Ravishing Rapunzel (Passion-Filled Fairy Tales, #6)(37)

“I’m justice, dear, and I’ve come to serve you yours.”

Bradyn held his head high, despite the hairs on the back of his neck standing on edge. The sorceress’ eyes glowed brighter. The air around her seemed to darken. “I love her,” he said. “I would never hurt her.”

“Bradyn,” she said in a misty, cruel voice. “I curse you. For sullying sweet Rapunzel, I blind your eyes and I mute your voice. You will wander aimlessly, unable to see her, and unable to speak your intentions of finding her.”

He could feel the fear in him rise as he watched her. And then there was darkness. Complete and total darkness. He could see nothing. He tried to call out, but all that came from his lips was a strangled grunt. It sounded like the low bray of a donkey. He held out his hands in front of him and tried to feel around. He tried to touch the walls of the tower, walking forward, being sure not to go back, not to fall from the tower window.

Only, he soon realized he wasn’t in the little tower. Somehow, he was somewhere else. On the ground, somehow tromping through grass, soft and muddy. Where was he? He called for help, but no words came. Just that awful bray.

He should have listened to Rapunzel. She had been right about her mother. That woman was a sorceress, and she had done this to him. If she had done this to him, what had she done to Rapunzel? He had to find her. Even if he couldn’t see, he had to figure out a way to get to her.





Chapter 16 – Found


Rapunzel wandered to the small town, her emotions a jumble. She felt the sting of rejection, the kind that wears on your heart. The one she should have been able to trust betrayed her. Mother Gothel was no mother at all, she thought as she placed a hand across her belly. No real mother would cast out her child like this. Yes, Rapunzel had wanted out, but not like this. Fear ringed the edge of her thoughts. Her mother had taught her nothing about how to survive. Only that the people she was now about to be among were dangerous.

Still, Giselle had said the opposite, and Bradyn had proved it. She girded up in her the knowledge built by her aunt, by her time with Bradyn, and forged on.

With her head held high, she walked briskly to the town before stopping close to nightfall. She smiled and was polite, as Bradyn had been when he met her, as the people in the books Giselle sent were, and she met an older woman, and asked if there was work. The woman responded with a kindness Mother Gothel pretended didn’t exist, and offered her work as a washerwoman.

It was good work and Rapunzel did well, until her belly began to swell. The kind old matron became not so kind, offended by Rapunzel’s state as a woman with child, but no husband.

Rapunzel tried to find work elsewhere, but realized the old woman had sullied her name. Or perhaps her large belly had. “I told you they’re wicked,” she heard the voice of Mother Gothel in her head. She gritted her teeth and packed the few belongings she had earned during her time in the town.

Rapunzel left the little village, seeking a better place. She decided she would travel to her Aunt Giselle’s town. It was a long journey, but she knew she’d find help there. She needed only to find enough work and board to travel the trip to her aunt’s. She stopped in several towns, and didn’t find work, or much kindness. She used the little money she’d earned for boarding houses and kept traveling. Yet, her despair seemed to grow at the same rate as her protruding belly. Was the world as wicked as Mother Gothel had said? And what of Bradyn? She suspected her mother had separated her from him, but what if she hadn’t? What if he didn’t care where she was and what had become of her?

She tried to stay positive, to convince herself that these things were untrue, but things seemed bleak as the world became more and more cruel to her.

She was just leaving a little town and had been told the next town was a three-mile walk. Easily doable only the month before, but heavy with pregnancy, she cringed as she set out to the town. Rapunzel walked and walked, and stopped and took breaks, but it soon grew so much colder, and then snow started to fall, and her limbs felt so cold. She saw a small boulder near the roadside and stopped for a moment to rest. She sat and closed her eyes, cursing her predicament.

When she opened her eyes, standing there before her was Mother Gothel.

Her mother was still in that red cloak she always wore, but her eyes looked softer. “Go ahead, child,” she said. “Curse his name. Curse that awful Bradyn who did this to you, and I can take you home. I can help you become better. Just curse his name. You’re so close. I can tell.”

Rapunzel blinked, certain she was hallucinating. Surely, Mother Gothel was not here. Surely, she was just delirious from cold and weariness.

“Ah, child,” Gothel said, shaking her head. “You still resist. He left you. He abandoned you when you needed him most. Surely you can’t still love him.”

Rapunzel reached out her hand tentatively and said, “Mother?”

Gothel smiled her toothy grin as snowflakes fell on her red cloak. “Yes, dear, it’s me.” Her weathered hand touched Rapunzel’s.

“It is you,” Rapunzel said, half astonished.

Gothel stepped closer and wrapped her arms around her. “Child, I have missed you, and I am sorry you have experienced such misery. I just wanted to show you that you were wrong about the world, about him. Just denounce him, curse him, and I can help you again.”

Rapunzel’s heart fluttered in her chest. It all seemed like a dream, a very strange dream, and part of her wanted nothing more than the warmth and safety she had shared with Mother Gothel. But as the snow fell in her hair and on her clothes, she knew that her old life is the one that had been the one that wasn’t real.