Rumpelstiltskin (Timeless Fairy Tales Book 4) (10 page)

The captain took the golden flax with wide eyes. “This is from—,” he started before breaking off and shaking his head.

“We could melt it down,” the guard Gemma recognized as Foss said. “I have a brother-in-law who is a goldsmith. He’ll keep his mouth shut so the King doesn’t hear about it.”

“We could trade for the fabric if it wasn’t so recognizable,” another soldier said.

“What did you have in mind?” the captain asked.

Gemma’s forehead furrowed as fabrics and patterns flipped through her mind. “I will need silver thread—black thread too. A lot of it. And I think…black wool and dark blue silk.”

Chapter 8

Lady Linnea snored and rolled over in her sleep. It was dawn. Usually she was up by now, practicing sword techniques with the fireplace poker. But last night she stayed awake much longer than she meant to, fretting about Gemma.

How
was Gemma getting the gold thread? Could she really get it a second time? How could she be smuggled out? These thoughts tormented Lady Linnea into the wee hours of the morning.

So it was to Lady Linnea’s great chagrin that she didn’t wake up until something tapped the glass pane of her window.

Lady Linnea, about as picturesque as a ruined soufflé, picked her head off her goose-feather pillow. “What?” she said, smacking her lips several times. When she noticed the dark shape crouched by her window, she had a dagger in her hands in an instant.

The figure tapped on the window before pressing his face against the frosted pane. “Lady Linnea, it’s me,” Prince Toril said. “Could you let me in—YIKES,” he yelped when he nearly fell off the roof on which he was crouched.

Lady Linnea threw on a robe and stalked across the cold room. “I never think you can get more idiotic, but somehow
every time
I see you, you manage it,” she said, opening the window and grabbing the struggling prince by his cloak, dragging him into her room.

“You are absolutely mad,” Lady Linnea declared, shutting the window behind him. “First of all, you could break your skinny neck by climbing two stories in the frost and cold. Secondly, do you have any idea what will happen if our parents hear about this? Please try to use your head, however small it may be, and
think
for once.”

“I did,” Prince Toril said, picking himself up off the ground with an injured look. “I thought you would want to know what happened to that servant girl of yours. I can see now that I was wrong,” he stiffly said.

Lady Linnea sighed, exhaling the fight and stiffness out of her body. “No, you are right. I apologize; I am very eager to hear about Gemma, and I am sorry for abusing you so. What happened?” Lady Linnea asked, clasping her hands together as she feared the worst.

“She did it again,” Prince Toril said.

“She
what
?”

“She spun all the flax into gold thread. I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it myself, but she did it,” Prince Toril said with a puppy smile.

Lady Linnea sat down hard in an armchair. “She did it,” she repeated.

“Do you know how she’s managing it?” Prince Toril asked.

“No,” Lady Linnea said, relief making her lightheaded. “I asked her about it—she said a mage broke into her room and did it for her.”

“That can’t be,” Prince Toril frowned. “There aren’t any mages in the area. At least, none have presented themselves at the palace—and they
always
do.”

Lady Linnea shrugged. “I don’t care how she does it as long as she is alive. This is marvelous!” Lady Linnea said, sagging in her chair.

“Not quite,” Prince Toril said.

“What do you mean?”

The prince shrugged uncomfortably. “My father.”

“What of him?”

Prince Toril shrugged. “I don’t think he’s ever going to release her.”

“He can’t keep her in the dungeons forever,” Lady Linnea said.

“No, but he will try to think of a reason to keep her chained to him so she will spin gold whenever he wants it,” Prince Toril said. “I believe we could potentially help her escape, but now—especially after the large amount of gold she spun last night—my father would create a bloodbath among his guards and hold them responsible for it.”

“Oh,” Lady Linnea said, drooping further.

“Furthermore, this maid—,”

“She’s my seamstress.”

“This seamstress of yours will never be safe in Verglas—not as long as Father is alive. If we manage to free her without getting all the guards killed, she will have to flee across the border.”

Lady Linnea bit her lip and looked west. “The Kozlovka border is closest to Ostfold.”

“It would be better if we sent her to Loire or, ideally, Arcainia. My father would never dare to reach for her there after last year’s episode with Princess Elise,” Prince Toril said.

Lady Linnea stared at Prince Toril, shocked by his moment of brilliance. “Yes,” she said before brightening again. “You could take her and then go to romance that princess of yours.”

“Maybe,” Prince Toril slowly agreed. “But I think it would be best if I stayed behind to clean up the mess my father will make. Will you go?”

“No. My parents hardly let me out of the house. I could never talk them into allowing me to leave the country,” Lady Linnea sighed. “But it makes no difference. I could send a servant with her, or Gemma will survive on her own for a time. She’s a smart girl, and much more clever than I am,” Lady Linnea said. “What?” she asked when she noticed the odd look Prince Toril gave her.

“I don’t think I have ever heard a person say their servant is more clever than they are,” Prince Toril said.

Lady Linnea shrugged. “Gemma is fiendishly smart. Although I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong impression! In a situation that requires weapons, I would perform far better than her,” she said with a proud smile as she stood.

“I see,” Prince Toril said.

Lady Linnea pulled her robe tighter around her waist when she heard someone rustling in the room next door. “You have to leave—someone will be by shortly to tend the fire.”

“Ah, right! Of course,” Prince Toril said, retreating to the windows. “Do we continue with your plan to purchase flax?”

“Yes,” Lady Linnea said, glancing over her shoulder. “I mean to visit Gemma this afternoon. Will you be available after lunch?”

“Yes. I’ll wait for you on the shores of Lake Sno?”

Lady Linnea nodded and flipped her tangled blonde hair over her shoulders. “Until then. Now get out!” she said.

“Yes, yes,” Prince Toril said. He opened a window and slipped out. He climbed across the roof and down the side of the manor with surprising agility.

When he dropped to the frost-covered grass and raised a hand to wave to Lady Linnea, the young lady called, glancing around guiltily to watch for servants. “Prince Toril?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“For buying the flax?”

“No, for coming,” Lady Linnea said.

Prince Toril bowed. When he straightened, Lady Linnea heard a tap on the door. She waved to the prince before hastily shutting the window and pulling the drapes to cover it.

“Come in,” she said, before preparing herself for the day.

“When Mama heard about the rumors, she called the steward, head maid, housekeeper, and chief footman and told them if she ever heard such silliness about you being spread through the house again, they should plan on seeking employment elsewhere. Of course
everyone
knows Malfrid is the one who started the rumors. I don’t know why Mama has retained her thus far. She is as sour as a skunk,” Lady Linnea said, her voice dripping with disgust.

Gemma finished sewing the seam that attached a piece of black wool to a liner of midnight-blue silk. “I’m happy to hear Lady Lovland defends me, even though I am no longer a Lovland employee,” Gemma said, rolling the fabrics so the new piece was no longer inside-out but outside-out.

“What?” Lady Linnea yelped, banging her elbow on the grate of the ceiling-window. “What do you mean ‘no longer a Lovland employee’?”

“Exactly what it sounds. I am not a Lovland employee. How can I be, locked up as I am?” Gemma said, her eyebrows furrowed as she shaped the fabric piece into a hood. “I hope it is deep enough. He does enjoy covering his face,” she said, placing the hood on her head to be certain the rim fell low over her face—it did.

Lady Linnea didn’t hear Gemma’s mutters as she was too busy squawking. “But! You just—who cares if you are locked up!”

“I can hardly make dresses for you in this situation, My Lady.”

Lady Linnea eyed Gemma like a curious songbird. “But you are making some sort of…thing right now. You could do the same for me!” the young lady said, puffing out her chest. She thought for a moment before adding, “Not that I expect you to. I imagine sewing for someone else is the last thing you wish to do right now. But, you can’t just…What will I do without you?” Lady Linnea protested, peeking down through the window grille

“I wouldn’t worry about it just yet, My Lady,” Gemma said, setting the hood aside to eye the pieces she had already cut for the body of the cape.

The soldiers were quicker to retrieve the material than Gemma had hoped. She had placed her “order” the previous day, and they brought it to her when they delivered her dinner tray that same evening.

“What do you mean?” Lady Linnea asked.

“No one knows what is going to happen to me,” Gemma grunted as she matched up pieces. “King Torgen might imprison me for life, or he might have me killed on a whim. My future is extremely unstable,” Gemma said, sounding unbothered by her tumultuous life as she selected a piece of wool and silk. “This lining is going to take ages to sew.”

“You will live,” Lady Linnea sternly said, shaking a finger at Gemma. “And for now, Toril and I have bought every scrap of flax in the city. King Torgen is being forced to look outside Ostfold, so we have bought you at least a week, possibly longer.”

“Oh? So it’s just Toril now, is it?” Gemma asked, lifting an eyebrow as she threaded a needle.

“You are reading too deeply,” Lady Linnea said, blushing a faint pink. “I could call him the Idiot, but that hardly seems respectful.”

“I see,” Gemma said.

“You don’t sound convinced,” Lady Linnea said.

“That would be because I am not.”

“Gemma!” Lady Linnea scoffed and made snorting noises like an angry horse.

Gemma unwound black thread from the spool and started the first few stitches of the piece before she straightened it out and jabbed some of the extra sewing needles in strategic locations to keep the piece straight.

“I’m glad you seem to be doing well,” Lady Linnea said when she was through being flustered. “I worried when you were first imprisoned. You had lost much of your spirit.”

“Imminent death often does that to a person,” Gemma said.

“I know
that
,” Lady Linnea rolled her eyes. “What I meant is…you are you again. The fight is back in your words. I’m glad,” Lady Linnea said.

Gemma stopped sewing long enough to peer up at Lady Linnea through the barred window and give the lady a reassuring smile. “Thank you,” she said.

Thank you for caring
.

Understanding what was unsaid, Lady Linnea ruffled her cloak and shifted her seat on the chilly grate. “Of course,” she said. “You might also note I’m valiantly not asking who the cloak is for,” Lady Linnea added.

“The mage,” Gemma said.

“I told you already that you don’t need to make up stories. No matter how you’re getting the gold, I would not be angry,” Lady Linnea said.

“Uh-huh,” Gemma said.

“I wouldn’t be mad even if I learned you had a beau here in the castle. Especially if he is slipping the gold to you,” Lady Linnea said. “Is it one of the guards?”

“Nobody is courting me, My Lady.”

“Right,” Lady Linnea said. She looked to Gemma’s project with undisguised curiosity before she sighed. “I need to go.”

“Do you have a meeting scheduled with Prince Toril, again?”

“No,” Lady Linnea said, wrinkling her nose at Gemma. “Worse: I have embroidery practice.”

“Ah. Good luck.”

“Thank you. I shall need it,” Lady Linnea said.

“Take care, My Lady.”

“You too! Do not hesitate to tell me if you need anything,” Lady Linnea said before scrambling out of sight. “Goodbye!” she said, popping back into view as she climbed the wall like a deft squirrel.

Gemma shook her head and kept sewing.