Chapter 16

“S o, Ella, tell me how you came to be in the company of our rogue prince?” Gustav asked as they trotted along toward the port.

She cut Nicholas a glance whose mouth had formed into a thin line. “I am not a rogue prince.”

Gustav laughed. “How many lady friends did you entertain this summer?”

The prince’s face flushed a deep red. “Don’t listen to him, Ella. He’s merely trying to cause trouble.”

“And you don’t?” Gustav countered.

Ella glanced between the two of them. Gustav had a smirk on his face while Nicholas was less than amused. While she had no right to the prince—they hardly knew each other after all—a pang of jealousy went through her anyway.

“You entertained lady friends?” she asked, one brow raised.

“They were merely acquaintances,” Nicholas said. Then he said to Gustav, “Ella and I met at a royal ball.”

“Indeed?” But there was more question in his eyes.

Clearly, he wanted to find out more about how they met, but Nicholas wasn’t so ready to divulge that information. Ella wasn’t sure if she should tell Gustav the truth, either. After all, it sounded odd to say she had arrived by the magical glass slippers. She wasn’t sure the Captain of the Guard would believe her.

All of that seemed like a terribly long time ago, now.

“Yes,” she said. “At a royal ball.”

“Was that something your mother arranged?”

Nicholas gave him a pointed look as they rode along. “You’re not helping.”

Yet, Nicholas didn’t deny his mother had something to do with it.

“His mother has a way with making things happen,” Gustav said to her, a twinkle in his dark brown eyes.

“I haven’t met his mother,” she said.

“You haven’t?” Gustav said.

Nicholas cleared his throat loudly. “No, not yet.” Again, he gave him a pointed look.

“Well,” Gustav said on a breath, “I’m sure she will in good time.”

“I’m sure she will,” Nicholas agreed.

“I’ve known Nicholas all my life,” he said, changing the subject. “We grew up together. Have you known the prince long, my lady?”

She glanced at the prince whose face was still bright red. He wasn’t enjoying Gustav’s company at all.

“Not long,” she said shaking her head.

“And…are you visiting Rovenheim?”

“I think that’s quite enough with the questions,” Nicholas said. “We’re almost to the port. Let’s make haste.”

With that, he kicked his horse into a gallop and headed off, snow spraying in his wake.

“I guess I made him angry,” Gustav said, giving her a sheepish grin.

“I guess you did,” she said with a nod.

They followed Nicholas’s lead and hurried after him.

The rest of the trip was silent and uneventful. Until they arrived at the port. They dismounted their horses and left them with a boarder while they sought a suitable ship. The fierce wind whipped through Ella and she pulled her cloak tighter around her thin frame. The hood refused to stay on her head, so her ears and face were nearly frozen as they walked down the wharf.

There were only two ships in the harbor. One was a merchant ship with only a few sailors aboard. The captain was on shore leave and, therefore, they weren’t planning to leave the port until spring. The few men aboard were only there to keep things tidy and make sure nothing happened to the ship while it was in port.

The second ship was one with several masts soaring into the overcast sky. The sails were all put away, but there were several boisterous men aboard. One hung on the railing as they approached. His overcoat was shabby. He wore fingerless gloves, no hat, and several layers under the coat. His bearded face was smudged with dirt and his long hair was unruly in the wind. Ella had never met a pirate and had only imagined what one looked like. This man looked like a pirate to her.

She shifted from one foot to the other, the velvet bag under her arm shifting, too. She had forgotten it was there while riding and now the slight weight of it reminded her she still carried the glass slippers.

“Ahoy, there!” he called with a wave. “It’s not often we see visitors on the wharf this time of year.”

“Hello,” Nicholas said with a smile. His face was pink from the cold wind. “We’re looking for passage to the Grimbrande Mountains.”

“The Grimbrande?” He scratched his scraggly gray beard. “There’s no port near those mountains.”

“I was hoping you could sail us close and then let us take one of your dinghies to shore,” Nicholas said.

“ That’s your plan?” Gustav asked under his breath. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“It wasn’t relevant,” Nicholas said, his voice low so the pirate wouldn’t hear.

Gustav frowned, clearly unhappy with the proposed plan.

“And then what? Wait it out in the waters until you return?” the pirate asked and then emitted a jolly laugh.

“I’ll pay you,” Nicholas said.

That seemed to get his attention. He stopped laughing, leaned over the railing further and narrowed his eyes. “How much?”

“How much do you want?” Nicholas said.

Astonishment flickered through Ella as she looked from the prince to the pirate.

“Five hundred gold,” the pirate said.

Without blinking an eye, Nicholas said, “Deal. And we leave now.”

The pirate was unphased by the prince’s demands, turned and shouted to the crew, “Lower the sails, me lads, we’re setting sail!”

It didn’t take long for the crusty old pirate to get the ship ready to sail. He was momentarily leery of allowing a woman on board, but Nicholas talked him into it, telling him he simply couldn’t leave his sister behind. Ella tried hard not to roll her eyes at that.

Once they were on board, Gustav took Nicholas aside and they had heated words. Ella remained at the railing watching as the ship pulled out from the port, trying her best to keep her ears to herself. She shivered against the chilly breeze and pulled her hood up over her face to block out as much of the wind as possible. It didn’t help much.

When Gustav and Nicholas were finished arguing, Nicholas then spoke with the pirate, which she assumed was the captain.

“Here is half now,” he said as he handed over a small drawstring bag. “The rest when we return safely to port.”

“You drive a hard bargain, sir.”

Sir. So, Nicholas hadn’t told him his true identity.

When he finished with the pirate, he joined her at the railing. He leaned on his forearms, the wind gusting past his face. She watched the distance expand between the ship and the port, her heart a wild beat of both excitement and fear. And a bit of nerves and anger as he stood next to her as if nothing was amiss.

“The captain says we will be there shortly. Then we’ll take a rowboat out to the shore,” he said.

She nodded.

He leaned in closer and dropped his voice. “He’s a crusty old thing, but I trust him. Name’s Captain Bart, short for Bartholemew.”

She nodded again. He turned serious.

“Are you angry with me?”

Was she? She didn’t really have an answer to that question. Since Gustav mentioned all his lady friends, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. She had no idea why it bothered her so much, either. It wasn’t like the prince had made her any promises.

“Your friend, Gustav, is an interesting person,” she said, keeping her face forward.

“Gustav likes to tease me,” he said. “That’s all.”

She turned her head to look at him, but the edge of her hood blocked out most of his face. “Why were you at that ball?” she asked suddenly. She didn’t know why that question seemed so important for him to answer now.

But she also thought of what Alice told her. That the magic in the glass slippers would lead the wearer to her true love.

He kept his face forward, the wind tousling his hair. “I was there as a guest, like you.”

Then he turned to her, taking her gloved hands in his and squeezing. “You mustn’t take Gustav seriously with all those things he said about the ball and my mother arranging it. I was there and we met. I’m glad we met, Ella.”

“And then you came to Rovenheim to find me,” she said. “Why? How did you know I was here?”

He was quiet for a long moment, indecision in his eyes as he decided how to answer. “Ella, you must believe me there are some things that cannot be explained. I came to find you, yes, and to make sure you were returned safely to your own world.”

She slipped her hands free and turned back to the railing. The wharf had diminished in size.

“My own world.” She hadn’t meant to sound so bitter.

“Don’t you want to return?”

Ella thought about that for a long, quiet moment. What did she really have to go back to? Her parents were dead. Her stepmother and stepsisters were vile. They treated her like she was nothing more than dirt on the bottom of their shoes. She did wonder, however, how they were faring in her absence. If they had figured out how to cook and clean and take care of the livestock. She thought of one of her stepsisters mucking stalls almost made her laugh.

But then Nicholas had made her no promises, so what kind of life would she have if she stayed?

“I have nothing to go back to,” she said at last.

“No family?” he asked.

“My mother died when I was young,” she said. “My father left for a business trip a few years ago and never returned. I was left to contend with my stepmother and stepsisters.”

She tried to hide her disgust for them, but it was difficult.

“You don’t get along with them?” he guessed.

A half-hearted laugh escaped her before she could stop it. “Not exactly.”

She refused to tell him how they treated her. She didn’t want to admit such things. And, as he was keen to say, it wasn’t relevant. Not to him.

“But…” she paused, thinking of their manor and all the Christmas decorations she left behind in her room, all the festive cheer from the patrons in the market. “I do miss some things.”

Nicholas turned toward her, leaning an elbow on the railing and giving her his full attention. “Like?”

“Like the cheer in the marketplace during this time of year. How everyone seems joyful for no reason other than the season. My stepmother wouldn’t let me put a tree up in the foyer. So, I put it up in my room.”

“Your stepmother sounds like a shrew,” he said then.

It made her laugh. “But that’s enough about them. What are we going to do when we arrive at the shore?”

He straightened, smoothing his gloved hands over the front of his cloak. “We are going to hike through the mountains to her fortress and hope she doesn’t know we’re coming.”

“That doesn’t sound reassuring,” she said.

“No, and it’s not Gustav’s favorite idea, either. But it’s the only plan we have.”

A plan she helped concoct.

“Then I suppose it will have to do.”

He nodded and turned his attention back out to sea. Though he sounded confident, she sensed his apprehension. She had to admit, she felt exactly the same.