Rescuing Rapunzel (The Princess Chronicles Book 3)

by Tarrah Montgomery

  “It’s very interesting,” I said. “You dance differently than we do in my part of the country . . . at least I think you do.” We twirled and strolled and twirled again, feeling the beat of the music pull at us, molding our steps into interesting patterns.

  “Small towns can get a little crazy,” Eddy said. “Some people love them and some people hate them. You must come from a big town if this seems strange to you. Have you had any luck remembering where you’re from?”

  “No, not yet.”

  “Well, I’ll be darned,” Eddy said abruptly. “I can’t believe he’s dancing. He never dances.”

  “Who?”

  “Maddox.”

  “What?” I exclaimed just before Rapunzel danced past with Maddox, who actually had a little grin on his face.

  “He usually hates coming to dances,” Eddy said.

  I watched as my cousin twirled in the arms of the boy who always seemed to be irritated about something. In my few days staying with Aunt Em and her nephews, I couldn’t remember a time when I saw Maddox smiling, until now. In addition, Punz looked completely entranced in his arms. As with us, the music worked its magic on them, wrapping them in a world all their own. The song ended and I wistfully watched as Maddox tenderly placed Punz’s hand in the crook of his arm and led her off the dance floor. I almost forgot about my own partner until he spoke up.

  “Thanks for the dance.”

  “Thank you, Edison.” I dipped into a small curtsy.

  “Do you mind if I leave you here so I can hurry and ask Lindsey for a dance?”

  I flapped my hands at him. “Go ahead, good luck.”

  Eddy patted me on the shoulder like someone would do with an old friend. “Thanks, Sara.”

  I watched him walk away to the evil girl of his dreams. Only maybe he didn’t know her true character. Maybe she acted nice to him, keeping the claws for people like me.

  I’d never been left on the dance floor alone. How embarrassing. Glancing to where Maddox had dropped Rapunzel off, near Dorothy and her two friends, I noticed my cousin wasn’t there. I scanned the couples still on the dance floor. No Rapunzel.

  Maddox stood off to the side with his youngest brother, Dude. I gathered my courage and walked up to them.

  “Have you seen my cou … I mean Rachel?” I asked Maddox. Of course he knew our secret, but Dude did not.

  Maddox looked over the crowd of dancers. “No, I thought she was with you.”

  “I haven’t seen her since she danced with you,” I replied.

  My gaze returned to Dorothy and her two friends. Punz wasn’t there, but Dorothy was talking to a boy who seemed familiar. Looking more closely, I recognized Hansel.

  I hurried over and, before I could think about it, asked, “Hansel, have you seen Rapunzel?”

  The grin on his face melted away.

  “Hansel? You said your name was Hank,” Dorothy said. She looked at me. “Do you know him?”

  “Um . . . uh . . .” I stammered. “I met him a minute ago.”

  Dorothy scrunched her eyebrows. “I didn’t see you talking to anybody. You danced with Eddy and that’s it.”

  “Eddy introduced us right after we danced.”

  Clearly Dorothy didn’t believe me, but there wasn’t time to explain. I grabbed Hansel’s arm and whispered in his ear. “We need to talk.”

  Then, to Dorothy and her friends, I said, “We’re going to get a drink. I’ll be right back.”

  Hansel nodded to the girls in farewell. “It was nice to meet you. I like your red shoes,” he told Dorothy with a grin.

  She looked down at her shoes and polished one on her sock. “Thanks.” A blush sprang to her cheeks.

  “You’re such a flirt.” I pulled Hansel away from Dorothy and her likewise-smitten friends.

  He shrugged. “What can I say? Girls love me.”

  Once we were out of earshot, I said, “We need to find Rapunzel.”

  “Is she dancing?”

  “No.” I scanned the crowd again. “Wait. Why are you here, and not at Aunt Em’s house waiting for Rapunzel and me?”

  “We found your note but I needed to give you a message. Gretel stayed close to the magic door to watch for Theresa.”

  “Is Theresa coming through the door?” Dread filled me as I imagined the conniving woman searching for me or my cousin.

  “No, but we think she’s sending someone after Rapunzel.”

  “What? Why?”

  “When we went back to Sherwood Manor, the guards were at their normal posts. Nobody acted like anything had changed. So, Gretel and I headed to the castle to find Theresa, since she worked there when she wasn’t at the tower. On the way, we spotted her talking to two boys behind a cluster of trees near the road. If Gretel hadn’t needed to relieve herself, we would have missed them. She was looking for a suitable tree and noticed Theresa and the boys.”

  “What were they talking about?”

  “We heard Theresa say ‘it needs to happen now,’ and ‘we have to end it,’ and ‘not letting anyone get in their way.’”

  “Who were the boys?” I asked.

  “We’d never seen them before,” Hansel replied. “They were big, though.”

  “Are you sure it was Theresa?”

  “We didn’t see her face, but who else could it be?”

  I exhaled loudly. “You don’t think they already came here to take Rapunzel, do you?”

  “No, they wouldn’t have had time. Gretel and I raced back to the manor and came through the magic door to warn you. There’s no way they could have arrived before us.”

  “How could Aunt Em have said this place is safe? We’re in as much danger here as anywhere else.” I could feel my heart beating faster in panic. “We’ve got to find Rapunzel!”

  Don’t leave me alone, her voice echoed in my mind.

  “I’ll look this way. You go that way,” suggested Hansel. “She’s got to be here somewhere. Maybe she stepped out for some air.”

  “Good idea, I’ll go look.” I headed to the door leading outside. Have I lost her again? This can’t be happening!

  I bumped into someone on my way to the door.

  “Whoa, girl. What’s the hurry?”

  It was Eddy. “I need some fresh air,” I told him.

  “I’ll go with you.” He fell in next to me.

  “Why aren’t you dancing with Lindsey?” I asked.

  “She said no,” he mumbled.

  “She’s crazy,” I replied. She was meaner than I had given her credit for, to deny a nice guy like Eddy a dance.

  He followed me outside. I quickly paced the short distance in front of the barn where a few straggling couples had also come outside. Punz wasn’t there. I threw my hands in the air and marched back toward the barn.

  “What’s going on?” Eddy asked.

  “Punz . . . I mean Rachel . . . she’s missing.”

  The barn door flew open and out rushed Maddox. “Did you find her?” he asked.

  I shook my head. Tears stung the backs of my eyes.

  Maddox walked to the corner of the barn and disappeared around the side, probably searching the perimeter.

  I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer—they dripped down my cheeks. Right then Eddy put his hands on my shoulders and asked, “Will you please tell me what’s going on?”

  “I can’t find her.” I sobbed.

  “Rachel?”

  I nodded and used my hand to wipe at my dripping nose. He pulled a kerchief from his pocket and offered it to me with a smile. “Thanks,” I said after wiping my nose.

  “Did she go back to the house?” Eddy asked.

  “I don’t think so. She would’ve told me.” My sobs were turning into an ugly cry, and I could hardly talk.

  “How about Maddox and I go home to check?”

  By that time, Maddox had rounded the corner after his search around the barn and joined us. “You stay here in case she shows up,” he told me.

  Hansel joined us outside, glan
cing curiously at the two boys standing next to me. “They’re helping me look for Rapunzel,” I explained.

  “You still can’t find her?” Hansel asked.

  “No, I’m really getting worried.”

  “I’ll go check back at the house,” Maddox suggested again.

  “I’m going with you,” I said forcefully.

  “No,” Maddox argued. “She might still be here and she’ll worry about you if she can’t find you. It will be the exact same scenario for her.”

  “I’m going with you,” I cried. “I promised Rapunzel I’d never let her be alone again.”

  “Rapunzel?” Eddy said.

  “No time to explain,” Maddox said. “Let’s go.”

  Eddy gave me a curious glance but I ignored it and followed on Maddox’s heels as we walked away from the barn. The music floating from the barn got quieter as we reached the street that led back to the house. The farther we walked, the more the dread set in.

  What if we’re too late? What if Theresa has her and does something drastic this time?

  “Is that smoke?” Eddy asked from behind me.

  “Where?” Maddox said.

  “Don’t you see it? It looks like it’s coming from the direction of our house.”

  Maddox broke into a full run. Hansel and I fell behind. Then Eddy passed us. I gasped, trying catch my breath, and stopped once to fix a stitch in my side.

  On the ground in front of me was Rapunzel’s turquoise mask. Terror filled me. She would never have purposely left her mask behind. I picked it up and sprinted to the house.

  When Hansel and I finally caught up to the brothers a few minutes later, they had stopped in the middle of the street. I came up next to Eddy and stared in frozen horror at Aunt Em’s home. It was completely engulfed in flames.

  Shock seeped into every pore and slowed my thoughts and actions. The only thing I could think was How am I going to get home?

  Chapter 18

  Snow-White and Rose-Red

  in Classic Fairy Tales Retold, by Helen Cresswell

  The two girls went on, but in the evening they passed the same place again. There was the dwarf, who had emptied out his bag of precious stones to count and gloat over them. The jewels glittered and shone in the evening sun. The dwarf saw the girls, and his ashen face glowed red with rage. “Why do you stand gaping there?” he cried.

  Just then there came a loud growling, and out of the forest lumbered a great black bear. The dwarf sprang back in fright and begged the bear to spare him.

  “Take these two wicked girls instead! They’re plump and tender morsels! Eat them!”

  The bear gave the wicked creature a single blow with his paw. The dwarf did not move again. The girls were terrified and were going to run off when the bear said, “Snow-White and Rose-Red, do not be afraid!”

  As he spoke, the bearskin fell off, and there stood a handsome man, clothed all in gold.

  Recaptured

  }Rapunzel}

  Butterflies somersaulted through my stomach when Maddox invited me to dance with him. We walked out onto the floor and he placed one hand at the side of my waist. My left hand moved to his shoulder. He held my other hand in his in the usual dance position. Seeming as nervous as I was, he led me in circles across the floor. The dance had no set motions, but I silently counted to make sure the shuffle of my step matched the beat of the music.

  After a few minutes of silence, Maddox spoke. “I never understood why people wear costumes to these things.”

  Unlike everyone else in the room, he wore ordinary clothing--not even a mask. However, he had combed his dark hair back and tucked his shirt into his pants. My stomach did another flip-flop at the handsome sight.

  “I like your mask, though,” he told me with a small grin.

  “Thank you.”

  Both of us were quiet for several measures of music. I bit my bottom lip, worrying if I should talk to fill the awkward silence.

  “So…you’re the real Rapunzel who was locked in a tower?” Maddox asked slowly, as if he was thinking out loud.

  “For ten years,” I replied.

  He gasped. “Ten years?”

  I didn’t know how much Aunt Em had told him about me, so I simply nodded. If I explained more, I might expose too much. He and I were finally starting to build a friendship, and I didn’t want to risk it by giving him another reason to think I was a crazy person.

  “I can’t imagine how hard that must have been,” he said, his voice filled with concern. “I’m sorry.”

  I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “It’s all right. I passed the time the best I could.”

  “What did you do besides defense training? I mean that’s a given.”

  I smiled at his mention of what he observed when he found me exercising earlier in the day. “Yes, I had a lot of time to practice.”

  “What else did you do?”

  “I read a lot of books, did a large amount of sketching, wrote stories, exercised some more, wrote letters to my family, exercised some more, and then counted the stars out my window at night.” I left out the part of passing the time with my obsessive counting, for obvious reasons, and I didn’t want to bring up the part where I practiced dancing every day because I had already discovered my odd form of dancing wasn’t going to fit into this place...at all.

  “What was the tower like?” His questions were sincere, and I could see why he was curious. I would also be curious if I was in his shoes and met someone who had been alone for over a decade.

  “It was small,” I merely explained. “Once a week they let me out to practice my exercises near the gardens. The manor was large, but I didn’t see much of the rest of it. I only saw the room in the tower and the gardens outside.”

  Until a few days ago, I’d never been away from the tower. A whole lifetime of things had happened since then. I’d taken care of animals, worked in the kitchen, met boys, and even danced with boys. I could hardly believe I had lived so much in such a short amount of time.

  “There were these honeysuckle vines that grew on the outside of the tower,” I remembered out loud. “Over the years I watched them inch closer and closer to my window. I always dreamed when they finally reached to my window, I would be able to leave the tower and climb down the vines.”

  It was quiet for a few seconds.

  “I’m so sorry,” Maddox said, sadness tinging his face. I could tell he was imagining my lonely life.

  I gave a little shrug. “At least it’s in the past.”

  The song ended too soon, and Maddox stopped our slow spin on the floor. “Thank you for the dance. I’m glad I got to know you better.”

  “Me too,” I said.

  He let his hand drop from my waist but he kept hold of my hand. He tucked it into the fold of his arm, and then he guided me back to Dorothy and her friends.

  Once we were a couple steps away from the girls, Maddox let go of my hand. “I’m sorry I was rude and misjudged you when we first met,” he said.

  “It’s all right.”

  Seeming to suddenly notice other people close by, he turned and left without another word. It was like he didn’t want anyone else to see his vulnerability.

  I sighed in happiness. It’s so much better dancing with a real person.

  Our conversation had been entirely consumed by me. It occurred to me that I hadn’t even asked him about his own life. He must think I was a little lame. Or selfish. I felt worse that I hadn’t asked Maddox more about himself as the minutes passed. I would’ve liked to have gotten to know him better, too.

  Someone grabbed my arm, and I assumed it was Maddox since he had barely left my side. I turned around, excitement fluttering in my chest. However, two unknown, daunting boys had taken up positions on either side of me. Filth stained their clothes, and they both had a shadow of stubble on their chins. They looked like brothers with similar frowns on their brutish faces.

  The one who had grabbed my arm squeezed tightly. “Don’t say a word or your cous
in gets hurt,” he growled. I saw the light reflect upon a knife he thrust close to my side.

  Snow! I silently exclaimed.

  The second boy, who looked a little younger, grasped my other arm and said, “Come with us.”

  I would never let anything happen to Snow. Without another thought to my own safety, I followed the strangers out the door.

  Once outside, they continued to hold onto me and guide me down the path toward Aunt Em’s house. They kept a fast pace and I was almost grateful for their tight grip which kept me steady. My turquoise mask fell off somewhere as I stumbled along. Thankfully, the boys either missed it or gave the mask no thought. I hoped someone would be able to discover it on the trail and use it as a clue to where these boys were taking me.

  They didn’t stop until we were in the room at Aunt Em’s house that led to the magic door to Fenmore Falls. I looked at the bed where Snow and I had left a note for Hansel and Gretel. The note had disappeared. I had a glimmer of hope the two children were in the house somewhere and would come to my rescue.

  “Thanks for making our job so easy,” said the tallest boy, who had grabbed my arm first. “We’d been warned there would be others who were protecting you, but this is the easiest job ever.”

  “Captain will be happy with our work,” the other one said.

  Captain?

  The first one let go of my arm and began his search around the door frame to open it. I took stock of the one still holding me. He didn’t seem to be past the age of 18, and he was slimmer than the other one. Plus, he wasn’t the one holding the knife. I could probably overpower him with some of my defense moves, but then what would I do? There was a slim chance I could defend myself against the taller one. The odds that I could win weren’t very good, though. I would probably be in a worse situation than where I was right now.

  But, still, I had to try. I couldn’t go back to being locked in the tower again.

  I can’t go back!

  With that determination, I shifted my body at a right angle toward my captor. Using the slack, I swung my other arm around his neck and swiveled so I was on his back. I tightened my hold under his chin and used my knees to hoist myself up to keep my grip strong.

  My momentum was short lived, because the other boy ripped me off of his accomplice’s back and threw me onto the bed on my stomach and he jammed his knee painfully into my back.