Chapter Eighteen

Freddy

F reddy was a fan of long hugs, but even he had his limits.

His mother apparently did not.

"What do you expect?" she cried as she pulled back to look at his face, then pulled him back in again. "My sweet boy disappeared for nearly two months to wander the continent."

He patted her shoulders. "I told you where I was going, Mother."

"You said, ‘Alfred is up to something. I need to go to Nedra.' Then the next thing I knew, your next letter was coming from Anura, and then Cabriole!"

"At least I wrote?" he tried. He looked over her shoulder to where his best friend Hadrian was standing, arms crossed and his signature serious expression on his face. The translator was a few inches shorter than he was, with a slimmer build and ink-stained fingers that spoke to his long hours spent with books and pens.

Hadrian raised his eyebrows. "I don't know why you're looking at me, unless it's to remind you that even the written word should follow the rules of proper grammar."

"You're right. I don't know why I'm looking at you." Freddy twisted, moving his mother with him as he did. "Maribel?"

The small, brown-haired woman looked up from her seat at Hadrian's desk. He had requested to meet them all there because Hadrian, being fond of silence and not of most people, had a space in one of the most out-of-the-way corners of the palace. The tall windows overlooking the sea let in the afternoon glow. Freddy had forgotten how beautiful the sunsets were in Kysta, and the colors nearly stole his breath away. Bookshelves stuffed to the brim lined the walls, though he had to admit that everything was in much better order now that Maribel was in charge of keeping Hadrian in line.

"Am I commending you for doing the bare minimum of writing your mother a letter to reassure her of your continued existence, or reminding Hadrian that not everyone views their correspondence as a formal essay?"

Freddy narrowed his eyes at her. "Hadrian is making you spunky; I'm not sure if I like it." Then he grinned. "But both, if you please. I would very much like to be commended, and I would also like to see you standing up to Had."

A soft smile stretched over her pretty face. "I'm glad you're back, Freddy."

"And a married man, I hear." Hadrian announced, smirked at Freddy's annoyed glare.

Clarice pulled back again. "What? Married? Since when? To whom? Why didn't you tell me?"

Freddy gently directed her to the settee that stood to the left, just inside the door. He sat down next to her and took her hands. "I was going to tell you." He glared again at Hadrian, who leaned against his desk with an unapologetic expression. He looked back at his mother, who was shaking her head reproachfully. "That was one of the reasons for this meeting."

"Where is she?"

"Mrs. Pearce is letting us borrow her cottage for a few days."

Clarice blinked twice. "You left Eliza to keep house on her own?"

Freddy's jaw dropped in surprise. "How do you know it's Lizzie?"

"Oh, son." Clarice sighed. She reached a hand out as if to cup his cheek as she was wont to do, then seemed to reconsider when she touched his beard. She opted for his shoulder instead. "It's always been Lizzie."

"Unfortunately," Hadrian muttered.

Maribel shushed him.

"You've been smitten from the time you made her smile." His mother sighed. "She was always such a sweet girl, until that business with the betrothal. I always wondered if perhaps the pressure was too much for her. She changed so suddenly."

Freddy took a deep breath. This was where he had his work cut out for him. "She's cursed."

Silence rang in the room at his announcement. Maribel was the first to speak, likely as the only one who had experienced magic first hand before. "How?"

"I don't know exactly how it happened, only that her curse keeps her from feeling emotions. She acts cold and aloof because she is cold. She can't feel anything."

Clarice's hand flew to her mouth. "The poor thing. What happened?"

"Well, that's the thing." Freddy scratched his beard. He was so ready to shave it off. "She kind of…cursed herself."

The second round of silence was even heavier than the first. Freddy swallowed against the lump in his throat. Despite all of the heart work he had done, there was still an aspect of Lizzie's decision that caused him pain.

"Why?" Hadrian's voice was soft, and his brow knit with concern, reminding Freddy that Hadrian and Lizzie had been friends as well. "What happened?"

He gave a self-deprecating laugh. "She found out that she was supposed to marry me."

Hadrian tapped his chin. "I could have understood it if it happened now. I would also want to be cursed if I had to marry that beard of yours."

"Thanks," Freddy responded drily. But Hadrian's teasing words helped him move past the pain and get to the point.

"I left for Nedra because Shea sent me a message saying that Alfred was offering Lizzie's hand to whichever suitors could come with a profitable offer."

"But she was still betrothed to you!" Clarice's expression was outraged. "The agreement was never nullified!"

"Which is why I wasn't invited. Shea and I had a plan—at least, the beginnings of one. I knew that Alfred wouldn't allow me in if he knew I was there, so I pretended to be a wandering minstrel. The idea was that I would find a way into the castle that way, and then Shea would arrange for me to speak with Lizzie.

"When I got there, Alfred had paraded Lizzie in front of all the suitors. When he asked her to choose one, she refused, and in a fit of rage he promised to marry her to the next man who came through the door."

Maribel gasped. "He wouldn't! His own daughter?"

Freddy shook his head. "I should have seen it before. I knew Alfred could be cruel, but I didn't realize just how deep his abuse went. In his eyes, Lizzie's only purpose in life was to make a profitable match for his country. When she refused, he was ready to wash his hands of her."

His mother patted his knee. "We also knew he had a temper; we saw it surface sometimes in meetings. But he was always so sweet with his family."

His jaw worked back and forth as Freddy recalled the way Lizzie had flinched away when she thought him angry. "I don't think he was, Mother. And I don't think he stopped at words."

Clarice's eyes were wide with horrified shock. "You mean…?"

Freddy nodded sharply. "Lizzie's whole life, the only example of marriage that she's seen has been one that looks perfect on the outside, but behind closed doors was a nightmare. Alfred is abusive and opportunistic, and he's willing to dispose of anyone who stands in his way, no matter who they are."

Sympathetic tears streamed down her cheeks. "So when she found out that she was going to be married…"

"She cursed herself," Freddy finished. "Because Lizzie was afraid that being married meant being hurt and betrayed over and over again."

"But you're nothing like her father!"

He gave a small shrug. "To be fair, none of us were aware that Alfred was like Alfred, either. For all she knew, in her 15-year-old mind, all men were just wolves in disguise, waiting for the ceremony to finally show their true colors."

"To return to your story," Hadrian said after a heavy moment, "I'm assuming that because you and Lizzie are now bonded in matrimony, that you were the next man at the door?"

"I was, much to Lizzie's horror. My disguise might have been too good, and she didn't realize who I was." Freddy paused, knowing that there was no way to get out of telling the next part of the story. "She ran away before the wedding."

Hadrian snorted. "Again?"

Freddy pulled a face at him. "Yes, well, Alfred signed the marriage certificate by proxy, and since he is both the king and her father, we're legally married. But I had to go retrieve her before I could come home."

"Where did she go?" Maribel was leaning forward with her chin resting on her hands, thoroughly invested in the story.

"All the way to Norditch."

"So, now what?" his mother asked. "I assume that Lizzie wants her curse to be broken?"

"That's the thing—she doesn't." Freddy held up his hand before anyone could interrupt. "She doesn't want it broken and…she doesn't know that I am me. She still thinks I'm Kai, the poor wandering minstrel who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"You have to tell her, Fred," Hadrian said incredulously. "You can't possibly think you can keep living a double life like this."

Clarice jumped in, "And you can't have a cursed wife on the throne. No matter how much you love her, the people will never trust her."

"I know, and I know." Freddy looked both his friend and his mother in the eye. "I have a plan."

Maribel had a paper and pen out almost before he finished saying the words. "What do you need?"

He gave Clarice a sheepish grin. "How quickly can you plan another wedding?"