Golden (19 page)

In the center of the meadow, a great ring of torches set fire to the night. And in the center of that
stood Rue—Rapunzel now, of course—and Alex. Beside them was a very startled company of men on horseback. Soldiers, by the looks of them, each and every one with Harry s bemused and slightly alarmed expression on his face, and armed to the teeth besides.

The largest and tallest of them was just getting out of the saddle when I opened my eyes. He took several steps and threw his arms around Alex, lifting him in a hug so fierce he picked him clean up off the ground.

He set him down again and there were several moments of earnest conversation I wasn't quite close enough to hear. I was pretty certain I heard the words “battle” and “neighboring kingdom,” and finally the word “magic,” at which the king, for surely this could be no other than Alex's own father, gave a great laugh, took two more steps, and lifted Rapunzel off her feet too. And I remembered what Alexander had said, that the neighboring king feared magic of all kinds.

Then Alexander's father turned to his soldiers and, in a voice I was pretty sure was loud enough to be heard back at his own palace, a full day's ride away, said, “I give you Rapunzel, who has saved us from destruction and is to marry my son in three weeks' time.”

At this, several more things happened all at once. The soldiers began to cheer. Harry dropped the cat, and I heard a sound like a set of pots and pans doing their best to impersonate a set of wind chimes. Into
the meadow came the tinker's cart, with Mr. Jones sitting behind the horse and the sorceress at his side.

While Melisande was busy being reunited with her daughter, not to mention meeting her future son-in-law, the tinker had come to stand at my side.

“You were successful, then,” he said.

“So it would seem,” I replied.

He put his arm around my shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “I never doubted you would be, you know. I have always believed in the strength of your heart.”

“You had more faith in it than I did,” I answered.

“No,” he said quietly. “I don't think that can be so. For if it were, none of what I see now would be happening. I gather you have given up your name.”

I shrugged. “I never really liked it, to tell you the truth.”

“What will you be called?”

“I don't quite know. I have something in mind, but I want to think it over a little more first. May I ask you a question?”

“Of course you may,” the tinker said.

“Who is the girl that you hold in your heart? I didn't mean to look without permission, honestly I didn't. But I caught a glimpse once, years ago, and I—”

He put both hands on my shoulders, giving me a shake to stop the flow of words.

“Look now,” he said. “See if you can answer that question for yourself.”

And so, on that night when I thought I had already seen all that love might have to offer, I looked into the tinker's eyes. There was Harry, just as I expected, only now the girl I had seen before was almost at his side. She had but to take one step for them to stand shoulder to shoulder. To reach out to place her hand in his. And I understood that, in the tinker's heart at least, at Harry's side was where the girl belonged. Once more I saw the glint of gold that framed her face, and thought my own heart would crack with grief.

Then she shifted, ever so slightly, and I saw that the gold came from a kerchief with gold-petaled flowers embroidered on it. Flowers with centers as dark as the girl's eyes. And in those eyes, I saw the babe she had once been. I saw the tinker as a young man bow his head over hers as he held her in his arms. I saw him let her go, and what that letting go had cost.

I bowed my own head then, and closed my eyes. The visions wavered and were gone. When I looked back up, the tinker stood before me, only now I saw him truly. Saw what he had been all along.

“If my heart is strong, I inherited it from you,” I said. “Father.”

“My child,” he said.

And then I walked straight into his arms.

The leave-takings began not long after that. For Alexander was understandably eager to introduce his
bride-to-be to his mother, and the king wished to get back to the palace before rumors of his strange disappearance grew too dire and his wife too alarmed. Melisande would accompany her daughter to the palace. The tinker, Harry, and I would follow in two weeks' time.

“You are sure?” the girl who carried the name that I had possessed since I first drew breath inquired, as we prepared to part.

“I am sure,” I said. “There was never any doubt in my mind.”

“You really are impossible,” she said.

I reached out and took a strand of that golden hair between my fingers. It was softer and finer than the finest embroidery silk. Not only that, it was the perfect length now. Flowing down her back to swing just above her heels, not quite as long as she was tall.

“Your hair is beautiful, Rapunzel,” I said. “I thank you for it with all my heart.”

At this, her eyes filled with tears. “I don't know how to thank you,” she said. “I don't even know what to call you now.”

“I'll tell you at the wedding,” I said. “I owe you a cake, as I recall.”

“An angel cake as tall as the oven door,” she answered with a smile. Then she glanced over my shoulder, to where Harry stood talking with the tinker. “I'd like to say good-bye to Harry, unless you mind.”

“Why should I mind?” I asked. At which her smile got a little wider.

“I'm sure I can't imagine,” she said.

“Who's being impossible now?”

“Rapunzel tells me you have been a good friend to her,” I heard a voice say as she moved away. I turned around and there was Alex.

Oh, you are a fine young prince,
I thought. Even with that great bruise darkening one cheek, he was as fine and handsome a prince as any girl trapped in an enchanted tower could want. And he didn't stir my heart. Not one little bit.

“I have done my best,” I replied.

He cocked his head then, as if listening to a tune he'd once heard, but whose name he couldn't quite recall.

“Have we met before?”

“You have never seen me before this moment,” I answered, choosing my words with care, for I wanted to be honest. “But I will look forward to seeing you again, at your wedding.”

He smiled. I watched the way his eyes sought out Rapunzel and stayed there. “She's beautiful, isn't she?” he asked.

“I have never seen anyone more beautiful,” I answered, honestly once more.

“You would say this?” he asked, as his eyes flicked back to me. “I thought women were supposed to be jealous of one another.”

“That is a tale that men tell to make themselves more important,” I said, at which he laughed. “Besides, what's the point of being jealous of love?”

“I see that Rapunzel is right. You are a good friend, for you speak the truth,” Alexander answered with a smile.

At that she came to him and took him by the arm. He gave me a bow, the first I had ever received from a prince, and together the two of them moved off.

Finally, the time came to say farewell to the sorceress.

“I don't know what to say to you,” she said. “Though there is the obvious, of course.”

“The obvious is the obvious because it works just fine,” I said.

“I love you,” she said simply. “Thank you for freeing my child.”

“She did that herself,” I said. “I just figured out how.”

“She tells me you have inherited my gift,” Melisande said. “I'm pleased.”

I gave a snort. “It's a little uncomfortable, to tell you the truth. I'm sorry if I was unfair before.”

But Melisande shook her head.

“I would like you to know this: I never let you call me Mother because I feared that if you did, when the time came, as I knew it would, I would never have the strength to let you go. But I have loved you no less than the daughter I nurtured with my blood. You have lived inside my heart from the moment my eyes first beheld you. You have been mine from the first time I held you in my arms.”

“I know that,” I said. “I know it. Mr. Jones tells me
that the woman who bore me died not long after I was born. Her heart simply could not find the way to beat, the doctors said. Perhaps the hole she had made in it was too wide.”

“I hope you will call me Mother from this day forward,” Melisande said.

“Thank you,” I answered. “I will do so with much joy.”

“Mother!” another voice called out. Melisande and I shared a smile.

“Your daughter Rapunzel is calling you,” I said.

“So it would seem,” the sorceress replied. “I'll see you at the wedding. I'll even help you beat the egg whites, if you like.”

“I'll hold you to that promise,” I said.

Then I watched as they rode away into the dawn.

Eighteen

It began with a theft and ended with a gift. And in between came an illusion, a sleight of hand, a choice that became the chance for love. For that is all we can see in just one blink of an eye. Love's possibility; its outline. After that, it's best to pick up a stone and put it in your pocket, to remind you of what you're trying to accomplish, what you're trying to build: a home inside your heart, a love that lasts a lifetime.

For Alex, it was a girl with shining golden hair, never mind what that girl was called. For me, it was a tinker's boy named Harry. And for Harry—I should tell you how we ended up, shouldn't I?

We lived happily ever after, of course. As did Rapunzel and Alexander—and to the end of his days, she called him Alex.

What did Harry call me?

I'll tell you that as well.

After we had walked beside the river on that longago day, after all the others save the two Mr. Joneses had departed, we came to a place where a great rock sat in the center of the slow-moving current. I hitched up my skirts and waded out to it.

“What are you doing?” Harry asked, “Where are you going?”

“I'm going to sit on this rock,” I said. “And, if you come too, I will both ask and tell you something. If you stay right where you are, you can just forget about it.”

He gave a great sigh and waded out with much stomping and sloshing. But I knew him well enough by this time. I let him have his say with his legs and feet, and said nothing until he'd plopped down beside me. Then I took off my kerchief, the first that he had given me and still my favorite, the one with the black-eyed Susans embroidered on it. I held it in my lap, leaned out over the water to gaze at my reflection, and said, “This is what I look like.”

“What are you talking about?” he said, his voice as cross as his legs had been. “Of course that's what you look like. That's what you've always looked like, more or less.”

“I am not ever going to grow hair,” I said. “In particular, I am not ever going to grow lovely, long, and flowing golden hair such as adorns the head of the girl who will now go through life being called Rapunzel.”

“I still don't understand why you let her do that,” Harry said.

“I didn't let her do it. I asked her to do it.”

“What?”

“How would you rather be remembered?” I asked. “As the girl with the golden hair, or the girl who was bald as an egg?”

“Neither, if you want to know.”

I gave him a push that would have sent him straight into the water if he hadn't known me well enough to brace himself first.

“You know perfectly well what I mean,” I said.

“I don't care about your hair. Your lack of hair.” He made an exasperated sound and dragged a hand through his own. “I've never cared about it. Is that what you're trying to ask?”

“Sort of,” I said.

He leaned over and took me by the shoulders, turning me to face him. “I am only going to say this once, Parsley, so I hope you're paying attention. When I look at you, I don't see hair or no hair. I just see you.”