Page 48 of Once Upon a Midnight Clear

He kept his face forward, the wind tousling his hair. “I was there as a guest, like you.”

Then he turned to her, taking her gloved hands in his and squeezing. “You mustn’t take Gustav seriously with all those things he said about the ball and my mother arranging it. I was there and we met. I’m glad we met, Ella.”

“And then you came to Rovenheim to find me,” she said. “Why? How did you know I was here?”

He was quiet for a long moment, indecision in his eyes as he decided how to answer. “Ella, you must believe me there are some things that cannot be explained. I came to find you, yes, and to make sure you were returned safely to your own world.”

She slipped her hands free and turned back to the railing. The wharf had diminished in size.

“My own world.” She hadn’t meant to sound so bitter.

“Don’t you want to return?”

Ella thought about that for a long, quiet moment. What did she really have to go back to? Her parents were dead. Her stepmother and stepsisters were vile. They treated her like she was nothing more than dirt on the bottom of their shoes. She did wonder, however, how they were faring in her absence. If they had figured out how to cook and clean and take care of the livestock. She thought of one of her stepsisters mucking stalls almost made her laugh.

But then Nicholas had made her no promises, so what kind of life would she have if she stayed?

“I have nothing to go back to,” she said at last.

“No family?” he asked.

“My mother died when I was young,” she said. “My father left for a business trip a few years ago and never returned. I was left to contend with my stepmother and stepsisters.”

She tried to hide her disgust for them, but it was difficult.

“You don’t get along with them?” he guessed.

A half-hearted laugh escaped her before she could stop it. “Not exactly.”

She refused to tell him how they treated her. She didn’t want to admit such things. And, as he was keen to say, it wasn’t relevant. Not to him.

“But…” she paused, thinking of their manor and all the Christmas decorations she left behind in her room, all the festive cheer from the patrons in the market. “I do miss some things.”

Nicholas turned toward her, leaning an elbow on the railing and giving her his full attention. “Like?”

“Like the cheer in the marketplace during this time of year. How everyone seems joyful for no reason other than the season. My stepmother wouldn’t let me put a tree up in the foyer. So, I put it up in my room.”

“Your stepmother sounds like a shrew,” he said then.

It made her laugh. “But that’s enough about them. What are we going to do when we arrive at the shore?”

He straightened, smoothing his gloved hands over the front of his cloak. “We are going to hike through the mountains to her fortress and hope she doesn’t know we’re coming.”

“That doesn’t sound reassuring,” she said.

“No, and it’s not Gustav’s favorite idea, either. But it’s the only plan we have.”

A plan she helped concoct.

“Then I suppose it will have to do.”

He nodded and turned his attention back out to sea. Though he sounded confident, she sensed his apprehension. She had to admit, she felt exactly the same.

Chapter 17

Truetohisword,the pirate captain got them close enough to the shoreline to allow them to row the rest of the way. Nicholas promised extra gold to the captain if the ship was still waiting for them when they returned. Ella sat in the middle. Nicholas was in front of her, Gustav behind her and each of them had a set of oars as they rowed to the shore.

Here on the water, the wind was brutal. She pulled her hood down tight and clutched her elbows, the velvet bag digging into her side. The black, snow-capped mountains soared into the late afternoon sky so high she had to crane her neck to look up at them. At the top, she made out the outline of the dark queen’s fortress.

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