Chapter Nine Rapunzel #3
“Your Majesty, what is the meaning of this?” Cressien’s voice rises.
Verette looks from Eugene to Enver. “Father?”
“Take him to the dungeon,” Enver orders coldly.
Rapunzel doesn’t think, just darts to the doorway and throws out her arms to block the way, fire crackling between her ears. “No.”
Enver jerks back as if she’s just slapped him. Verette is outright gawking at her.
“I don’t know what you think Eugene’s done, but there has to be a mistake,” she insists.
Cressien’s voice is like iron. “Surely the king does not intend to cause insult by imprisoning the princess’s companion without cause.”
“I have cause.” Enver’s jaw tightens. “I’d heard the boy was some sort of troubled youth, but I made allowances for Princess Rapunzel’s judgment. Now I’m certain he’s here under false pretenses.”
“What?” Eugene sputters.
Anger swells in Rapunzel’s belly. She decides she can apologize to Cressien for her lack of tact later. “You don’t even know Eugene,” she says hotly. “You’ve barely spoken to him since we arrived, and you already decided he’s guilty?”
“People have been treating me strangely all day,” Eugene adds behind her with a mordant shrug. He may be playing it casual, but Rapunzel doesn’t miss the tension in his shoulders. “Frankly, it’s getting a little old. If His Majesty would like to share what’s going on, I am all ears.”
“Don’t lie to me,” Enver barks. The setting sun blazes through the windows, dyeing the room searing peach. “I knew Marietta got away. She’s been planning this for years, hasn’t she? Where are they? Where’s the rest of the People’s Dagger?”
“The who now?” Eugene looks utterly bewildered.
But Enver’s not convinced. “He’s lying to you, Princess. This man is an operative from a dangerous, cowardly clutch of traitors who have been working to depose me for decades. Your courtship is a ruse to get to me and Verette.”
If Rapunzel had a frying pan on hand, she would probably be halfway to an act of war. Fortunately (or not), she has to use her words. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Eugene died for me before we even knew you existed.”
“Andreas Herbert and Marietta Fitz were my wife’s dearest friends,” Enver says, stony. “And on the worst night of my life, they betrayed us both. Verette grew up without a mother because of them.” He points a shaking finger at Eugene. “And you look just like your parents.”
Eugene almost goes slack, like the wind’s been knocked out of him, turning deathly pale.
After a beat, the shock frosts over into something brittle.
The words come out like each one’s chipped from ice.
“I grew up in an orphanage across the sea. I never met my parents, or even knew their names.” His eyes turn steely.
“I come from nothing. So whoever you think I am, you have the wrong man.”
Enver’s nostrils flare.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty, but…” Cressien shifts his weight, subtly angling to stand by Rapunzel. “Do you believe Fitzherbert has actually committed a crime, or is your suspicion based on resemblance alone?”
“He snuck out of the palace and disappeared for hours with people he conveniently couldn’t describe, to a location he couldn’t identify, and these supposed captors just let him go out of the goodness of their hearts?” Enver says derisively.
“They just arrived yesterday, Father.” Verette’s voice tightens with discomfort, her gaze darting from the king to Rapunzel and back.
“And they came straight here from the harbor. Of course Fitzherbert didn’t know where he was.
And if he had seen his kidnappers’ faces, they never would have let him go. ”
Enver barely seems to hear her.
“You already increased the guard at the guest wing,” Verette continues. “Perhaps instead of jailing Fitzherbert, we could have them escort him within the palace grounds, and appoint someone trustworthy to serve as an additional chaperone if we venture out.”
Enver runs a hand over his short beard, brow furrowed, stare narrowed on the floor. Finally he blows a hissing breath out his nose and scowls. “Very well. I’ll have Hughes do it. I don’t trust anyone else.” He nods to the guards. “You may release him. For now.”
Rapunzel doesn’t know what’s worse—the look on Eugene’s face as the shackles are unlocked, or the fact that he won’t meet her eyes. She slides her hand into his as Enver sweeps out.
“I’ll…go talk to him,” Verette says stiltedly, and follows him through the door.
“It’ll be okay,” Rapunzel whispers.
“Yeah,” Eugene mumbles.
But he still looks utterly lost.
It’s like the lanterns, Rapunzel realizes. When she was watching from her tower, it was safe to believe whatever she wanted of them; she’d never been so scared as the moment in the boat, before she saw them for herself.
What if it’s not everything I dreamed it would be? she’d asked.
And Eugene’s answer was just It will be.
Eugene’s parents were always lights in the sky, too far out of reach for their possibility to be limited. But if Enver is right…then that truth has fallen terribly, terribly short.