Winter's Child (20 page)

Authors: Cameron Dokey

Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Fairy Tales & Folklore, #General, #Family, #Love & Romance

And perhaps I could flap my arms and fly to the moon.

That’s when I heard the voices drifting out of the parlor.

There was Maman’s, high and piping like a flute. Papa’s with its quiet ebb and flow that always reminds me of the sea. Celeste and April I could not hear at all, of course. They were children and would not
speak unless spoken to first. And then I heard a voice like the great rumble of distant thunder say:

“But where is la petite Belle?”

And, just as real thunder will sometimes inspire my feet to carry me from my own room into my parents’, so too the sound of what could be no other than Monsieur LeGrand’s voice carried me through the parlor door and into the room beyond. As if to make up for how slowly my feet had moved before, I overshot my usual place in line. Instead of ending up at the end of the row, next to April, I came to a halt between my two sisters. April was to my left and Celeste to my right. We were out of order for the first and only time in our lives.

I faltered, appalled. For I was more than simply out of place, I was also directly in front of Monsieur LeGrand.

About the Author

C
AMERON
D
OKEY
is the author of nearly thirty young adult novels. Her most recent titles in the Once upon a Time series include
Wild Orchid
,
Belle
,
Sunlight and Shadow
, and
Before Midnight
. Her other Simon & Schuster endeavors include a book in the Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies line,
How NOT to Spend Your Senior Year
. Cameron lives in Seattle, Washington.