Ravishing Rapunzel (Passion-Filled Fairy Tales, #6)(8)
“No, look at him, dear,” his mother said. “His eyes aren’t focusing. He isn’t well.”
The queen was right. Bradyn wasn’t well. Knowing Rapunzel had gone but not where was eating at his soul. But he could get well. He simply had to find her. He’d figure out where she’d gone. He’d explore every part of his kingdom until he found her again. Rapunzel, the flower girl with all the hair, had to be found again.
Chapter 3 – Birthday Surprises
(Six years later)
Rapunzel looked out the window and sighed. It was a beautiful day, the beginnings of spring. She could feel the cool, fresh breeze blow in on her face. Yet she could not go out into the sunshine and frolic in the glade. She was locked in this tower in the middle of nowhere. The only things she had to keep her company were her Auntie Giselle, via a magic mirror, and the birds who occasionally sat on the window sill and sang to her.
Otherwise, Rapunzel remained alone most days. Every few nights, however, her mother would arrive and call out from below, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.”
Upon hearing this, Rapunzel, would hoist her braid through the iron loop near the window, allowing it a measure of support, and down it would fall to the ground. Then her beloved mother would climb up and join her.
While Rapunzel always enjoyed her mother’s company, she longed for additional companions--real friends she could chatter with. She longed to go out into the crisp, clean air and frolic as she used to, at least for a day.
Rapunzel leaned her head out the window as far as she could without falling and deeply inhaled the fresh scent. This high up, you couldn’t get the unique smell of the grass, and she missed the way it crinkled under her feet as she walked, but sometimes a breeze would come along carrying the sweet scent of flowers.
Her torso was perched as far out as it could go without toppling. The air wasn’t as bad up here, her mother had told her, so she always gulped in as much of it as possible.
She was enjoying another swig of fresh air, when she heard the call of her name from the opposite direction. It was coming from her room. She pulled her body back inside, turned, and ran up the stairs of the tower, which had two floors, the lowest being at least thirty feet up. After reaching the upper landing, she ran to the opposite wall and stood before the mirror. She smiled as she looked at the magic mirror on the wall, where her Aunt Giselle peered out at her.
“Ah, Rapunzel, my dear,” Giselle said. “How are you?”
Rapunzel smiled, pulled up a stool, and sat in front of the mirror. “I’m wonderful, Auntie, now that you’ve called. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you today.”
“Well, my dear, I have a surprise for you: a birthday present, of sorts.”
A present. Rapunzel clapped her hands in front of her face and bounced a bit. “I’m so excited, Auntie. Are you coming to visit?”
Giselle shook her head in the mirror. “No, dear. I’m sorry. My shop keeps me a bit too busy to get out around now, but I thought I’d share with you something that every young woman like yourself should read.”
Rapunzel raised an eyebrow. “Young women like me? Like me, how?”
“Sheltered,” she said. “I love Gothel as much as any sister loved another sister, but she keeps you shut in. I know you’re a bit sickly, but at some point, Gothel will get old and die, just as I will. She must look out for your future. But she doesn’t see it. She simply wants to keep you to herself.” At this, Giselle sighed and gave a solemn shake of her head in disapproval. “And while I’ve tried to convince her that it’s time to help you do more outside, she’s been very resistant.”
Rapunzel nodded. She often pleaded with her mother to see if her illness had improved, to let her see if it would be alright to go out. Even for just the day, as she did when she was a child. But Mother Gothel always insisted it was too dangerous. Said the world was full of evil people and that the miasma of the cities would surely kill her if its citizens didn’t.
Rapunzel looked at the kind face of her aunt and agreed, “She’ll never let me leave.”
Giselle chuckled. “Rapunzel, never is a very long time. I don’t think it’s as bad as all that,” she said. “Gothel had a hard time early on. She trusted the wrong person, and it was a mistake. She sees the world as worse than it is, but she loves you dearly. She took you in after you were abandoned by your parents, and she’s done the very best to raise you, to help you stay well. While protection is important, so is helping your children leave the nest, so to speak. Even though she’s reluctant to share with you the things you need to know, I think there are certain, um, practical aspects of life that a young lady needs to know before being thrust into the world, and eventually a marital home.”
Rapunzel scrunched up her face. A marital home? That seemed entirely far-off, though she supposed she should think of it at this age. Only, she’d had so few experiences with people, a friend would be a better start. Someone other than Giselle, who tended to visit via Mother Gothel’s magical mirror rather than take the several days’ journey by horse.
Besides her aunt, the only person Rapunzel ever met who she could have considered, even for a moment, as her friend, was Bradyn. He’d been kind and taught her things, which she supposed is what friends did. At least, that’s what they did in the books Giselle would send her.