Charming, Volume 2 (21 page)
Read Charming, Volume 2 Online
Authors: Jack Heckel
“You still do not understand,” she said, the anger returning in an instant.
He bowed and spread his hands wide in a gesture of surrender. “Forgive me. I am being pushy, and nobody likes a pushy frog. Please, explain to me your fear. I assure you that there is nothing that is more important waiting for me at the bottom of that well.”
Gwen smiled, but then just as quickly, a shadow of grief passed over her face. She straightened herself. “I may have once been known as Princess Gwendolyn Mostfair, but I lost everything. Even my name. Today I can delude myself that something of what I was still remains, and that there is hope. But if I kiss you, and you remain a frog, then this really is all that is left. This life. This loneliness. I am not sure I would survive.”
Monty nodded gravely. “I see.” He sat down cross-Âlegged next to her. “Let me tell you something, Gwendolyn Mostfair, that I have learned while sitting at the bottom of very cold, very damp, and very lonely wells for the last few dozen years. Many things can be taken away from you in this life. You can lose your riches, your title, even your body”âÂhe gestured to himselfâ “but no one can take away your soul.”
He put a flipper on her hand again. “In your heart, you are a princess, no, you are
the
Princess, the Princess of fairy tale. That is something no one can ever take from you.”
Their eyes met. They gazed at each other as the wind whipped about the top of the hill, and the crickets began their evening song in the field below, and the clouds passed overhead, until, at last, some silent agreement passed between them. She bent down toward him. He spoke as she drew near. “Wait. Gwendolyn, I have a confession to make. I am not a prince, just the son of a . . . farmer. I am sorry I lied to you.”
Gwen laughed softly. “Have you seen where I live, Monty? I don't need a prince. I need a farmer.”
“But I will never be able to give what you once had, Gwendolyn.”
“I do not want what I once had, Monty.”
He leaned forward. She spoke as he drew near. “Is this true love, Monty?”
“What is love, but the selfless need of one person and its answer reflected in another. This may not be full love, but what is there could not be more true. In time, who knows? Is that enough for you, Gwendolyn?”
She closed her eyes. “I am willing to take the chance.”
They kissed, and an electric wind swirled about them. She felt hands, human hands, a man's hands, cupping her face. She let the feeling linger and then, at long last, Princess Gwendolyn Mostfair opened her eyes.
AN END
Â
JACK HECKEL
's life is an open book. Actually, it's the book you are in all hope holding right now (and if you are not holding it, he would like to tell you it can be purchased from any of your finest purveyors of the written word). Beyond that, Jack aspires to be either a witty, urbane world traveler who lives on his vintage yacht,
The Clever Double Entendre
, or a geographically illiterate professor of literature who spends his nonwriting time restoring an eighteenth-Âcentury lighthouse off a remote part of the Vermont coastline. Whatever you want to believe of him, he is without doubt the author of the Charming novels,
Once Upon a Rhyme
and
Happily Never After
. More than anything, Jack lives for his readers.
www.jackheckel.com
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.
Â
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
HAPPILY NEVER AFTER
. Copyright © 2014 by John Peck and Harry Heckel. All rights reserved under International and Pan-ÂAmerican Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-Âbook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-Âengineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperÂCollins e-Âbooks.
EPub Edition NOVEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780062359285
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Â
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
*
The Seven Players have asked, or rather legally compelled us, to point out that, despite the fact that the first two letters of each of their names
might
correspond to the first two letters of the names of the dwarves in “That Play,” such correspondence or resemblance to such fictitious characters or persons is purely coincidental, and that all persons (or at least dwarves) appearing in this work are not fictitious, but are entirely real, alive and taking bookings.
**
We are contractually obligated by the Seven Players attorneys to include the following disclaimer:
“Ash and Cinders: The Elizabeth Pickett Story” is a registered trademark of the Seven Players and all text, graphics, artwork and other materials are copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
â
Lady Elizabeth Pickett insists on pain of a broom against our backside that we include the following disclaimer:
The use of Lady Elizabeth Pickett's name does not imply that “Ash and Cinders: The Elizabeth Pickett Story” is in any way endorsed by Lady Elizabeth Pickett, or reflects in even the vaguest way anything that actually happened to Lady Elizabeth.
â¡
The Seven Players, who really do have a lot of attorneys, insisted that if we included Lady Elizabeth's disclaimer that we also include the following disclaimerâ¦disclaimer:
“Ash and Cinders: The Elizabeth Pickett Story” is
inspired
by, not
based
on, the life and times of Lady Elizabeth Pickett, as we have repeatedly explained to her, and any inconsistencies between reality and the play represent artistic license taken by the authors to improve the dramatic arc of the story, and the natural uncertainty of truth in a postmodern world. (Italics added at the direction of the Seven Players.)
