Loving a Fairy Godmother (11 page)

Henry left the ball after Cinderella’s exit,
and with his disappearance came the gossip. When it was learned
that Cinderella had left in a great upset, most of the villagers
rushed from the ball themselves, their only intention to arrive at
Cinderella’s home and see if they could help her.

Reina took all this in as the humans rushed
past her incorporeal form, but she herself was removed from the
situation. Tiernan and his words took up every spare space in her
chest, and nothing else, not even worry for Cinderella, could
penetrate.

She was barred, forced to do nothing but wait
until she got word about Tiernan. It had to be his HEA, and if she
did anything now, the Elf King would claim both victory and
Tiernan’s life. Used to action and authority, at the time she
needed both desperately to keep her mind occupied, and she was
reduced to stillness.

With stillness came memory. With memory came
doubt, doubt over what she knew. She saw Tiernan’s flirtations so
clearly, but never in that time did she see anything romantic
between him and any female. Innuendo, yes. Desire and yearning… but
only on the part of the women. The only time she ever saw true
desire in his eyes was when he looked at her.

She sank onto a bench at the banquet, the
room only half filled, if that. Too many had left to check on
Cinderella. The Stepmother and her daughters were here. While Reina
was gratified they were alone with no one sitting near them, the
joy she would have felt at that sight just this morning was
absent.

Could she truly have been that great a fool?
And a name, a name and face she had pushed away from her thoughts
for almost a century, came unbidden.

Charm. Outside of both being beautiful men,
charm was the first way Reina connected Tiernan with Denholm.
Denholm’s manners were effortless, his smile able to turn women
towards him without any words necessary. Certainly it took no
effort to convince Reina of his intentions, of his sincerity, of
how she was the only woman he wanted in his life and in his
bed.

It was that damn charm that had put her
defenses up against Tiernan, even more so than his looks. Yes, he
had appealed to her physically in a way even Denholm hadn’t
touched, but it was that charm that had her determined to erase him
from the beginning. She refused to be such a fool, simpering over a
man who could smile the same soulful smile at any woman. Who could
smile at her in that special way, and then later that night be
found in bed with two other women only days before their
wedding.

But Tiernan had never done that, had he? His
smile never held deceit. She stripped away his charm coloring her
memories, and found only a man who honored his commitments, who
took care of all those he considered under his care.

He never made a promise he didn’t keep.

He never lied by either word or deed.

He never looked at another woman while he was
with her.

Denholm had. Even after their engagement, his
eyes were always darting, taking in his surroundings, searching for
something, someone. She never knew what exactly he desired. She
only knew she never felt she was enough.

However, Tiernan’s eyes had never left her,
no matter what their conversation, no matter what surrounded him.
He only ever looked at her.

Tiernan said he loved her, and Tiernan never
lied.

Her head sank. She felt the hard wood surface
beneath her cheek, rough even with the linen covering. She had
destroyed everything. She had taken a good man and thrown him away
because of pride and willful blindness.

This night, she may not have only destroyed
Cinderella’s Happily Ever After, but her own as well.

Cinderella never returned home that night.
The house was in an uproar the next day, all the townspeople who
loved her having come to the manor after hearing that she had
disappeared the night before. Search parties formed, prayers were
held at the chapel, and the children cried in the streets.

Tiernan knew where to find Cinderella. It
came to him, as his own heart cracked and bled when he left
Reina.

He saw this in her file, a field of flowers
beside a lake, the place where her parents met and the place she
had gone often with them when they were alive. It was a place she
associated with happiness, a reminder that even though her own
chance at love may be gone, true love really does exist.

He gave her until late morning then appeared
to her. She was still wearing the dress she wore the night before,
her face still so beautiful even after the effects of a night of
crying.

She didn’t show any surprise as he came to
sit beside her, as if all her emotions had been drained from her
the previous hours. “You found me,” she said, her voice dull.

“Yeah, I did.”

They sat in silence for several minutes, both
looking out over the water.

“Aren’t you going to ask me what happened?”
Cinderella finally asked.

“I heard that you ran away from Henry,”
Tiernan said, and at hearing his name, Cinderella’s eyes started
welling up again.

Tiernan put one arm around her shoulders,
giving her a comforting squeeze. “I don’t need the details,”
Tiernan said. “There is only one thing you need to answer.”

“What’s that?” Cinderella sniffed.

“Is Henry a good man?”

“Before I heard—”

“No,” Tiernan interrupted. “You have a good
heart, Cinderella. If you trust it, you’ll know exactly how to read
people. So I ask you again, is Henry a good man?”

Cinderella closed her eyes, taking a deep
breath. “Yes,” she answered.

“And you love him.”

“Yes,” she readily agreed. “But he lied to
me, and I heard all these things, and I don’t know what to do.”

“You ask Henry, and you hear what your heart
tells you,” Tiernan replied simply. “If he’s a good man, then you
ask him, you listen to his answers, and you decide after that what
happens. If he’s a good man, and you love him, that is the least
you can do.”

Cinderella gave a watery laugh, wiping the
tears from underneath her eyes. “What if I don’t like his
answers?”

“Then you move on, because no one is worth
you sacrificing your self-respect for. That way, though, you are
moving deliberately with your head held high, not running
scared.”

She nodded and sat looking at the water for
several more minutes. Finally, she rose. “It’s time to get my
answers. Do you want to join me?”

He stood as well and offered his arm. “Let’s
go.”

In silence they made the trip from the pond
to Cinderella’s home. As they neared the manor, Tiernan saw that
the crowd has not dispersed. It had in fact grown larger waiting
for Cinderella to return. From the opposite direction, he saw Henry
riding up on a horse. Henry jumped off, running towards Cinderella,
not stopping until he was in front of her.

“Tiernan,” he said, his eyes not leaving
hers, “please let us alone.”

Cinderella took her arm from Tiernan’s and
gave a nod of her head. Satisfied with that, Tiernan stepped
back.

Henry seemed to be fighting himself to keep
from reaching out to touch her. “I wanted to see my country as it
truly was,” he began. “I had no desire to lie to anyone, but people
treat a messenger differently than they treat a prince, at least
most do.”

He didn’t stop himself this time. He let his
hand come out and stroke her face. “You don’t. You treat everyone
as though they are royalty. That’s the first thing I noticed about
you, not your beauty. It was your kindness and decency, both things
that I find to be in short supply in this world. You are a
generous, compassionate, fearless being, and I am privileged in the
knowing of you. I may have been born to a king, but you are truly
the most royal of souls I have ever known.”

“You lied to me. You are to marry a
princess,” Cinderella said, tears coming to her eyes, not daring to
believe his words.

His hands gently cupped her face, and his
forehead touched hers. “I only lied about my profession. Every
other word I have ever spoken to you is truth, I swear on my
kingdom. And the only woman I will ever marry is you, because you
are the one I love above all others. When I wake up, your smile is
the first thing I see in my mind, your name is the last word I
speak before I fall asleep. I want it to be that way always, but I
want from now on to see your smile with my eyes, and speak your
name as you are in my arms.”

Her hands covered his, and her eyes closed as
she pressed herself closer to him. “No one will approve, I have no
name, no connections. What of His Majesty?”

“My father—”

“Is here,” a voice interrupted, and out from
the crowd stepped a short round shape draped in a cloak. Taking it
off, the King appeared, and as one, the crowd fell to their knees.
“This incognito habit is very interesting, Henry. I realize why
you’ve been doing it so long now. Fascinating!”

“Father.” Henry stepped back from Cinderella
but grabbed her hand, holding it firmly to keep her by his side as
he faced his father.

“So this is the girl, Henry? Everyone has
been very worried about you, you know. You are quite loved,” said
the King, his head tilting as he studied her. Finally, he nodded.
“Young woman, I have only one question for you.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Cinderella, even as Henry
said warningly, “Father…”

“Hush, Henry,” the King said. “Young woman,
this is what I want to know. Yesterday at this time, before the
ball, when you knew nothing, did you love Henry the messenger?”

Cinderella looked at the King for a long
moment. She gently pulled her hand from Henry’s, giving him a
reassuring smile when he would have held her close to keep
protecting her. Missing the warning glare Henry sent his father,
she walked to the King, taking his hands in hers. She stood on
tiptoe and put her lips to the King’s ear. “My heart didn’t know
how to beat until I met him,” she whispered. “And now it beats for
him alone.”

She pulled back, still holding his hands,
waiting for his response. He gave it a moment later, leaning down
and kissing her forehead. “Welcome to our family, daughter.” Then,
with a twinkle in his eye, he added, “If you will have my very
difficult son, that is.”

She glanced back at Henry. “Don’t try to deny
me, lady,” he said to her, a smile coming over his face as he
walked towards her.

“Why is that?” she asked, smiling herself as
she waited for him to stand beside her.

“Because I will never let you go. Not when my
happiness exists only in you.”

* * *

“Congratulations on your HEA. I’ve just
received word that the Elf King’s petition has been officially
denied.”

Tiernan kept skipping pebbles in the lake,
his actions not changing in the slightest with her words.

Reina continued. “I’m glad you were there.
I’m not sure I could have convinced her to go back.”

Tiernan didn’t bother to look over at Reina,
but he did answer her. “You are a fantastic Fairy Godmother. I’m
sure you would have gotten her to come.”

“No, I wouldn’t have, because I couldn’t
honestly tell her to follow her heart. It’s not something I’ve had
any luck with.”

He looked over at her then and saw her eyes
were raw and puffy, very similar to how he’d found Cinderella hours
earlier.

He stomped on the impulse to pull her into
his arms. She didn’t want that, and he wasn’t going to keep hoping.
Motioning her to follow, he said, “Cinderella has her HEA, Reina,
we can go back.”

“I was supposed to be your Fairy Godmother,
not Naomi.”

Those words got his attention. “What?”

“I was supposed to be your Fairy Godmother,”
she repeated.

That long ago day, the obvious inexperience,
well, incompetence, replayed in his mind. “Why weren’t you?”

“The excuse I used was that Naomi needed the
exposure, but the real reason was because I saw your picture and I
read your profile. I read who you were, and I couldn’t breathe for
wanting you.” The color was high in her face, but she refused to
look away. She was showing him everything, not letting herself be
spared.

“After you joined us,” she continued, “every
time I looked at you, I felt like a hypocrite. I really thought I
loved him, and after he left, I thought I was so much better than
he was, so much more loyal, but all I had to do was look at you to
forget that I ever loved him. How was I any better than he was? How
was I any better than the sluts that surrounded you? Hell, I needed
the crown of sluttiest of them all, because I wanted you forever. I
wanted your heart as well as your body.”

His mouth dropped open from surprise, and it
took him several moments to get it to work again. “Reina, I never
knew you felt anything for me. Believe me, I never knew, or I would
have dragged you into my chambers and never let you out.”

“Don’t try to excuse yourself by saying you
couldn’t read me, Mr. I’m-Celibate-for-Thirty-Years!”

“If I even started walking in your direction,
you turned the other way!”

“Maybe that’s because Katarina somehow always
found a way to have her head somewhere in the vicinity of your
crotch.”

He burst out laughing. “You are crazy, woman!
Do you know that? Compared to you, the Holy Grail…cakewalk!”

Her lips curled upward in response to him.
“It’s a flaw in me, one you’ll have to live with if you stay with
me. I think too much, and I can make poor choices because of it.
The poorest choice I ever made was I chose to listen to my head
instead of my heart, and I lost thirty years with the man I love,”
she said, her voice slowing, breaking over those last few
words.

Reverently, he drew her to him, into his
arms, into the space he wanted her to fill forever. His mouth
covered hers, and his world, which he thought destroyed forever,
was just like that rebuilt.