Ravishing Rapunzel (Passion-Filled Fairy Tales, #6)(34)

Rapunzel took a step back, stunned at her mother’s word and the venom with which she’d hurled it.

“How could you do this to me, Rapunzel?”

Rapunzel shook her head. “Do what, mother? I don’t understand.”

Gothel sneered. “I have done everything to protect you from the world, to protect you from the evils out there, and you have somehow defied it all and lain with some schemer or charlatan.”

Rapunzel froze. She wasn’t sure how her mother knew, but she didn’t want to confirm it. She didn’t want to admit it.

“Where did he come from?”

“Who?”

“Bradyn,” she hissed. His name sounded like a curse on her lips.

“How do you know that name?”

“You whispered his name in your sleep when I went to check on you,” she said. “And then I looked around, really looked. I looked at your bed, the way there’s a divot on the other side, one that shouldn’t be there. I noticed the food stocks are more depleted than they should be. Your braid was a mess, probably to do with that awful cad. I know he’s been here. You’ve been letting him up, haven’t you? You’ve been whoring yourself with him, haven’t you?”

Rapunzel had to decide quickly. Deny or tell the truth? Truth, she decided. “I love him, mother, and he loves me.”

She cackled. “He tells you he loves you, but it is a lie. He is like the other wicked men out there, full of lies so that he gets what he wants, and then he leaves you never to come back.”

Rapunzel shook her head. “Mother, you see bad everywhere in the world because you want to. Bradyn isn’t like that. He loves me. He wants to marry me.”

“Fool,” Gothel spat. “I thought I protected you here, but all I’ve done is left my sheep unattended so wolves could attack. I am sorry for that, but you should have known to turn your back and run from him. You should have called me for protection. You should have known he would only bring you ill.”

Rapunzel felt the anger welling in her. Bradyn loved her and had brought her nothing but joy. “You’re wrong about him,” she said.

“I’m not, but you’ll have to learn that the hard way, child,” she said. “You and your child are not welcome here any longer. You’ve chosen the whore’s path, and now you’ll have to live it.”

Rapunzel stared at her mother, whose eyes had now returned to her normal violet, without glow. Her mother looked sad, somewhat defeated. But, Rapunzel didn’t quite understand. “What do you mean me and my child?”

Gothel pointed at Rapunzel’s chest. “Look at those, child. They’re bigger than normal, and your face is flush. And you were tired. Your body is with child.”

She wanted to say no. That her mother was crazy, but something about it struck a chord. She had felt differently lately. But she hadn’t known what exactly was different about her. Could that be it?

“And the rapunzel. That was the final test,” Gothel says. “My magic rapunzel eases any symptom of pregnancy. Eat just enough each day, and your ills move on. Eat too much and your ills temporarily go away and return with a vengeance. Your mother had whorish urges during her pregnancy. She’d been quite loose before then, but after being with you, she was ravenous. Giselle convinced me to part with a basket of rapunzel for the woman. Only, avarice was as much one of her sins as her lack of chastity. She ate the entire basket of greens, and your father stole more to sate her. When you ate it tonight, you confirmed my worst fears.”

Rapunzel swallowed. She placed a hand over her belly. Pregnant. With Bradyn’s babe. That wasn’t what she expected, yet somehow it made her happy. She smiled.

“Curse you, child,” she said. “Don’t you see? Don’t you see what he’s done to you?”

“He’s been kind to me and loved me and not wanted to trap me in a tower and force me to see the world the way he wants me to see it. And he’s taken me out.”

Gothel gasped.

“We went out, and I didn’t get sick,” she said, her voice resolute, rather than accusatory. “I know you’ve lied to me, and I know I can leave. Tomorrow, Bradyn and I are leaving together. We are going to be happy.”

Gothel shook her head.

Rapunzel watched her mother, waiting for her to speak, but she didn’t. She just stared at Rapunzel as if she didn’t know her. Finally Rapunzel said, “So it’s true? I’m not sick at all anymore. I can go out. You knew, but you tried to trick me?”

Gothel sighed. “I tried to protect you,” she said, softly. “I needed to make sure you wouldn’t go out, so each time after you did, I gave you a mix of herbs I knew would make you sick.”

“Mother!” Rapunzel screeched, wide-eyed. “How could you do that to me?”

“I told you,” she said. “To protect you, to keep you safe. Safe from men like Bradyn, but it didn’t work.”

“It’s you I needed protection from, not him. He loves me and he’s never lied to me the way you have.”

Her mother sneered cruelly. “You are going to get what foolish girls like you deserve. Misery and the albatross of a babe around your neck. One you must feed and clothe and support by yourself when Bradyn disappears.”

“He won’t.”