The Wide-Awake Princess (25 page)

She didn’t know Emilio very well, but he seemed like a nice enough person, although his experience as a
frog had left him a little odd. If Gwennie married him, she’d have two stepchildren. Annie hoped that his kiss worked.

Emilio’s kiss was so fast that Annie almost didn’t see it. When nothing happened, he sighed and said, “Somehow, I’m not surprised.” Running his hand along the linked arms so he didn’t lose touch, Emilio stepped to the back of the line.

Annie didn’t know what to do. Clarence was next, and she’d never expected him to be her sister’s true love. They’d brought him this far only to keep him from causing trouble. If he kissed Gwennie and she actually woke up…

“It’s about time!” Clarence said as the line of princes shuffled forward and he reached the side of the bed. “You should have let me go first and save all of them the trouble.” He glanced at the other princes and shook his head. “None of them stood a chance.” Turning to Gwendolyn, he bent over her and pressed a forceful kiss on her lips. Annie almost missed it when he pinched her sister’s cheek.

“Stop that!” she said, and slapped him. “Get away from her or I’ll—”

“You’ll what? You wanted me to wake her didn’t you?”

“Not like that! You’re as awful as your brother said!”

“So that’s it. You want Liam to wake her. My little brother...”

Annie reached out, jerked Liam’s hand from his
brother’s grasp and slapped it onto Beldegard’s back, keeping the bear prince and the rest of the princes who were still holding hands awake. Yes, she wanted Gwennie to wake up, but Liam couldn’t be her sister’s true love, could he? It had never occurred to her to ask him if he wanted to kiss Gwennie, nor had he ever offered. But what if he was supposed to be with Annie’s sister? Annie’s heart might break, but at least the kingdom would be back to normal. Either way, it wasn’t her choice to make, and if he didn’t suggest it...

Clarence crumpled to the floor, asleep. Prince Cozwald sputtered as the bear prince sidled closer to the bed. Although Beldegard still looked quite bearlike, moving toward Annie at the head of the line had made his eyes become more human and his ears inch down his skull. “Are you going to let that beast kiss your sister?” asked Cozwald.

“I’m a prince, too,” Beldegard said, sounding indignant. “But I wouldn’t feel right kissing a girl who might not want me to, considering what I look like now. I think he should have a chance instead.” Swinging his great head around, he shoved Liam toward the bed. “You’re a prince, aren’t you? Go ahead. Kiss her.”

“I really don’t think...,” Liam began, but then he glanced at Annie’s face and he nodded. “If it’s what Annie needs to bring her family back, I’d be happy to help.”

“Are you sure?” asked Annie.

“If I don’t, we’ll always wonder, won’t we?”

Beldegard rose up on his hind legs to better see Gwendolyn. “She sure is pretty,” he said, and sank down on all fours with an
oof
.

“You know this doesn’t change how I feel about you?” Liam said to Annie. “I love you and I always will.” Then, before she could respond, he bent down and gave her sister a quick kiss on the lips.

Annie held her breath. She desperately wanted her sister to wake, but not now, not with a kiss from this man!

“I’m so sorry, Annie,” Liam said, stepping away from the bed.

At first Annie didn’t know why he was apologizing, but when Gwennie didn’t move, she realized that it really was over. Nothing had worked. Nothing was going to bring her family back to her. Annie stepped to the side of the bed and gazed down at the flawless alabaster skin of her sister. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought about how her entire family was doomed to sleep for a hundred years. She would find other princes and bring them back here, but if it hadn’t worked yet, who was to say that it ever would?

Annie’s tears plopped on Gwendolyn’s cheek and trickled down as if she herself were crying. Liam rubbed the back of Annie’s neck, a small but welcome comfort. She leaned against him. Having someone with her who cared meant so very much.

“What’s wrong with her?” the bear prince said, peering
at Gwendolyn. “Is she crying? Nobody should cry in their sleep! Here, let me...” With one big
shlup
of his tongue, Beldegard licked the tears off Gwendolyn’s face.

“It’s all right,” said Annie. “She isn’t...”

“Annie, is that you?” Gwendolyn’s eyelids fluttered. Beldegard’s head was still only inches from hers when she opened her eyes. Her shrill shriek broke the silence of the castle. The sleepers stirred as if dreaming, but no one else came fully awake.

“Gwennie?” said Annie. “You woke up! Is it possible that Beldegard’s kiss was enough?”

“If you can call that a kiss,” said Liam.

Color flooded Gwendolyn’s cheeks as she tried to squirm across the bed and away from the looming bear’s head. “Get that beast away from me!” she shouted as Beldegard watched her with soulful eyes.

“He’s not a beast!” said Annie. “He’s your true love. Beldegard is the one who woke you with a kiss. Don’t you see, Gwennie, he’s an enchanted prince. His kiss wouldn’t have worked if he was just a bear.”

“But he’s so hairy!” said her sister.

“Give me a minute and I’ll prove it to you,” Annie said, and moved past Liam to lay her hand on the bear prince’s head. Gwendolyn watched, fascinated, as the bear’s features slowly melted away into those of a handsome young man.

“His name is Beldegard. He’s heir to the throne of the kingdom of Montrose.”

“An evil dwarf who wanted my treasure turned me into a bear. I’ll remain a bear as long as the dwarf lives. I’ve been looking for him everywhere and—”

“Sorry to interrupt, but there’s something we have to do,” said Liam as he used his free hand to reach into his knapsack and pull out a glass bottle. “I don’t have a cup, so you’re going to have to drink right out of the bottle.”

“Is this really the best time?” Gwendolyn asked, looking from Liam to her sister. “Who is he, anyway?” she asked, gesturing to Liam. “He looks familiar.”

“He’s Prince Liam,” said Annie. “He used to work here as a guard. Never mind. I’ll explain it all to you later. It’s a very long story. Right now you have to drink this or you’ll fall asleep again and stay that way for a hundred years.”

Gwendolyn shuddered and reached for the bottle. “We wouldn’t want that, now would we?” She took a long drink and handed the bottle to Beldegard. “Your turn,” she said, even as she managed to look shy.

“Does he need to drink, too?” Liam asked Annie.

“I don’t think it would hurt,” she said, and shrugged.

A soft breeze lifted the tendrils of hair that curled around Annie’s face. The sound of tinkling wind chimes that had been constant since the curse took hold stopped suddenly, making her look up. She noticed that the air looked brighter and no longer smelled stale. Sleepy voices spoke in the next room. Someone laughed
in the hallway and a great weight lifted from Annie’s heart. Everyone was waking up. Her family was going to be all right.

“I thought I heard you in here,” her mother said from the doorway. “How are my girls?”

“We’re fine, Mother!” Gwendolyn called out. “Come meet the love of my life. His name is Beldegard and he’s an enchanted prince.”

“Really?” said the queen as she entered the room. “I’d love to meet him, but first I have to thank Annabelle. Believe it or not, I do remember talking to you while everyone slept,” she told Annie. “I don’t know how you ended up with this young man instead of Digby, but I’m grateful that you found the right one. Thank you, my darling.” And then the queen did something that she hadn’t done since the day the fairy Moonbeam cast her spell. She hugged her daughter Annabelle.

“Pardon me,” said Prince Cozwald, “but I think it’s time we were going.”

“And who, pray tell, are you?” asked the queen, turning to face the princes.

“They’re the other candidates who were kind enough to try to help us,” said Annie.

“Then you are all invited to stay and help us celebrate our awakening. Ah, there’s Digby. It’s too bad it didn’t work out for you and Gwendolyn.”

“It’s your loss,” Digby said. “I’m going home. By your
leave, Your Majesty.” Turning abruptly, Digby stomped out the door.

“Where’s Clarence?” Annie asked, looking around the room.

“He must have left already,” said Liam. “Don’t worry, there’s not much he can do now.”

“Mother,” Gwendolyn said. “This is Beldegard. I promised him that I would help him find the nasty dwarf who stole his treasure.”

“He’ll have all the resources of our kingdom to help him, my dear,” said the queen. “After all, he is my future son-in-law.”

“We need to talk,” Liam said, taking Annie by the arm.

Annie nodded, then turned to her mother and bowed. “May we have your leave to go?”

“Of course, my dear,” the queen replied, smiling at her younger daughter. “Now Gwendolyn, we should start planning your wedding right away.”

Annie wasn’t thinking about the bear prince when she left the room, but she knew when he turned back into a bear because she heard her mother cry out, “Oh my, Gwendolyn, your Beldegard really is an enchanted prince!”

Liam’s eyes were dancing when he leaned down to Annie and said, “Should we get out of here before they can call you back?”

“Yes, please!” said Annie, and they dashed through
the hall, smiling and waving at all the people who tried to stop them to talk. They didn’t slow down until they were in the courtyard, where Captain Sterling was overseeing the guards stripping the remains of the now withered roses from the portcullis. A fire had been built to burn the thorny rosebushes in the middle of the courtyard, and the flames were already high. Because the heavy iron gate couldn’t be lowered until the roses were removed, half a dozen guards were keeping watch as well.

“Excuse me,” Liam told Annie, “the captain is here. I should tell him what’s been going on.”

Annie watched as he crossed the courtyard to the drawbridge. In her eyes Liam was the handsomest man she’d ever known, even handsomer than any prince made so by magic. She loved the way his entire face lit up when he looked at her and the sound of his voice when he said her name. She loved the warmth of his hand when he held hers and the strength of his arms when he’d helped her down from the tower or off the back of a horse. Liam was everything she thought she’d never have and would see only from a distance.

Annie sighed. Here she was, being as silly as Gwendolyn had been when she mooned over Digby. Liam was still talking to the captain when Annie gathered her skirts in her hands and climbed the stairs to the parapet. Watching the bustle of the courtyard was something she had thought about for days and she couldn’t wait to
do it now. She had reached the top and was turning to wave to Liam when movement in the woods closest to the castle caught her eye. A group of people was coming out of the forest leading a wagon. It was so much like the last time she stood watching a wagon approach the castle from the woods that she wasn’t surprised to see it was the same one with the very same markings.

“Liam!” she called over her shoulder. “I think you should see this. Captain Sterling, if you would kindly join me up here as well?”

An old woman was driving the wagon. A cloth had been thrown over the back, covering the cart’s contents. Although the men who accompanied the cart were dressed like ordinary farmers, they carried themselves with the straight backs and precise movements of soldiers.

“What is it?” Liam asked as he arrived at the top of the stairs.

“The cart that brought the jeweled spinning wheel is back. If I’m not mistaken, those are some of your father’s soldiers.”

“My mother’s, not my father’s,” said Liam. “I recognize two of the men who work for her. The woman on the cart is a witch she employs now and then. She’s the sister of the one who turned herself into a beetle. They were the only two witches in Dorinocco.”

“Which gives her a personal reason not to like us,” said Annie.

“There’s that, plus I’m sure my mother is paying her a healthy sum.”

“I wonder what’s in that wagon,” Captain Sterling said. “You, Clifton,” the captain called down to one of his men in the courtyard. “Call the men to arms and close those drawbridges!” When the soldier saluted and ran off, the captain turned back to the forest and said, “Look, they’re taking off the cover. Now we’ll know what they’ve brought us.”

As the men removed the cloth, the witch hopped down and turned to face the back of the wagon. Shouting a lot of words that sounded like nonsense to Annie, the old woman twitched her elbows and wiggled her hands, then lifted her arms in the air and twiddled her fingers over the wagon bed. A figure sat up in the bed, its movements slow and jerky. It was crawling down from the wagon when another figure sat up. Soon there were nine figures standing in front of the witch.

“Are those people?” asked Annie, peering at the figures.

Liam shook his head. “If I’m not mistaken, those are statues. I carved them myself years ago. I made them as a gift for my father.”

“I remember them!” said Annie. “They were standing against the walls in your Great Hall.”

“You can do magic?” asked Captain Sterling.

“Not at all,” Liam replied. “They were ordinary wooden statues when I made them. That witch is the one making them move. Look, she’s sending them this way.”

Captain Sterling looked puzzled. “What does she think she’s going to do with a bunch of statues?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it,” said Liam.

The soldiers were armed now and handing weapons to the statues. With the soldiers ranked on either side, the statues began a ragged march to the castle walls.

“I told you to get that drawbridge closed!” the captain shouted to the men below. Metal clanged for a moment, then stopped abruptly.

“We can’t, Captain!” shouted one of his men. “The gears are still jammed with roses!”

“I hate it when magic gums up the works,” said the captain. “You there,” he shouted to the approaching soldiers. “What is your purpose in coming here?”

“I think you know that already,” said one of the soldiers who had kept to the back. He strode forward now and Annie could see that it was Clarence wearing farmer’s clothes.