Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE PRINCE LOOKED DOWN at her charming features and reluctantly removed his finger from her chin. He placed his hands behind his back and took a couple of steps forward and away from the girl, pleased to see her following. "It would seem you and I have a mutual friend."

"We do?" Cecelia asked, not certain how this could pertain to his delight in tormenting her.

Alexander peeked around a few of the bushes surrounding them, making certain no one was listening, and then stepped toward her, his deep baritone whispering in her ear. "A magical friend."

Cecelia gasped, not sure if it was the close proximity of the prince or what he had said. Either way, it took a few moments to catch her breath. When she was finally able, she hesitantly whispered back, "Do you mean an animal friend?"

Prince Alexander swayed under the onslaught of her warm breath just below his ear. Before he realized what he was meaning to do, he had grabbed her shoulders for support. Clearing his throat, he answered, "Yes. A wolf who can speak." Good great grief, he was dizzy. The girl merely asked him a question and near enough brought him to his knees. What had come over him? He had never before felt such an attraction, and he wondered briefly if he was falling in love with her.

"Prince Alexander?"

Cecelia's voice brought him back to the present. He looked down at her rose-colored lips and watched as her teeth tugged and pulled at the bottom one. "Yes?" he asked, a bit mesmerized.

"You are holding my shoulders very tightly."

"I am?"

"Mm-hmm. Are you all right?"

Her blue eyes were endless. Had he never noticed the color of her eyes before? "Better than I have ever been." He leaned down and kissed the girl right on her perfect lips. They were as soft and as sweet as he imagined.

Cecelia quickly pulled out of his arms. "Prince Alexander! What in the world has come over you?"

He wanted to taste her lips again. "I do not know. I do not think I am fully sound at the moment."

She was surprised when a giggle popped out of her. Never had she seen him look so bewildered. "You simply cannot go about kissing girls in their mother's rose garden during broad daylight. It is just not done. Especially ones you feel nothing for and could care less about." Her hand unconsciously touched her tingling lips, marveling at the sensation he was able to create.

Appalled at how ungentlemanly she must think him now, he immediately began to apologize. "My dear Miss Hammerstein-Smythe, you must forgive me—"

Her blue eyes turned to steel. "If you say one more word, I will box your ears."

Alexander's eyebrows rose.

"No, sir. You do not get to tell me how deeply sorry you are for ruining my life. Indeed, you did not ruin my life—you simply enhanced it."

"Enhanced it?" He pursed his lips together to prevent the grin from forming.

"Yes." She bit her lip again to stop her own chuckle. "It was very nice, and I am not sorry it happened. However, you can never do it again."

"Never?" He took a step forward.

She laughed and put a hand between them. "Never, ever again."

"And why is that?"

"Because you and I despise each other and always have. Besides, everyone would assume we were engaged."

Engaged.

To Miss Cecelia Hammerstein-Smythe.

Princess Cecelia.

His princess.

He had never wanted anything more.

While Alexander's heart was learning how to beat properly again, Cecelia had obliviously and quite cheerfully continued to chatter as she began to search for the perfect rose.

"So how did you meet the wolf? Is not he simply astonishing? I have never encountered a magical creature like him before, have you?"

She stopped and turned, a beautiful yellow rose in her hand. "Prince Alexander?"

He shook his head and stepped forward. "Uh, yes?"

"Have you?"

He sheepishly grinned, looking like a boy in princely finery. "I'm sorry, I was not attending. What did you ask of me?"

Puzzled, she glanced over him. "Did you hear none of it, then?"

Alexander put his hands behind his back and admitted, "None."

"Oh." Cecelia looked at him peculiarly for a moment and then said, "I wanted to know how you know the wolf."

He had been pondering that same question, knowing without a doubt she would ask it of him, so he was definitely prepared to answer it. "I came across him one evening in the woods a while ago. We have been friends ever since."

"Is not he fascinating?"

Alexander shrugged and then nodded. "Yes, I guess that's a good word for him."

"Were you startled when he began talking to you?"

The prince chuckled. "Yes. I was grateful he spoke, actually, because it proved he could communicate and would not eat me."

Cecelia laughed and continued on down the path, the prince close beside her.

"Did he frighten you?" He watched her closely.

"Yes. He did a little." She slowed and turned more fully toward him, her skirts swirling below her. "But then, I don't know what happened. When I looked back and replayed the meeting over and over again, I just knew I could trust him."

"Good. You can always trust him." He touched the soft petal of a yellow rose next to him as he walked past. "Do not doubt he is the most dependable creature you will ever come across."

It was interesting to see Prince Alexander so serious and calm. Honestly, she could hardly believe he was the same person she had met previously. There really was something most decidedly different about the man. "I like that you know him, and can vouch for him," she said as she followed his example and trailed her fingers lightly over the rosebushes as they walked.

"You do?"

"Yes. I do not understand why, but it makes me appreciate you more that we share the same friend."

"Does he mean that much to you, then?" Alexander stopped breathing as he awaited her reply.

Cecelia paused, her fingers absentmindedly caressing a small leaf. "I do not know." She continued to step forward again, plucking the leaf as she went. "He has the potential to be someone I care about, yes."

Could she really be saying what he thought she was? Could this sweet girl before him truly not judge a hideous wolf and see him instead as an equal, as a friend? As someone she could care for? The prince watched in wonder and silence for a few minutes as he absorbed all the magnificence that was Miss Hammerstein-Smythe. She was an even better person than he could have imagined.

Cecelia's thoughts naturally gravitated toward the enigmatic wolf. Never had she met someone so fascinating before, or so kind. A smile played upon her lips as she thought of the passage of poem she had read aloud. How had he known the precise thing to say to her when she needed it most? How could anyone, let alone a beast, know her so well?

She walked forward a few more steps and plucked another leaf before her feet halted. What did he mean when he said today would change everything in her life? Glancing at the profile of the prince, she absentmindedly mulled over the cryptic comment from the wolf and then silently gasped. The beast sent the prince. He would not dare do such a thing! She began to walk again. And yet, it would seem he had done just that. Her hands grew cold as she realized that the creature she had begun to trust had indeed betrayed her.

"He told you about me, did he not?" she asked rather quietly.

Alexander glanced over. "The wolf?"

"Yes." She took a deep breath and stopped walking altogether. The more she thought about it, the more bothered she became. Everything they had just been discussing, all the camaraderie she'd felt with the prince, vanished before her eyes. "He told you about me—about what had happened to me—which is why you have come here now, to rescue the poor damsel and make sure all the village believes you are courting her. The beast said before I left last night that today would change everything in my life. He meant you, did he not? He meant to come to you and tell you all about my wretched existence so you would take pity and help."

"Would it be so bad if he did?"

"Yes!" Distressed, she looked away.

He stepped in front of her. "Why?"

"Because—because it is you! Because you have never taken a moment out of your life to say one good thing about anyone, least of all me. Because I am humiliated beyond belief that you know about my trials and heartaches. Someone who has only ever scorned and mocked me publicly now comes in as my great prince on a white horse."

"Miss Hammerstein-Smythe, please, you said so yourself just a few weeks ago that I have changed. I did not own it then, but believe me, my dear, I have. I know I have." He knelt down in front of her, placed the rose she was holding on the ground near her feet, and took her hands. "Allow me this opportunity now, for if you will not accept my friendship, then please accept my apologies. My most sincere apologies for everything—all those cruel days of my past. I was a monster. I was a horrendous, horrid, beastly monster, and I treated you abominably. I would forever be in your debt, Miss Hammerstein-Smythe, if you could but forgive me and see that I am and will always be a changed man."

She clutched his hands, not quite willing to let the fight go. "You were brutal to me."

"Yes, I was. And to many more people as well. I would do anything to go back and change it all now—anything."

She searched across his sincere, attractive features. "How can I trust you?"

"Have we not had a pleasant time these past twenty minutes or so? Can this not prove that we can get along? That maybe I am not as ghastly as I once was?"

A lopsided grin formed upon her lips. "Perhaps not as ghastly."

In all seriousness, he said, "I am sorry. I am wholeheartedly, earnestly, profusely sorry. And I vow, if you allow me, to make it up to you every single day of my life."

"Did the beast really send you?"

"Yes, he did."

She sighed in frustration before stating, "You are forgiven. I will allow you to rescue me, and perhaps become your friend. However—" she raised an eyebrow to ward off his happy smile—"I am positive that tonight, I shall taste my first wolf stew."

Alexander threw his head back and laughed, more in love with her than before.

It was at this exact moment, while the prince was kneeling before Cecelia, with a rose lying between them and their hands clasped tightly, looking like the happiest man on earth, that her mother happened upon them both.

"Cecelia! Cecelia, my dearest girl! You are to be married to the prince? My daughter, the soon-to-be queen!" she exclaimed loudly, in all the ecstasies of a mother's wildest dreams coming true, before she swooned and fell gracefully upon the cobblestones before them.