“You’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?” Marianne said.
“One day, there was a grand ball at the princess’s home,” Marianne continued. “Everybody was there—the beautiful sparkling sisters and our young heroine. She didn’t want to be at the ball. She was terribly bored. She stepped to the window, and she saw a falling star in the distance, and she was determined to go and see where it was. She had heard great stories about treasure that could be found at the end of a falling star. So she snuck out of the ball, and she stole a horse.” She paused. “She did not ride the horse as a lady would. She swung her leg over the back of the horse and rode it like a knight, off into the night.”
Lucien chuckled. “That is a good thing, for if the princess had been riding sidesaddle, she might have fallen off.”
She stuck her tongue out at him as Henry opened his eyes again.
“My story,” he said.
“Of course,” Marianne said. “So the princess rode out in the direction where the star had come down.”
“And the young prince,” Lucien picked up the story, “likewise saw the falling star on his adventures and decided to ride out after it. For he, too, had heard stories that stars would lead to treasure. And he thought that perhaps he might find that at the place where the star had fallen, there would be a treasure trove that he could bring home and show his father, so he might be proud and see the value of his adventuring. But he rode and rode, and he couldn’t find the place where the falling star hadlanded. By then, many hours had passed, and he could not recall where it had happened.”
“The same was true for the princess. She rode and rode, and night turned into dawn and dawn turned into midday, and her legs felt heavy and her arms too, and the horse was tired, so she stopped at a little bubbling brook to let the horse drink. She sat there on a rock, wondering if she was ever going to find the treasure, for she had planned to take the treasure and sell it all so that she could have her freedom and explore whenever she wanted, wherever she wanted, free from her father’s grasp.”
“And our young hero likewise rode along the same brook looking for his treasure. But instead, he came upon the princess and her horse. He looked at her and saw that she had ridden all night, for her hair was disheveled, and she looked awfully tired. He sat with her and shared with her a piece of bread that he had brought, and she let him drink from a little pouch of water she had been refilling in the lake. They sat together and spoke, and each told the other that they had been following a falling star. And neither had found it. And that made them both very sad.”
Lucien paused because, truthfully, he didn’t know how to end the story. He hadn’t had a real plan for where it was going, and apparently neither had Marianne because she looked at him, and she too seemed stumped.
“The two sat together for a very long while,” she said, “until it was becoming night again.”
Lucien nodded. “Yes, it was becoming night again, and because the two of them had the same destination, they decided to ride together for a time. They decided that they would split the treasure once they found it. So they got on their horses and continued to ride, their eyes cast up at the sky, looking for another falling star that might drop in the same place as the previous one.”
“And they rode and rode,” Marianne said, “all night long, and then finally another star fell.”
Henry opened his eyes. “I know the end.”
“Do you?” Lucien asked.
“Yes. The star fell right on top of where they were. Because the real treasure was in finding each other so that they could go adventuring together forevermore, because they both wanted the same thing, and they would be great friends,” he said.
Marianne looked at Lucien, and he blinked at her. It was the perfect ending to the story. It wasn’t the ending he would’ve chosen. In fact, he had planned to say that at the end of the path, they eventually did find the treasure, but Henry seemed very pleased with his version.
“That is a very nice end to the story,” Marianne agreed. “The princess and the prince became great friends, and they spent the rest of their lives riding together, searching for falling stars and treasures all over the world.”
Henry smiled and nuzzled against Marianne’s shoulder. She wrapped her arm around him, and eventually, Henry fell asleep. Marianne and Lucien looked at one another, and he realized just how intimate the situation was they were in—the same bed with the little boy between them, both of them bound by a mutual love for Henry. It was dangerous, he knew that. But right now, what mattered was Henry, what he wanted. And he wanted Marianne here. And the truth was, Lucien, did too.
He cleared his throat, but before he could say anything, he saw that Marianne’s eyes had closed and she had fallen asleep. He got up and maneuvered one of the blankets in such a way that she was covered, then he returned to bed. He flung his arm across them all so that it covered both Henry and Marianne. His hand rested on the small of her back, and the feeling was so tender, so beautiful that he decided to allow himself— just for one night—the pleasure of her company.
Marianne’s eyes blinked open. It was later, and she was a bit disoriented. She did not know where she was at all. Then she felt it. A hand on her back. Her eyes got used to the darkness quickly, and she remembered where she was—in Henry’s room. The moonlight was filtering through the windows because they hadn’t closed the curtains.
The space next to her was empty. Henry wasn’t there anymore. Instead, Lucien was there. He had moved into the middle and was holding her close. It was a sensation that was beyond description, but it lasted only a moment because she realizedHenry wasn’t there. She sat up partially, Lucien’s arm slipping down to her waist. Then she saw Henry. He was still in bed, but at the bottom of the mattress, curled up like a cat. She gently moved Lucien’s arm and crawled down beside him. She pressed the back of her hand on Henry’s forehead. The fever had broken. He was no longer ill, or at least he was not gravely so. She pondered pulling him back up between them, but he looked so peaceful and relaxed that she simply covered him with a blanket, placed a pillow under his head, and then returned to the spot where she had been sleeping.
What was the right thing to do, she wondered? Should she return to her own chamber and sleep there? But what if Henry woke in the night and was looking for her and Lucien? What would it mean to him if she simply disappeared? She had felt the closeness between them grow as they told the story, and especially when Henry had finished it for them.
She had seen the tenderness in Lucien’s eyes. And he had hugged her. That couldn’t have been a mistake. He couldn’t have mistaken her for Henry. He wouldn’t have wrapped his arm all the way around to her side of the bed if he had meant to simply hug Henry. Would he?
Marianne realized that if she got up and left, she would give up an opportunity. Something to really bring them together.
And so she crawled back to the top of the bed and lay down on the pillow.
“Marianne,” Lucien whispered. “Is Henry all right?”
“He is,” she whispered back. “The fever has broken.”
“Good,” he said. “Very good.” And then he lifted up the blanket to let her crawl underneath it with him. He settled it gently over her and then placed his arm over her again, pulling her close. Her chest was pressed against his, and her right leg slipped between his two legs as if of its own volition. She wrapped her arm around his back, and he kissed her forehead. A hot flush went over her as her hand curled, and she grabbed the back of his shirt between her fingers. With his free hand, he tipped up her chin so they were nose to nose, and then at last he kissed her. It was a gentle kiss, not one that demanded anything, but one that was still filled with tenderness. She swallowed hard and let go of his shirt, placing her hand on his cheek instead. She felt his stubble on the palm of her hand as he kissed her again.
It ended as quickly as it had begun, but he didn’t move away. He simply removed his lips from hers, but remained so close that she felt his breath on her cheek.
