Chapter 15

I trudged through the snow and knocked on Beryl’s door, praying that he would answer. A minute dragged by, and I knocked again, folding my arms so tightly I felt like a knotted rope. It should be illegal for anywhere to get this cold. This time, pattering footsteps could be heard, and the door creaked open. A young girl stood there, eyes shining bright. “Hello.”

“Hello. Is your father home?”

“He’s helping someone. Can I take a message?”

I shivered all over, the frigid air stabbing right through me to chill my very bones. “Can you tell him that Noelle’s here?”

“Noelle?” Beryl’s deep voice came from the backroom. “Come in, come in! Don’t let the warm air out. Is Jack with you?”

The girl waved me inside, and I stamped hard to get the worst of the snow off the hem of my skirts before I quickly crossed the threshold and snapped the door closed. “No, he isn’t,” I answered.

Beryl stuck his head out of the backroom. “He tends to just randomly turn up with dogs. And then with the occasional girl,” he added with a wink. Then his face changed when he saw my expression. “What’s wrong?”

The higher the moon rose and the longer I talked, the lower my heart sank. I spilled my entire story to Beryl and his nine-year-old daughter Peggy. Had Jack already found out that I’d been thrown out? I had no doubt that my stepmother would rush to tell him that I’d been using him all along, trying to exploit him to get a will that would avail me nothing. I could only imagine the stories that Vanessa would tell Stephen. I buried my face into my hands. One of these days, I really should learn to keep my mouth shut so I didn’t land myself in these situations.

“It’s not so bad,” Beryl told me, heaving a crate of bottles over to the counter. “Jack can talk to the prince and ensure you have a place to live, and you’re welcome to stay here tonight. You’ll just miss a ball. You and Jack can go skate again and pretend like it’s dancing, and it will be like you didn’t miss anything at all.”

“That’s not…how did you know we went skating?”

Beryl shrugged his massive shoulders. “Jack let it slip the other day. You make him really happy, you know.”

I smiled wistfully. “He makes me happy, too.”

Peggy sat attentively by his side, as if determined to show that she could be just as gown-up as her father. Trying to find something to talk about besides my own woes, I smiled at the girl. “What hobbies do you have, Peggy? Do you like helping your father with his shop? ”

“I’m going to be an actress one day,” she told me proudly. “Dad says I’m very good.”

“Really? Have you been to the theater before?”

“Yes. I went once, but it was all about puns.” She looked me dead in the eye. “It was just a play on words.”

Beryl hooted with laughter, slapping his knee. “That was a good one, Pegs!”

I groaned and shook my head. “No one will ever question if she is your daughter.”

He wiped tears of mirth from his eyes, sighing as his laughter slowly died. “It’s time for you to go to bed, Pegs.”

“Dad, please can I stay up for a little longer? I want to hear more.”

“Not unless you want to clean the shop while you stay up.”

Peggy grumbled and dragged her feet as slowly as possible toward the back room, but then she stopped, listening hard. The jingling of bells rang through the air. Daring to hope, I snuck a look out the window. A team of sled dogs, all harnessed together, was pulling to a stop. Out leapt Jack, hair just as white as Kodiak’s fur. He tucked a large box under one arm and kept his other hand cupped just beneath his ribs at an awkward angle.

I ran to the door, pulling it open just as Jack tried to knock, and he overbalanced, tumbling into the room in a whirl of snow. The box tumbled from Jack’s arms and skidded across the floor as Jack wrapped both arms protectively around his middle, resulting in his face crashing into my knees.

“Jack!” I shrieked, bending to help him up.

“Careful,” he warned as he stood, still a bit hunched with his arms cradling his suspiciously large jacket.

“By holly, if that’s another dog you want me to patch up—” Beryl began, his bearded face contorting into an irritable scowl as he went to shut the door against the blustering wind.

“It’s not hurt this time,” Jack protested, gently peeling back his topmost layer. A small, orange head popped out, sniffing curiously. The puppy’s eyes sparkled like amber and its tiny, pointed ears stuck straight up from its head. “I just found him.”

“He’s so cute!” Peggy squealed in delight and stroked his head.

“He is,” I agreed. “I think I’m in love.”

“Whoa, whoa, if you two are going to talk like that, I’m leaving,” Beryl snorted. “And Peggy, I told you to go to bed.”

Peggy wrinkled her nose. “She meant she loves the dog.”

“What, now she’s trying to hurt Jack’s feelings by picking a dog over him?” Beryl smirked. “He’ll be very jealous.”

“No, I won’t. I’d pick a dog over myself any day,” Jack said, joining me in scratching behind the puppy’s ears.

“Can I hold him?” Peggy asked eagerly, arms outstretched.

“Pegs, if I have to tell you to go to bed one more time—” Beryl began.

“I’m going, I’m going,” Peggy huffed, dropping her arms. As she plodded out of the room, she added under her breath, “I never get to do anything fun.”

Beryl closed the door behind her while I scooped the puppy out of Jack’s coat and cradled him against my chest. Instantly, the puppy turned his head back to try and gnaw on my hand, his sharp little baby teeth poking at my skin. “What a cute little pumpkin.”

Beryl rolled his eyes but then spoiled the effect by waggling his eyebrows at Jack. “If you’re going to give her a cute nickname in return, I recommend doing so quietly so I don’t lose my supper.”

“Oh, get out of here.”

“I live here!”

Jack widened his eyes at Beryl. “I would like to talk to Noelle, please. Alone .”

“Oooooh, it’s that kind of talk, is it?”

“Yeah. So, unless you want to lose your supper…”

“Point taken, point taken. I should go tuck Peggy in, which will leave you two very alone so you can declare your secret confessions of lo?—”

“By holly,” Jack snorted, shoving his friend between the shoulder blades until Beryl was pushed into the back of the shop, then pivoted back to face me, shutting the door as he did so.

“Oh, you sweet pumpkin,” Beryl called from behind the door in a falsetto voice. “You are just too scrumptious.”

“Dad!” I heard Peggy call. “What are you talking about?”

The direction of Beryl’s voice shifted. “You’re supposed to be in bed!”

I laughed, still holding the small orange dog and digging my fingers through his fluffy fur as he continued to chew on anything he could get his jaws around.

“I’m sorry about Beryl,” Jack said with a small smile.

“No need for apologies about a friend with such an outstanding sense of humor,” I told him, eyes twinkling.

“Ha!” Beryl bellowed.

“I’m really glad to see you,” I told Jack, trying to pitch my voice low enough that Beryl wouldn’t hear.

Apparently, I hadn’t tried hard enough. “Now you say, I’m glad to see you too, Noelle. Marry me right now, ” Beryl prompted in an absurd stage whisper.

“Why are you whispering into the keyhole, Dad?”

Jack placed his hand on the door’s handle and let out a blast of wintery air that shot through the keyhole. A yelp from the other side was followed by Peggy’s snickering. “Your face is all covered in ice! I think he was up to snow good!”

Jack glanced out the window at the moonlit sky. “I hurried as fast as I could, but when I got to the castle, Octavius said you were sent away and a coachman tipped me off that you were here. But I’m here now; come to the ball with me.”

“There’s no point in going,” I said glumly. “I withdrew from the competition, and the school’s license expires at midnight.”

“There are still a few hours left. You can talk to Stephen and the king and queen about re-opening the school. I can get you an audience with them.”

“I would, but I don’t have anything to wear,” I protested.

“Whoa, hey, what are you two talking about?” Beryl called out. “My daughter is in this house, you know!”

“And she will never go to sleep if you keep bellowing like a wounded rhinoceros!” Jack hissed, then turned back to me.

“I can’t wear this to a royal ball,” I told him, looking down at the stained and dirty dress I wore.

“Your wish is my command,” Jack said, stooping to pick up the box that he’d dropped when he first came in and opening it with a flourish. Inside was the beautiful blue gown with the white fur wrap I’d admired so much in the shop window.

“Jack,” I breathed. “You shouldn’t have.”

“I wanted to. The heiress of the Frostwood estate should have something nice to wear.”

My shoulders slumped. “I was wrong,” I confessed. “Valencia showed me—my father named her the beneficiary, not me.”

Jack blinked in surprise. “What?”

“She’s the heiress, not me. I have nothing.”

Jack recovered quickly. “That’s not true. You have me,” he said.

“Good line, Jack, good line. Now kiss her,” came Beryl’s voice.

“I swear I’m going to freeze you until spring,” Jack threatened, then reached for my hand. “I’m begging you to come with me. If I have to listen to him any longer, I literally will die.”

I clasped his warm hands. “We can’t have that now.”

Jack stepped out while I changed, and when I allowed him back in, I slowly spun in a circle. “How do I look?”

Beryl, who had followed Jack in, slapped his friend on the shoulder. “He only has ice for you.”

I beamed.

“Don’t forget your little pumpkin,” Beryl added, nodding at the round ball of fuzz on the other side of the room. “He looks strong enough to pull your sleigh all by himself.”

The puppy padded across the floor, one of Peggy’s shoes in his mouth while his tiny puff of a tail whipped from side to side. Jack scooped him up and tucked him into his jacket. “My lady,” he said to me, bowing with one hand placed firmly under the puppy so it looked like he had a paunchy belly. “Your dog sled awaits.”