by Everly James
Paul laughed. “Open it.”
“Excuse me?” Ellie had expected him to shoo her away.
“Open it up. I think you’ll like what’s in there.”
Ellie pushed her hand on the partially ajar door. What was in there took her breath away.
It was a library, with what must have been ten thousand books lining the shelves. Tall, rolling ladders peppered the shelves, and there were a dozen squashy couches and armchairs spread around the space. The windows let in the weak winter light, framing a winter wonderland beyond the panes. Ellie could see the forest where Melody had her secret treehouse tucked away.
“This was Melody’s favorite place when she was a child,” Paul said with misty nostalgia in his voice. “I always knew if I couldn’t find her, she was in this room tucked away with a trusty book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other.”
“I would have slept in this room as a kid,” Ellie said in wonderment.
Paul chuckled and walked over to one of the shelves. “I don’t come in here often enough. I made it a sort of habit to stay away. It’s important to give your child some room to be themselves.” He sighed. “A habit my dear wife has never learned.” There was sorrow tinging his words. “It also seems the cleaning staff have not made it a habit to come in here.” He touched a slightly dusty shelf with his long fingers. “I’ll have Herschel speak to them about it.”
“This place…is just incredible,” Ellie said.
Paul smiled kindly. “You must have been quite overwhelmed when you found out who Melody really is. In line for a crown and all of that.”
Ellie was a little shocked at the abrupt change in conversation but went with the flow. “I was. I’m afraid I didn’t behave as nicely as I would have wanted. Certainly not as nicely as my own mother would have expected.”
Paul laughed. “Aren’t we all just trying to live up to our mother’s expectations?”
“I guess,” Ellie replied, a little confused.
“Ellie,” Paul said slowly. “I think you are very, very good for my Melody. As good as it gets. I hope to be seeing an awful lot more of you in the coming months.”
Ellie blushed. “I hope the same, sir.”
“My girl is going to need you more than I can possibly say.”
Ellie didn’t know what to say to that pronouncement, so she said nothing at all.
Paul walked to the door. “You’ve heard that supper will be in our separate rooms?”
“I did. Herschel told me.”
“Excellent. But just know that I’m going to instruct him to bring you your food in here. I think you might like spending the evening in here with one of Melody’s ten thousand friends.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Ellie ate dinner and spent most of the evening in the library. After she’d shut the door tight and knew no one was watching, she’d taken several rides on the rolling ladders, singing like she was Belle in the Beast’s castle.
As the sun had totally set, she decided to head back to her room with more than a few books in tow. Low-light electric candles burned in sconces attached to the stone walls. She was humming a few bars from one of Belle’s songs when she stepped back inside her room. She shrieked and dropped the pile of books she was holding onto her feet, which made her collapse from the pain.
“Sorry!” Melody said, standing up from the sofa and rushing to help. “You okay?”
Ellie winced. “Fine. It’s more my pride that’s ruined than anything else.”
Melody laughed. “I’ve dropped a pile of books on my foot more than once.” She gathered up the tomes and helped Ellie to her feet.
“Are you feeling better?” She thought Melody’s face looked a little puffy like she’d been crying.
Melody had a steely glint in her eye. “Let’s do something spontaneous.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
Melody put the books down on the coffee table. “I know what will go great with these books.”
“What?”
“Tea and cookies.”
“It’s really late. Surely the cooks are already in their beds?”
Melody grabbed Ellie’s hand. “Which is why what we’re doing is a little risky. Mother hates people in the kitchen who aren’t staff. I once made a mess when I was six years old trying to make my own snickerdoodles. Let’s try it again, this time with adult faculties.”
Ellie didn’t have time to protest. Melody was tugging her down the hallways against her will.
The castle was so large they didn’t have to sneak around. Ellie assumed the staff lived on the opposite side of the castle, though she had no clue where Paul and Regina slept.
It was an uneventful journey to the kitchen. Melody fumbled for the light switch, and soon the place was illuminated.
It was a kitchen unlike any Ellie had ever seen before. Dozens upon dozens of copper pots hung from racks suspended from the ceiling. There were no fewer than four Wolf brand commercial stoves with double ovens on each and hammered copper stove vents adorning them like fancy hats. There were six farmhouse sinks set into the white marble countertops.
“So, what do you think?” Melody asked, opening up a refrigerator that looked like it belonged in a restaurant. “Think you can cook in here?”
Ellie’s jaw was still hanging open. “This is the most beautiful kitchen I’ve ever seen.”
Melody had two dozen eggs in her hands as she shut the refrigerator doors. “It should be. Mother had it renovated about six times to get it exactly how she wanted it. My dad never got over how picky she was being about it.” Melody fashioned her voice to be deep and rumbly like her dad’s. “Regina, you haven’t darkened the doorway of the kitchen in seventeen years.”
Melody walked over to the pantry and emerged a few moments later with white sugar, brown sugar, and flour. “But, she insisted. Went through twelve of the best designers in Madrana before she found one who could ‘articulate her vision’ as she put it.” Melody looked at the pile of ingredients on the countertop. “I want chocolate chip. Is that okay with you?”
Ellie nodded.
Soon, they were elbow-deep in cookie dough and laughing together. Melody told stories about her childhood, including the day she’d played hide and seek with Herschel and it took him four hours to find her. When he did, she was curled up asleep on his bed.
“I can’t imagine playing hide and seek in this place. Weren’t you ever scared of how big it was?”
Melody shrugged. “When it’s all you’ve known, it’s not weird to live in a place like this. It’s just home. That’s all I knew in the whole entire world: home. And besides that, I was a pretty fearless kid.” Melody, her hand covered in dough, tried to scratch her face with her shoulder.
“Hang on, you’ve got something on your nose.” Ellie ran to get a paper towel that she wet under the faucet, then dabbed at Melody’s face. They stared at each other. “This reminds me of that day in the garden. When you used your handkerchief to get the dirt off my nose.”
Melody smiled and leaned in a little closer. “That was the day you fell in love with me, wasn’t it?”
Ellie laughed softly, then met Melody’s lips halfway.
“When you’re quite done,” came an icily cold voice from the far side of the kitchen. “I hope you clean up this mess.”
Ellie and Melody jumped apart like they were on fire.
“Queen Regina,” Ellie said, inclining her head. “This was…my idea.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Melody said. “It was mine.”
Regina was staring at them with venom in her eyes. “I don’t care whose idea it was as long as you clean it up. I don’t want the chef to have to be ankle-deep in bowls and pots first thing in the morning.” She was in her bathrobe and looked diminished somehow to Ellie, but she thought it wasn’t her choice of attire that did it. She looked sickly without her makeup on.
“Yes, Mother,” Melody said.
“Good night,” Regina said coldly. Then she left the
room.
Ellie clapped a hand over her chest. “Good Lord, I nearly had a heart attack.”
“She tends to sneak up like that on people,” Melody said, dropping cookie dough on a Silpat.
Ellie stared at her, remembering something that Herschel had told her. “What happened earlier? Why weren’t you feeling well?”
Melody looked at Ellie determinedly. There were tears in her eyes. “Can we just enjoy this tonight, and not ask questions? I just want this one night with you, Ellie. Please. That’s all I ask of you.”
She was pleading.
Ellie nodded. “Let’s get these cookies baked, some tea made, and head back to my room. We can cuddle up on the sofa and read until we fall asleep.”
And they did.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Melody had snuck back to her room sometime in the night, a fact for which Ellie was eternally grateful. She didn’t fancy having the Queen knock on her door in the morning and finding out they’d slept together, even if nothing sexual had happened at all.
Ellie pulled on her clothes and walked downstairs. She saw as she passed the narrow windows that a fresh blanket of powder had fallen. The snow looked like a bowl full of sparkling, fresh sugar. Following her nose to the dining room, out of which wafted scents of bacon, eggs, and cinnamon rolls, she made it without getting lost once. That was a first for her.
Prince Paul was sitting at the head of the table holding a newspaper in his hands. “Good morning,” he said without looking up.
Ellie glanced at the table. There was enough food for twenty people, as usual, but only two place settings. “Is the Queen not well again? And where is Melody?”
“Melody decided to sleep in this morning. And the Queen is having some personal time after her sojourn to the kitchen last night.” He put down his newspaper and Ellie was quite relieved to see that he had a grin on his face. “Don’t worry. I’m the fun parent.”
Ellie didn’t know how to respond to this pronouncement, so she just gave the Prince a small smile and started loading up her plate with a small hill of food. Just as she was digging in, Melody came running into the dining room.
“Hurry, eat faster,” Melody said, slightly out of breath.
“What’s wrong?” Ellie asked through a mouthful of creamy goat cheese and scrambled eggs.
Melody grinned. “Nothing’s wrong.” Her braids were loose around her shoulders; she was wearing a fluffy cream wool sweater over a white t-shirt. Dark denim and fur-lined snow boots completed the look. “We’re going into town. With Herschel. He’s arranged everything.”
Paul looked up from his read. “Did you tell your mother?”
Melody bit her lip. “No.”
“Good,” Paul replied shortly. “She doesn’t need to know.”
“Hurry, hurry,” Melody said.
Ellie wrapped a cinnamon bun up in a napkin and stuck two slices of crispy, thick bacon in her mouth, eating them at the same time.
Melody kissed her nose. “I love you.”
Ellie heard the newspaper rustle behind her, and she knew that Paul was staring at them both. “I love you.”
Three minutes later, they were sitting in the back of a black sedan decked out in snow tires, Herschel in the front seat.
“I shall remain in the car, if you don’t mind. I have a bit of reading to do. If you need anything, text me,” Herschel said with a smile.
“Will do.” She turned back to Ellie. “The shops are opening up for us a little early,” Melody explained. “I didn’t want to disturb business.”
Ellie bit into her cinnamon roll, which was nearly as good as the ones her grandmother made. Nearly. “Where are we going?”
“The chocolate shop first,” Melody said. “Then the next store is a surprise.”
They wound their way from the castle’s perch halfway down the mountain and into town. There were men sweeping snow off sidewalks and spreading salt to keep ice from forming. The sedan slowed to a stop in front of the chocolate shop. It looked like something out of Harry Potter.
“I feel like we’re in Hogsmeade,” Ellie said with a smile, wiping her cinnamon roll-covered fingers on the cloth napkin she’d pilfered from the dining room.
“That’s the idea,” Melody replied with a grin.
They hopped out and knocked twice on the door. An old woman with tawny skin opened the door. “Bella! Bella!” she cried, reaching up from her height of an even five feet and squeezing Ellie’s cheeks. Her grey top knot was threatening to come undone in her enthusiasm.
“Principessa!” she said, kissing Melody on the cheek. “I am so happy you have come back to my store.”
“Sophia is from Italy,” Melody explained. “But trained by the finest chocolatiers in Switzerland for ten years. She moved here about half a century ago and has been selling her chocolates ever since. They’re magical.”
The place smelled like heaven. Rich, chocolatey notes swum through the air and mixed with hints of citrus, hazelnut, and pecan.
“Samples!” Sophia said. She started eagerly filling up a silver tray with little truffles and chocolate bites made from perfectly tempered, shiny chocolate. Some of them had swirls of white chocolate on top, or dustings of nuts.
Ellie ate bite after bite, moaning appreciatively.
“You like?” Sophia asked with a partially toothless grin. “I give you more to take home.”
Ellie reached into her wallet to pay, but Sophia shook her head. “For friend of Principessa, you do not pay.”
Ellie glanced at Melody, who gave her a single curt nod. While Sophia was busy filling up an enormous box with chocolates, Melody whispered. “My parents provide Sophia with six figures a year in revenue. Trust me. I try to pay her, and she insists that I don’t. Pass it along to the first person who needs it instead, okay?”
Ellie nodded.
Sophia turned back around with a box filled with chocolates that she passed to Ellie. “Principessa, I am glad to be seeing you with a woman again. No boys. They are evil. Remember this.”
Ellie guffawed and Melody joined in.
They left the chocolate shop and walked past a tailor and a bakery before getting to the pen shop.
They stepped inside and were greeted with the sharp scent of ink and paper.
“Welcome back, Princess,” said a man with an American accent. It was tinged with hints of the Chicago and Boston areas.
“Jerry,” Melody said, reaching out as he kissed both her cheeks. “This is Ellie, my girlfriend.”
Jerry grinned. “We have Melody in common. We used to date.”
“Oh,” Ellie said with a bit of surprise in her voice.
“We’re much better off as friends,” Melody explained to Ellie. “Much, much, much better—”
“Melody!”
A woman came screeching at them from the back of the shop, followed by another handsome man.
“Ellie, this is Marcy and Dylan, my two best friends in the whole world.”
Darcy took both of Ellie’s hands and spread her arms to the side to get a good look at Ellie. “So, this is the woman who took our Melody away from us for so long.”
“Um—” Ellie couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
“She’s gorgeous,” Dylan said. “Well done.”
Ellie felt a bit like a monkey in a zoo, being talked about like she wasn’t capable of understanding. “Do you both work here?”
Marcy and Dylan laughed.
“No, but Melody told us her plans this morning and we begged Jerry to let us hide in the back. He owes us after the number of times I’ve been his designated driver on guy’s night,” Dylan explained.
“Speaking of me,” Jerry said. “I think Melody wanted Ellie to see the pens here.”
Ellie was feeling more than a little bit overwhelmed.
“Give her some space to breathe,” Melody intoned to her friends. “You’re suffocating her.”
Ellie found Melody’s hand and gave it a squeeze of thanks. They wandered throug
h the shop that was filled wall-to-wall with fountain pens of all colors, size, and shapes. There was even one whole section dedicated to fountain pen ink in every color of the rainbow. The ink glistened like jewels even under the dim shop lights.
“Pick one,” Ellie said to Melody.
“What?”
“Pick one. I want to buy you the pen that you will use to write your travel essays,” she said emphatically.
“You can’t afford—”
“Consider it your Christmas present,” Ellie said forcefully.
Melody grinned and walked over to the back wall, pointing towards a pen that was wrapped in all the colors of the visible light spectrum. Every single color of the rainbow was inlaid into the wood that made up the pen.
“That’s exactly the one I would have chosen for you,” Ellie said with a smile. “It’s a unicorn pen. One of a kind.” She turned to Jerry. “You take credit cards, right?”
Jerry nodded and wrapped the pen up in its box.
“Wait! You need ink!” Ellie ran back to the ink section and plucked an amethyst color off the shelf. “This one.”
“A perfect choice,” Jerry said with a grin. “You ladies have plans for the rest of the day?”
“We were going to invite ourselves to dinner,” Marcy interjected with a grin. “At the castle.”
“Let’s go out,” Melody said.
There was some noise outside the shop that distracted her.
“The Tavern?” Dylan asked. “It’s our treat. We want to hear all about your time in the vegetable cult.”
Ellie heard a rapping at the window and saw, to her horror, six or seven people standing there with their hands and noses pressed up against the glass. One had a camera and was zooming in on Ellie’s face.
The door to the shop opened. Herschel was standing there looking harassed. He held the door shut so the people outside couldn’t get in.
“It appears we have some fans,” he said wearily. “Shall we head back to the car?”
“Dinner at eight at the tavern?” Dylan asked. “We’ll get the private room.”
