Twice Upon A Time (Unfinished Fairy Tales #2)(81)

“Oh Edward.” I laugh. “I know I’m special to you, but seriously, stop putting me on a pedestal. You’re making me sound like some unearthly phenomenon, like a goddess.”

He kisses me, slowly and deeply, until I’m panting for breath. “Never underestimate how precious you are to me. Where am I to find a woman with such an extraordinary mind and character?”

Oh my. Looks like last night wasn’t enough for him. A moan escapes me as he kisses a fiery trail downward, but suddenly he goes still.

“What is this?

“Huh?”

He traces the mark on my shoulder. “What happened to your shoulder? This doesn’t look like a bug bite.”

“Um . . .” Though I don’t want to cause him worry, I owe him my honesty. “Krev gave it to me.”

“Why did he do it?” Alarm is evident in his voice. “Does it hurt when I touch you like this?”

“No, I don’t feel any pain.” I relate to him that Krev showed up, but I omit the part of the goblin telling me to stay away from Edward. “It seems that the goblin world isn’t the same as before. Before we married, Krev never seemed to have any trouble when he came by to visit.”

“I don’t like this,” he says darkly. “The goblin told you that you had to go home and gave you this mark. Maybe the next time the goblin comes, magic will trigger the mark and you’ll be sent away to your world.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then he’d better give you a mark as well, because you’re coming with me,” I say. “And we’ll both come back to Athelia.”

But deep down inside, I feel that it isn’t going to be that simple. From my experience with the goblins, rarely does Krev ever grant what I want. Anyway, we’ll make it work. Nothing will make me leave Edward.

Little did I know how wrong I was.



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The following days pass in a period of hazy bliss. As if to make up for the nights that he had to sleep alone, Edward refuses to go to bed until I join him. I wonder what the king and queen would say if they knew their son, who usually looks so serious in public, could be so passionate in private. His desire burns fiercely and intensely from the restraint of several months and the need to ensure that I’m not going anywhere. I had to sew the buttons back onto my nightgown one morning. I could have asked the maids to do it, but I’d rather not endure Mabel’s smirking.

Anyway, apart from admonishing Edward about the nightgown, I don’t mind—it’s sweet that I can reciprocate his affection. Sometimes, it feels like his passion isn’t merely to satiate his hunger, but that the act could bind me more securely to him, to this world. If I get pregnant, it’ll be very unlikely that I’ll want to return home. Even when I’ve promised him I won’t leave him, there are times that he still gets anxious that I might change my mind if Krev shows up. But if we have a child, I’ll have a greater incentive to stay.

Not all the time is spent in his arms, however. I have to comb through the books and articles I’ve found on education, jot down copious notes, work out advantageous points, and eventually organize everything together into a coherent draft.

One evening, I finally have the proposal done. I have Edward sit with me on the window seat and go through the steps toward achieving compulsory education.

“First, there must be funding allocated to establish enough schools,” Edward reads from the paper. “Actually, I could append a suggestion. When we were planning for model housing to demolish city slums, it was intended that a number of parks would be arranged with the new housing. I suggest that for every three parks, there should be an elementary school to go with it.”

I give him a thumbs-up. “Sounds good to me.”

“Second, parents have to send their children to school, or they will face sanctions. In the case of the working-class, the parents are usually the ones who most oppose letting their children attend school.”

“We have to persuade them that in the long run, it’ll be better for the children to be educated,” I say. “Think of all the opportunities a child can have if he can read and write.”

“Three, set the minimum age that children are allowed to leave school.”

“I suppose eighteen is asking too much?”

Edward smiles wryly. “I’d say twelve would be the ideal age. Father replaced my tutors when I turned twelve. From what I’ve heard of the boys’ schools in the city, students are usually twelve or thirteen when they begin secondary school.”

I nod. I still don’t like the idea of a twelve-year-old in the factories—Paige was still impossibly cute when she was twelve—but it’s Athelia. Making education mandatory is already something akin to a miracle.

“Let us submit the plan to the Minister of Education tomorrow. I don’t expect we will have any remote chance of success right away, but we can plant the idea in their heads.”

“Drill the idea into their heads,” I say emphatically. “In advertising, consumers usually have to see a product seven times before they’re convinced to buy it.”

Edward looks amused. “Never can I estimate the breadth and variety of knowledge in your head.”

I grin at him. “That’s why you married me.”



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