Chapter 10
Bella shivered herself awake, tucking into a tighter ball as the sunrise aimed a sharp beam at her eyelids.
She raised her hand to block the light, then took in her bearings.
She huffed and sat up, resentment filling her that Albert never made an effort to speak to her at all last night. “Fickle frog.”
“Wum wum.”
The sound was near her ear, making her gasp. She lifted one of the dresses she’d draped about her shoulders and found a scrawny Albert scrambling through the fallen fabric. A warm spot on her upper arm told her he’d been perched there awhile.
“Are you alright? You look quite thin this morning,” she said as she lifted him and set him near the water. He stumbled into the goo and spun to face her.
“I will be fine. It was so cold last night. You had no shelter or fire... and... I wanted to keep watch over you.”
Bella felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment. He had made an effort.
He continued, “I am sorry for what I said yesterday. I overreacted. Wum.”
“I agree.”
He blinked. “You are supposed to say, ‘I accept your apology.’”
“Have I, though?” She raised a brow at him, and Riven dropped lower into the water as if no one had ever called him out on any boorish behavior before.
“You do not have to accept my apology, though I am sorry.” He straightened. “And you are correct; I am Prince Riven, or, at least I was.” One tiny hand waved in the air. “Before this.”
Bella stood and wrapped the extra dress fabric around her shoulders, then curtsied before him.
“Do not curtsy for me, friend. I am but a lowly frog.”
“A frog prince,” she corrected. “Or, is that Prince of Frogs?”
“Neither. To you, I am merely Riven.”
She smiled, liking that he lowered the societal walls betwixt them. “Why are you the sole person to blame for the pond’s condition?”
He paused, and Bella waited him out. “The enchantress said the king’s son allowed everyone to use the pond as they saw fit.”
“Did you say that?”
“No. But I am not the king’s only son, am I?”
“Poisson,” she said with disgust.
“Most likely, yes.”
“Why did you not dispute it?”
“I did, but it was too late. When she first accused me, I was plied with ale and playing the most magical of tunes. Oh, Bella, if only you heard the music I created that night! I waved off her accusation, thinking it would not truly concern me.”
“Now it does.”
“Now it does.” He blinked. “By the time I saw her again, it was too late to dispute it. She claimed my delay displayed my desperation and my guilt.”
“Rotten of her.”
He nodded. “However, if I did not accept this punishment, she vowed the entire castle would soon have poisoned, undrinkable water. I had no choice.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You willingly bore this burden you did not earn?”
“I am the prince, and these are my people,” he stated simply. “But I realized last night, this is my fate. My punishment. You do not need to be here, joining me in my plight. You may take Nocturne and return home.”
Bella simply stared at him. This man was storybook worthy, a hero as noble and rare as a diamond of the first water. Her throat tightened as she regarded him. Finally, she shook her head, saying the only thing that came to mind. “I cannot take your horse.”
“If you do not, that ostler will likely slaughter him and dump him in the pond.”
She gasped. “He wouldn’t dare!”
Albert/Riven nodded. “Anyone who sees him loose out here will return him to the stable where you retrieved him. Nocturne eats a lot, and my parents would not come looking for him—after all, people think I’m off wooing the enchantress who did this to me.”
When Bella opened her mouth to protest, Riven added, “I heard the chatter in the tavern yesterday. It is what the townspeople think. Because of this, Nocturne would not be sought. He would quickly become costly and overstay his welcome.”
Bella moved to the horse, where he had been happily grazing. She stroked his withers, and he took another step, still munching. “Those are all horrible things to say.”
“He is the most remarkable of horses. He is calm and dependable. He does not spook. He stays with his people, as you can clearly see, and I vow he understands every word. He is an amazing animal and the best option you have to quickly return home.”
Tears filled her eyes. A Mérens horse would fetch a fine price at any market, but selling the prince’s horse irked her moral code, regardless of the fact they could not afford to feed him.
Attempting a jest, she said, “You wish to be rid of me so fiercely you would give me your finest horse to see me gone?”
Albert, no, Riven, leapt clear out of the water, croaking midair at her. He landed with a fat splat, croaked at her a few times, then jumped back into the water. “I detest that I cannot speak to you when I am away from this mud. No. I wish to uphold my end of the bargain and help you return home.”
Now her throat tightened. “My end of our bargain was to help you break your curse, which I cannot do from Luxembourg.”
“Come here, please.” Riven waved her forward with a tiny arm, and Bella plodded near, her feet growing heavier with the weight of the truth behind his words.
“Bella, my friend... I, not you, have irritated an enchantress. The burden of fixing this mess falls on my shoulders. I will not see you punished alongside me. I cannot even provide you shelter!” The words were a combination of frustration, anger, and amphibious croaks.
Bella did not want to leave him to deal with this by himself; it seemed unfair.
She had studied maps at her father’s elbow as they bent over the kitchen table and knew how far the distance was between their homes.
She had a long, perilous ride ahead of her.
“I will not feel safe traveling alone. ‘Tis too far and dangerous for a solitary traveler to accomplish, let alone a female. All manner of ills might befall me.”
She watched Riven take a deep breath, his froggy throat bellowing out with the motion. “That is why I worked out a perfect solution for you.” He swam to the nearby shore, then returned and handed her the tiny chest. “Open it.”
‘Twas a lovely golden chest, tiny and etched. This item alone would raise eyebrows if she were caught carrying it, and it was probably the most expensive gift she had ever received. “‘Tis too much, my prince.”
“‘Tis not for you. Open it.”
She frowned when she saw the two sugar cubes inside. “I do not understand.”
“One cube will help Nocturne make the journey to your home in but a single day.”
“Impossible.”
“Says the woman conversing with a frog.”
She smirked. “Touché.” She poked one with a finger, heartened by the hope that she might be home in a day and not weeks. “And the second cube?”
A long pause greeted her as she held his eyes. “In case you ever wish to return.”
One fat tear rolled down her cheek, and Bella spun from Riven so he would not see it. “This is the most thoughtful and the most perfect of gifts, Your Highness. I thank you for it.”
“Riven,” he corrected.
“How will I know it is you? If I return? I do not know what you or Luc look like.”
“Well, I shall be the happy, dashing, carefree prince with sandy-brown hair and hazel eyes. Luc looks like a fish to this day. A miserable one.”
She smiled, picturing Riven making jests to a room full of high society people. “And you shall expect me to just walk up to you? In the middle of your entourage?”
“Bella, if you ever appear in my court, trust that I will be unable to look away.”
The way he studied her had Bella’s heart racing.
“There is more,” he said. “Come.”
She followed him to the crusty shore he just left.
He emerged and pointed from the water’s edge.
“I collected coins half the night for you before I thought of creating the sugar cubes. You have been kinder to me than most when you had nothing to gain from it, and for that, I wish to see you provided for.”
Bella’s mouth dropped open at the pile of shiny coins glinting in the sun.
She picked them up and let them trickle through her fingers, tinkling as they clattered back into the pile.
“Alber... um, Riven, you are too kind. But I cannot in good conscience accept this. You are a prince, and I am but a merchant’s daughter.
‘Twould be unseemly. Plus, you are sentenced to be a frog and are imprisoned here.
I am free to leave. ‘Tis most unfair. I cannot profit from your misery.”
He placed his wee hand on her finger and squeezed. “Which is precisely why I collected these. You are the purest, most decent person I have ever met, and as a male and your friend, I needs must see you safely home. I hope one day you will think fondly of me.”
“I think fondly of you now, you belligerent bullfrog.”
The silence stretched a moment. “Put them in your pocket, Bella. Allow me to provide for you. This may be the only time I shall be able to do so.”
She forced a laugh. “A prince is providing my dowry. Whatever shall my father say?”
“Tell him it is a found treasure, then. Do not waste this on immature boys who do not value you for who you are inside.”
She met his earnest eyes and warmed mightily to him. Were he human, she would pine day and night for him. She was dangerously close to doing just that right now. “You are too kind.”
“I learned from the best,” he said, making her heart flutter.
With this bounty, Bella could afford whatever treatment her father might need. Once he recovered, Papa could even attempt any number of new inventions with the remaining coin.
There might even be enough left over to start a small school. One with lots of books.
“Might I tell Papa that I won it in a contest? One involving my cleverness?”
“You would win every round,” he said loyally.
Emotion tightened her throat as she studied the bounty. “Do you insist?” she asked.
“I do.”
With reverence, Bella lifted each coin into her palm, marveling at their colors and sizes and languages stamped on them, then tucked the stack of them in her pocket.
More tears filled her eyes as she nodded at him.
“I thank you for your generosity, your kindness, your protectiveness, your companionship. All of it. I’ve never had a friend like you. ”
Riven blinked at her, then ducked under the surface. A second later, he leapt clear out of the pond, rolled in the crunchy sand on the shoreline to remove the slime, then sprung for her chest.
Bella almost yelped until she realized Riven hugged her. He tucked his little head in her shoulder, spread his little arms around her neck, and wummed in her ear as she cuddled him close.
“I shall miss you too, my friend.” After a moment, she snatched him off her neck to set him down, hurried over to Nocturne, then leapt into the saddle and headed for the castle without ever looking back.
She hoped she was out of earshot when her sob came.