The Enchantress Returns (54 page)
Alex and Conner smiled at each other, knowing that, wherever he was, he was smiling down at them, too.
The winged horse neighed loudly from the side of the coliseum.
“Hey, Alex, where did you find a flying horse?” Conner asked.
Alex’s happy grin suddenly faded. “Oh no, I forgot about Bob!” she yelled. “Grandma, can you change him back for me?”
The Fairy Godmother laughed. She retrieved her crystal wand from inside her robes and waved it in the horse’s direction. A bright beam of light traveled from the tip of her wand and spun around the horse until he was regular Dr. Bob again.
He shook his head and found his balance, dizzy from the transformation.
“Bob, is that you?” Charlotte gasped. “What are you doing here?”
“I couldn’t let you have
all
the fun, could I?” He laughed.
Charlotte ran to his side and kissed him—the twins had to look away.
“You won’t believe what he went through,” Conner told his mom. “He was almost eaten by bears and sharks and he was captured by the Sea Witch and—”
“
And
we’ll let
him
tell you all about it,” Alex said while dragging her brother away. She figured it was best to give them some privacy.
The twins and their grandmother walked to the edge of the coliseum and looked out over the Charming Kingdom. The sun began to set, painting the sky a beautiful rosy shade.
“I’m sorry we ran away from the house, Grandma,” Alex said, trying to sound genuine but also trying to hide a smile at the same time.
“Yeah,” Conner laughed. “I feel
so bad
about that.” He didn’t even try to be sincere.
Their grandmother shook her head and looked to the sky, fighting a smile of her own. “What am I going to do with you two?” she said. “Magic lessons, I think, would do you some good; that way you won’t sink any more houses.”
“I totally forgot about that!” Conner said. “Sorry we sank your cottage, Grandma!”
“Magic lessons?! Really?”
Alex asked with large eyes as she hopped up and down.
“I think you’ve earned it,” their grandmother said. “As long as your mother is fine with it.”
“After all this I don’t think she’ll ever be able to tell us no again,” Conner said.
“What was that, Conner?” Charlotte asked as she and Bob joined them at the edge of the coliseum.
“Oh, um…” Conner said and turned bright red. “I was just saying you may have difficulty telling us no from now on because we saved your life.”
Charlotte squinted at him. “I
gave
you life,” she said. “You’re never going to top that.”
Conner tried laughing it off. “I was just kidding,” he said, although there was obviously an element of truth to it.
The reunited family of five looked out over the land around them. As the sun set in the East, it also set on the reign of the Enchantress, and the twins could feel the Land of Stories sigh with relief. It was a paradise once more.
All the kings and queens left the Charming Kingdom the following day to celebrate the news of the Enchantress’s defeat with their people. Red was the only one who stayed behind, because at the end of the week she, Froggy, Goldilocks, Jack, Bob, Charlotte, and the twins all attended Rumpelstiltskin’s funeral.
Hearing the news of his final act and what his last words had been was hard for the Seven Dwarfs to swallow, so they wanted to make sure the ceremony was everything Rumpelstiltskin would have wanted.
It was a small ceremony in the Dwarf Forests on the front
lawn of the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage. The dwarfs had made their brother a casket of glass and jewels from their mines, just as they had for Snow White. He was buried in a daisy-covered field not too far from the cottage. The dwarfs said Rumpelstiltskin had spent a lot of time there when he was younger and they knew he would have been happy to make it his final place of rest. His tombstone even read:
HERE LIES
RUMPELSTILTSKIN
THE EIGHTH BROTHER
OF A PROUD DWARF FAMILY
That night, when they arrived back at the Charming Kingdom, King Chance and Queen Cinderella hosted a dinner to honor the twins and the others who had sailed on the
Granny
. Conner was seated at the table in the dining hall when a man sat next to him and started up a conversation.
“I’m looking forward to this,” the man said. “I miss being a part of the famous Charming dinner parties.”
“Do I know you?” Conner asked him and gave the man the side-eye.
“Conner, it’s me,” the man said. “It’s
Froggy
.”
Conner shook his head and looked at the man again. He always forgot Froggy was actually human, but no matter what physical form he took, he always had the same kind eyes.
“Your grandmother changed me back as soon as we returned from the funeral,” Froggy said. “The funny thing is, I had grown so accustomed to being a frog, I had forgotten she still had to change me back.”
“Do you miss anything about being a frog?” Conner asked him.
“I do miss reaching the books on the top shelf without a ladder,” he said. “One doesn’t realize how useful frog legs can be until they lose them.” A twinkle came to Froggy’s eye. “Speaking of reading, I have something for you.”
He reached into his lapel and pulled out a rolled-up stack of parchments.
“When we were setting up the camps for the trolls, I found these in the
Granny
’s wreckage,” Froggy said and handed the parchments over to Conner.
“My stories!” Conner said. “I thought these were lost forever!”
“I must admit, I enjoyed them quite a bit,” Froggy said. “You’ve got a real knack for storytelling. Although, I do have a few words of advice for you.”
“What’s that?” Conner asked.
“Never let Red read these,” Froggy said. “I thought it was very clever, writing everyone as trolls, but she would have you executed if she read your interpretation of her.”
Conner chuckled and playfully punched Froggy’s shoulder.
“No, I’m serious,” Froggy said. Conner gulped.
The others finally arrived and took seats around the table. Jack and Goldilocks looked down timidly at all the silverware,
not knowing what to start with. Red entered the room and almost blinded everyone with the amount of jewelry she was wearing. Even for a formal dinner in the Charming Palace, Red was overdressed.
Bob sat down across from Conner, looking unusually tense.
“What’s wrong, Bob?” Conner said. “You look like you’re about to operate on the president.”
Alex cleared her throat to get Conner’s attention.
“He’s going to propose to Mom tonight,”
Alex mouthed when her mother wasn’t looking.
“Oh,” Conner mouthed back excitedly to Bob and his sister. He gave Bob an unsubtle wink and a thumbs-up.
“Is everything all right, Conner?” Charlotte asked.
“Um…
yes
,” Conner said. “I’m just really looking forward to the appetizers.”
Alex rolled her eyes at him. Charlotte studied her son suspiciously, afraid he was coming down with a cold.
A footman presented a tray to Goldilocks with an envelope addressed to her on it.
“A letter has come for you, madam,” the footman said.
“For
me
?” Goldilocks said. “I wonder what it could be.” She opened the envelope and read the note inside. An amused but shocked grin came to her face—she wasn’t sure how to feel about the news she received.
“What is it?” Jack asked her.
“It’s a note from the Red Riding Hood Castle stables,” Goldilocks said. “Porridge is
pregnant
.”
Jack and the twins couldn’t contain themselves. Each one laughed harder than the next.
“Buckle!”
the twins said together.
“I knew there was something going on between them!” Conner said.
The dinner began and the room was served course after course of the best food the twins had ever eaten. Just before the desserts were brought out, Bob tapped the side of his glass with a spoon and got the room’s attention. Alex and Conner shot excited looks at each other—
this was it.
“I just wanted to thank you all so much for having me tonight,” Bob said. “I’m fairly new to the Bailey clan, so learning about all of you and coming into this world has been, well, the adventure of my life. And seeing that I happened to be in a room filled with people who make up the greatest love stories ever told, I would like to take this moment for all it’s worth.”
Charlotte looked back and forth between the twins, seeing if they knew what Bob was up to. They purposefully avoided her eyes, wanting Bob to surprise her fully. He got down on one knee and presented the ring to her.
“Charlotte, will you make me the happiest man in the world—
both worlds
—and be my wife?” Bob said.
Tears instantly filled Charlotte’s surprised eyes. “I… I… I…” she said. Everyone in the dining hall was on the edge of their seat.
“Yes, I would love nothing more!”
Bob put the ring on Charlotte’s finger and hugged her. Alex began to cry, which made Conner’s eyes start to water, which ultimately caused everyone else in the room to well up, too. It was a picturesque moment, even by fairy-tale standards.
“You should get married in the palace,” Cinderella said from the end of the table.
“What?” Charlotte asked, not believing her ears.
“Please, we insist,” Cinderella said and took King Chance’s hand in hers. “We’ve been trying to think of a way to thank you for taking care of Hope when you were being held by the Enchantress. It would be our pleasure.”
Charlotte didn’t know what to say. She was stunned by the offer. “That is so kind, but I’m not sure I could ever—”
“Mom,” Alex interrupted her. “Speaking on behalf of every woman who has ever lived in the Otherworld, you
cannot
turn down the offer to have an actual fairy-tale wedding!”
“I have to agree, it would be pretty cool,” Conner said.
Charlotte shrugged; the decision was basically made for her. “Well, all right, then. I would be honored, thank you!” she said. “We have to get back to our jobs in the Otherworld, but I suppose we can have a quick wedding with our friends here and then another one for our friends back home.”
Everyone raised their glasses to toast Charlotte and Bob.
“May you live Happily Ever After,” the Fairy Godmother said.
Red tapped her glass and stood at her seat. No one could look directly at her because of the light reflecting off her diamonds.
“I would like to add to the celebration with some wonderful news of my own,” she said. “After speaking with the fairies and all the other queens and kings, I would like to announce that the Happily Ever After Assembly has decided to pardon Jack
and Goldilocks for all their crimes and waive all warrants for their arrest as a thank-you for their daring and valiant efforts in defeating the Enchantress.”
The room burst into applause and congratulations for the couple. However, Jack and Goldilocks looked the least excited out of all of them.
“Wonderful,” Goldilocks said through a pained smile.
“Cheers,” Jack said, reluctantly raising his glass to the others toasting them.
“You can move back into your old house, Jack,” Red said. “Which is going to be really convenient, because I’ve decided to build my country home right beside it!”
Jack and Goldilocks did their best to look as if this was good news and it excited them. Red went on and on about all the wonderful double dates they could have with her and Froggy and all the activities they could do now that they were going to be neighbors.
Goldilocks leaned toward Jack. “Well, at least I won’t have to feel guilty about making you live the life of an outlaw anymore,” she said.
“No more running from soldiers, or close encounters with ogres, or sneaking into shops to steal food, or sleeping under the stars in dangerous forests,” Jack said.
“It’s…
tempting
to live a quieter life,” Goldilocks said halfheartedly. “Just imagine us living the rest of our days in your manor, watching the grass grow with Red and Charlie.”