Page 44 of Enchanted in Time
Hannah’s heart was beating faster. Panicked, she peered through the thicket, but all she could see was fir and spruce and gnarled bushes. Where was her son? She threw her weight against the paw to push it aside. “Marco!”
“Hannah! Where is Marco?”
His question sank in slowly. She clenched her teeth, and as if she were up against a thousand pounds, she tore her eyes from the forest depths and looked into Maximilian’s sea-green eyes. “He’s with Frieda.”
“Right! Your son is not in the forest!”
Hannah forced herself to breathe deeply. Her heartbeat grew slower. The cry rang out once more, but this time she stood still. While her mother’s heart was screaming to run toward the source of the cry, she forced herself to stay calm. Her children were not in this world! Nobody whom she knew was in this world. She finally came to her senses, and the cry faded away.
“Why do I fall for this every time?”
“Because you’re guided by your heart.”
She didn’t answer. Slowly, she marched alongside Maximilian while glancing back at the brick path. She didn’t dare look deeper into the forest for fear of being led astray again. There were two more plants they needed to find. Then she could come back from this strange adventure, return toher daily routine—and leave the bear prince behind. She felt an unexpected pang in her heart at the thought.
“I want to help you,” the bear prince said, interrupting her brooding.
“Then look for a plant with a yellow flower that grows in the?—”
“No, that’s not what I meant. Once I’ve changed back to myself, once this whole thing is over... then I want to help you.”
“But how?”
“You’re here helping me with no benefit to yourself. Only because my godmother compelled you to come are you here by my side!”
“Well, strictly speaking, she led me to you under false pretenses,” Hannah replied, then gave him a halfhearted wink.
“You have to care for your children all by yourself, and I want to take some of the burden off your shoulders.”
Hannah stopped and looked at him, astonished. “You don’t have to?—”
“I know. But I want to. When I’m human again, I shall give you a box. In case you return before I come back to the castle, I shall bury the box in the place where the brick pathway leads to our castle wall, at the base of the hill. I don’t know how you pay for things in your time, what you use for currency, but I think gold and gems still hold their value. Am I right?”
“R-right,” she stammered.
“You won’t need to worry anymore.”
“But how will I ever?—”
“You help me, and I help you.”
Hannah was at a loss for words. He wanted to give her a coffer full of gold and gems? As thanks for her help? Her heart was pounding so hard that she felt it would burst right out of her chest. She and the children could move out of that bad neighborhood. Marco and Emi could go to a better school, andLeon could spend less time at the kindergarten. Maybe they could even take a vacation!
She wouldn’t have to worry about money anymore. She would have a reserve and could help Ines just for fun—or even start something of her own. Her bookstore café...
Tears welled up in her eyes. She was trembling inside—it was just too good to be true!Calm down, Hannah,she admonished herself.Who knows what will happen next? Don’t get your hopes up too high.
But a longing seized her heart, and she felt as if it would break beneath the enormous weight, now that an end to all the stress was in sight. As she raised her head and looked into the bear prince’s eyes, she saw a glimmer of something that seized her heart once more. Was it yearning? Hope? Trust? Certainty? Before she could hold them back, the tears began to flow. “Thank you.”
The bear smiled a big smile, and the sight of it made her laugh again. A brown bear smiling at her—it was just like a fairy tale after all. Hannah smiled back and wiped away the tears. When had she gotten so emotional? Not a tear all these years, and now suddenly she had turned into a gushing faucet.
“So,” she said, “let’s find those last two ingredients so we can brew you that potion!”
Maximilian nodded, and together they continued to walk through the forest. High above them in the pines, three ravens sat and watched them. But neither of them noticed at all.
There was rustling beneath their feet with every step, and numerous small twigs were breaking under the bear’s heavy paws. They both observed large swaths of mist in the distance. It was moving through the forest at such a high speed that it seemed like a giant was blowing it from behind. The mist was so thick that Hannah and the bear prince could not see through it.
“Let’s go deeper into the forest,” Maximilian growled. “The plants don’t seem to grow near the brick path, and we’d better not walk through the mist. We could lose our way in it.”
