Touch of Gold: (Rumpelstiltskin) (Tangled Tales Series Book 4)

This book is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual organizations or persons living or deceased is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without the author’s written permission.

Cover created by Elizabeth Rose Krejcik

Author’s Note:

As with the other books in the Tangled Tales Series, this is a twist on an age-old fairy tale. I loved fairy tales as a child and to this day love movies based on them as well. It was difficult to choose only a few of my favorite fairy tales to base my series on, but this one is from Rumpelstiltskin, a mysterious little man who spins straw into gold. (Or in my story, wool into gold.) A beautiful woman who promises him anything, in order to convince him to help her, joins him.

Kin, my hero, has always been the lucky one of the de Bar siblings with everything good coming his way. I guess you could say everything he touches turns to gold – literally in this story. And Olivia is the beautiful maiden who would give anything to be royal.

So sit back and enjoy my twisted, tangled, romantic retelling of the fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin.

Elizabeth Rose

Table of Contents

There was one thing Kin (Rumpelstiltskin) de Bar wanted right now, but unfortunately,
she
was scowling at him from across the great hall. That was never a good sign.

Having celebrated the marriage of his eldest brother, Stefan, to the Lady Bonnibel, Kin had been drinking with his brothers. It was now the second day of the wedding celebration, and more guests had just arrived.

Enjoying life to the fullest, Kin drank more than his fill of not only ale but also a fine golden whiskey. He craved the drink, but the drink wasn’t always kind to him. He’d ended up well in his cups tonight, but he didn’t care since he had other things on his mind.

Feeling carefree and happy, he’d been enjoying the company of the castle strumpets all night, but he didn’t want them – he only played with them. The girl he wanted was the beauty at the other side of the room. He would have her tonight, he decided. No matter who she was, he didn’t care.

Tall for a woman, the girl’s head was almost at the height of the noblemen and tradesmen standing around her. She looked to be possibly three and twenty years of age which was two years younger than him. Her hair was like an ebony waterfall, cascading down and around her shoulders, trailing to the middle of her back. He couldn’t tell the color of her eyes from this distance, but he could see the way she held her back erect and the slight upward confident tilt of her chin.

Her gown was plain, but made of taffeta instead of the coarse brown wool of peasants. Adorned with a pearl necklace and a ring on her finger, she also wore a metal circlet upon her head. Her appearance confused him, and he couldn’t tell if she was a noble or not.

He decided against it when he surveyed her olive skin. Noblewomen had fair, and pale skin. The only ones with tanned skin would be the workers or peasants who spent hours in the sun doing manual labor. This woman intrigued him. He needed to know more.

Kin usually got everything and anything he wanted. It was a common occurrence that things always turned out in his favor no matter how dark the circumstances seemed to be. Out of the seven de Bar siblings, he was the one blessed in a way, and that was what irked Kin’s four brothers and two sisters more than anything. They’d always envied him for his luck, and even called him the golden child while growing up.

He downed the rest of the whiskey from the wooden goblet clutched in his hand and managed to gain the girl’s attention, and smiled at her. Waggling the fingers of his other hands in greeting, he lost his balance and had to catch himself on the edge of the trestle table in order not to fall over, being unsteady from the drink. The girl’s eyes opened wide and her brows lifted in surprise. Then her eyes narrowed to slits just before she raised her nose in the air and looked the other way, disappearing into the crowd.

“Don’t pretend you don’t see me,” he mumbled to himself, taking a step forward, but stopping when his chainmail gauntlets fell from his waistbelt and hit the floor with a clunk. He bent over to get them, losing his balance once again, but not once dropping the goblet. He might have fallen on his backside if his brother, Arnon, hadn’t reached out and grabbed his arm and pulled him to an upward position.

“Careful brother, or you might hurt yourself,” said Arnon with a chuckle. Arnon was two years older than Kin, and had long, black hair, while Kin had golden hair down past his shoulders. Arnon’s identical twin, Hugh, who everyone called Wolf, came up and reached down, scooping the gauntlets off the floor and holding them up to inspect them.

“Kin, where did you get these? I’ve never seen golden mail gauntlets before, but then again, I’m sure they can’t actually be gold.” His brothers called him Kin instead of Rumpelstiltskin, and Kin kept his real name a secret, not even telling his squire. Many people had tried to figure out his name, but he felt embarrassed by it, and didn’t want anyone to know.

“Let me see those.” Arnon took the gauntlets them from Wolf and tested the weight in one hand. “They’re very heavy. Could they possibly be gold?”

“Now, why would I have gauntlets made of gold?” mumbled Kin, not paying attention to his brothers, as his mind was on the girl. “That is naught more than addled thinking and the exact kind of remark I’d expect from you two.” Kin snatched the gauntlets out of Arnon’s hand and tucked them back into his waistbelt. Then turning his head, he continued to search the room for the girl.

“Those are the gauntlets he was wearing when he fought with Hecuba over the book of alchemy,” said yet another of Kin’s brother’s, MacKay, coming to join them. MacKay was the youngest of the brothers and also unmarried, while the oldest three brothers all had wives.

“Ah, that makes sense then,” said Arnon. “There must be magic involved. You might have been caught in the crossfire the way I was when Hecuba cursed me a second time. You’d better watch for side effects, Brother.”

“Nonsense,” spat Kin. “I am the lucky one of the siblings, and you all know it. I won’t get cursed by that old witch, and there’ll be no side effects, so stop your worrying.”

“You
were
holding the book when it turned to dust in your hands,” MacKay pointed out. “And you were wearing those mail gauntlets at the time if I’m not mistaken. They were silver, but now they’re gold.”

“It’s probably just an effect of the heat that burned the book to dust when Hecuba destroyed it,” Kin told them. “I wouldn’t give it a second thought.”

“You’re probably right,” said MacKay. “But it would be nice to have gauntlets that were made of gold.”

Hecuba, the old crone, had at one time had an affair with the boys’ father, Lucio de Bar. Lucio was a warlock and although none of his children inherited his magic, one at a time they were being cursed by the vengeful witch.

Breckenridge Castle, where they now celebrated Stefan’s wedding, was the eldest de Bar brother’s new demesne. Kin owned a castle and also lands in Gillingham, nearby, bestowed upon him by the wealthy Baron Pettigrew last year. Kin was a loyal warrior, known for his skills on the battlefield and had been rewarded dearly for his service to the baron as well as to the crown.

Pettigrew, a small man twice Kin’s age, made himself look bigger by the lavish gifts he liked to hand out. He’d taken a liking to Kin, even though Kin couldn’t tolerate the man. Something about the baron was shady and deceitful, and Kin didn’t trust him in the least. But who was he to turn down generous gifts in exchange for the man’s alliance? So instead, Kin learned to bite his tongue and just enjoy and cherish the wealth and power that had come his way. He decided it was naught but good luck and fortune.

The bride and groom, Stefan and Bonnibel, were making the rounds talking to their guests. Kin lifted his hand in the air and called them over.

Pettigrew had been invited to the wedding celebration since his demesne was nearby. Kin eyed up the baron who was conversing with a commoner. The men seemed to be having an intense conversation. He didn’t recognize the commoner and wondered if he were naught but a traveling vendor.

“Who is that man talking to Pettigrew?” Kin asked Bonnibel. Breckenridge had been Bonnibel’s home before their wedding, and Kin figured she would know everyone there. “I haven’t seen the baron so intrigued with conversation since King Edward himself had paid the man a visit.”

“That is the miller,” said Bonnibel smiling from ear to ear as she held tightly to her new husband’s arm. “His name is Munroe Miller, and he grinds grain finer than anyone I know.”

“I’d like to meet him, as well as all the villagers some day, now that I’m Lord of Breckenridge,” said her husband, Stefan. Stefan smiled, causing the battle scars on his face to pull at odd angles. He’d almost been consumed by the beast within him just recently. But his beautiful wife, Bonnibel, had broken the witch’s curse upon him, and now Stefan was a man once again.

“Well, I’d just like to know who that beautiful woman is,” said Kin, staring at the girl across the room as she joined Baron Pettigrew and the miller.

“Which one?” asked Bonnibel. “There are many beautiful women at this wedding celebration.”

“None more beautiful than you,” said Stefan, squeezing Bonnibel’s hand and pressing a kiss against her forehead.

“Such sentiment, coming from a beast,” mumbled Kin. “Disgusting, the way you fawn over a woman.”

“You might try a little sentiment instead of the foolhardy ways you treat women,” said Stefan in his defense. “And if I want to fawn over Bonnibel, I will. After all, she is my wife.”

“That’s right,” agreed Arnon. “Kin, you know nothing at all about how to treat a woman.”

“If I must remind you,” said Kin, stopping for a moment and thumping his free fist to his chest as he belched. “The girls always flock to me, not any of you. So don’t tell me I know nothing about women.”

“Only because you’re paying them,” added Wolf under his breath. His brothers all started laughing at Wolf’s comment.

“I can get any woman I want, and I’m not talking about whores,” spat Kin.

“No woman would want you if she wasn’t getting paid to be near you.” MacKay reached out and pried the wooden goblet from his brother’s fingers, irritating Kin.

“Hey, give that back. I’m not done drinking yet.”

“If you want a lady – a real lady, not a whore, then give up the whiskey,” said MacKay. “It makes you act like a fool.”

“It does not,” Kin said, brushing invisible specks of dust off his tunic. “And I’ll prove it to you. I’ll get that lady across the room to spend the night with me.”

“Which one?” asked Stefan stretching his neck to see whom Kin meant.

“That beautiful, gentle lady who is talking to the miller and Baron Pettigrew,” he said.

Bonnibel chuckled. “She’s not a lady. She is naught but the miller’s daughter.”

“A commoner?” Kin shook his head and looked back at the girl again. “Are you sure she’s not a noble?”

“I’m positive,” said Bonnibel. “She goes by the name of Olivia de Mil to sound noble, but her name is actually Olivia Miller.”

“She grinds grain?” Kin couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“She’s a spinster. She spins wool,” Bonnibel explained. “She just likes to act like a noble. For all I know, she’s wearing stolen jewelry, but I assure you she’s just the miller’s daughter.”

“I think I know that man,” said Wolf, his eyes focused across the room. “I met him in a tavern not long ago, but I thought he told me he was related to the king himself.”

“One thing you all need to understand is that the miller and his daughter are perpetual liars,” Bonnibel told them.

“What do you mean?” asked Kin, very interested in this girl’s story.

“Well, I don’t like to gossip,” Bonnibel continued, “but my father always used to tell me that ever since the miller lost his wife, he’s been trying to marry off his daughter to a wealthy nobleman.”

“Why would he even think any nobleman would consider a marriage with a commoner?” asked Stefan, shaking his head at the thought.

“Because no one knows for sure if Olivia’s really his daughter.” Bonnibel tucked a blond strand of hair back under her headpiece and leaned forward and whispered. “Her mother was known to have been unfaithful when she entertained a passing sheik years ago. I’ve heard tongue’s wag that the girl’s olive-colored skin is not from being in the sun, but that she was born with it. That’s why they named her Olivia.”

“Surely, if the girl wasn’t the miller’s and he knew it, he would have had his wife flogged, or he would have left her,” said MacKay.

“Not if she was the daughter of a sheik,” said Bonnibel. “That could prove to be beneficial to him someday. He’s never come out and said she was the daughter of a sheik, but he is always making up grandeur tales about his daughter. I’ve heard from the servants that Olivia’s even started acting noble – or mayhap her father has just filled her head with so many lies that even she has no idea anymore what is true. Nobody knows for sure.”

“She’s the girl,” said Kin, his eyes fastening to Olivia across the room.

“What do you mean?” asked Wolf. “Are you saying she’s the one you’ve had your eye on all night?”

“She is.” Kin nodded. “And I’ll have her in my bed before sunup.”

Bonnibel laughed.

“What’s so funny?” asked Kin.

“My dear brother by marriage,” she said. “Some people say that Olivia is a curse to be reckoned with. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into by going after her.”

“That’s right,” said Stefan. “Don’t risk it. She sounds like trouble.”

“She is a challenge, and I love a challenge,” Kin answered.

“Stay aware, and keep your eyes opened for Hecuba,” Wolf warned him. “Now that Stefan’s curse is broken, the old witch will more than likely be coming after another de Bar sibling soon. It might just be you.”

“I’m not afraid of Hecuba or curses, or even the miller’s daughter who is pretending to be something she isn’t,” Kin boasted. “I can handle it, or did you all forget? I am the lucky one.”

“You’re lucky that it’s my wedding day, or I’d knock some sense back into your addlepated head right now,” growled Stefan with a vein throbbing at the side of his neck.

“Let him go make a fool of himself,” said Arnon with a wave of his hand through the air. “I think it’s about time our Golden Brother learns that someday his luck will run out. And mayhap Olivia de Mil is just the woman to teach him that.”

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