My Fair Godmother (19 page)

Then the Black Knight was behind me. I couldn’t see him but I recognized his voice, smooth and silky, whispering into my ear, “It’s all right.” His hand ran down the length of my arm. “I’m the one you really came to the Middle Ages to find.”

His fingers intertwined with mine and he held my hand tightly. “I’m what you’ve wanted all along.” 247/431

I leaned against him, happy that he was there and that he wanted to hold my hand. I knew I could turn and see his face, learn his identity, but instead I just stared after Tristan and wondered why he wouldn’t look at me.

I was awakened by the sound of the door scraping open. I blinked in the darkness, for a moment not remembering where I was.

Then I sat bolt upright, half expecting to see the Black Knight, but Tristan walked in the room, holding a torch.

The shadows flickered across his face, making him look handsome one moment, sinister the next. “Are you awake?” he asked.

A chill had taken hold of the room. The fire had almost gone completely out. I pulled the blanket around my shoulders. “Yes.”

After he attached the torch to a wall holder—where it did little to dismiss the darkness—he walked to the fireplace, threw a log on the embers, and nudged it with a poker until it crackled to life. Then he sat down on the pallet beside me and pulled something from his pocket.

“Since you chickened out and hid in here instead of telling your side of the Black Knight story, I brought you some dinner.”

He held out something to me, some sort of pastry, but I couldn’t tell what it was. I thanked him and bit into it 248/431

anyway. A meat pie. It tasted savory and rich and I kept it on my tongue just to enjoy the taste of it.

Tristan leaned back on his hands. “In case you’re wondering how the story of Lady Savannah’s rescue went, I found you in the forest by following your cries.

You were horribly frightened— pathetic, really—and getting ready to flee for your life. The Black Knight and I raised swords, circling one another and yelling threats, but we didn’t fight because you begged me not to duel while I didn’t have armor on.” He tilted his chin down and smiled. “That, of course, took all of your maidenly persuasion because I am so immensely brave. But I gave you my word and now I fear I can never sword fight with the Black Knight lest I break my promise to you. When the time comes to challenge him, I will have to find some other method of defeating him. Which works out well for me, since I never wanted to cross swords with him in the first place.” I popped the last of the meat pie into my mouth and didn’t say anything.

“The Black Knight, awed by my bravery, ran off. Then you clung to me all the way home, sobbing with gratit-ude and promising never to speak to knavish rogues again. It was beautiful. The crowd loved it.” 249/431

I still didn’t say anything, just gave him a considering stare. Behind us, the fire grew in strength and spit out sparks onto the mantle.

“What?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how awkward it will be to go to prom with you, considering you’ll be married at the time.”

“Ah,” he said. “Lady Theodora told you about the details of the king’s reward for his quest.” I brushed the crumbs off my hands and kept my voice even. “What exactly were you planning on doing with your wife during our date?”

“I was planning that as soon as Princess Margaret and I married, I would be zapped back to the future and she could get an annulment.”

I watched the way the light from the fire made Tristan’s features glow and tried not to imagine Princess Margaret standing beside him in a wedding dress. “I should warn you that my fairy godmother is slow about getting back to people. So you could be married for weeks before she gets around to bringing you home.” Tristan sent me a rakish smile and shrugged. “Then I guess I’ll have time to enjoy all of the wedding feasting.” Which irked me in ways I couldn’t explain. “Are you saying you
want
to marry Princess Margaret?” 250/431

He looked upward as though contemplating it. “Well, she is royalty . . . and you were just telling me how a crown makes a person totally hot and prom worthy.”

“I never said that.”

He leaned closer to me. “You might as well have. You thought it. That’s why I’m here—because no one but a prince was good enough to take you out.” I stood up and walked away from him, glad that in the low light he couldn’t see my face flush. “Fine, go ahead and marry her then. She’s a conceited shrew but I’m sure you’ll be very happy with her.” He shrugged, still relaxed. “Maybe not, but I’ll be happy to see you bowing every time I go by.”

“You won’t have the chance because I won’t come near you after you’re married.” Tristan stood, walked to the door, and took the torch from the wall. “Oh, I know we’ll see each other again, because we still have a prom date set up.” He left the room, taking a good portion of the light with him.

Princess Margaret and Lady Theodora came into the room about a half hour later. Even though I was still completely dressed, I pretended to be asleep so I wouldn’t have to talk to them. I didn’t sleep though. Not until long after the two of them were softly snoring in their respective corners of the room.

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I lay there with my eyes pressed together tightly. I’d come back to the Middle Ages—back to a place that I hated—to help Tristan, but somehow that didn’t matter to him. He was never going to forgive me for sending him here in the first place.

What’s more, now that I had time to think about it—

replaying it in my mind, perhaps more than was necessary—I was convinced that if I had turned around and looked at the Black Knight in my dream, I would have somehow found out his identity. But I hadn’t turned around because I’d been so busy staring at Tristan, trying to tell him not to marry that horrible, awful woman.

He wouldn’t mind the feasting
. I bet. Men.

I tried to erase thoughts of Tristan. I thought of my dream again and wondered if the Black Knight’s words were true. Was he what I’d been looking for all along?

Chapter 17

In the morning, before I’d even gotten off the pallet, Princess Margaret was up, dressed, and shaking her head at me. “I need not ask how you fare this morning.

Your face is sickly and gaunt.”

“I’m sure I’ll be up to traveling.” She sent me a condescending smile. “Nay, you must rest this day. I insist.”

I opened my mouth to argue, then shut it again. I’d already learned from my stint as Cinderella that when someone of greater rank gave you an order, you didn’t have a choice. So I was stuck here for the time being even though I was pretty sure Princess Margaret was only declaring me sick in order to torment me.

Had she known I was faking it at first—perhaps Tristan even told her as much—and so now she thought this was fitting punishment? Or maybe she had feelings for Tristan and didn’t like that I’d suddenly shown up and taken his attention away from her. Or maybe she just hated me because I was pretty.

“Will you tell Tristan I’d like to talk with him?” She paused before leaving the room and smiled at me.

“Of course.”

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Hours went by and he didn’t come. I wasn’t sure if this was because he was angry about the things we’d said last night or because Princess Margaret just hadn’t told him I’d asked in the first place. I would have gone to try and find him, but Princess Margaret had left Lady Theodora to tend to my needs, and she seemed to think I shouldn’t venture far out of bed at all.

She sat on a bench in the corner somehow transform-ing a formless pile of wool into thread, then spinning it around a wooden spool. Her fingers rubbed together, twisting and stretching the fibers, and never seemed to tire.

At midday a servant brought Lady Theodora a spread of meats and bread. I got more cold broth.

After I finished eating, I looked out the window several times in hopes that I would see Tristan somewhere down in the courtyard. Where was he? Even if Princess Margaret hadn’t told him that I wanted to talk to him, you’d think he would have at least stopped by to see me.

On my third window check, Lady Theodora told me the draft would make me worse, and if I didn’t stay in bed she would be required to call the physician to attend to me. So I went back to the pallet and pretended to sleep. I didn’t want anyone coming near me with leeches, or worse yet, knives that had never been disinfected.

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Finally the door opened, but it wasn’t Tristan. Princess Margaret breezed back in to change clothes as her gown had grown too hot. She completely ignored me, but spoke with Theodora about a Sir William of Burglen.

He’d sent word he was coming to the king’s celebration early in order to challenge the Black Knight. He hoped that Princess Margaret would give him a token of hers to take with him into battle.

Theodora thought this was “exceedingly romantic,” whereas Princess Margaret declared he was a hairy red bear and she would have nothing to do with him. “The Black Knight will give him tokens enough of his battle—bruises and scars, if he lives at all.” Her words sent shivers through me. I’d been so busy dwelling on my kiss with the Black Knight, I’d forgotten he was dangerous. Perhaps he was as brutal as Princess Margaret just suggested, and he had me in a bad situation. If I said the wrong thing at the wrong time, my tongue would burn out of my mouth. I shuddered as I thought about how that would feel.

Theodora rebraided Princess Margaret’s hair, and I hoped she would say more about the Black Knight, but instead they went on to discussing Sir William’s purse.

Apparently, instead of betting any of his own wealth, he planned to slay the ogre first, and had asked King 255/431

Roderick to give him a reward for such since he already held the title of knight.

He’d killed a different ogre in his own land and so felt confident he could dispatch this one as well.

I wondered if Tristan knew about this. And then a worse thought hit me—if he did, then he wouldn’t have stayed here at the castle waiting for me to get better from my faked illness. He would have left as soon as possible to go try and kill the cyclops before Sir William arrived.

He wasn’t going to come check on me at all—he was already gone.

Perhaps because they thought I would sleep for a while, or perhaps because Princess Margaret had found something more important for Theodora to do besides guard me, they left the room together.

I waited for a few minutes to give them time to reach wherever it was they were headed, then I slipped out of the room and went down the stairs myself. I barely cared that there wasn’t a banister to hang on to now. I just needed to get away as quickly as possible.

I’d go out to the stables and ask them to get my horse ready, then ride back to the inn. Princess Margaret would be upset, no doubt, that I’d left without her permission, but hopefully she had enough people here at 256/431

the castle to torment that she wouldn’t think it was worth her while to find me.

Once I reached the main floor, I looked cautiously around. No sight of the princess or Theodora. I made my way toward the main doors. I walked by washerwomen with baskets of linens and a boy lugging buckets of water in each hand. Then, thankfully, happily, I was outside.

I paused before heading to the stables. Not far from the castle door was the wizard’s wagon, and a man in maroon robes bent over the wares inside of it.

The wizard would know about truth potion. Perhaps he could sell me a cure, or wait—had that enchantment been switched to the Black Knight when he kissed me?

Hopefully the wizard could tell me.

As I walked up to him, I said, “Pardon me, sir—” The man turned around and I stopped short. It wasn’t the wizard and it wasn’t Simon either. A freckle-faced boy who couldn’t have been more than fourteen faced me.

“Oh,” I said, and then, “I thought you were the wizard.”

“Not yet,” he said with a nod. “I just was advanced from assistant to apprentice. The wizard is inside showing Prince Edmond his wares.”

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A goat that was tethered to the side of the wagon bleated and walked toward me. The rope around its neck had tangled around the bottom of the wagon wheel, and it bleated another noisy protest.

I suddenly wondered if this was a different wizard’s wagon altogether. Maybe they all had similar-looking wagons, like police departments had similar cars. I couldn’t remember his name. “Was he here two days ago?” I asked.

“Aye, but he only talked to Prince Hugh then. Prince Edmond thought his brother dismissed my master too speedily, though, and called him back. A good thing too.

Master Pergis was getting ready to pack up and leave the region altogether.”

Pergis—then it was the same wizard. The goat pulled on the rope again. He gained a couple of steps, but bumped into the apprentice in the process. The boy absentmindedly pushed the goat away and returned his attention to me. “If you haven’t got business with my master, I don’t suggest you be about when he comes out.

He’s in a powerful foul mood.” The boy’s voice dropped to a whisper. “He sold his only switching potion and now is wishing he could offer it to the prince.”

“Oh.” It didn’t seem like a good idea to volunteer the information that I’d been the one who’d bought it. Still, I wanted to find out about truth potion and I didn’t know 258/431

how else to do it. “Switching potion,” I said, as though I found it an interesting subject. “When a person uses switching potion, do all of their enchantments switch or just one?”

“All of their magical enchantments.” The boy tilted his head as though unsure why I was asking. “But as I said, the master has no more of it.”

“Magical enchantments?” I asked. “Is there any other kind?”

The goat tried to butt the apprentice out of the way.

The boy pushed him back angrily, and yelled, “Stop it!” Then he turned back to me. “Aye, there’s all kinds of enchantments.” As though reciting a lesson he rattled off:

“There’s the enchantment of wishing stars, and ancient wells, of droughts and potions, of a mother’s love—”

“Potions?” I asked. “What about truth potion? Would that switch?”