Chapter 22- Love At Sea
Angel and Kelilah had come on a boat. It was small, but it was there- a small boat wedged in the sand, to prevent it from floating away.
Without really thinking, Charlotte pushes the boat into the water and climbs in, still clutching Henry's hand.
Behind them, Angel and Kelilah beg her to stop, to come back, to let them finish, but her brain doesn't fully register their cries. All she can think about is getting away.
The current had weakend since earlier, but it was enough to get them going. Henry looks over his shoulder- Angel and Kelilah aren't trying to follow them. Instead, they stand at the edge of the water, the waves submerging their feet.
The water pushes them back towards where they came from, and the boat is much faster than trying to cross it by walking or swimming. Even so, they would need a few minutes to get to shore. Maybe ten.
"I can't believe them," says Charlotte once her father and half-sister are out of earshot.
"Which part?" Henry asks.
"All of it! Their drama, running away, dragging me into this- me, a princess? Yeah, right. No way." Charlotte stops talking just long enough to take a breath. "Let's go home, Henry. We did our job, we found Kelilah- I can't stay here anymore."
"Totally fair," says Henry. The boat floats toward the shore, slowly but surely. "Do you want me to tell her?"
"What?" Charlotte says, not sure who nor what he's talking about.
"Adela," he says. "We have to tell her."
"Oh. Right. Um…" Charlotte hesitates, then says, "I'll tell her, but-"
"You want me to stay with you?" Henry smiles. "Of course."
Charlotte smiles back at him. "Exactly," she says, then pulls him into a hug. "Thanks for staying with me through all this, Hen."
"Of course," he says, still hugging her back. "You're my best friend, Charlotte. I care about you…." The phrase more than anyone else in the world is on the tip of his tongue, but he doesn't feel brave enough to say it.
Charlotte releases him from the hug, and he blurts out, "Remember when Jude was getting all dreamy-eyed when he was talking about Kelilah?"
Charlotte looks surprised but his sudden mention, but she remembers. She walks into a room, and your spirits rise. The chemistry grows. I have always said that she's like a rose that's always in bloom. "Yeah, I remember."
"Well…" Henry swallows and, before he can stop himself, "what-if-I-told-you-that's-how-I-feel-about-you?"
Henry cringes. What have I done, why did I say that, now it's going to be really awkward… what if I just lost my best friend?
But his worries are cut off when Charlotte grabs his face and kisses him.
And suddenly, it's all gone. There's no boat, no water. No absent fathers or secret sisters trying to escape. No kings, queens, or guards. No Jude. No palace. No Ray. Their minds are cleared of everything except for each other.
Henry is, needless to say, a surprised, but he certainly wasn't going to pull away. Her kisses her back, pulling his best friend into an embrace, thinking only of her.
After a few minutes like this, Charlotte gently pulls away. "I've been wanting to tell you that, too," she says softly. "I just wasn't sure how, and then all this princess stuff…." Her voice trails off, unsure where to go.
But Henry just smiles at her. "Me too, Charlotte," he says. "Me, too." This time, Henry is the one who leans in.
And for a few minutes, a few glorious minutes, they aren't on a boat trying to get back to dry land. They're in a magical place, one where it's just the two of them, and no one else.
It isn't until the boat reaches the shallow water that they remember where they are, and what they're doing. They steer the boat towards the grassy area to prevent footsteps, and debate over whether or not to leave it.
"They could swim back, and then use this to escape, but if they came here they could be seen." Charlotte keeps a hand on the boat.
"Maybe we could hide it," suggests Henry; it's the best idea they come up with.
They drag the boat through the grass and leave it behind some trees. It's not much, but they don't have much else to work with. Charlotte sees a marking in the tree and makes a mental note of it.
"We need to find Adela," says Charlotte. She stands to walk, but Henry grabs her arm. "Wait," he says. "Let's check the shack first. Maybe Jude hasn't noticed we left- he could easily have been held up."
"We were out there for a while," says Charlotte. "But you're right, we should check first." She starts to walk again, but Henry pulls her back again- only this time, it's to kiss her. She doesn't reject.
When they let go, Henry says, "Just in case we get split up." Charlotte grins. Her logical side knows that this is no time for romance, but her emotional side is too happy about it to listen. "Then give me one." She leans in.
Before their lips touch, though, the sound of a twig breaking makes them jump, and they relax upon noticing that it was just a thin stick under Henry's foot. That's when then they realize how careless they had been recently about how loud they were. They look at each other.
Henry and Charlotte peek out from behind the trees, and slowly make their way across the forest. Every sound makes them jump, but they're much better about keeping silent. Eventually, they make it back to the shack.
Henry peeks into the hole, and, seeing nothing and no one, is brave enough to look through the entryway; no one is there, and there are no signs that anyone else had been there.
The question now is, should they go back to the palace?
"The women who were there talking about you could still be there," says Henry. "Maybe we're better off staying here for now."
Charlotte is about to nod in agreement when she realizes something. "Wait," she says. "Jude said he overheard these women talking, but Kelilah says she ran away." Henry realizes what she's saying, and his eyes go wide. "This doesn't add up."
"Maybe the women helped Kelilah escape, but wait, that doesn't explain the note…."
Henry and Charlotte look at each other. They both think it at the same time, but Charlotte says it first: "We need to find Adela!"
Remember the joking about writing-what-you-know from Chapter 1? yeah, I am most definitely not writing from experience here.
Happy Reading!