I sighed. It was all well and good there being an almost flying machine, but that didn’t help me figure out what had happened over eighteen years ago.
“There are the flying ships of Skyla too,” he added. “Real ships like the ones that travel across the sea, except they fly. I expect it has something to do with the magic that makes their islands float. Of course, the only people I’ve heard of that use flying ships are pirates.”
“You think I came from pirates?” I asked, amused by the thought of it. My mother, however, was not.
“Of course he doesn’t mean that,” she cut in, giving him a heap of side eye. “You aren’t descended from pirates. The women that brought you looked very respectable. Besides, if there had been any sightings of flying ships over the Vale, we would have heard about it.”
My father shrugged his shoulders. “They did come in the dark, my love, and Skyla is only a short distance over the sea.”
“She’s not a pirate, and that’s the last I’ll hear of it,” my mother said, standing up and wiping her mouth with a napkin. “I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation, I just can’t think what it is right now.”
I caught a smirk on my father’s face, though he remained silent. He loved winding my mother up. I expect he loved the idea of having a pirate as a daughter too.
“What are you two doing today, anyway?” my mother asked, looking to Jay and me.
“The ball is tomorrow. I was thinking of helping you get all the last-minute bits ready for it.”
“Actually, I was hoping you’d come out with me today.” Jay interjected, looking at me. “I was planning on going into town, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me? I need to buy supplies for the staviary.”
“The party is in hand,” my mother said, to my surprise, scooping Fae up from Jay’s arms. “I think it would do the both of you a world of good to get out for a change. I’ll look after my darling Fae.” She rubbed noses with Fae, who let out a rather large burp. “Judith can help me.”
I looked to Jay, who gazed back at me with expectation in his eyes. “Okay, I guess we’re going into town.”
After wolfing down breakfast, my mother practically shooed me out of the castle. Avery and Williamson ran on ahead to get their horses ready as Jay and I ambled slowly through the courtyard.
“You planned this, didn’t you?” I asked.
“Maybe... but your mother was happy to let you go. Come on, how often does that happen?”
“Not for a long time,” I conceded. I almost never ventured into the nearby town of Shipley. The last time I had spent any decent amount of time there was before I was married, when Luka and I were courting. Since he’d died, I hadn’t had any reason to go back.
My stomach knotted into nerves as we jumped up onto our horses. No matter how much I loved the unicorns and had an affinity for them, I much preferred riding an animal that kept its feet on the ground. Avery took the lead with Williamson following up in the rear.
Blue skies with fluffy white clouds and a slight breeze made the morning as perfect as it could be. With anyone else, this journey would have filled me with dread, knowing the memories of the many times I had made the exact journey with Luka would come rushing back, but I found with Jay, it wasn’t happening.
I waited for a stabbing pain of loss to fill me like it had done a hundred times before, but as we trotted down the well-worn road to Shipley, that never came. Instead, I felt a sense of freedom that I was barely used to and an overriding feeling of wellbeing and happiness.
“What are you grinning at?” Jay asked, looking over his shoulder.
“Nothing. It’s just a lovely day. The weather is perfect.”
“It is,” Jay agreed. He slowed down so we could ride side by side. For the first time, I didn’t feel the shadow of Luka looking over my shoulder. He was there, all right, but safely in my heart where he belonged. A whisper of a breeze whistled past my ear, and I swear I could almost hear Luka giving me his blessing to be with Jay.
I could speak to unicorns, but I was under no illusion I’d really heard Luka’s voice in the wind. Even so, I felt it. It was time to let him go. It was time to move on.
“Are we really going to buy supplies?” I asked once we were on the periphery of the town. I had a feeling my mother wouldn’t let me out for something so inane as buying straw.
“Of course,” Jay replied. “What else?” He trotted off ahead, almost passing Avery. I couldn’t see it, but I knew there was a grin on his face. This wasn’t merely a shopping trip. We were heading into town for another reason. A reason my mother had agreed to.
The mud road soon gave way to cobbled streets as we left behind the farmhouses that dotted the land around the castle. They were replaced by houses and, as we rode closer to the center of town, shops.
Luka’s shop was still there, though it was now a grocery shop. Fresh fruits and vegetables had been meticulously piled up out front, a riot of color in the early morning sun. The sign Luka had carved himself had been covered over by a new sign, reading Mr. Robinson’s Fresh Produce. Again, I waited for the pang of pain to hit. It came, but not as hard as I expected. Jay slowed down again and caught the shop I was looking at.
“You okay?”
I nodded my head. I was okay. I was better than okay.
“Luka would have liked that his shop was used for something,” I said. “He’d have hated if it remained empty.”
“I wasn’t talking about what Luka would have wanted or not wanted. I was asking about you.”
I looked him square in the eye. “I’m good. Very good... I’m happy, Jay, and that’s the truth.”
He reached forward and gave my hand a squeeze.
“Where to now?” I didn’t know the town at all. I’d only ever come as far as Luka’s shop and had never had any need or desire to venture further into the hustle and bustle.
“I told you. We’re buying supplies.” He cantered on ahead again, and this time, I kept up with him. Some of the people of the town recognized me and waved and bowed as we rode past. I waved back, enjoying the simple pleasure of smiling faces happy to see me.
Avery kept having to speed up and ride around us, but it was clear Jay hadn’t told him where we were going, so he ended up doing this kind of shuffling dance where he was in front of us, then behind, then in front again. I almost felt sorry for him, but then I remembered that this was an outing for him too. It must have made a nice change from him standing outside my chambers all day.
Eventually, Jay pulled into a yard through some open wooden gates. A large sign hung over the gates that read Horse and Stable Supplies.
So Jay hadn’t been putting me on after all. We really were here to buy things for the staviary. I knew that the castle staviary was the only one of its kind in the kingdom… in all the kingdoms, probably. There wasn’t a dedicated shop for unicorns, but apart from their ability to fly and their amazing healing ability, they were much the same as horses.
A small man with a round stomach and ruddy cheeks walked out of a huge warehouse-style building when he heard the clip-clop of our horses’ feet enter the yard.
When he saw me, he immediately dropped into a low bow, and when he stood back up, his already ruddy cheeks appeared even redder.
“Good morning, Your Highness,” he said, running over to me. He looked a little unsure of himself, whether to hold out his hand to help me down or leave me to jump down myself. In the end, Jay saved him by jumping down from his own horse and extending a hand to me.
“Jay.” The man nodded his head in recognition.
“Loftus, this is Eliana. Eliana, Mr. Loftus.”
“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Loftus,” I said, extending my own hand. This time, he took it and did another bow while holding my hand.
“The… err… thing is ready,” Loftus said to Jay, all the while darting curious eyes to me. I didn’t meet the public very often, but when I did, there were two types. The first, who couldn’t get enough and brought flowe
rs and felt honored just to be breathing the same air as a princess, and the second, who were like Loftus. People who were unsure of protocol and scared to do the wrong thing. I was sure there were people who didn’t give a unicorn poop about meeting royalty, but I was yet to come into contact with one of those.
“The things I ordered for the staviary, you mean?”
Loftus looked startled at this, and his cheeks colored further. “Yes… that’s exactly it. Come with me and I’ll show you.”
We followed him into the warehouse. I’d expected a huge, open-plan building, but we’d ended up in a small office. It was neat enough, with nothing out of place, but it had an overwhelming smell of horse about it. It reminded me of Jay. Another door led to what I assumed to be the rest of the warehouse. Apart from the small desk with a couple of well-used pencils and a clipboard, and a filing cabinet, the only decoration was a hand-drawn picture of a horse.
Loftus picked up a clipboard and shouted out a couple of names. Within seconds, two young lads, aged about fifteen, came into the office from the second door.
“Tom, Jacob, I need you to get the order for Jay and pile it all up in the wagon to be delivered.”
If it was being delivered to the palace, and we’d ordered it, why were we here? I didn’t have time to ask because already Loftus was shouting out items, and the two boys were scurrying from the warehouse, through the office, and into the yard where I watched them pile up the wagon through a small window. The wagon was already full of hay, and another sat beside it, equally full. The boys had to climb up to put the items on top.
“Three new saddles,” he bellowed, and Tom came rushing back. I watched with fascination as they piled the equipment higher and higher.
“Five new sets of bridles… a broom… a new bucket...” The list went on and on. After the first two wagons were full, Jacob drove another around from a different part of the yard. I stepped outside, eager to feel the sunshine on my face and get away from the overwhelming smell of horse.
“We aren’t here to buy stuff for the staviary,” Jay murmured, coming up behind me. “Well, not only that. There’s something else too.”
I turned to face him as he slipped his hand in mine. A thrill of electricity ran up my arm at his touch.
“What are we here for, then?” I whispered, scared at the sudden intensity of my feelings. Feelings I’d been pushing down for way too long.
He didn’t speak. Instead, he led me back into the office. Loftus tipped his cap as we continued through the second door. This time, we were in the large warehouse. Tom ran past with an arm full of straps as we entered. At the far end of the warehouse was a huge pile of straw, bundled up and piled right to the roof. In the half where we stood, everything an equine enthusiast could ever want was stacked neatly on shelves or on the floor. Jay walked right past all this toward the straw. Light from an open skylight gave it the appearance of spun gold. It reminded me of my mother and how she’d been told to do just that—spin straw into gold. And she had with the help of Rumpelstiltskin. I pushed the thought away.
“What are we doing?” I asked as we got to the stack of straw bales.
He gave me the most beautiful smile, then pulled me around the corner of them. Where I’d thought there was nothing but hay, the bales I’d seen were actually a wall. Bales lined the end wall of the warehouse and the back wall too, but in the middle of the three straw bale walls was a floor of messy straw with another two bales with a tablecloth on it. On top of the cloth were a picnic meal and a bottle of wine.
“What’s this?”
“I asked your mother if I could officially take you out on a date. She was more than happy for you to dine at one of the fine restaurants in town as long as Avery and Williamson joined us, but I don’t know any fine restaurants in town,” he admitted. He leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “And I didn’t want Avery and Williamson to join us. This was the only compromise I could think of. Just pretend we’re somewhere fancy.”
I laughed. “I don’t know any fine restaurants either,” I said, sitting on a bale of straw that had been brought out as a seat. “I’ve never been to one. For all I know, this is the most exclusive restaurant in the whole of Shipley.”
“Oh, but it is!” he said, pouring me a glass of champagne. “We are the only two customers there will ever be. I rode down here late last night and organized it with Loftus. He was happy to set it up for me. He even said he’d do it for free, but I wouldn’t hear of such a thing. His only stipulation was that we don’t have candlelight.”
I looked at all the straw around us. “I can see why.”
He handed me the champagne. I took a sip, enjoying the bubbles and the sweet taste. Jay bit his lip, waiting for me to do something… say something.
“This is a date, Lia. Not as friends. I wanted to bring you out on a real date before we go to the ball together tomorrow. I wanted you to be sure this is what you want.”
“You brought me here as a practice date?” I said, suddenly full of nerves. It was one thing eating a picnic with a friend, even a romantic one with wine. It was another thing entirely to call it a date.
“I guess you could call it that.” He seemed suddenly unsure of himself, as though he didn’t quite know what to say or do. I understood how he felt, completely. I felt the same. This was the line, and it was up to me to decide if I officially wanted to cross it. “I wanted to make sure you were okay with that before we do it so publicly. The newspapers have been invited to the ball, and everyone will be gossiping and...”
I put the glass back down on the straw bale and knelt down until I was level with him. I leaned forward and brushed his ear with my lips. “I accept.”
He shuddered lightly and whispered back. “Accept what?”
I pulled back slightly so we were looking at each other eye to eye. My heart was hammering so hard I could barely speak. “I accept your invitation to this date.”
I brushed my lips against his, and our date became real.
2
14th May
“I knew we should have gone with the yellow,” my mother said, fussing around me as three people tried squeezing me into the dress that had been made especially for me.
“I like the blue,” I murmured under swathes of fabric. “I just wish I’d thought a bit harder about the style. New mothers shouldn’t be expected to wear ball gowns mere weeks after birth.”
“Don’t be silly, Eliana,” my mother shot back once my head had popped out of the dress. The three maids began the task of pulling it straight and making sure it was on correctly. I felt like a trussed-up leg of lamb. It didn’t help that the corset they’d made me wear under the dress was practically stopping my lungs from expanding. “You can’t go to a ball in loungewear and horsey clothes.”
If only. I’d worn loose fitting and baggy clothes for so many months, I’d forgotten what it felt like to have a waist. I’d been under the delusion that mere days after giving birth to Fae, I’d be back in my regular clothes, but here I was, weeks later, and I was still rocking maternity chic. Or, at least, I had been before today.
My hair had been thoroughly washed and styled, and for the first time in forever, didn’t have spit-up in it. I’d even gone so far as to let my mother bring a makeup artist in.
“You are right about the blue, though,” she admitted, clapping her hands together and giving me an appreciative look. “I’ve never seen you more beautiful. Motherhood really suits you.”
“I think a good night’s sleep is what suits me. Thank you, by the way.”
My mother had pretty much ordered Judith to look after Fae through the night, only bothering me when Fae needed to be fed. She dealt with the diaper changes and the general soothing that Fae usually needed when she woke in the night. My mother had brought a bed into my sitting room for her, so Fae was never too far away from me.
“That’s what mothers are for,” she said, ushering me to the full-length mirror. “Judith has agreed to do the same tonight so you
can stay at the party as long as you like. And unlike last night, she will have formula.”
I doubted Fae would like that, but I kept my mouth shut because I wanted to stay up late. I wanted to dance and eat and drink and be human. I wanted to enjoy being with Jay.
The kiss I’d shared with Jay the day before had been brief. Too brief. Any misgivings I’d had about the pair of us had melted away, but kissing him in a glorified shed was not where I wanted our relationship to begin. Jay was special. He’d always been special to me, and I wanted everything perfect. I wanted everything tonight. We’d kiss again, I was sure of it, but this time I’d be a true princess, and he’d be dressed fit for a prince. He’d told me he’d had my mother helping him out in that department too.
I’d never seen Jay in anything but scruffy work clothes. Seeing him in a suit would be a revelation. As I was imagining the pair of us dancing in each other’s arms, my mother angled the mirror toward me.
My mouth dropped open at the sight of me. I’d looked like a princess once, but those days seemed a long time ago. I’d gotten used to stained shirts and baby dribble covering everything. I’d gotten used to the lack of shape my body had molded itself into...until now. I was back to me again, but somehow better. My waist was clearly defined thanks to the corset that heaved my breasts high, giving me a feminine look that I’d always lacked.
Tears sprang to my eyes as I gazed down at myself. My long, blonde hair had been pulled from its ponytail and curled into waves that swept my shoulders.
“You look beautiful,” my mother whispered as she placed my tiara on my head.
I could barely tear my eyes from myself, but the part of getting ready I was most looking forward to was about to start. No matter how beautiful the makeup artist, hairdresser, and maids had made me, I wasn’t the belle of the ball. Fae was.
Eliana: Remembering Rumpelstiltskin (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 5) Page 24