Annelise awakenedto bright morning sunlight and an empty place beside her in the great bed. In truth, she had not expected otherwise, though she ran a hand over the linens, wishing her husband might be there onemorning.
Had he kept his promise toher?
She dressed in haste and raced through the garden, hastening to the great gates. They were closed, but she had not expected them to be standingopen.
She took a deep breath, straightened, and hoped. “Open,” shecommanded.
The gates yawned wide, opening slowly and majestically, revealing the snowy forest to her view. The sky was clear over the forest, and the wind crisp. The sunlight made crystals in the snow sparkle like jewels beyond the walls, and a bird called to its mate as it swooped low through the barren branches of thetrees.
He had kept hispledge.
He trustedher.
Annelise clasped her hands together and smiled, her heart pounding as if it would burst. “Close.”
The gates obeyed her once again, and she shouted intriumph.
“I command you to open!” shesaid.
It worked again. Annelise strode beneath the broad archway of the gates, hesitating only when she made to step over the line where the closed gatesmet.
That wintry wind stole around her bare ankles, reminding her only too well that the weather outside varied frominside.
What if the gates closed and locked herout?
Annelise retreated inside. “Close,” she commanded and the gates did her bidding again. She hurried back to the palace. She donned all her traveling garments—even the wool stockings, which clung to her skin in the heat of the palace— and draped her fur-lined cloak over her arm. Heart in mouth, she returned to thegates.
“Open,” she said and they swept wide open. Her heart raced as she stepped through the portal. Annelise realized just how tall the gates were, how broad the entryway, how high and unassailable the palacewalls.
She felt very small and wondered whether these massive gates would continue to obey her. She paused to consider the clear line where the snow of the outside world began and the green grass of the courtyardended.
Annelise took a deep breath and stepped into the snow. It crunched as her foot sank into itswhiteness.
As soon as she had taken the second step, the gates slammed behindher.
Annelise stumbled forward a few steps from the force of their closing, then pivoted to find them closed against her again. Panic flooded throughher.
“Open!” she cried, hearing the desperation in her ownvoice.
The gates opened withouthesitation.
Annelise lunged back through the portal, clasping her hands together as the gates closed behind her. She inhaled deeply of the garden scent within the walls, then smiled in herrelief.
She could come and go as shewished.
Her husband cared about her. There could be no doubt. He had trusted her enough to give her something she desired and that was no smallthing.
She would take Mephistopheles for a ride, just as she hadpromised.
And she would reward her husband richly at the tower that night. Annelise strode toward the stables, planning the feast she would offer tohim.
The man would have no doubt that she waspleased.
* * *
The wind wascrisp in Annelise’s face as she rode the destrier. Though it was cold outside the palace walls, it was a fine day. The sky was blue, the snow sparkled, and a contented Mephistopheles thundered through theforest.
She found herself smiling at the destrier’s pleasure, for he ran withabandon.
