Corinna dropped her hand and quickly checked for Alastar’s expression and, hopefully, acceptance. The man’s eyes were wide, his lips pressed tight. He took a deep breath that puffed out his chest, and then he promptly dropped off the couch and cracked his head against the floor.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
“I told you not to freak out,” Corinna scolded, dabbing a wet cloth on Alastar’s forehead. There was a slight scratch there from grazing against the wood of the floor. It looked worse than it should, what with the skin around it tinting purple. Alastar didn’t even flinch the whole time Corinna pressed on it.
“Yeah, but you didn’ tell me what there was to be freakin’ out about either,” Alastar said. His eyes were following Corinna’s every move, as though he was trying to find some mark or alteration on the other’s body that showed she had been given magic. Corinna sighed and sat back.
“Will you stop staring, please?” she asked. “I’m the same as I ever was. I just learned a new trick.”
“A trick ya gained after eating weird food. I’m just worried about you,” Alastar said.
Corinna sighed and backed away from her friend. They were in the kitchen now. The windows were boarded up with snow, but the house itself was warmer now thanks to the fire. Corinna set the cloth over the counter and sighed. She tilted open the bread box and pulled out what remained of the loaf, a tail end. She ripped it in half and offered one side to Alastar.
“Trust me, it’s normal,” she said and bit into her side. Alastar took his offered portion and ate a huge gash into the dry loaf.
“Tell me,” he said around his mouthful, “You don’ seem to think these powers came from the manor. So where do ya think they came from?”
“Personally, I think it must have come from my father. He died when I was young, and I never knew him well, but I think he had to have possessed magic. Even if he never learned it, he had it in his veins. I know it’s not my mother. The magic apples affected her,” Corinna explained. “If it had come from her side of the family, she wouldn’t have even noticed the juice was in her soup.”
“Alright then. I’ll agree with ya.” Alastar took another large bite and leaned on the dining table. Corinna smirked.
“Look at you slouching,” she said. “No one would ever guess you were raised to be a noble. You’re aloof and relaxed. Alexander was always saying how graceful he was. He weighed the same as a bear, but he could walk around without making a sound, and I don’t ever think I saw him out of proper posture.”
“Oh for king and country,” Alastar groaned, pushing himself up to a straight backed sitting position. “Wasn’ there anyone else in this house? All you talk about is Alexander this and Alexander that. You mentioned others. Didn’ they do anything too?”
Corinna leaned against the counter and ceased her chewing. Had she really been talking about Alexander so much? She nodded. Maybe it was time she got her mind off Alexander. She could worry about the prince after Alastar had left.
“Well there was Isabelle. She used to ask me to go on walks so she could act surprised every time we passed Gavin in the stables. Gavin wants to be a knight, but he’s no noble, so he would need a great act of servitude to the king to pull it off,” Corinna said. “Not like you. If you wanted to be a knight, you just have to be breathing.”
“Hard as this may be to understand, Corinna, not all nobles want to be knights.”
Corinna swept her gaze over her friend, but as soon as their eyes met, she couldn’t look away. Alastar was transfixing her with a deep and determined stare. His eyes seemed to suck the world away in their attempt to convey a message. Corinna felt her cheeks heating up and she forced her eyes away.
“Well, Gavin does. He’d do anything for the chance of honor and valor. And then there’s Veronica. She’s a bit of a mystery. I feel like she’s waiting for something to happen, something that will start her life. She’s young, but sometimes she seems older. I usually imagine her turning into someone just like my mother. She’s unimaginably sweet and hard working. I felt… like she was the sister I never had,” Corinna said, fixing her eyes on the white covered window.
They couldn’t see anything through those silly windows. Alvar had not been around to clean them off. Only the bedroom window was knocked free of snow, and that was because it was continually opened. Corinna lazily raised her hand, fingers relaxed.
“Pyff byre,” she said. A gust of wind rattled the glass, threatening to break them, and forcefully knocked and shook the snow from the sills. Alastar dropped his hand on the table.
“C-could ya warn me when you’re going to do that?” he asked, taking a deep breath. “It’s still not sunk in.”
“Sorry,” Corinna murmured. She lowered her eyes to the floor and put the last of her bread into her mouth. There was silence then, only broken by the remnants of Corinna’s wind as it threw itself into the distance.
Alastar didn’t understand, because Alastar hadn’t been there. He hadn’t met all the people and the horses. He hadn’t seen the garden and experienced the magic. Alastar didn’t know. Corinna pushed off the counter and smiled.
“Wait here,” she said and dashed through the house and into her room. She knelt by her satchel and unhooked it. Carefully, she excavated a delicate, twisted handle and a clear and ornate mirror. Then, holding it tender, she hurried back to the kitchen. “I can show you.”
“Show me what?” Alastar asked, setting his hands on his lap.
“Everything.” Corinna knelt by Alastar’s chair and held the mirror up for them both to see. “Belle is probably working on lunch about now,” she said. Sure enough, when Belle appeared, she was pacing in the kitchen between a steaming pot and a small pile of food. “And that’s Gavin,” Corinna explained, pointing to a man who was leaning on the counter and picking at the carrots there. He bit into one and Belle lightly smacked him on the shoulder. Gavin couldn’t help but smile.
“This is a special mirror, no doubt about it,” Alastar spoke in awe. He leaned over to get a better view. “These two are the knight and the chef, yeah?”
“Right. And this is Veronica,” Corinna said. The image in the mirror found the young girl in the music room, dusting the instruments. She was on the cello at the time. The image wavered, and Veronica froze. She turned around as though she had heard something loud crash into the floor. Corinna tensed. It was like she was looking right at them. The servant narrowed her eyes curiously and the image jumped to show the yard instead of her. Corinna let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. No one had ever stared so directly at her through the mirror before.
“Everything alright?” Alastar asked. He slipped his fingers around Corinna’s wrist, and Corinna realized she had been shaking. She nodded her head and took a deep breath.
“Yeah. Where were we?” she asked.
She showed Alastar the stables and explained each horse while the steeds grazed and flicked their tails back and forth. She showed Alastar the rooms she was given while she was there and explained Niviene and the changing color of her room. She showed the rose garden last, afraid Morgana would somehow know they was watching her. But the garden appeared with each glistening rose, and Morgana knelt and cared for one and never even glanced around. Alastar couldn’t see the tree, not even when Corinna explained it to him. He squinted in at the image of the fountain, but confessed he couldn’t even see a wobbly outline. Corinna sighed and the image changed to show the outside of the manor, all covered in snow.
“Well hang on now,” Alastar said, shaking Corinna’s hand as though that would make the mirror do what he wanted. “Ya talk about him so much, but you won’t show me what he looks like? I want to see my competition. Who am I up agains’ for yer attention?”
Corinna blushed and scoffed, but she had to admit that Alastar had a point. Corinna had been avoiding showing Alexander. For one, Alastar had complained Corinna talked about him too much, but for another, Alexander wasn’t exactly at his best in appearance right no
w. Corinna didn’t know what to expect, and she didn’t want to scare Alastar again.
“You don’t want to see him,” Corinna said. “He’s cursed, after all.”
“You’re right. I don’ want to see him, but I would like to see who’s gone an’ wormed their way into yer heart. You’ve shown me the others, why not this one?” Alastar asked, musing as he looked down into Corinna’s eyes.
Corinna looked into the young marquis’ eyes and felt an odd tug within her body. It was as if she wasn’t seeing Alastar at all. She saw the gentle reflection on her friend’s dark eyes of an empty ballroom filled with illusions of hope and love. She saw Alastar, clean and groomed and smirking at her. She saw smooth moving bodies dancing around the room, and Alexander looking down on her. She saw the prince’s smile, brilliant and wide and bright. Corinna flinched in the brightness of the sun reflecting off the mirror. She grunted and held her head.
“Are ya alright?” Alastar asked, pushing the mirror down to deflect the glare. “Ya look a bit pale.”
“Y-yeah. It’s just a headache. I’ll be alright.” Corinna rubbed her eyes and adjusted the mirror’s position. Then she cleared her throat. “You’re right though. The tour wouldn’t be complete without showing you the master of the house.”
“That it wouldn’t,” Alastar agreed, but he was still watching Corinna and not the mirror.
Corinna gripped the mirror with both hands and thought of Alexander, sitting in his room or stretching in the sun before a ride. She wondered what the prince was doing right now. And then the mirror showed the library, the windows wide open with snowy sun bursting into the room. Alexander was there, reading a romance book Corinna had seen only once before – when Alexander had been surrounded by fiction works in his room. Alexander frowned at the page before him, and Corinna could almost hear him growling without the need for sound.
“I’ll be,” Alastar began. “He really is a beast. It’s like seein’ a grizzly sittin’ on the couch… and wearing trousers.”
“He looks worse now, honestly. For awhile, I thought he was almost back to looking human. Now he’s even more beastly than when I first met him,” Corinna said.
“Oh yeah? How’s that?” Alastar asked. Corinna shrugged.
“I’m not sure how to explain it or why it happened. Suddenly he grew more hair and his claws got longer. His teeth sharpened, and he got a bit shaggy. You used to be able to see what he really looked like under the curse… at least a little bit. Especially in his eyes. Now it’s as if he’s suddenly given up hope and given in to being a monster,” she said.
Corinna frowned and looked over the prince in the mirror. Alexander wasn’t the prince of Corinna’s territory, but for awhile there, Corinna had wanted to call Alexander hers. Corinna knew next to nothing about her own royal family. The king was rather uninvolved, and his son was no better. When working everyday for food, the townspeople found it easy to forget he existed beyond the taxes on traded goods in the capital.
Alexander was a good prince. Alexander was learned and kind at heart, even if his pride wouldn’t always let that show. What kind of man would Alexander have been had his mother continued to live? For sure, his heart would not be so guarded. Why could the king not see the kind of son he’d helped raise?
“Alastar,” Corinna said, turning to look at her friend, who she saw was watching her closely. “When you return to see your father, could you send a message to the king of Paesaggia and put in a good word for Alexander. Just remind the king he still has a son and an heir that loves his father and his kingdom.”
“Honestly, I don’ think the king will care. Us nobles have a way of only bein interested in matters that work out best fer us.”
“That’s not true of all nobles. You and your father both care about more than titles. You care about each other, about family. I’m just asking you to remind the king that he has family too. Besides, if Alexander is never let out of that house, he’ll never find love and break his curse,” Corinna said, lowering the mirror and frowning up at Alastar.
“Really now? That doesn’ sound so bad. I mean, he obviously did sumthin to deserve the curse, right?” Alastar stood up from his chair and crossed his arms about his chest. Corinna jumped to her feet too and glared ahead.
“Alastar, be serious. It wasn’t his fault! Morgause had planned to curse him no matter what he did! He doesn’t deserve the curse, but the only way to break it is for him to find love,” Corinna said, surprised to find herself yelling. Alastar didn’t seem shocked at all and spoke next with the same volume as Corinna.
“Yeah? Ya sound like you love ‘em enough. Why don’ you scurry back inta the trees and marry the ugly bastard?” he said.
“That’s not how it is,” Corinna spoke up quickly, but found herself frowning. “I just know he deserves another chance.”
Alastar snorted. “Right. I’m sure that’s all that’s on yer mind.”
“It is,” Corinna stated determinedly.
For a short while, they stood in the small kitchen and kept their eyes away from each other. Alastar watched the windows, and Corinna watched a tiny ant crawling its way up the opposite wall. The silence was interrupted by the distant trot of a horse. Alastar cleared his throat then and ran his fingers through his shaggy, dark hair.
“You plan on goin’ back?” he asked, voice a tad softer than normal speech. Corinna shrugged.
“At least for a visit. I promised,” she answered.
Alastar shrugged then too and let out a grunt. “Right then. Sounds like yer uncle’s finally home. I best be getting’ back to work anyhow. I’ll come round later maybe.”
Corinna watched the ant and listened to the heavy footfalls on the floorboards as they moved around the kitchen table and out into the hall. They paused as they hit the front door, but only for a moment, and then the door opened and Alastar was gone. Corinna reached out toward the ant and smacked her hand against the wall right below it. As if sensing the danger, it moved in a faster, more direct path up the wall. Corinna felt her face burning, but she couldn’t place the emotion causing it.
Why had Alastar reacted that way? Surely he couldn’t honestly want someone to live alone and miserable forever. Was it because of how Alexander appeared right now, so wild and threatening? Or was it because Corinna wanted to go back for visits? Was Alastar so moved by the idea of Corinna leaving again? Corinna frowned and lowered her head. She wanted to be with Alastar always, to be able to laugh and pretend to work and plan out adventures together. Corinna wanted that, but the cold ache in her stomach urged her heart into understanding. That kind of relationship wasn’t going to last anymore. Somewhere in the last five months, things had become more complicated between the two of them, and that kind of simplicity just wasn’t enough anymore.
“By the heavens,” Alvar’ voice rang out. “Corinna, you’re back!”
Corinna loved her uncle, and she did her best to consol the old man, but her heart wasn’t in it. She wanted to go fix things with Alastar. She wanted to go back to when the older man had first shown up in the yard and redo the entire conversation, but she knew it would always end up the same. And what was she to say if she ran after Alastar? She wouldn’t apologize for feeling so strongly about Alexander’s curse. She wouldn’t promise never to leave. She couldn’t do either of those, so there was nothing more to say right now.
So instead, Corinna stood in her kitchen and hugged her uncle until her arms ached. For now she would worry about her family, about her foolish uncle and her ailing mother; then she could move on to Alastar and, hopefully, Alexander. Corinna was home now, but she wasn’t going to give up the fight that easily. By the new year, yes. Alexander needed to be free by the new year. That’s when Alastar went home, and this war needed to be over. Beyond that, it would make a wonderful beginning for everyone in the mansion – the start of a new year and a new life.
Chapter 24 – The Alastar Issue
Corinna’s mother was able to make it out of bed the next day
. It seemed Corinna being home was the only medicine she needed, since Corinna had been unable to give her any and yet she improved anyway. Alvar prescribed her some fever relaxing medicine, but she secretly hid it under her pillow instead of taking it. Corinna discovered her ploy, but Helen simply pressed her fingers to her lips and smiled. She was eating solid food again, so Corinna smiled back and didn’t ruin the plan. When Alvar checked up on the two of them for lunch, her mother thanked Alvar profusely for his medicine and told him she was feeling far better because of it. Alvar took the gratitude in with a beaming grin and left to make his rounds in the town but promised to be home for supper.
With the help of her daughter, Helen managed to walk around the house and even assist in making dinner. Alastar showed up about an hour before the meal. He smiled upon seeing her and embraced her warmly. When the rugged man fixed his eyes on Corinna, however, he seemed anxious. Corinna tried to encourage him with a smile, which Alastar returned, but the air still felt tense. Then Alastar returned his attentions to Corinna’s mother.
The Rose Chateau Page 31
