She stopped smiling and pressed a hand to her chest. “When that wave came out of nowhere and threw that Spring man back onto shore, we all thought you were doomed.”
“Yeah, I saw that. It’s like whatever had a hold of me didn’t want me over there.”
“It only allowed you to be rescued by Winter people.”
“Yeah.”
I mulled that over for a minute since it seemed like another clue. Like the curse saying you better stay on your side, or else. Could we assume the witnesses from Spring were also feeling like they’d be turned back from trying to swim across as well?
“And it felt as though something held you?” Lady Lennon went on. “Pulled you under?”
“It did, yeah.” I shivered at the memory. “Not anything specific, like a hand or like I got tangled in kelp. But there was a definite grip and a determined pull down.”
“Down, not out.”
“Right.”
She sighed heavily, shaking her head. “I’m ever so glad the prince had the wherewithal to tie a rope around that rock. I was quite paralyzed by shock.”
“Flurry did that?”
She nodded, a sly grin stretching across her lips. “Flurry, is it?”
I smiled back, caught. “The prince is stronger than he looks.”
“Louder than I would’ve guessed as well.”
A shocked laugh jumped out of me as I felt a blush heating my face.
“It’s very quiet out here on the snowy fields,” she said. “Sound tends to carry.”
“I bet it does.”
“And I won a ten pound note off Lord Lennon.” She pulled the money from her bodice to show me before tucking it back into place.
I laughed in earnest, guessing what kind of bet she’d made with her husband.
The carriage jolting forward shocked me quiet again. There must’ve been some kind of spring beneath us because we bounced gently up and down as the carriage rolled along.
“Your title,” Lady Lennon said, “will be prince-consort, and I believe the Bellrare estate will become yours. It’s in the mountains so only really suitable for?—”
“Whoa,” I said with an embarrassed chuckle. “Hold on a minute. What you, uh, heard wasn’t a proposal or anything.”What was it then, genius?“That was just two people being glad to be alive.” Okay, that made sense.
She laughed like I was ridiculous. “Come now, Mister Hawkins, a virgin doesn’t give themselves to a man they met yesterday on a whim.”
“Where I come from, it’s not unusual.” I waved a hand. “And it doesn’t have to mean anything, so stop reading so much into it. He literally told me he was glad I wasn’t dead.”
“Because he loves you.”
Tenacious like a terrier, this one. “Yesterday. We met yesterday.”
“Oh, pish-posh.” She leaned forward, pointing at me. “The prince has resistedeveryone. That tells me he was waiting for the perfect someone.” She stabbed that finger at me.
I chuckled uncomfortably. I liked the ideas of fate and destiny and true love. Of finding The One. And, sure, everything that had happened since I fell through that ring of rocks and flowers was fantasticalenough to include such things. But seriously? It was a little too rom-com for me.
Lady Lennon left me to my thoughts for the rest of the ride back. If she was right—and the way she smiled out the window said she believed she was—then could hooking up with Flurry be a way to break the curse? Well, no, not hooking up with him. I doubted it would be that easy, even for a prince who liked to say no to everyone who asked. A curse like this? It made more sense for it to require love.
So I needed to woo him? That wouldn’t be a hardship. I wanted into his bed again. He was a prickly little shit, but I liked him. If we’d met in the human world, I’d have asked him out. We’d have talked and gotten to know each other. Fallen in love? I wasn’t against it.
