Read Online Tatterhood by Margrete Lamond - Free Book Online Page A

peep in on the whitebear where he slept. Drawing her hand back from the flame, she let the candlelight fall on him. What she saw made her heart stand still.
    There, where there should have been a bristled beast, lay a prince so handsome, so strong, so golden bright and gleaming, that she could only gape. But as she leant closer in admiration, a drop of wax dripped from the candle, fell on his forehead and woke him up.
    â€˜What have you done?’ he cried. ‘If you had only held out! There wasn’t more than a month to go, and I would have been released from my enchantment. But it’s all over now. I have no choice but to marry the troll-hag who transformed me.’
    The princess argued and bargained. She begged him not to go. She insisted he think of another way. She demanded he betray the troll-hag. But there was no question about it. He had to go, and go he would.
    â€˜Then I’ll go with you,’ she said.
    â€˜That’s impossible,’ the prince replied. He turned to leave, and as he did he regained his bear form.
    But the princess refused to be left behind. She grabbed at his shaggy pelt, vaulted herself onto his back and clung to him, digging her fingers deep into his fur. Then off they went at high speed – over hill and dale, through grove and coppice, down cliff and scree – with the whitebear not once breaking pace, nor ever skirting the thorns and bushes that stood in their way.
    It wasn’t long before the princess’s clothes were ragged, and her legs torn and bleeding. By midnight she was so deadly tired that she could barely hang on. Gradually, as the bear loped onwards, she loosed her grip, then nodded, sagged and drooped. Finally, in a faint, she slid from the whiteheads back – and he went on without her, leaving her in a tangle on the mossy ground.
    When the princess woke she was alone, with no way of knowing which way to go in the dim dark forest. So she took her chance and followed her nose, and before long came to a hut where she discovered a little girl living with an aunt.
    â€˜Have you seen anything of a whitebear?’ the princess asked them.
    â€˜He came here early this morning,’ the aunt said, ‘with a gift for the girl. But he was in a great hurry, and you’ll never catch him.’
    Meanwhile, the little girl was skipping about, amusing herself with a pair of golden shears. They weren’t ordinary shears, but the sort that produced lengths of silk and velvet whenever she clipped at the air.
    â€˜Poor, poor princess,’ sang the child as she played, ‘travelling such wide and weary ways. Surely she could do more with these scissors than I?’ And, with her aunt’s permission, she gave them to the princess.
    The princess headed off into the forest again, following her nose, and she travelled all night until she came upon another little girl, smaller than the first, living in a hut with her aunt.
    â€˜Good day,’ said the princess. ‘Have you seen anything of a whitebear?’
    â€˜Is he yours to be chasing, perhaps?’ asked the woman, and when the princess said he certainly was, the woman added, ‘Ah well. He dropped by yesterday with a gift for the child, but carried on too fast for you to be catching him.’
    Meanwhile, the child was on the floor, toying with a flask which, when it was tipped up, poured out all the drink in the world, and more.
    â€˜Poor, poor princess,’ sang the child, ‘travelling such wide and weary ways. Surely she can find more use for this flask than I.’
    And, after begging permission, she gave the flask to the king’s daughter, who took it and went on her way, following her nose through the same dark forest. On the third morning she came to yet another hut, and was greeted by a baby girl and her aunt.
    â€˜Good day,’ said the king’s daughter.
    â€˜Good day again,’ said the woman.
    â€˜Have you seen anything of the