Perhaps this traitor was delusional. It would explain somethings. "I said earlier you looked familiar and you-"

"I know what I said, little bird." He was making fun of her. Laughing at her behind those depthless emerald green eyes.

Emerald green. She hadn't noticed the color of them until now. Not that it was surprising. After Ian had disappeared she had confronted many a green eyed man. But it was somewhat ironic that he had followed her around much as Gray had so long ago. Her heart twisted at the memory. She missed him dearly. She tried to hide it as best she could, but she thought about him almost every waking moment and the pain that followed was always almost more than she could bare.

"Where's your ring?"

Snapped out of her thoughts she stared up at him bewildered. "What?"

"Your ring." He paused as he looked down at her hand again. "I thought you were engaged to the prince."

She shook her head. She didn't want to start this conversation again. It had taken what seemed like forever for the town to stop asking questions. "No. I didn't love him." Pulling her hand from his she turned and tried walking away, but he kept up with her, irritatingly step for step.

"No? I heard you did."

"Well, you heard wrong." What was his problem? Why did he care? Why couldn't he leave her alone?

"Did you love someone else?"

Stopping dead in her tracks she whirled around, her eyes narrowed and fixing him to the spot. If he wanted the story, she was going to give it to him. Then maybe she'd get some peace. "Yes. I did love someone else. I loved him very much and you want to know what happened? He left. And I am still in love with him. Do you know what that's like? Living every day in love with someone you can't have? Will never see again? What kind of agony that is?" Her eyes searched his, but he didn't back down. Didn't show an ounce of regret for asking. For riling her up.

"Did he die?" The question was so blunt that it threw her off for a moment.

"He's gone. What do you think?"

"I think there's a difference between dying and disappearing."

Clara stared up at him, confused. She didn't understand what he was trying to say and she was back once again feeling like a plaything. And she hated that feeling. And she hated him. She didn't even know him.

"And yes. I do know what it's like to love someone you can't have. That you think you'll never see again." He watched her a few moments longer before he started walking, leaving her to stare after him. Cocky. And blatantly smirking, amused at her.

"How dare you..." Her voice was barely above a whisper as he walked away. "How dare you bring it up! Ask me such personal questions." Storming after him she cut in front of him, facing him and stopping him. Annoyed at him and everything he had done to her today. And annoyed at herself for letting him get to her when she was usually so good at keeping her calm. "Two can play at your game. Who was she? Who is your lost love?" The question was more of a taunt from her, daring him to give up. To say that he was lying. That he didn't know what he was talking about. Because there was no way he could.

But his eyes gentled as he stared down at her, the smirk fading from his lips. "You."

It took Clara a few long moments for the weight of the word to settle on her and then she thought it was a joke, but neither of them were close to laughing. "What...what are you saying?"

His eyes searched her, serious and soft. "I think you know exactly what I'm saying, Clara..."

Clara could feel her jaw tremble but she defiantly shook her head. "No. I don't know what you're saying. You are cruel and heartless if you think this is funny."

"I'm not laughing. This isn't a joke, Clara..." His emerald eyes watched her, all the self-satisfied and amused arrogance gone. There was something else now in his eyes and in his softened face. A look that was sending her heart racing and her mind swirling.

She shook her head harder. "No. Because if you are who you-you say you are you...you can't be. He disappeared. He left me..."

"I didn't leave. The curse broke..."

Clara could feel the tears welling her eyes. "He wasn't there. He's gone. He left me. Twice."

"I only left once."

"He lied and then he was gone," she amended.

"I lied because I...I didn't think you could love me as a monster...as a...beast..."

"He left me alone. All alone." Her voice broke as the tears spilled over her cheeks.

Reaching out he cupped her cheek and wiped at her tears with his thumb. "I thought you were in love with someone else...you took my ring off. That ring was meant for the woman I loved. When I woke up in the woods and had it back I thought...I knew the prince had proposed. You said you were engaged when I saw you-"

And suddenly it hit her. Why his face seemed so familiar and yet she couldn't ever place it. "The in-between. You were the man who came up to me..."

A momentary smile spread over his lips as he nodded. "Why would you choose a beast over a prince?"

"Because I loved you!" Realizing she was shouting, she looked up at those green eyes that she had missed dearly. "I loved you."

"I'm sorry, Clara. I'm so sorry..." He tried to wrap his arms around her and pull her against him, but she shook her head and jerked out of his hold.

"Why did you come back?" Wiping the tears with the back of her hand, she took another step away and rose her chin. All he did was hurt her and play with her.

Surprised and clearly hurt himself he let his hands drop to his side as he watched her with sorrowful eyes. "I heard the prince was engaged to some princess. I had to come find you."

"Why? So you can toy with me some more? Leave me again? That's all you do! Lie and leave!" The tears were back. "What makes you think I'd want you again?"

He shook his head and shrugged hopelessly. "I never thought you'd ever want me in the first place." He hesitated. "I love you, Clara. I always have and always will. I was hoping-"

"What? That'd be enough? That I'd forgive you?"

He looked away, unable to bare the accusations any more. Even he had has limits. This had been a bad idea. He should have known better. Man or beast, she didn't want him.

Wiping away the tears on her sleeve she took a step toward him. "You knew who I was the moment I stepped on that ship." Placing both hands square on his chest she gave him a push. "You knew before I stepped on that ship I owned it. And what did you do? Give me nothing but trouble." She pushed him again and defeatedly he took a step back. "You turned my crew against me." Putting her weight into it she pushed him again and again he stepped back. "You taunted me. You followed me around again doing little else than questioning my every move. This whole time you never said a word!" She pushed him again, each time putting more into it. "I've been thinking you were dead for...and here you were right in front of me this whole afternoon and only now you tell me?" Putting all her weight and frustration into it she shoved him again and he stumbled back a few steps.

She stared at him for a few heartbeats as her anger seeped away replaced by a mix of other emotions that stormed within her. Ian could only stare back. In the past few months he had done more labor than he had in years yet it was only in these moments that he felt truly exhausted and beaten. "One way or another your crew would have turned against you unless you did something like today. You may not like my methods, but I've asked you before, what stories have you ever heard that I was kind?"

She didn't even hesitate. "Many. I've heard about all the maids you took in off the streets and slyly helped them to get the positions they desired most. Including a certain blacksmith's apprentice." She took a step towards him a flimsy smile lighting her lips. "And I know what you did for Bran."

Ian looked away and ran a hand through his hair. He didn't understand her. She was crying one moment, angry the next, and now smiling, but he got the message perfectly clear. "Do you? And...Bran, is it? That's a pretty intimate name for a prince..." There was something in the way that last sentence came out...

Her smile brightened slightly. "Are you...jealous?"

"I think you've made it perfectly clear where I stand with you. Why shouldn't I be jealous about the man you're choosing over me."

"And I thought I made it perfectly clear what my feelings were towards the prince."

Shaking his head, he scrubbed a hand tiredly over his face. "Forgive me, my lady, I shouldn't have come back." He tried to turn but she caught his arm and when he looked back her gaze had softened and the smile was gone. Without a word she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his lips down to hers. She kissed him as if it was the first and last time all jumbled into one. There was a desperate passion laced with an aching tenderness that had him slipping his arms around her waist and pulling her tight against him. He didn't care if the months of sea grime on him ruined her pretty little dress.

Reluctantly he felt her pull away, but he refused to let her go, and his emerald eyes searched her warm honey brown ones with a slight uncertainty at what she was about to say. "You shouldn't have left. And so help me if you ever do it again or treat me like a plaything like that again or-or make fun of me for buying rotten berries-"

A slight grin had worked its way onto his lips at her rant and he had enough courage with the look in her eye to dip his head, silencing the rest of it with another kiss. "I'll never leave you again. I won't lie to you. The berries...I can't make promises." He was whispering the words softly against her lips as if afraid if he pulled back to far she would have yet another sudden change of emotions and slip away from him and leave.

"I love you, Ian. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner." Melting into another one of his kisses he suddenly pulled away with a bright look in his eyes, his arms dropping from around her. He studied her for a moment, hardly able to believe the words came from her lips, but then...there it was. Written all over her.

"I love you, Clara, more than you can imagine and this might be a little fast, but...it's my promise never to leave again..." Falling onto a knee in front of her, his hand dug into a pocket as he looked up at her with a roguish grin that seemed to suit him perfectly. "I don't care if you buy rotten berries or manage ten shipping fleets. I dare say I fell even more in love with you when stepped onto that ship earlier with your head held higher than most men. You barely even batted an eye when they swarmed you like a flock of gulls on a fish." Out of the corner of her eye Clara caught sight of the emerald and gold ring. "Will be by my side forever as my wife, Clara Crossley?"

Clara could scarcely breath as he fell to his knee and her eyes hadn't left his the entire time he spoke. After everything she couldn't believe he was still right in front of her. His face was still only familiar at best, she was so used to his mangled features, but...his eyes. She'd never forget his eyes. Her heart knew the rest of him even if her own eyes did not and that was all that mattered.

Not able to manage a word for a few seconds she nodded mutely over come before laughing. "Yes! Oh, yes. Ian..." She watched as he slipped the ring on her finger before wrapping her arms around his neck. He lifted her chuckling with her as he spun her around and kissed her deeply. Never before had he ever felt as happy as he did right then. He was human. He was home. But most of all he was in love and she was in love with him.

Epilogue

Thom, Sarah, Charlie, and Molly all welcomed a bouncing baby boy some months later. Charlie's skill already was proving that one day he would run Thom's bakery with his siblings if he chose it. Sarah and Hannah eventually built a small business of their own where they were able to hire other seamstresses so Sarah could look after her children as she wanted to. Hannah worked hard and became known for her fashionable designs. She had many a suitor chasing her heels, but the sensible girl waited out for the perfect one who could handle her and whom she could wrap around her finger.

Norah and Miles eventually adopted three children from the orphanage Clara had started. While Ian refused to take back any of his money, both still chose to work in Ian and Clara's home with their own family. They enjoyed their jobs and they instilled their hardworking ethic into the children they raised.

Clara's eventually heard that her stepmother remarried and that the man she had chosen had a large purse, but an even larger temper. The girls eventually escaped and settled into unhappy marriages, but their mother spent the rest of her days carrying out every chore she had bestowed upon Clara simply to appease her husband.

The prince...Clara rarely ever saw. She heard that he had arranged a marriage for himself shortly after Clara had left, but on his wedding day he disappeared. He never made it to the alter and no one could find him. Many in the town thought it was all just a hoax. Another attempt to make the town pity the royal family. But Clara wondered if the witch had gotten her revenge on the right person after all. And that never sat too well with her. For all the things Bran was and wasn't and all the things he had done, in his heart he had been a good man. And he deserved a happiness in his life.

"My wonderful wife...where have your thoughts sailed to?" Ian had found her in the gardens, sitting on the ground by her mother's rosebush, lost to the world in her thoughts.

Looking up a slow smile spread over her lips as he came over. She still couldn't believe it. He was her husband. And he was human. In the beginning she would catch herself staring at a face she was convinced was almost a stranger, but she knew his eyes. They were home to her heart. "Do you think Bran is..."

Settling down beside her, he wrapped arms strong from his time at sea hoisting sails, around her. "No. The witch wouldn't have killed him. She isn't dark hearted." There was something in his voice that sounded as if he knew the witch well. Tilting back her head Clara aimed him a quizzical look. "The in-between opened because she and Death were fighting over me. Someone who has an evil heart wouldn't have cared to argue with Death over minute details of my curse."

Leaning against him Clara closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth of his arms and the sun on her face. "Still. Where do you think he is?"

She felt him shrug before he rested his chin on her shoulder. His breath stirred her hair, tickling her cheek as he spoke his next words. "My guess is trying to find those coins." Pausing he kissed her shoulder as he thought. "I tried to pick up clues to their whereabouts when I sailed. I asked traders and merchants I passed if they had seen them."

"Did you?" Ian had talked at length about his voyages. He had loved every single second he had been at sea, but he had never mentioned this.

"Yes. No one knew what I was talking about." Tilting his head he nuzzled into her neck.

There was something in voice that had Clara opening her eyes. "Do you miss the sea, my love?"

Without hesitating he nodded against her skin. "I do."

Her heart twisted, but she kept her tone and face neutral. If he wanted to return she couldn't keep him from it. She loved him too much to hold him back from the life he wanted. Pulling away she looked up into his green eyes. She would miss him dearly, but he would come back to her. And she would be the first one on the docks to greet him when his ship arrived. "Do you want to be a sailor again?"

His eyes searched hers as a grin formed on his lips. "I thought you fired me. You were adamant I couldn't have my job back."

Clara shook her head, she should have seen that one coming. He had a knack for teasingly giving her a hard time. "And you can't if you still think I can't run your business just as well as you can."

Laughing now he tapped her nose teasingly. "Little bird, the moment you stepped foot on the ship you proved you can run it just as well as any man."

Grinning Clara gave in to the pull she always felt swelling her heart and kissed him. "But, really, Ian. Do you want to return to the sea? Do you want help your friend?"

He sat there for a few long moments simply regarding her. In truth he hadn't really thought about it. He had been too caught up in the fact that she was all his and that their lives were forever entwined now. But he couldn't deny the pull that he felt for the sea and for the lands beyond it. For too long he had been trapped in his home and in his self, that now he wanted to be free. "It's time for Bran to step up and face the consequences. I won't waste my life again for him." He hesitated as he looked down at her, searching her eyes for her thoughts. "I wouldn't mind going back out to sea though. Only if you came with me. The sea and the adventure it holds calls to me, but you, my darling, have an even greater hold on me." Leaning towards her he tenderly rested his forehead against hers. "I can break the ties I have with the sea, but I can't break the ties you have on me."

Clara had once dreamed of leaving this place. Of seeing new places. But it had never occurred to her before that she would ever be able to do such a thing. One thing or another had always tied her to the town, but now...the only tie she had was to Ian, as he was tied to her. Smiling, her hand found his and she entwined their fingers together. "When do we set sail?"

((And that's it. THANK YOU to everyone who has read, commented, alerted, and favorited. It is so amazing to me just how many of you there are! And it means the world to me to see all of it in the traffic status stuff and reading all of your comments. THANK YOU so so so much! I can't say it enough. :) If you are interested in reading about what happened to Bran I will be posting the first chapter of his story tomorrow. The story is called Water Lily. Depending on how it goes as I write it I may try and work in Clara and Ian updates. We'll see how it flows, haha. Definitely at the end of Water Lily you'll see a little more of what happens to them. So, if nothing else you can totally read just for that. lol Water Lily will be another fairy tale cross like The Rose Bush is. One of the fairy tales is the Frog Prince and the other I don't think I'm going to tell you quite yet. Hahaha. It would be too much of a spoiler I think. Feel free to guess if you read it though :) But, yes, thank you all so much again for reading! And I hope you all read and enjoy Water Lily :D ))