunshine, still not quite able to smile. “I can’t believe it’s not all real.”
“I think it’s real enough, it’s just not where we belong,” Rapunzel said in a soft voice.
“My head is so muddled. I turn at a sound and expect to see my little sister, only to remember she’s dead, and has been for a long time.” She shook her head as if that might clear it. “And the mother I’ve loved for as long as I can remember, whose loss is like a constant ache—she’s not really my mother at all except as some mad man’s whim. I feel shuffled around like a chess piece.” She tightened her fists until her nails bit into her palms and punching a tree trunk seemed like a good idea. “I feel—cheated!”
Rapunzel left her tree stump and wrapped her arms around Cynthia like a wounded animal. “The memories will keep coming, little bits that a smell or sound will trigger, but they’ll get easier to separate and the two lives won’t seem so intertwined after a few days.” She pulled back and put her hands on Cynthia’s shoulders. “But that’s all the more reason to leave here as soon as possible.”
“And go where?” Cynthia asked, unsure of what Rapunzel was getting at.
“Home, back to the lives we were meant to live.”
Cynthia spun away from her friend and sank to the ground, burying her face in her hands. “I don’t have a family waiting for me like you do. I don’t know that I want to go back.” She looked up, too wrung out to cry. “We don’t even know if we can get back!”
Rapunzel came to kneel next to her. “We have to try. What else would we do?”
Cynthia remembered Remi’s shy offer to go home with him and quickly pushed that out of her mind. He’d left and wasn’t coming back. She couldn’t count on him anymore. She was surprised at the large hole this thought created in her chest, like a piece of herself had gone missing.
Her mind skipped over Remi’s idea that maybe she could make a living with her music, but she knew Prince Wilhelm’s resolve to always get what he wanted. He would keep popping up unexpectedly unless she was firm with him. And even then, she couldn’t see him taking a, “No thanks, I’d rather not marry you,” graciously.
Unless she did marry him.
“Do you want to?” Rapunzel asked.
Cynthia looked into her friend’s eyes in surprise. She must have voiced the idea out loud.
“It does solve a lot of problems.”
Rapunzel 's face looked ancient and sad as she said, “That’s no reason to marry someone.”
She was right, of course. Which left her with only one option, and it wasn’t an ideal solution. “Neither of us know if it’s even possible to go home. Where would we even start?” Cynthia asked.
“Can your mother help?” Rapunzel suggested.
Rapunzel and Cynthia stayed in the glen for hours, until the sun tracked far across the sky and their rumbling stomachs lured them back to the house. There was no way the prince could still be there. At least that’s what Cynthia told herself. The girls let themselves into the kitchen with as little noise as possible. The staff eyed them warily—that in itself should have tipped Cynthia off something was wrong. If not that, then the way Nora edged through the door that led into the house from the kitchen .
Moments later, palace guards marched through the swinging door. The four men surrounded Cynthia and Rapunzel.
“What is this?” Cynthia asked, her heart sinking to her toes and her palms sweating. She did her best to sound put out, but she was scared.
“Sorry, miss,” one of the guards apologized. They hadn’t laid hands on them, but they stood close enough that there was nowhere to go. “But the lady of the house has complained of intruders.”
“I live here! And she’s my guest,” Cynthia said gesturing to Rapunzel.
Lady Wellington had hit a new low. Cynthia had underestimated her this morning.
“We’re aware this was your late father’s house,” the same guard said in a low voice. “But as it stands, it now belongs to your stepmother and she says you’re no longer welcome.”
“So you’re going to arrest us?” Rapunzel asked, incredulous.
The sick, sinking feeling was fading from Cynthia’s gut, replaced with a hot , boiling anger. That woman would pay for kicking her out of her childhood home.
“If you’ll come with us, miss?” the guard said, polite but firm.
“I’d like to speak with the prince,” Cynthia said, locking her legs and refusing to move.
“He’ll be in touch, miss.” The guard touched her lightly on the elbow and tugged. She had no choice but to follow.
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.”
A Grimm Curse: A Grimm Tales Novella (Volume 3) Page 13