Mermaid_ A Twist on the Classic Tale - Carolyn Turgeon [83]
Of course, it was easier to believe that it was her dark hair or slenderness that was at fault, rather than the truth. Christopher felt she had betrayed him. And Christopher was in love with someone else.
Edele tried to comfort her and remind her why she was there. But she spent too much time crying about Rainer, whom she missed terribly, to be of much actual comfort.
The whole castle was on edge, all of them for their own reasons. Waiting to see what King Erik would do. Whether it was to launch a new attack or attend the marriage of his daughter, he would be coming to the Southern kingdom soon.
Margrethe’s only consolation was reading, the way it had been since she was a child. Opening a manuscript and getting lost in the world inside of it. The clean precision of the Greek letters, like hands soothing her.
One afternoon she sat reading an old manuscript when she heard someone entering the library. She looked up, startled, her mind still swimming in the world of the book, and found herself staring straight into the face of Prince Christopher.
For a minute she thought he was going to turn around and leave. But his curiosity seemed to get the better of him.
“What are you reading?” he asked.
Her heart raced in her chest. The moment felt fragile, like a glass balanced on wire. She was almost afraid to breathe.
“The Odyssey,” she said.
“The Odyssey? You are able to read Greek?” He stepped forward and looked down at the page in front of her.
“Yes. My mother insisted that I be educated. My father’s old tutor schooled me. I took to it.”
He looked at her, impressed, trying to hide his surprise.
“We have spoken of this book before, you and I,” she said. “The men with eyes in their foreheads, women with snakes for hair. The enchantress who put you under a spell.” She waited for his reaction, expecting the worst.
He smiled. “We modern heroes can have adventures, too, you know.”
“I do not doubt it,” she said.
“Do you mind if I sit down?”
“No,” she said, gesturing across the table. “Please.”
He sat down and faced her. She breathed in. He was so handsome. In this light, his eyes were more green than gold. His body seemed too big for the table. She was used to sitting in rooms like this with Gregor, who was tall and lanky, not the warrior in front of her. Christopher looked like he should be in the sun at all times, shooting arrows at towers, chasing stags with a spear poised above his head.
He was the first one to speak. “I want to apologize to you, for how angry I’ve been. I have blamed you too much, Margrethe.” He smiled wryly. “It feels strange, calling you that.”
“I am sorry, too,” she said. She lifted her hands. “For all of this. The position you are in now.”
He nodded. “When I met you, it was wonderful.” His face filled with emotion. “It was … otherworldly there, and then you, like an angel. You carried me through the water. I remembered it. You stood by my bedside dressed all in white. It changed me. For the first time in my life, I felt pure. Untainted. I was near death, my men were all lost, and then this angel appeared to me.… Discovering that the woman I had met was Princess Margrethe …” He shook his head. “I feel like I’ve been cheated out of something. And now you coming here, my father arranging this marriage without my knowledge …”
“And you have someone,” she said, her voice quavering.
He nodded slowly, looking away. “I thought about you. You had been out of my reach entirely, a woman of God. I still hear your voice. I dream of it.”
“My voice?”
“When you carried me through the water. You sang to me.”
Her smiled wavered. For a moment, she froze.
But the mermaid was lost forever, deep in the mysterious, impossible sea.
“Yes,” she said.
His face shifted. “This marriage, Margrethe. It would bring much good to both of our kingdoms. We could be one kingdom