Emma was in trouble for a good week and a half after the incident at the ball. Mama had marched directly up to her, pulled her aside, and told her she needed to go directly to bed. They would talk in the morning. Emma's stomach dropped at the prospect. She knew when her mother got that look in her eye, she was in for it.
Stupid Killian! This was all his fault! She vowed then and there that she wasn't ever going to get 'trothed to him; she didn't care what Mama and Papa said! Emma went to bed fuming over the disaster her first ball had been. Not only had she been called a baby, now she was about to get in trouble too!
Stupid Killian!
The next morning, Mama and Papa called her into their sitting room, and Mama demanded she explain herself. Mama had remained stern as Emma explained exactly why punching Killian Jones in the face was the proper response to the insult he'd leveled at her. Papa, however…well, she suspected all those sudden coughing spells he had during the conversation were really disguised laughter.
How she loved Papa! He always understood. He told her they were two of a kind; papa and his little Swan Princess.
She loved Mama too, of course, but…well, she certainly didn't enjoy it as Mama went on and on about how violence wasn't the answer, how that wasn't the way a young lady was to act, how that wasn't princess-ly conduct.
"But Mama!" Emma had protested. "You hit Papa with a rock the first time you met him! You told me the story a million times!"
Papa's coughing fit after that lasted for a good two minutes…until Mama glared at him and he quickly got ahold of himself.
"Never mind that, young lady," Mama had said. "No more punching guests to our castle. Understood?"
"Yes, Mama."
~l~d~l~d~l~d~l~d~l~d~
Emma had hoped her thoughts about Killian Jones were quite clear to Mama and Papa after the punching incident, but unfortunately her mother wasn't deterred.
It was a beautiful summer afternoon the next year, and Emma and her parents had decided to spend the day in the woods. (Mama had spent a good amount of time there before…back when Grandma 'Gina was so mad at her and Mama had to hide. Mama liked being the queen, but sometimes she liked to spend time in the woods where she could be free.)
Not long after their picnic lunch, Aunt Ruby had come to join them. Ruby wasn't really her aunt, but she was Mama's dearest friend and they saw her all the time. Emma liked Aunt Ruby. She was always lots of fun…and she could even turn into a wolf when it was the full moon! Sometimes Aunt Ruby would give Emma rides on her back under the moonlight. Emma loved the feel of the wind in her hair and the soft gray fur on Aunt Ruby's back, as she ran under the pale moon's glow.
Sometimes Aunt Ruby would tell her stories about what it was like to be a wolf. Emma loved those!
But on this particular afternoon, Aunt Ruby and Mama definitely were not talking about the wolf.
"Killian should arrive sometime late tomorrow night," Mama said. "He will be with us for a week. It'll give him and Emma a chance to start getting to know each other."
Emma had been galloping her toy unicorn over the road that was her Papa's back, but she suddenly froze. "Mama, no! Not Killian."
Mama wore that stern look she sometimes got when Emma knew she would get nowhere by arguing with her. "Now Emma, none of that! Killian will be our guest, and I expect you to treat his as such. Promise me, Emma that there will be no punching this time."
Emma pouted, her little lip going out, but finally she dropped her eyes. "Okay, Mama," she said. "I promise."
~l~d~l~d~l~d~l~d~l~d~
Emma kept her promise; she didn't punch Killian, but from time to time it was a close thing.
Killian Jones was just so annoying!
Mama insisted Emma spend the afternoons with Killian after her lessons with her tutor, Belle, were finished for the morning. Normally Emma loved the afternoons. She had lessons all morning long, and by the time lunch arrived, Emma always felt like she was ready to jump out of her skin. She wanted to run and play…not sit inside learning her letters. (Belle had assured her that once she learned how to read, a whole world of adventure would open up to her, but Emma was more than a little skeptical.)
But with Killian at the castle for a whole week, she couldn't even look forward to her afternoon free time, because she had to spend it with him.
All Killian ever wanted to do was read his books about ships and the sea. If he wasn't reading, he wanted to be at the docks, looking out at her father's ships. He talked on and on and on about his Papa and what a great sailor he was. He talked about how his father promised that one day he'd take him and his brother Liam with him on a sail. They might even bring their Mama too.
Emma just didn't see what the big deal was about the water. She liked to wade into it in the summer when it was hot outside, but why would anyone want to spend months on a stupid ship?
When Emma had voiced her thoughts to Killian, though, he'd gotten angry at first—and then adopted that smug, superior look he sometimes wore, the one that drove Emma crazy.
"It's okay Emma," he'd said, nodding sagely with all his 6-year-old wisdom. "Not everyone can have good taste. It's not your fault that you don't know what's fun and what's not. Maybe when you're older you'll figure it out."
(She'd had to put her hand behind her back to keep from slugging him that time, her fist literally itching to connect with his face.)
~l~d~l~d~l~d~l~d~l~d~
Four Years Later
Emma knew something bad had happened almost right away.
Mama had spent the last few weeks talking up Killian's yearly summer visit, trying to convince Emma that one day things would change; one day they'd have more in common; once day they'd become friends…and maybe even more.
Emma seriously doubted it. If she'd managed to make it to the ripe old age of nine-years-old, and she still hated him, she was sure there was no hope that her feelings would ever change.
But then, suddenly, something changed. Emma didn't really understand it, but one morning, about a week before Killian was due to come for his yearly visit, Emma had been passing by her parents' bedroom and heard them speaking in hushed tones.
Her curiosity had immediately been piqued, and she pressed closer to the door, struggling to hear.
"After Bridget…after she…after everything that happened," Mama began, sounding as though she were crying. "He just left them? There on the ship with no one but the crew of sailors?"
"Worse than that!" Papa had said through gritted teeth. "He sold them to the captain; made them into slaves, essentially!"
And then Papa had let loose a string of expletives the likes of which Emma had only heard among his more boisterous knights when they didn't know she'd crept down to the lists to watch them train. Emma had never, ever heard her father this angry.
It was unsettling to say the least.
That night her father had set out on a journey. Neither Mama nor Papa would say anything about it, and Papa was (uncharacteristically) very distracted as he bid her farewell. Normally Emma might try to ferret answers out of her parents—or at least their closest man and maid servants—but the strange feeling of…dread…that had descended on their castle left Emma deciding it would probably be in her best interest to stay out of this one.
Things were tense at the castle for the following week. Finally, on the eighth day after her Papa left on his journey, a dove came to the sitting room, where Mama attempted to read, and Emma was (unhappily) doing her lessons with Belle. Mama read the letter the dove brought her, and finally, finally smiled again.
Emma hadn't realized how much she'd missed her mother's smile until it returned that morning. It was like the sun finally burst forth after days and days of gray, cloudy skies.
That evening after suppertime, Mama had pulled her aside, taking her out to the stables to visit the horses.
"Emma," Mama said hesitantly. "There's something I need to talk to you about."
"I didn't do it!" Emma said quickly, holding her hands up in surrender.
Mama chuckled. "Didn't do what, honey?"
Emma shrugged. "I don't know, Mama," she said, "but usually when you get serious it means I'm in trouble, and I haven't done anything bad in days. Honest!"
Mama wrapped her arms around Emma, chuckled again, and then kissed the top of her head. "I know baby. You've been a very good girl. That's not what I needed to talk to you about."
"What, then?"
Mama sat on the stable bench and patted the seat beside her. "Something happened a couple of weeks ago, Emma," Mama said, and her voice sounded sad, as though she were about to cry. "Something really sad."
"What happened, Mama?"
"Killian's mama…" Mama began. She cleared her throat and then started again. "Killian's mama got sick. Very, very sick. The healers tried to make her better, but…well, in the end she passed away."
Emma gasped, feeling instantly sorry for Killian. She didn't know what she would do if she ever lost her mama.
"Killian's papa was very, very sad," Mama continued, "and he did some bad things…some things that made the soldiers want to take him to prison. He decided to run away, and he took Liam and Killian with him on his ship."
"So…" Emma began hesitantly, "does that mean Killian's going to be on a ship this summer and not come for his visit?"
Emma thought she'd be happy at the prospect of a summer without the annoying boy coming for a visit, but somehow all she felt was sadness for him.
"Not…exactly," Mama said. She frowned fiercely for a moment, and then deliberately smoothed out her features. "The soldiers who wanted Killian's papa found him, and he…he ran away again. He left Liam and Killian behind and he promised the ship's captain the boys would work for him; that they would belong to him."
"That's not fair!" Emma said, suddenly angry on behalf of the boy she normally couldn't stand.
"No, honey it's not," Mama said. "When your father found out about it he was very, very angry, and so was I. Your papa decided to find the ship and save Liam and Killian from the bad captain."
"And did he find them?"
Mama nodded, smiling once again like she had in the morning. "He did. He found them, and he's made sure nothing bad can happen to them again."
"Good," Emma said with a decisive nod.
Mama was silent for a moment, looking intensely at Emma. "There's one more thing, Emma."
"What?"
"I know you and Killian don't always get along, but…well, Liam and Killian have nowhere to go now. They've lost both their mama and their papa. Your father and I have decided that they will be our wards until they become grownups."
"Wards?" Emma asked, her brow furrowing. "What does that mean, Mama?"
"It means, Emma that we will be taking care of them," Mama said firmly. "Liam is fifteen now, and your father and I have decided to allow him to become a cabin boy in our royal navy, but Killian is only ten. He's too young to work on a ship."
Mama took a deep breath as though steeling herself. "Emma, Killian will be living with us here at the castle until he's old enough to join his brother in the navy."
Emma groaned. "Killian will be here all the time? Mama, that will be terrible!"
"Now Emma," Mama said firmly, "let's have none of that. Killian is probably very sad right now and he needs people to make him feel better. I need you to be nice to Killian. I need you to help him get over his sadness. Can you do that for me?"
Emma frowned for another moment, hardly ready to resign herself to the fact that she'd be with her nemesis day in and day out, not just for a week in the summer. But Emma ultimately knew her mama was right. Killian would need a friend now—much more than he needed someone to bicker and fight with him.
"Okay Mama," she said. "I can do that."
"That's my kind little Swan Princess," Mama crooned, giving her a quick hug and a kiss on the forehead. "Now that that's settled, how about we take Buttercup out for a quick ride before the sun goes down?"
Notes:
-So that got kind of sad there at the end! Sorry about that! (Will you forgive me if I promise that's the worst angst we'll get in this story?)
-Up next: Killian comes to live at the castle, and he and Emma find that they actually can be friends if they make up their minds to. Everything goes well until they are 14 and 13 respectively and Killian's about to join the navy as a cabin boy. His feelings are clearly starting to become more tender toward Emma, and she doesn't know how to deal with it, still perfectly content to have Killian as nothing more than her friend. How will Killian navigate the waters of the first stirrings of puppy love? Luckily Emma has her best friend Princess Elsa to confide in.