The Fairytale Trilogy
Fairytale
The Emperor’s Realm
The Three Crowns
Valerie Gribben
Junebug Books
Montgomery | Louisville
Junebug Books
105 S. Court Street
Montgomery, AL 36104
Copyright © 2010 by Valerie Gribben. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Junebug Books, a division of NewSouth, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama.
ISBN: 978-1-58838-251-1
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60306-067-7
LCCN: 2010013305
Visit www.newsouthbooks.com
Dedications
Book One
To my father Alan
who read to me every night
Book Two
To Walter
Book Three
To my mother Irene
who gave me roots and wings
Contents
Fairytale
The Emperor’s Realm
The Three Crowns
Fairytale
Chapter the First
The buzzing of the dragonflies on the hot, humid day seemed intoxicatingly enchanting to Marianne’s idle mind. She had been lying for nearly an hour on her favorite rock, which protruded over her father’s fish pond, simply watching the swarm hover. Each time a dragonfly landed on a grass stalk, the stem bent far over and dipped into the pond, creating ripples that sent the tiny minnows darting off to the other shore. Why can’t I lead the life of a dragonfly? thought Marianne, observing an especially large specimen forcing a smaller one off a lily pad. Flying where I want, doing as I please, living the way I want to live. Her reverie was interrupted by the disappearance of the bully dragonfly into the pond at the end of a very long pink tongue.
Marianne hopped up with a gasp. All the nearby dragonflies flew backwards in apparent surprise. At Marianne’s feet, two sparkling, golden orbs emerged from the water followed by the slippery emerald body of a frog that pulled itself with deliberate effort onto her rock.
“And the reason for you spending one twenty-fourth of your day staring at my private ecosystem when you should be inside passing your final hours of freedom doing needlework to make your parents proud would be . . .?” His long, wet fingers began drumming on the rock in a jaded manner.
“Because putting in time on needlework would make my parents proud,” replied Marianne. “And please, Prince, is it too much to ask that you not eat your meals in front of me? Ugh!”
“My sincere apologies, Annie, but as of now you are in this particular amphibian’s environment. If I had wanted to have my legs sautéed in butter, I would have gone over to your place.”
“Sheesh, you retrieve one lousy little ball, and somehow you think that gives you license to mouth off to me. I’m saying my farewells to my old life. Not that moving three miles away is exactly broadening my horizons, but after the wedding tomorrow I’m sure my father won’t let me return with anything short of a royal warrant. Once I’m out, my parents finally can brag that they have compliant children,” said Marianne sadly, crouching next to the frog.
“Don’t be so harsh. They are your parents.”
Marianne’s comely face took on a thoughtful expression. “Do you think Brantford would let you transfer ponds to be with me?”
“Do you truly suppose your husband would want to have your attentions shared with a creature of a different species?”
“Point taken,” Marianne said with a sigh. “In that case, then, good-bye.”
“What?” asked the frog. “No kiss for the handsome Prince?”
“It didn’t work before, so I doubt that a second kiss would change your situation,” said Marianne as she straightened up. “All you gained from that experience was your name. And all I got besides disappointment were extremely slimy lips.”
“Second time’s the charm,” said Prince, puckering up. “And,” he continued, widening one eye, “may I add that you have also received a lifetime guarantee of laughter and friendship whenever you need an aquatic ear to listen. Now, if that doesn’t merit another try, this Prince is clueless as to what does.”
Marianne leaned down and dropped a quick kiss on his moist forehead.
“Good-bye, sweet Prince,” Marianne whispered huskily as she gave him a parting glance.
“’Til we meet again, my love,” he said wistfully.
Marianne turned away so he wouldn’t see her tears.
Inside Kingbriton Manor, Marianne dried her eyes, lest she be seen by the household. Keep up appearances, even if no one here cares whether I live or cry. Marianne’s parents had seen to it that she would be isolated until she was ready to behave like every other respectable maiden, but Marianne had an innate streak of independence that even reprimands and punishments failed to diminish.
Why should girls be confined to embroidery? She’d lived her childhood frolicking in the forest trying to catch rabbits and pixies and plunging and swimming in the nearby waters with Prince and some local boys. Marianne had even asked Pip the stable hand to teach her how to use a sword. Although her fencing, as Pip put it, “ought not to be depended upon if you want to live,” Marianne relished her awkward attempts.
But since her fifteenth birthday, Marianne had found her world shrinking. She alone still ran through the forests and jumped into the streams; all the boys had been apprenticed or were in training for knighthood, and the girls of the town were either forbidden to speak with such an uncouth child or had already married.
Marianne wondered vaguely whether Brantford would approve of a wife who probably had read more than he. Despite the locks placed upon her family’s library doors, duplicate keys had allowed Marianne, late at night, to sneak along the corridors in search of unread material. Does he even have a library? Marianne wondered.
“Oof! Hey! Watch where you’re going,” said a well-dressed youth whom Marianne had accidentally bumped while lost in thought.
“Oh. Hello, Edward!” greeted Marianne, looking around her older brother; it wasn’t very often she could talk to him away from his usual crowd of simpering admirers.
“Uhm.