Unable to refute his claims over the vicar’s wife’s wandering eye, Mia continued. “Oh, do not forget that my father should be arriving sometime this week. He’ll be staying until after the baby is baptized. And it’s the Maids’ Tea this afternoon. That puts us in a bit of a bother with your sisters’ arrival, but it couldn’t be helped. And I have my French lessons this morning.”
“After hearing your plans, I don’t mind shutting myself in the study until I finally emerge at dinner, my fingers ink stained, not to mention the injuries I’ll sustain in the carpenter’s shed. Though I don’t see why you still need that French tutor. When you can easily read Le Monde, the lessons should end,” Dominic groused, his face darkening at the thought of the young man who entertained his wife every other day. It didn’t matter that the fellow was rail thin with a protruding Adam’s apple and bulbous eyes and his wife’s figure was far from fashionable at the moment.
“But Lila’s French is so much better than mine! In only a few years, she’ll be able to read and then she’ll talk circles around me. I need to gain a bit of an advantage before then.”
“You both laugh too much during lessons. It distracts the staff. I should have hired some old besom who barely escaped the guillotine.”
“Yes, an eighty-year-old rapping my knuckles and waxing nostalgic for France’s glorious past would certainly keep me from laughing,” Mia agreed with a roll of her eyes, immediately regretting the movement when the tenacious sunlight made her squint. “And Monsieur Corbin hardly ever laughs. He’s far too terrified of you. When you aren’t skulking just outside the door, your mother comes in and glares at the two of us over her teacup.”
She leaned back against the length of his hip for a moment before flipping the blankets so that they covered his legs. Mia then reached blindly behind to catch his far hand and pull it towards her, giving him no choice but to turn and lay down again in bed, his face buried in her loose mane of hair. His hand abandoned hers to wrap itself around her breast, already fuller from her pregnancy and Cook’s insistence that she eat pudding nightly.
“I thought you were a man who didn’t care about breasts.” She smiled against the pillow and his fingers squeezed lightly as if in consideration.
“It seems I only enjoy yours, no matter what size they are. I love only these in all their forms. Even when you were feeding Lila and they were enormous and strained every bodice seam.”
“I think your son fell back asleep. I am sorry that he woke you again this morning.” She wiggled back against him, her backside soon nestled snugly against his crotch. Despite the chill in the air and winter wind blowing and whistling through the trees outside, the layers of blankets made a toasty cocoon, as warm as any sunny August afternoon, and their pillows smelled like the first blooms of spring.
“Hmm. So you think you’ll pull me into this warm bed and convince me to fall back asleep after I was so rudely disturbed this morning? I think you just enjoy having a warm body beside you.”
And he knew she could easily fall back into slumber. It amazed him how they could speak for a half hour and he would finally dress, only to look over and see she had disappeared back under the covers and wouldn’t awake for another hour.
“No.” Mia pushed his hand farther down so that his fingers could touch the lace edging of her nightgown, her own hand gathering handfuls of fabric, so it began to creep up her thigh. Even with her eyes still closed, her smile widened until twin dimples marked her cheeks. “There’s many other places I might enjoy having a warm body right now. I think that you should give me a compelling reason to remain awake.”
And he did.
Author’s Note
This novel, the second in my fairy tales series, is based on a less well-known Norwegian story, East of the Sun, West of the Moon. I first came across it in a collection of fairy tales and it immediately captured my 7-year-old heart and imagination. The heroine is a self-sacrificing peasant who goes on a nearly impossible journey to save the love of her life from marrying a troll. In my novel, the troll is not so much a monstrous bride but a state of being and both characters must achieve some growth and shed some pride before living their happily ever after.
Since this fairytale is not as familiar to my American readers as many other stories – hey, Disney, where’s this movie?! – I’ve included an abridged version (and it’s still lengthy) here…
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
Once there was a peasant who had many children but no money. Late one evening, someone rapped on the windowpane of their cottage. The man went outside to see who it could be, and there stood a huge polar bear.
“Will you give me your youngest daughter?” asked the bear. “If you do, I can give you riches beyond measure.”
The man wasn’t surprised by the bear’s request; his youngest daughter was the prettiest of his children. He had no objections to being rich, but he went and asked his daughter what she thought. She refused and the bear left.
A week to the day, the bear returned and asked the same question. The daughter had been feeling guilty over her refusal. Her sisters and brothers were starving, and it seemed selfish to make the entire family suffer. She packed her meager belongings and rode through the night across miles and miles holding on tight to the bear’s back.
They arrived at a huge castle built into a mountain. Whatever she wished, she was granted – jewels, silks, and tables laden with every type of food.
At night, when she was about to fall asleep, she heard the door open and a figure came into the room. She recognized the bear’s voice but when he laid beside her, it was a form of a man. The room was in complete darkness, so she never saw his face or form. In the morning, he was a giant polar bear again.
She lived at the castle for months. Though she had everything she could wish for, she longed to see her family. The bear, sensing her sorrow, granted her wish but warned her never to be alone with her mother. She rode back to her family on the polar bear’s back and was so delighted to see her siblings happy and healthy. The bear left her with her parents while he returned to his castle.
Before the bear was set to return, her mother asked the girl to take a walk with her. On this walk, the girl confessed to her mother the bear’s transformation at night and how she was desperate to see his other form.
“Oh, he’s probably a troll!” her mother exclaimed. “While he is sleeping, light one of my candles so you can see his face. But be sure not to drip any tallow on him.”
When the bear arrived to take her back to the castle, the girl hid a candle in her skirts and then tucked it under the mattress before he came to bed that night. When she was certain he was asleep, she lit the candle…and saw the most handsome man she’d ever laid eyes on! Knowing that she was the most fortunate of women with a very nice bear in the day and a very handsome young man at night, she couldn’t resist leaning over and kissing him…and as she did, three drops of tallow fell upon his shirt.
The bear immediately awoke and was heartbroken. “What have you done? If we had lived so happily for just a year, my stepmother’s evil spell would have been broken and I would have permanently regained my human form. Now I must go to the land of the trolls and marry their princess. She has a nose more than a yard long.”
The girl wept and begged him to stay but he could not. “Tell me where the land of the trolls is, and I will find you!”
“You may try. It lies east of the sun and west of the moon.”
When the girl awoke the next morning, the bear was gone along with his beautiful castle. She was left alone in the middle of the woods. After finding her way out of the forest, she came upon an old woman and asked her if she knew the way to the kingdom of the trolls. The old woman told her she had to travel on the four winds and then the old woman gave her three golden objects – an apple, a comb, and a spinning wheel.
The girl rode a borrowed horse for days until she found the East Wind. He didn’t know the entire route to the troll kingdom, but he sai
d he would take her to his brother, the West Wind. And the West Wind took her to the South Wind who took her to the North Wind. The journey on the North Wind was so wild and frantic that the girl nearly died many times. The North Wind asked her if she was afraid and if they should turn back, but she refused and replied honestly, “I have no fear.”
Upon arriving in the trolls’ kingdom, the girl tempted the troll princess in turn with each of her golden trinkets. In return, she only asked to spend the night with the prince. The troll princess agreed but gives the prince a sleeping draught every night before bed. The first two nights the girl entered his room, he slept through her entire visit even as she begged and pled for him to awake.
After the second night, the prince overheared some castle folk complaining about the girl who weeps all night and keeps them awake with all her noise. The third night he tossed the sleeping draught drink and so remained awake when the girl came to him. They are overjoyed to be reunited and devised a plan to keep from his unwanted marriage.
The next morning, the day of his wedding, the prince said he wanted to see how competent his new bride will be as a wife. He gave the troll princess his shirt – the one with the three tallow stains – and asked her to wash it. The more she washed it, the larger the stains grew. Her mother snatched the shirt from her and attempted to clean it herself. She too was unsuccessful, and the shirt looked worse than ever.
“Oh, this is ridiculous. Anyone off the street can do a better job of it! Hey, you servant girl, come here and wash this shirt,” the prince called out to the girl sitting in the courtyard. The girl came over and dunked the shirt in the wash water three times and when it emerged, it was whiter than the day it was created.
“Surely this is a woman worth marrying,” the prince said. The troll princess and her mother are so incensed that they burst like soap bubbles. And, because they were magically connected, all the other trolls burst along with them. The prince and the girl freed all the imprisoned humans, collected all the treasure they can carry, and returned to the land of humans where they married. And they never returned to the kingdom east of the sun and west of the moon again.
About The Author
Jane Erickson
Ms. Erickson lives in the suburbs of Philadelphia with her wonderful husband, four equally wonderful children, one leopard gecko, three hermit crabs, and a hundred thousand honeybees. Please share amazing family recipes, unique travel suggestions, and compliments about her novels by emailing her at [email protected]
Books By This Author
Midnight's Magic
In the first novel of the Twist Upon a Time series, Cinderella's familiar story is transported to New Orleans, 1814. Emmeline Martineau has one chance to change her destiny and it all hinges on one magical ball. But what if her stepmother had good reasons to forbid her from attending? What if her godmother's motives aren't entirely altruistic? And what is the most eligible bachelor in the city isn't the one she's meant to kiss before midnight?
One Enchanted Summer Page 25