Read Online Fair Maiden by Cheri Schmidt - Free Book Online Page B

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her.
    “Please, have a seat.” He motioned to the spot on the mattress
next to where he’d just settled.
    She glanced nervously around the room, and noticed the only
other place to sit was in the single chair next to his fireplace. She did not
know why, but she instinctively suspected it may not be appropriate for her to
join any man on his bed.
    It seemed he realized she was thinking this because of her
hesitation. “It’s all right. You’re safe with me,” he said, with a gentle tone.
    After another pause on her part, she finally resigned and
drifted toward him, then turned and settled above the bedcovering as though she
were seated. He looked at her, waiting. “Are you all right?”
    “I’m well, I suppose…but I think I must be seeing things.”
    His eyebrows rose. “What did you see?”
    “I was peering into the looking glass in my chamber, and I
thought I saw my mother and father looking back at me.”
    Christian’s brows nearly disappeared into his hairline. “You
saw them looking back at you in the reflection?”
    “Yes.”
    “Your parents? How do you know that’s who they were?”
    “When I called them Mama and Papa, they smiled and nodded,
and the lady looked like me.”
    “Take me,” it sounded like a command as he shoved his open
hand toward her again.
    Unable to resist, she stretched her hand to his, then
watched as hers passed through his. He frowned and dropped his hand. “I’m
sorry. It seems I keep forgetting that you can’t…. Would you please take me to
your room?”
    Nodding, she moved from the bed, slid toward the door and
passed through it.
    “Wait!” she heard him call as he wrenched the door open and
stumbled into the hallway. His shirt flew open with his movement and she got
another look at his muscled chest.
    She smiled and turned to lead him to the end of the
passageway where her door was; glad she could not blush, for she would have
been bright red.
    When they reached it, he looked dumbfounded. “I only see the
stone wall.”
    “There is a door here. I can see it.”
    “Can you open it?”
    “Yes,” she said as she focused on the handle and made it
turn downward. The door opened with a click and a squeak as the hinges twisted.
    He gasped because he could now see into the hidden chamber.
“May I?” he asked before attempting to enter.
    “Please.”
    Christian stepped inside and tugged one hand through his
brown waves of hair. “Are those alive?”
    “The butterflies?”
    “And the fireflies.”
    “They look alive to me,” she replied. “What do you see?”
    “I see living vines, and insects adorning the canopy.”
    He strode to the bed and his eyes fell on the parchment.
When he reached for it, she shrieked and he nearly fell over backwards. “Mercy,
girl! Don’t frighten me so.”
    “Do not touch it!”
    “Why not?”
    “It nearly crumbled away when I tried to move it.”
    “Oh,” he said, tipping his head to the side as he read it.
“My apologies.”
    “It-it is all right. I suppose,” she replied as her panic
settled.
    “‘You are loved.’” He read more to himself than to her.
“Fascinating. Is this for you?”
    “I believe it is.”
    After perusing the rest of the chamber, his gaze moved to
the looking glass and he stepped toward it. “You saw your parents here?”
    “Yes.” She moved closer beside him, and then wished she had
not. In the reflection, she could see herself with him, and the sight made a
lovely couple. Her sadness and loneliness returned with crippling strength.
    He noticed the change in her expression, and said, “What makes
you sad, princess? I don’t like seeing you so distressed.”
    She was unable or unwilling to answer that. There was so
much she wanted to say. She wanted to tell him how she felt about him, but knew
she could not. She could not tell him she was lonely, and that she deeply
wanted to be the bride she was dressed as.
    “Can you see your parents now?” he asked softly.
    Her gaze lifted to