Page 84 of Slippers and Thorns
He should have pushed her away. What she was doing was not only improper, it waswrong. He was married to someone else!
But he was so shocked, he froze just long enough to feel it.
For over a month, he’d been trying to kiss his wife and been denied. For months before that, he hadn’t even tried, but that didn’t mean he didn’twantthe benefits of being married.
He was like a man lost in a desert and dying of thirst, stumbling into an oasis.
Without thinking, he responded, kissing her back. He wrapped his arms around her and drew her closer.
Distantly, he heard a gasp and the scuffling of feet on the gravel path, but he was too absorbed in the physical enjoyment of the kiss to properly register it. It had been too long since he’d held Ella in his arms and—
It wasn’t Ella in his arms.
Grasping Helena firmly by the shoulders, he shoved her away and took several steps back, looking frantically around. Had someone seen them? He thought he’d heard someone. If word got back to his father, or worse, Ella—!
A white-haired woman in shabby clothes stood at the end of the lane. He didn’t recognize her, but her arms were crossed, and she was scowling at them both.
“May I help you?” he asked politely. He straightened his waistcoat under his cloak and attempted to appear perfectly composed. Regardless of what she’d witnessed, it was possible she didn’t know who he was, or at the least, that she didn’t know what his wife looked like.
Although since the way he had pushed Helena away reeked of guilt, he was hoping for the former.
“And here I hoped she was exaggerating, seeing things that weren’t there out of jealousy. After what she told me when I first met her, I should have known.” The woman’s voice was scathing. “You should be ashamed of yourself! At leastshe,” she jabbed a finger in Helena’s direction, “has the excuse of being as mature as a thirteen-year-old, despite being twenty-five physically.” Helena gasped in outrage. “Butyou! You should know better. You are a prince and reported to be responsible. How could you do this to her?”
“Who are you? And to whom are you referring?” he said coldly.
The woman narrowed her eyes at him. “My name is Edna, not that it matters. And I believe you know exactly to whom I am referring.”
Helena puffed up like an angry cat as she stepped up beside Michael. “What business is it of yours? Who do you think you are, to question the crown prince like this?”
Edna shifted her focus to Helena. “The person who kept you from being doomed to everlasting sleep.”
Some of Helena’s ire drained out and was replaced by confusion. “Michael was the one who woke me up,” she said, a little uncertainly.
“And he did it all on his own, did he?” Edna scoffed. “If not for my magic, no one might ever have found you, and nothing would have woken you even if they did.”
“Then how can you question Michael’s and my right to be together?” Helena started to puff up again. “How can you, of all people, deny that he is my true love?”
“What makes you think he is?” Edna asked.
“Because that was the requirement!”
“So sure of that, are you?” she pushed. “Even though you were just a baby when both the curse and the amendment were cast?”
Helena hesitated. “It’s…what I heard from my mother.”
“I should have known Queen Carina would muddle it up,” the old woman muttered under her breath. Out loud, she answered, “True love had nothing to do with it. As I told your mother at the time, true love is not fated from your birth. True love is developed over time, through hard work and tough decisions. I couldn’t make it conditional upon your true love because I couldn’t know you’dhaveone at the time you pricked your finger!”
“What was the condition, then?” Michael asked, finally rejoining the conversation.
Edna rounded on him. “As a married man, you shouldn’t have met it.”
“So that means wearemeant to be together, then!” Helena jumped in.
“No!” Edna said firmly. “All it means is that he was not living up to his responsibilities.”
That made Michael’s own blood boil. “I have done my best not to neglect any of my responsibilities! I was worn out from my responsibilities when Ella and I left for Reineggburg.”
Edna held up a finger. “Perhaps, but you neglected the most important one.”
