“She's perfect, Alexander,” Beatrice said, looking down at Rose, and Alexander couldn't help the smile on his face. There was something about the way Beatrice was so excited about his secret pet that made it impossible not to smile.
If only she would be so excited for his other secret. But she wouldn't be. No sane person would find themself excited to be involved with a curse. And the fact that he had to find a way to tell her dampened his mood.
But he would wait for tomorrow and pray that Guinevere would be able to find something first.
If anyone could help him break his curse, surely it would be the girl who had admitted to using magic under his nose.Perhaps she assumed that since Alexander was under a curse, he wouldn’t turn her in to the king for using magic, and she would be correct.
Perhaps she was exactly the person he'd needed to break the spell, and he would never have to break the news to his wife. Perhaps he could always keep the smile on Beatrice's face. It was a lovely smile.
He made his way over to his wife and knelt next to her to show her how Rose liked to be scratched under the chin. Her delighted gasp made his whole day better.
He’d never imagined that marrying the librarian would be the best thing he’d ever done, but he couldn’t imagine life without her now.
Chapter eleven
Beatrice
Beatrice spent the restof the day happily ensconced in her new library, a purring dragon on her lap and a book in her hands.
She could hardly believe that it belonged to her, that this was her new home, that she was now Lady Dunham. But she wasn't going to question it at the moment—not when she had a room full of hundreds, if not thousands, of books to explore.
It was dinnertime before Guinevere came and fetched her, and she reluctantly left the room to join Alexander for the meal. But she hurried back to the library as soon as the meal was over, curling up in the large chair in the corner—perfectly situated for tearing into a good book—and picking up the romance novel she'd found.
Maybe her first choice of a book to read, out of all the options in this huge library, should not have been a romance. But at the same time, she didn’t think anyone else was going to care what she read, and reading a romance made her happy. So why wouldn’t she?
Her life as Lady Dunham was beginning to feel like a fairytale romance of her own, despite how it had begun.
So surely there was no harm in reading a romance novel.
It wasn’t long before she looked up to find Guinevere smiling at her with an indulgent smile and a candlestick in her hand. The windows were no longer letting in much light, and she had been reading in near darkness for far too long.
“Hello,” she said to the maid with an unrepentant grin.
Guinevere simply laughed. “You ought to come to bed, my lady,” she said.
“I will in a moment,” Beatrice promised. “I have to see how this chapter ends.”
Guinevere left the room, leaving the candlestick, and Beatrice returned to the world she had been enjoying. The chapter ended all too soon, and it was tempting to keep reading, but the flickering candles gave barely enough light, even when combined with the last traces of sunshine coming through the window.
Perhaps she could finish her chapter in bed—that sounded even cozier than the library. And then if Guinevere was still waiting for her, she could help Beatrice undress and go to sleep herself.
She lifted the purring dragon out of her lap and set her back down in the chair with a gentle pat, laughing when Rose let out a disgruntled chirp.
She tucked her book under her elbow and picked up the candlestick, making her way toward the staircase and creeping up it as quietly as she could.
It was odd, being the only one out and about.
The silence in the house was broken only by her quiet footsteps and the slightly louder steps of the tiny dragon stomping behind her. Rose had apparently decided she preferred company over the solitude of the library.
“Shhh,” she whispered to Rose, who merely chirped and continued to tromp up the stairs.
Beatrice sighed as she reached the top and waited for Rose to catch up to her. She should have assumed the dragon wouldn’t listen to her. But she had to admit that the idea of Rose curling into bed with her was appealing.
She should have asked Alexander if the tiny dragon could shoot flames from her mouth, or if that part was simply a legend.
Although, the dragon herself wasn’t a legend…so maybe she shouldn’t let Rose sleep on her bed.
She walked quietly toward her room, glancing at Alexander’s door, and the corners of her mouth turned up into a smile when she remembered his reaction earlier when she said his name for the first time. She couldn’t believe it had been so many years since he’d had someone call him by his name.
