Rescuing Rapunzel

by Candice Gilmer

  “You are the woman I fell in love with. Whether you were my betrothed or just a peasant, I did not care. I wanted you. It did not matter then, and most certainly does not now. I never wanted a mysterious, stolen princess. I only ever used that promise to keep others away. I did not want them. I did not know what I wanted. Until you. Your voice. Your face. Your eyes. Even the mountain of hair. I wanted everything.”

  The ice in her eyes began to crack. “I should not even be here,” she whispered, the pain in her voice stabbing him in the gut.

  “But you are. We want you here.”

  “Are you certain?” Her eyes pooled with tears.

  “I am.” Nick pulled her against him, and as soon as they touched, her tears poured out. After a few moments, Nick scooped her up and carried her to the bed.

  He had every intention of laying her on it and letting her go, but he could not do it. She curled on her side, the tears still bubbling out, and he could not bring himself to leave her there with such pain in her heart.

  Instead, he scooted onto the bed with her, pulling her into his arms, and falling back, letting the feathered bedding swallow them both as she cried. He whispered soft words against her skin, kissing her brow and stroking her shoulders, anything to lessen her pain. Slowly she began to calm herself. He did not let go, holding her until all the emotions were spent.

  This was what he wanted, to hold her to him, to soothe her tears, to make her feel better. That was what husbands did, was it not? Soothe their wives?

  Nick did not realize how long he had been lying there, since Tressey had fallen asleep against his shoulder, her tears exhausted, and his own exhaustion overtaking him. He dreamed of Tressey singing, her voice ringing out over a gloomy hall, pushing away dark shadows.

  It was a wonderful dream–her voice, clearing the air. He would have been quite happy to see how the dream ended, if he was not jarred awake by a shriek.

  Nick bolted upright, knocking Tressey out of his arms, ready to fight as though the castle were under attack. What he was not ready for was the maid Alda slamming him upside the head with a chamberpot.

  “Ouch!” A slew of very unkind curses flew out of him and the front door slammed open, rattling the nearby table with its crunch against the wall.

  “Nick!” His mother’s voice hit his ears first, in a tone he knew well.

  “Oh my!” Kiki stifled a giggle. Gah, was the girl always around? He was going to have to restrain her, make Bryan keep an eye on her, though even with Bryan’s legendary tracking skills, Nick doubted he would be able to keep Kiki in his sights.

  “What is…” Tressey rose, rubbing her eyes.

  The duchess marched across the room to Nick, grabbing him by the ear with all her might, and pulled him away from the bed. “Have you no shame? In all my days, I have never seen such an ungrateful, selfish…” she went on and on, spinning a colorful diatribe of insults at Nick. Some were standard mother rants, others more specifically oriented for the situation. “… now the wedding will have to be at the end of the week. What were you thinking? How dare you compromise…”

  Nick barely heard her, focused instead on trying to pry her fingers off his ear–evidently, his one weak spot, because try as he might, he could not bring himself to stand upright with her fingers clamped down as they were.

  “Compromised? Surely not, Duchess, please…let me explain…” Tressey climbed out of the bed, charging forward, her dress swishing around her in a rumpled mess.

  Nick loved how her hair was tousled around her and sleep still hung in her puffy eyes. He could not help a smile, and could not wait until he could wake to her by his side every morning.

  The duchess waved her finger in his face, distracting him. “You are not allowed to find this funny, young man! How dare you!” And off she went again.

  Even though he was half bent over, to his mother’s level as she waggled her finger in his face, on a thundering roll, he could not help finding this situation absurd. Even more absurd, the maid kept slapping him with a pillow every few seconds, trying to beat him out of the room.

  “Mother, please,” Kiki said, trying to break into the fray.

  “Do not, Enrika!” Mother snapped at her, and faced Nick again.

  Not that it stopped Kiki.

  This could have gone on for hours if a shrill, almost chilling, high-pitched note had not echoed throughout the chamber.

  Everyone froze–the duchess releasing Nick, Kiki stopping mid sentence. Even Alda halted her assault by pillow.

  The winds hurled through the room, slamming into all of them as the note reached its crescendo, blowing Tressey’s short hair around her face, making some of the tousled locks stick out at odd angles.

  The only thing that dared move in the utter silence was a few of the feathers from the pillow Alda had been using, floating in the air. Everyone stared at Tressey, Nick just as shocked at such a loud sound coming out of a delicate thing like Rapunzel.

  She narrowed her eyes, glaring at each person in the room. “All of you need to leave. Now.”

  Nick took a step forward. “Tressey–”

  She raised her hand. “Everyone.” She took a single step forward, a glide almost. “I have had a most trying day.” She looked to Kiki. “Take Her Grace and explain our encounter in the dungeon.”

  “You were in the dungeon?” the duchess said, eyebrows raised.

  “My lord,” Rapunzel said, glancing at Nick. “I shall see you when I break my fast.”

  Nick found himself doing exactly as Rapunzel wished, and headed out the door with his mother and sister in tow.

  “You know,” his mother said, “I think she shall be a fine wife.”

  “I know she will be,” Nick replied.

  “I am still putting guards on her room.”

  Nick let out a sigh.

  Chapter 39

  I crept across my bedroom floor to a bookshelf on the far wall. Slipping my hand along the top left side, I felt for the…

  There. An indentation. I slid my fingers along it, feeling for the lever to release the shelf. It thudded with a clank that felt as if it shook the room. I paused, my arms stiff, afraid at any moment my maid would burst in, wondering what I was doing in the middle of the night, fiddling with shelves.

  The shelf slid to the right, revealing an arched hole in the wall, the passage exactly where Kiki had said it would be.

  Devilish, that girl was.

  I grabbed my candle, not about to enter the dark tunnel without some light.

  “Seven,” I whispered. Seven doors I had to pass to reach Nick’s rooms. I took a deep breath and entered the tunnel.

  I padded along as quietly as possible, for I did not want to see any mice or spiders or any other rodents as I walked. My heart raced with every step. I waved my hand through spider webs and began to wonder about the intelligence of this idea. I had put on a lovely night shift, wrapped a robe around me and covered my head with a hood but, sliding through the spider webs, I was certain I would look a fright by the time I got to Nick’s rooms.

  The duchess had put two guards outside my door with explicit instructions to not allow any male into my room, for any reason. If I were to leave, I had to tell them where I was going–a shock, to be certain, when I emerged to speak to Kiki.

  I had intended to take a note to Nick’s room and leave it under the door, asking him to come see me in my rooms but, because of the guards, I knew he would never be able to come in. Instead, I turned to the only resource I had in the castle–Kiki.

  We had talked a great deal about the day and everything that had happened. At least, everything she knew about. She asked me several times about Lady Eva, if anything had been said between us before she left, but I denied it.

  That was one of the main reasons I wanted to speak to Nick. I had to ask him some questions about what Lady Eva had said. I had sat, quill in hand, scribbling out memories from our conversations in the tower. The things he had said about the women here at the castle, in part
icular. Not once did I remember him saying anything about breaking his betrothal to marry one of them. Nor had he mentioned any of them with the kind of fondness I would expect a man to have for someone he was considering marrying.

  And the betrothal.

  We very much needed to discuss the betrothal. It was ripping me apart. I knew not if I should trust the betrothal and the circumstances in which I found myself, or if I should try being free, learning who I was, before bonding to someone else. I did not know who I was, did not know anything about my real family.

  I needed to figure those things out. I owed my real parents that much at least.

  But I also did not want to be used as a pawn in a business arrangement. I wanted to marry because I wanted it, not because I was a prize to be won.

  While Duchess von Hohburg would not be happy about it, at the very least the betrothal would have to be put off. A year, perhaps. To give me time to better understand what was expected of me as Katherina von Stroebel. Rather, Lady Katherina Greta von Stroebel. I had to remember that title–they were so important here.

  In short, I needed to speak to Nick. Waiting until morning would preclude sleeping, so I went to talk to Kiki. She agreed with me about putting off the betrothal for some time, and together we came up with a plan to let me speak to Nick.

  The very plan that had me walking through this hardly-used corridor, avoiding spider webs and trying to find Nick’s room. Kiki had not mentioned the spider webs. We would have to have a little talk about leaving out important details.

  “Five,” I whispered as I passed another arched doorway.

  I noticed immediately that the spider webs had diminished, as if this area were actually used on occasion. Undoubtedly by Kiki, sneaking about gathering gossip like a squirrel storing nuts for the winter.

  I could not help smiling as I passed the sixth door.

  A few steps farther and I stood outside the seventh door. Nick’s door.

  I paused at this last hurdle, suddenly unsure if I really wanted to enter his room. I still could go back, slip into my bed and pretend this had not happened. He would never know I had gotten this far, that I had come to see him.

  My racing heart thundered in my ears. Was this a horrible mistake? I was sneaking into his room. Probably not the thing a lady should be doing. Yet I did not feel like a lady anyway, so the point was moot.

  I put my hand on the door, then snatched it off and took a step back. Maybe I should wait. Maybe, just maybe, I would be better off heading back to my room.

  No.

  No, I had come this far. I was a grown woman. Nick and I needed to speak. Now. Tonight. We had to talk through this, or…or…

  We just had to.

  I loved Nick. I would not make excuses to stay away. Had I not been trapped long enough, not just by Gothel’s tower, but by my own fears?

  My fears would not control me anymore.

  I had reached for the door and was looking for the little round handle Kiki told me was on each one, when it jerked open and I leaped back, yelping.

  “Tressey?” Nick whispered. He held a candle, his hair was rumpled and his eyes wide with shock.

  “I…”

  I did not have time to think as he pulled me into his chamber.

  Chapter 40

  Nick had waited as long as he could, having planned to sneak down the passage to Tressey’s room undetected. He had argued with himself against going a thousand times–he should let her be, at least tonight–but every time, his need to be near her had filled him.

  When he had pulled the door open, he had jerked in shock–there she was, standing before him. Dusty from the old passage, her hands shaking from nerves, but she had come.

  He pulled her inside, wrapping his arms around her in a deep embrace.

  She let out a sigh, whispered his name, and he brushed the hood of her robe back to reveal her face. Her lips parted, not quite in a smile but a mixture of wonder, hesitation, and something else he could not define.

  “Surprise,” she whispered.

  “You are amazingly resourceful,” he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

  “Kiki is an amazing resource.”

  He snorted. “That she is.” He stroked her soft cheek, marveling at the texture of her skin. He let his fingers wander toward her jaw, following the hard line, a contrast to the smoothness of her skin.

  She stiffened and pulled away from him. She paced about his bedroom, the candle in her hand trembling.

  “Tressey?”

  “We need to speak,” she said.

  Nick nodded. That was not how he wanted to spend the night with her, but there was much to be said. “Of course. Please, sit down.” He led her to the study area and headed to the cupboard where he kept his personal stock of spirits. “Would you like a drink?” He knew he needed one, for he did not want to speak to her, but hold her, touch her and anything else she would allow. But that determination hung in her eyes, so he poured himself a generous glass.

  “Yes, please,” she replied, adjusting the robe around her body to cover herself.

  He poured some for her and handed her the glass, taking a seat on the chair next to hers. “What do you wish to speak about?” he asked, sipping from his glass.

  She took a sip, wincing at the sharp taste of the whiskey, but it seemed to fortify her. “I need to go back to Castle von Stroebel.”

  That was the last thing he had expected her to say. “Why is that?”

  “I need to know my family, Nick. Who I am, where I come from.”

  “Do you not want to be my betrothed?”

  She sipped on her drink again, not wincing this time. “No, I do not.”

  “Why not?” Nick asked.

  She sighed. “Because, there is so much more to this than just you and me. I cannot expect you to fulfill a promise made by our parents. You were a child. I was a baby. A prize, at the very least…”

  “You are a not just a prize to be won, Tressey.”

  “But you would gain–”

  “I would gain more land. More responsibility.” That very thought had been plaguing him since the dowry had come up. The responsibility of not only taking care of his own province, but of hers as well. He was just beginning to learn how to tend the few farms his father had given him. Now he would have double the lands. Double the tenants. It was a vast undertaking and he was not sure he was ready.

  “More wealth,” she added.

  “I did not look for you for all the years because I wanted more land.”

  “Then why did you do it?”

  He ran his hand through his hair. “I did it because it was the right thing to do. To help a family.”

  “I see,” she said as she stood and began pacing around the room. “We might not suit.”

  He raised his eyebrow. “You think we would not make a good match? Now?” After everything they had been through in the last few weeks, now she had doubts about their compatibility? Suddenly, he felt as if she was back in her tower, and he was on the ground, shooting arrows at the window that never made it there.

  “It is not that I think we would make a bad match,” she said softly as she sat down again. “It is more than that. I do not want you to marry me because you feel you have to.”

  “I do not feel that,” he said.

  Her green eyes were wide as she stared at him. “Then what is it you feel?”

  He crossed to her and knelt before her chair. “I want you to be happy, Tressey. More than anything, I want you to feel that you are free.”

  She blinked at him. “I do not feel free here.”

  “Why not?” he asked.

  He did not understand. She had the freedom of the castle, was able to go anywhere on the grounds she wished, do anything she chose. Why would she not feel free?

  “Because, Nick, I feel watched.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “It seems like I am constantly doing something wrong. How can I possibly make you, or anyone for that matter, a good wife, if I am naive a
bout everything I must do?”

  Nick stared into her eyes, filled with torment. “By being who you are. I do not expect a perfect wife. I would never last married to someone perfect.” He sighed. “Tressey, until I met you I did not want to be wed at all. Why do you think I spent so much time avoiding Kiki’s friends?”

  “You did not avoid Lady Eva much,” she said.

  He raised an eyebrow. “Lady Eva is as skilled a tracker as Bryan.”

  A tiny smile crept across her face. “That I believe.”

  He touched her trembling hand, squeezing the soft skin. She surprised him by squeezing back. “If I said I wanted you to stay, that would be cruel of me. I understand why you want to see your home, to learn where you come from. You have had your entire world turned on its axis. I imagine you are trying to put everything in order, to regain some form of normalcy in your life.”

  She nodded.

  “If I insisted you stayed, I would be no less cruel than Gothel.” His shoulders slumped at the words, for he knew it was true. She needed to know who she was and what her life might have been. “I refuse to be so cruel to you. If you wish to leave when the von Stroebels do, I will not stop you.”

  She nodded. “I still wish to end the betrothal.”

  Nick blinked. “Why?”

  She shrugged. “Because I must know who I am before I can pledge myself to someone else.”

  He did not like that, and he knew he would not be the only one, but he had made some ground tonight and did not want to lose it now. “If that is your wish.” Nick felt as if another dagger had been stabbed in his chest. This one, though, was right in his heart.

  “Oh, thank you,” she said, almost falling out of her chair into his arms. “Thank you for understanding.”

  Nick was not sure he did, but he would try to respect her wishes.

  What choice did he have? He loved her.

  Chapter 41

  I spoke with the grand duke today. While I was nervous, the discussion went well and I told him what I knew. And proceeded to run away to my room, to take a bath.