Chapter 3
The Mystery Woman
Emma had stayed holding the woman's hand for a long while after that unable to tear her eyes away from her beautiful features, she returned daily to sit with her while she read through many books desperately trying to figure out how to wake her up, she had even tried planting a gentle kiss on the woman's lips after reading about true loves kiss breaking curses in one of her books, she knew it had been an utterly ridiculous thing to try after all how could true loves kiss work on a stranger no matter how drawn she might have felt to her she didn't even know the woman's name, the attempt had been worth it though when it had elicited a delightful giggle from the sleeping woman which like every word she spoke to her in her husky tones sounded in Emma's head, The woman spoke to Emma more now that she could sit at her side but whatever magic was allowing her to that had its limits, still Emma loved to hear her voice and lived for the times that she could speak to her and when the woman didn't talk Emma spoke to her instead.
She told her about her days, laughed about how Snow kept trying to figure out where she was going for hours most days, her mother was becomingly increasingly confused by Emma's apparent disappearances so much so that Emma had, had to refrain from visiting the secret wing in the day after she discovered that her mother had visited the wall several times in her many searches for Emma, she never found her of course because unlike Emma she had never been able to sense the life on the other side and she couldn't pass through the wall but Emma feared what her mother might do if she were to see Emma disappearing or appearing through the wall and she couldn't risk that, she needed to figure out a way to wake her friend up before anybody else could be privy to this secret and so she started to sneak down and visit the sleeping woman at night while the rest of the castle slept.
Every night she spent a couple of hours there sometimes she spoke about her progress, other times she sat in silence drinking in the woman's features glowing in the light of the silver moon wondering who she was, as the weeks wore on sleep deprovision began to catch up with her and unsurprisingly one night she fell asleep in the chair that she had pulled up next to the woman holding her hand.
When she woke up, Emma was in a strange house that was unfamiliar to her and much to her delight the beautiful woman was sitting in front of her brushing her hair,
"You're awake" Emma squealed "but how I didn't figure it out?"
The woman continued to brush her hair without replying,
"Why are you ignoring me? And Where are we" Emma asked
The woman put her brush down and began to braid her hair but still she didn't respond or show any recognition of having heard or seen Emma at all,
"Regina" a woman's voice suddenly called "Hurry up or you'll be late for your lesson"
The young woman's face broke into a radiant smile as she called back in the voice that was now oh so familiar to Emma,
"Coming mother" flicked her braid behind her hear back and hurried from the room leaving a mystified Emma to follow in her wake,
"Regina" Emma let the name role off of her tongue as she watched the woman meet with the stable boy, she was surprised when Regina took a fleeting look around ensuring that there was no one around to witness what was about to play out, apart from Emma who for whatever reason appeared to be invisible, then leaned close and greeted the stable boy with a kiss, before they both began to mount their horses, Emma not wanting to lose them completely threw all cautions to the wind, she already knew that Regina couldn't see or hear her so she reasoned (or rather hoped) that she wouldn't be able to feel her either as she leapt onto the back of her horse and wrapped her arms around Regina's waist who mercifully still seemed oblivious to her presence as she took off at trot gathering speed until they were galloping alongside the stable boy whom Regina called Daniel, both of them laughing care free and happy.
They stopped on a hill beneath a huge apple tree heavily laden with fruit identical to that which grew on the branches of the tree in the castle grounds, and both dismounted their horses standing facing each other, Daniel gently took both of Regina's hands in his, now well away from the prying eyes of the house they were free to lose themselves in each other, for a short while at least, Emma felt a slight pang in her heart as she watched Regina gaze into Daniels eye's the young woman looked so in love and Emma almost felt a little jealous.
Just before the happy couple could close the gap between them the sound of a screaming child and the galloping hooves of a frightened horse startled them apart, Emma watched in horror as the out-of-control horse tore through the field below carrying a frantic little girl who was clinging to it for dear life and screaming her head off. So transfixed by the scene unfolding was she that she didn't notice that Regina had moved until the brunette threw herself on the horse in front of her taking off after the terrified child with the skill of noblewoman who had spent years honing her riding skills unknowingly taking Emma along for the ride, she drew level with the horse and manged to get the child who for some reason was extremely familiar to Emma onto her own horse with her,
"Oh thank-you, thank-you" the girl said evidently very relieved to be free of panicked horse. Satisfied that the child was physically unharmed by her experience Regina took her back to her house leaving Daniel to collect the now much calmer though still somewhat agitated horse and take them to the stables to recuperate.
As they approached the house Regina's mother met them at the front door a look of surprise on her face that didn't quite ring true to Emma, but Regina didn't seem to notice as she helped the little girl down from the horse and led her to her waiting mother,
"Her horse got spooked" Regina explained "Hopefully it won't be too difficult to locate her parents"
"Oh, I know it won't be" Regina's mother replied, a greedy glint in her eye that sent shivers down Emma's spine "this little girl is the princess, isn't that, right?" she asked the child a sickening grin spreading across lips and the slightest hint of victory flashing in her eyes as the little girl nodded "Her father is the king" the woman finished triumphantly.
It hit a startled Emma in that instant, the reason that this child was so familiar to her, she was looking at a young Snow White.