Ravishing Rapunzel (Passion-Filled Fairy Tales, #6)(39)

Rapunzel didn’t want to lie, knowing it hadn’t done any good in times past, but also not wanting to sully her chance at possible work. “We were separated, and I’m trying to make my way to my aunt’s to meet with him.”

“Where’s your aunt, hun?” the lady asked.

“Gresham.”

The woman whistled and raised a brow. “That’s mighty far for someone in your condition,” she said. She looked at Rapunzel’s belly. “I don’t think you should travel on foot so far. You’re likely to have your baby any day now.”

Rapunzel couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m big, but I’ve still got time,” she said, having read once that a pregnancy took nine months. It had been only seven, though she was large. “Besides, I don’t want to travel in this condition, either, but I must. I can’t do this alone. I need help and I know my aunt will assist me.” Rapunzel had met very few people in her life, but she would bet everything—she was betting everything—that her aunt would stand with her no matter what.

A whistle from behind them turned the servant’s attention to a man sitting a few tables away. He wanted more ale. The woman told him she’d be right there and then turned back to Rapunzel. “I need to tend the rest of me customers, but don’t go. I think I can help you, lass.”

Rapunzel nodded. She ate her food, filling her belly after two days of mainly nuts and seeds that she had brought with her. It was good, and she could tell that her growing baby needed more meals of substance like this one. Though a wave of despair hit her as she realized no such meals would come if she didn’t find enough work to make it to Gresham. Her aunt was her last hope, and this woman’s help was her last chance to get there. She wanted to cry, wondering if she’d been too stupid in turning down her mother’s help.

No, she told herself. She couldn’t count on someone who had been so cruel to her. Still, she was exhausted, and at least it was warm in here. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the table. If she just rested for a little bit, she’d feel better.

The next thing she knew, someone was tapping her shoulder and saying, “Lass, lass, wake up darling.”

Rapunzel emerged from the fog of sleep and looked around. It was fairly dark in the room, with only one lantern lit. The bar maiden smiled at Rapunzel. “Come on, dear, you can come with me.”

Rapunzel shook off her fatigue, and tried to get alert. “Go where?”

“You need a place to stay, and you’re in no condition to work,” she said. “You can stay with me and my husband.”

Rapunzel stared up at her, still trying to fully comprehend. “I can stay with you?”

The woman nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I have little girl. She’s a bit younger than you, but you remind me a bit of her, and I wouldn’t want my girl alone and by herself if she needed help. You can stay with us for the night, and tomorrow, I’ll see if there’s something you can do that won’t make you give birth.”

Rapunzel nodded and wearily stood up. She followed the woman out of the tavern and through the cold night air for several blocks until they reached a small cottage on the edge of town. It was tiny, but as they went inside, it was warm. A roaring fireplace on the back wall heated the house, which looked to consist of one room. A man was sitting in a chair in the corner, and lying on a straw bed on the opposite side of the room was a young woman who seemed to be a couple of years younger than Rapunzel. She was sound asleep, and had long blond hair in a braid that went down her back.

Even in sleep, though, the girl did remind Rapunzel a bit of herself. The man looked up and said, “Rosalind, who’s this you brought with you?”

She hung up her coat and laughed, “Eldon, you know something, I don’t rightly know. She never gave her name, but she’s traveling and run out of money to get back to her husband. I thought she could stay the night with us.”

Eldon grimaced, as if he wanted to throttle his wife, but then he nodded and said, “Alright.” He looked at Rapunzel. “I’m Eldon, and I see you’ve met Rosalind already. What’s your name, lass?”

“Rapunzel,” she said.

Rosalind, who was about to hang her coat on a hook on the wall, dropped it on the floor and turned back to Rapunzel, eyes wide. Eldon dropped to his knees.

Rapunzel stared at Rosalind, a little uncertain as to what was happening. “What’s wrong, milady?” she whispered, as if saying it louder would make things worse.

Rosalind looked into Rapunzel’s eyes, and then whispered, “My God, it can’t be, can it? Has my baby returned?”

Rapunzel shook her head, the scene around her so confusing. Rosalind’s pale hand reached out to touch her face, so Rapunzel took a step back. “Milady, please,” she said.

Tears ran down Rosalind’s face, and Eldon just knelt there, unmoving, staring at her.

These people weren’t evil, as Mother Gothel had suggested, but they weren’t right, either. They were sick in the head. She’d heard talk of the town loon in the first village she stayed in. These people had to be this village’s. She edged toward the door she came through. Rapunzel was surreptitiously reaching for the door handle when Rosalind spoke.

“We had a baby named Rapunzel,” she said, her voice low and even. She chuckled. “She was the most beautiful baby we’d ever seen, and we had her for a few sweet hours, until the sorceress took her from us. Said it was payment for stealing the rapunzel from her garden.”