The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen Read Online Free PDF Page A

finished with his travels. Father arrived and when told of my harsh treatment, apologized and begged my forgiveness, which I gave immediately for he did not know of Gisla’s callous nature. Ulrich and I were married the Tuesday next with my father in attendance. We set off for Bitsch the next day. By winter I was with child and by fall Lars had arrived, a happy child with my fair hair and his father’s green eyes. By the next winter, this one past, it was all taken from me. My greatest loves perished.” A tear streams down Galadriel’s cheek.
    “I’m sorry.” I say for I don’t know of any words that could console such pain.
    She nods and swallows hard.
    “Did you ever find out who placed the dress at your mother’s grave?”
    “I used to think it was my mother’s angel watching over me,” Galadriel replies. “But where was she when I lost my husband and my baby? Where was God then? What was the point in giving me that dress so I could go to the festival, so Ulrich would marry me and give me a son, just to have them die a few months later?” Galadriel puts her head in her hands and sobs.

12 March, 1247 Early Morning
     
    Galadriel’s cries have stopped and she has fallen asleep, but not for long. She jerks her head from the table and glances frightfully around the room. She looks lost until our gazes meet.
    “You should go to bed. It’s late,” she yawns.
    “I’m not tired,” I lie. “You can have my bed.” She waits for my reassurance. “I shall sleep in Father’s bed if I tire.”
    She groggily climbs the ladder to my room and I am relieved to be alone. My back feels blistered from sitting by the fire for so long and I move to the other side of the table where Galadriel had sat.
    I watch the fire and wonder where Father is and when he’ll return. The worry should consume me, but I feel nothing but weariness.
    I rest my head on the table and just as my eyes close, I hear the tapping of footsteps. I wake with a start and scan the room for Father until I realize the footsteps are coming from above, their soft, slow beat quickly giving them away. It is Galadriel.
    She yawns loudly and clumsily descends the ladder.
    “Do you always keep insects by your bedside?” An eyebrow arches in disgust at the two fireflies dancing in the glass jar she holds at a distance.
    I shrug.
    “I shall get you a candle this week,” she replies.
    “Father has a candle in his room. Shall I fetch it for you?”
    “No.” She looks down at the jar, wrinkling her forehead. “I sleep best in the dark. I do not suppose you shall need these with a fire like that, but I prefer not to spend the night with them.” She sets the jar on the table, turns, and stumbles back to bed.
    “Ivo,” I sigh, shaking my head and feeling a grin spread across my face. I lift the jar of lazy flies, each one sitting on opposite walls of the jar. I slowly lift the cap and watch as each firefly escapes and flits around the room until they find an exit through the hearth.
    I am so sleepy, but tell myself I will not go to bed, even though my head feels too heavy for my neck to support. My hands make a comfortable resting place. It is not long before even my hands shake, weary from the weight of my head. The waves of the fire hypnotize me and I surrender to the weight of exhaustion. I surrender to dreams.
    ***
     
    Tink. Tink. Tink.
Three fireflies smack forcefully against the sides of the jar. I will be late, I think. With jar in hand, I sneak out the door and down the steps, taking Filzengraben. Tall shadows of row houses lean over me, making the night even darker. The road feels eerily empty until the glow of a night watchman’s swaying lantern in the distance catches my eye. He takes Severin’s Strasse heading toward the Priest’s Gate and his light is gone just as quickly as it has come.
    I turn left onto Foller Strasse, at the first manor that makes up the vast de Belle’s estate. I climb the vines on a low wall and jump into the de