Page 54 of Once Upon an Enchanted Castle

“Miss, what happened?” Gerald asked.

“We heard an awful noise,” Emmaline added.

When he saw the broken window, he rushed to her. She put her hands up to show she wasn’t hurt.

“I think a tree branch, or something must have broken the window. I was working there, and it startled me,” she said.

“Are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “I’m fine.”

He moved closer to the writing desk to inspect the damage. Broken glass littered the top of it and the floor. A cool breeze ruffled the curtains, letting the evening air pour inside. Emmaline scooted across the expanse of the library to stand next to her, shivering.

“Well, there’s not much we can do about it tonight,” Edith said from her position in the doorway. Her hands were propped on her hips.

“I’ll see if there’s some old wood in the gardener’s shed to board it up. That will have to do until we can have repairs made.” He shuffled out of the room, his shoulders slumped and weary.

Bella, though, knew that such repairs would cost a lot of money. Money they didn’t have.

“Gerald will fix it up, miss. You should go back to bed,” Edith said before she shuffled off back to her room.

“She’s right,” Emmaline said. “There’s nothing else to be done tonight.”

“I’ll stay until Gerald is finished,” she said. “You go on, Em. I’ll be all right.”

“If you’re certain.”

She gave her an encouraging nod and smiled, shooing her from the room. When Emmaline left, Bella returned to the desk. The book lay face down on the floor, pages crumpled underneath itself. Glass glittered across the binding, making it shimmer. She kneeled and picked up the book and gave it a little shake. The glass fell like glitter to the carpet. When she turned it over, she noticed the ink was once more just ink. It was not bleeding like it was before the shadow creature arrived.

Had the strange red ink called to it? She was certain now they were connected. She was also certain these shadow things had something to do with their home in the port burning to the ground and her father’s ships destroyed. They were tied to the book, just like Leopold was tied to the book.

Gerald returned with several boards, a hammer and nails. He quickly got to work, closing up the gap in the window.

“That should hold tonight. In the morning, I’ll see about trimming the trees in the back.”

But she knew no trees needed trimming. She nodded agreement, though. “Thank you, Gerald.”

“Get some rest, miss. We can clean up the rest when morning comes.”

He yawned and headed off to bed. Reluctantly, she followed.

She had a fitful sleep. At dawn, she was up, shoving away the blankets. Standing before her mirror, she saw the fatigue lining her face. Her hair was a mess of tangles. It would take too much time to try to comb it out, but she didn’t have much choice.

Frustration edged through her as she pulled out the tangles. By the time she got her hair combed out in long tendrils, Emmaline arrived at her room.

“Thank goodness you’re here. Help me dress, Em. I must go.”

“Back to that enchanted castle?”

She nodded as she pulled open the wardrobe door and rummaged through her sparse gowns.

“Miss, what really happened last night?” Suspicion laced the girl’s tone.

Bella stopped and peered around the door at her. “Whatever do you mean?”

“I mean…something happened, didn’t it? That was no tree branch that crashed through the window.”

The girl was smarter than she let on, something Bella did not take into account. They peered at each other for a long, silent moment as she tried to decide how to answer. She did not want to tell her the truth—that it was Leopold in his beastly form that had crashed through the window to save her from the shadow thing. To tell her that would mean she’d be giving the girl the whole story about his curse and that she was convinced the shadow things were following them since the moment the book arrived in her possession.

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