Months went by, and Sonja was somehow able to recover from the sudden discovery of Edgar's elopement. She burned everything she had of him-his bouquets of dried flowers, a lock of his hair-and convinced herself that what was past was past. He was eliminated from her life.

At breakfast one morning, however, Sonja received another strange letter.

"Who is it from?" asked Ida.

The envelope was marked, "To the Princess Sonja; From the Palace of King Rodolfe."

"What does a king want with my daughter?" said Sonja's father, half suspicious and half curious.

"It must be official business," said Sonja, "as it seems as though this was an official document of some sort."

"Well, eat your breakfast, and read it later," said the king, wanting his daughter to concentrate on her meal. This Sonja did, and when she was finally alone, she opened the letter. The writing, while neat, was certainly not penmanship she would expect from a king. Despite this, Sonja read on.

Dearest Lady,

A thousand apologies, both on behalf of myself and of my master. My name is Henry, and I am the king's primary valet. Although I am the king's valet, I have known his son, Edgar, since he was a child, and I consider myself a faithful servant of his.

What I say next will very well be worthy of doubt, but I beg of you to not doubt what I say, for I have seen it with my own eyes. Such has filled me with so much grief that my heart is close to breaking, and I need support to keep it from doing so.

My young master and I were captured by Dame Zena. We soon discovered that Dame Zena was truly a powerful sorceress, and she turned my poor young master into a frog. I became so upset at the change in my young master than I nearly went insane with grief, but Dame Zena found a way to keep me alive in agony. Thanks to my master, I was able to be set free; however, he remains in captivity.

Before I was let go, my master told me to write this letter, as he is unable to do so. He told me to write to you that he never eloped: he was driven out of his palace by force. He has always thought of you with deepest love, and he wants to tell you that he is coming to find you soon. On the day that he does, he will be sure to give you a sign, so that you know that it truly is him.

Please, dear lady, please believe me and believe my young master. Please, as he said, have faith in him. If a frog ever should wander into your palace, look into his eyes, and if they are blue, then you can be sure that my young master has found you.

Most faithfully,

Henry, servant of the king

A frog. A frog! Of course he had turned into a frog. Edgar had always thought up of strange, crazy stories. This was indeed one of them. Such a pitiful excuse—he could have done better! And most ridiculously of all, he made his servant write the letter.

Immediately, Sonja crumpled the letter in her hand. The fireplace was right in her vicinity, and at once she got up from her chair and went towards it, ready to throw the dreaded paper in.

The fire burned on, crackling and spouting smoke, and the more Sonja stared at it, the clearer she realized what she was about to do. A long time paused, and still she had not thrown the paper into the fire. Then, carefully, Sonja stepped back, paused, and went back to her chair.

She unwrapped the crumpled letter and read the entire thing again, slowly but taking in everything that the king's servant had written to her. It was bewildering, and she still could not believe it after she had finished the letter. A frog? Edgar had been turned into a frog? Why? And why would Dame Zena have done this?

But such was silly. Lady Laurent had confirmed it for sure, and she had given further evidence that the king was still searching for him.

Edgar was to give her a sign. What kind of sign would he give? And his eyes-somehow, even after all these months, she could still remember those sparkling, jovial eyes.

Sonja put the letter down with a sigh. At that moment, she had no idea what to think.

Months accumulated into a whole year. Sonja continued to live life with her father and sisters, acting as though none of this had ever happened.

Wherever Edgar was, he was. That was all Sonja had to say about it. The letter did not truly convince her that he was going to find her, and she could live with that.

However, even so, there was the possibility that, however ridiculous it seemed, a frog with blue eyes would show up at her palace. No matter how impossible such a thing would happen, it could happen. Calling it hope was ridiculous, because Sonja didn't have any hope. But all she knew was that perhaps she would be proven wrong one day. And Sonja would be waiting for that unlikely one day to come.

And true enough, it did.