Chapter Nineteen

Mable skid to a stop at the side of the pond, savoring the cold and the bright sunshine. It felt so good to be outside, in the clear air, without the smell of smoke from the fire or stale heat from the library. Mable spun around once and nearly fell, but that didn't even crack her good mood. The joyous voices of Labelle and Maddie bounced off the nearby trees as they showed off their skills to their new friend.

The pond they skated on was to the right of the front doors. It had frozen solid overnight, and women and girl could skate freely without any worry of breaking ice. Mable wasn't sure who had taken the time to clear it off, but it had been clean and slick when they had arrived. The land itself was beautiful. The storm had left the snow crusted with ice crystals that sparkled with the merest hint of light. A pathway from a side door cut through the snow, only slightly marring its splendor, leading to a small clearing where the company had put on their skates. The courtyard that Mable could see from her window was buried under snow, but among the white there were moving spots of colors as winter birds fluttered around, chirping happily. Mable looked off to her left, and could see the forest, foreboding despite the vast pines and jovial calls of wildlife. There was a hint of danger there that Mable couldn't quite put her finger on. With a shiver, she turned back to her group.

Labelle was simply ethereal; her good looks only enhanced by the sunshine and exercise. Her cheeks were red with cold and her dark eyes bright with laughter as she spun gracefully around the pond, her dark hair streaming behind her. Mable tugged at her own red-gold locks, knowing they were mussed more than ever by the wind and snow. She hadn't bothered to put her hair up, and now snow collected in her strands, making her hair wet and bedraggled. She was covered with as many winter things as possible, from sweaters to coats to scarves and gloves, to keep from catching another cold. She thought jealously that Madame Labelle looked like a goddess at play, whereas she looked more like an over-stuffed Raggedy Ann.

Mable shrugged it off, though, smiling as she watched Maddie spin circles with the air of a devoted aunt. The day was just too gorgeous for self-esteem problems.

Mable glanced over to the other side of the pond, where Theo had sat watching them, rather morosely, for the past half hour. He was too big for any of the skates, Labelle had told her, and probably too heavy to stand on the ice. So, he was banished to a nearby bench, a book sitting unread next to him.

Feeling bad for him, Mable made her way over, giving a quick wave to Labelle as the woman flew by.

"Come on, Mable!" she called as she glided to the opposite edge of the pond. "I'll race you."

"I'm going to take a break." Mable called back. "I think I'll sit this one out, Labelle."

"I'll race you!" Maddie squealed, waving at Mable as she went to join Labelle on the other side.

Mable waved back with a grin. She hobbled over to the bench to sit next to Theo. The awkwardness from yesterday had dissipated in the cold and the sunshine, and she gave him an easy smile as she made her way over.

"You don't have to sit here with me, if you don't want to." He told her, though he moved his book out of her way so she could sit down. Mable sat down and started to unlace her skates, using the opportunity to lean against him. Even with the sun out it was one of those days where it was bitter cold and Theo, with his mass of fur, exuded heat like a space heater.

"Its fine." She told him, a little breathless from the chill and the exercise. "I needed a rest anyway. It's been a few years since I've been skating, and I am out of practice."

They sat next to each other for a moment in companionable silence, watching Maddie and Labelle take another lap around the pond. Mable gazed past the pond towards the woods beyond. From here, sitting safely next to Theo, the woods didn't seem so vast, so impenetrable. They looked like any other woods in Vermont. Mable could see a squirrel dart up one of the trees, heard the distant cries and trills of the winter birds as they went about their day. It was peaceful, and Mable closed her eyes for a minute, pretending this was normal and that she could leave whenever she wanted.

Theo gave her a gentle nudge. "Has it been that long since you skated?" he teased. "You aren't going to fall asleep now, are you?"

Mable opened her eyes and squinted up at him. His monstrous features seemed out of place here, among normal things like the powdery snow and the call of birds. But she found herself bumping him with her shoulder, enjoying the warmth that trailed down her arm from his fur. "No, it hasn't been that long. I think the last time I went skating was…back when I was a freshman in college. My boyfriend at the time took me to one of those indoor ice arenas." She smiled at the memory. "I think he believed it was going to be romantic, but it's hard to be romantic when your skating buddy keeps falling on her ass."

"Boyfriend?"

"Yeah, he was a…what would you call him, a beau? A suitor?" Mable wrinkled her nose. "Those both sound like they are from a cheesy romance novel."

"Is he also worried about your disappearance?" Theo's voice sounded carefully neutral.

Mable let out a short laugh. "No, no. We broke up a long while ago." She cocked her head, remembering what she had seen through the social media grapevine. "Actually, I think he's getting married in a couple of months."

"Does that upset you?" Theo asked. His gold eyes were narrowed in on her face.

"No, not really. We've been broken up for a long time."

"Because you couldn't ice skate?" Mable chuckled at the mock-horror in Theo's voice.

"No, it wasn't that. We met my freshman year of college. He was a year ahead of me, working on getting a degree in math, or something like that. He wanted a career in accounting, I remember that. We met at a school event, one of those school mixers that are designed to get you out of your room and actually socializing. I didn't have many friends yet, so when we started talking, it was nice, you know? I've never been as confident with guys as Colette or Jeanne, so finding a guy who I could talk to so easily was pretty exciting." Mable played with some of her hair, lost in the memory. "We met up for coffee a few times, ate dinner together, and started spending nights in each other's dorm rooms. I think we were together for almost a year."

"What happened?"

"Dad started getting sick. He'd forget to pay the mortgage or lose his wallet in the house. He kept mixing me up with my sisters, or my mother. He'd forget a conversation we'd had only a few hours ago on the phone. My sisters and I tried to convince him that he was sick, that he was having problems, but he refused to believe us. That's one of the crappier parts of having Alzheimer's; you don't even know you are sick." Mable closed her eyes and tilted her head back as she recalled the screaming matches, her father pleading with them that he was fine, really.

"That must have been terrible. For you, but also for your father." Theo said, resting a gentle paw on her arm. "I can't imagine how awful it must have felt, to be told that you are ill and need help. To forget such simple things like the name of your own loved ones."

Tears stung her eyes. "He tried to fight it, but there's no fighting Alzheimer's. It just gets worse and worse." She sniffled and jerked her head forward, pulling herself together. "I started skipping classes to go home and keep an eye on my dad. Soon I started skipping out on plans my boyfriend and I had made together, making up excuses because I didn't want him to know about what was going on at home. He thought it was because I was getting sick of him, though it was really because I just didn't want to have to explain. Eventually I told him what was going on, but by then it was too late. We were fighting constantly, and between him, my dad, my sisters, school…I just couldn't handle it all. So, we broke up, and a few months later I dropped out of school."

Breaking up had hurt, she remembered. More than she thought it would. She knew that it had to happen, probably would have happened eventually, even without her father's illness. But she had still been hurt and angry that he wasn't able to be there to support her when she had needed him the most.

Theo wrapped an arm around her shoulders in comfort, an act so surprising that Mable didn't even think to resist. She leaned into his embrace, appreciating how warm and solid he felt.

"I think my father would have liked you." He said unexpectedly.

This was an unexpected turn. "Seriously? Why?"

"Because you understand the importance of family, and of putting aside your own wants and desires to care for the people you love. Because even now you are trying any way you can to get back to them." Theo took his arm off of her shoulders, and Mable shivered at the unexpected chill. "My father never let his duties get in the way of the people he loved." He told her. "He would have said you were brave, to give up so much for you father."

"I don't think I'm brave at all." Mable remembered how she had dropped out of school just because she was afraid she wouldn't be able to measure up to her sisters. "I'm downright cowardly, to be honest."

"I don't think you give yourself enough credit." Theo said. She looked at him in surprise. "Coming here? Sleeping in a strange place with people you hardly know? That is quite brave."

"Or stupid." Mable retorted. "I didn't have much of a choice, either."

"Befriending me, then." Theo rumbled at her. "Do you really believe that I do not know what the servants call me behind my back?"

Mable stared. She knew he was aware of the servant's fear of him, but she hadn't realized he knew that they called him "Beast".

Theo nodded, sad. "Labelle and Lune tried to keep it from me, but this castle is too large for secrets to remain so for long. I know they are afraid of what I have become, what I look like." He held a paw up so he could peer at it. "I see the way they look at me. Only Labelle, Lune, Jacques, and Carnier treat me like they did before the spell. And Maddie, of course." He smiled affectionately as the girl raced by them, looping around the pond again. "You are the first person I've met who was not afraid of me."

"Well, not after a while." Mable shifted uncomfortably on the bench. His admiration was making her shy.

"At first you were, as any sensible woman would be." He agreed. "But at our first disastrous dinner, you yelled at me. Do you know how long it has been since anyone has been brave enough to yell at me?"

"Labelle probably does."

Theo huffed out a laugh. "No, not even Labelle."

Mable squirmed. She had never thought of herself as brave. Leaving school wasn't brave, it was out of fear of failure. Taking care of her father wasn't brave; it was just something she knew she could do. Staying at the castle wasn't really bravery; it was because if she had stayed outside she would have frozen to death. And befriending Theo…

"I don't think it's bravery that makes me like you." She told him, smiling. "I don't think I'm the only one not giving themselves enough credit."

Theo blinked, startled by her response. A strange look came on his face, and he lifted his paw, as if he wanted to stroke her hair. He stopped halfway, and hurriedly dropped it to his lap.

They both turned away from each other: Mable couldn't see his face under the fur, but she bet he was blushing as hard as she was. He had never tried to stroke her hair before. She ran her fingers through the wet strands, making a face. Maybe it wasn't tenderness but a desire to straighten out the unruly strands.

Movement caught her eye, and she frowned out into the forest. Right on the edge of the woods she saw a shape. Squinting against the glare of the sun, she got up from the bench, edging a little further to the woods.

"Mable?" Theo's voice mumbled behind her. "What is it?"

Mable didn't answer; she was too busy trying to get her eyes to focus in on the form that was coming closer to where they were standing. A few more seconds and she could see clearly.

A strange boy, a few years older than Maddie, was at the edge of the woods, in the same place she had been standing when she realized she could not leave the castle grounds. She couldn't get a good look at him, other than the fact that he had blonde hair and was dressed for summer rather than winter. And his feet were bare, like the Fairy in the woods. She bet if he was closer, she could see that his ears were pointed.

The Fairy boy gazed straight at her, and she knew he had waited to catch her attention before approaching. With a small smile, he pointed to her.

There was a sound like a gunshot, and for one crazy moment Mable though the Fairy was pointing a gun at them. But Labelle's scream had her whirling to see that the ice under Maddie had cracked and the girl was falling into the frozen water below.

If she had been thinking at all, Mable probably would have remembered that Maddie was under a curse, and couldn't get sick or die. Falling through the ice wouldn't be fun, but she'd survive with little more than a sniffle. She also would have remembered the fever she had a few days ago, and stipulated that jumping into a frozen lake would be stupid.

She wasn't thinking at all, merely working on instinct as she raced toward the pond edge and jumped through the hole Maddie had just recently submerged. Hitting the water was like hitting a glacier at full speed; instantly her muscles seized up and it fell like all the air left her lungs. She could barely open her eyes enough to see where the young girl was, flailing in the murky bottom of the pond.

Thankfully the water wasn't deep, so even with her clothes weighing her down, Mable was able to grab the girl's arm and use the pond floor to propel herself to the hole above. They both gasped in the cold air as they reached the surface, Mable helping Maddie to keep her head above the water as they scrambled to get back onto solid ground. The ice had broken up around them, making the journey difficult. Mable winced as a sharp piece of ice scraped at her neck.

Mable had been so focused on getting them back to land that it wasn't until they were in the muddy recesses of the pond that she heard Labelle babbling.

"Oh damn, damn." Somehow swears seemed even more appalling in Labelle's rich, melodious voice. "I can't believe this, that ice was perfectly fine for hours, for it just to break apart like that…oh, and you two are soaked, we must get you inside right away!"

Mable coughed as the pond water she managed to swallow worked its way out of her lungs. The air was only marginally warmer than the water, she was starting to shiver. "Labelle…" she croaked, but the Housekeeper wasn't listening.

"What could have made it break like that, I wonder? Oh, Lune is going to be positively furious!"

"Labelle, calm down." Theo commanded. He had taken off his coat and laid it across Mable's shoulders. Mable took it with a nod; her teeth were chattering so hard it was taking serious effort to keep her mouth closed. Maddie hadn't spoken since they emerged from the pond, she had merely crawled into Mable's lap and had her head buried in Mable's shoulder. Mable adjusted the coat so it covered both of them, wrapping her arms around the girl.

"I want my Papa." Maddie whimpered into Mable's shoulder. She was shuddering with either cold or sobs, Mable couldn't tell.

"I know, sweetie, I know." She murmured, trying her best to soothe the little girl. Hell, she wanted Maddie's papa too. She stroked the girl's back as she looked up at Theo. "There was a Fairy out there, in the woods. I could've sworn he was looking at us." She gestured over to the eastern side of the castle.

Theo, who had been instructing Labelle to run inside and fetch Monsieur Lune from wherever he was, froze. "What?"

"I think there was a Fairy, anyway. I don't know." Mable instinctively clutched his coat tighter when she got a good look at his eyes. "I could've sworn I saw one over that way. But I don't know for sure." She said hurriedly, as Theo's face darkened treacherously.

"Someone tried to hurt someone in my care?" The words started in a whisper and ended in a roar that made the hair on the back of Mable's neck stick straight up. Maddie jumped in Mable's arms and buried her face in Mable's neck.

"I don't know if that was what happened—" Mable tried to reason, but Theo had already whirled around and started to lope towards the woods. Mable watched as he switched from running on two feet to racing on all fours, like an animal. She grasped Maddie to her tightly as another, enraged roar echoed through the quiet of the woods.

Labelle recovered first. "Come, come." She said briskly, giving Mable's arm a tug. Mable got up still holding Maddie, shifting to keep the coat still tucked around them. "Never mind him, I'll send Jacques out after him in a few minutes. We must get you inside!"

The housekeeper herded them into the castle through the front door, clucking like a mother hen the whole way. She rushed them to the kitchen, where Mable stood dripping as the chefs crowded around them.

"What happened?" Monsieur Carnier cried, but before anyone could respond Monsieur Lune popped into the room, wild-eyed.

"Maddie!"

Maddie, who had still been sniffling into Mable's shoulder, transformed instantly as soon as she was in her father's arms. Gone was the scared little girl, and enthusiastically, she regaled everyone with the tale of Mable jumping in to save her. Mable was hailed a hero.

Monsieur Lune kissed the top of Maddie's head. "Thank you, Lady." He told her sincerely. He grabbed one of her hands and kissed it.

Mable was so chilled it felt as if she couldn't even blush. "Y-your welcome." She was starting to shiver again, even in the warm glow of the kitchen fire.

Labelle pushed through the people crowding her and grasped Mable's hand. "Enough, now." She ordered. "The Lady needs a hot bath and some dry clothes. Lune, bring us up there, would you? No need to go through the drafty halls."

Mable swore that all she did was blink and between one moment and the next they- Labelle, Monsieur Lune, Maddie, and herself—were standing in her bedroom.

"I'll go run you a bath." Labelle hurried to the bathroom.

"I must go get Maddie some dry clothes as well." Monsieur Lune gave Mable's hand another kiss. This time, Mable did blush. "I thank you again, Lady, for rescuing my daughter."

"Oh, it wasn't—"

They ignored her protests and disappeared, but not before Maddie gave her a bright, "See you later, Mable!"

Mable stood in the middle of her bedroom, a bit stunned by the flurry of activity she had just witnessed. Did no one understand that Theo had just run out to the woods to confront the Fairies? Wasn't anyone worried about him at all?

Labelle came back in the room and gave a disapproving grunt. "Mable, what are you still doing in those wet things? You'll just get sick again if we don't warm you up. Come on, I got the bath all ready for you."

"What about Theo?" Mable finally managed as she started to undress, gladly tossing away the wet, foul-smelling garments. "You're not really just going to let him run off after the Fairies like that, are you? He could get hurt."

Labelle shook her head. "While you were being surrounded by that crowd down there, I went and fetched one of Lune's men and told him to pop on down to the stables for Jacques. He and the guards will find Theo and keep him from doing anything idiotic, I promise. Besides, Theo can take care of himself. I'm more worried about you, cherie. Come now, hop in the bath before you catch another chill."

Reassured by Labelle's no-nonsense tone, Mable happily went and got into the tub. Slipping into the hot, silky water was bliss, and Mable felt warmth sink into her skin and down to her bones.

"I have some fresh clothes out for you when you are done." Labelle said as she gathered Mable's wet things. "Why don't you change and head down to the library? I'll have Carnier meet you there with dinner."

"All right." Mable said, closing her eyes. The heat and the soft smell of herbs was making her drowsy.

She opened her eyes when she heard the familiar tapping of Labelle's heels stop abruptly. She turned her head to find Labelle gazing at her with something like pride.

"That was a brave thing you did, Mable, rescuing our little Maddie." The other woman told her. "I know Monsieur Lune already thanked you, but on behalf of all of us in the castle, I just wanted to thank you too. Maddie is the youngest, the only child left after the invasion, so she is like a younger sister or child to most. I can't imagine what we would have done if she had been hurt in some way. You putting yourself in harm's way to save a child you have barely known a few weeks is by far the most courageous thing I have seen these past few years."

Mable shrugged, hoping Labelle didn't see how pleased she was by the compliment. "I didn't even think, I just…reacted. I'm just glad Maddie will be all right." She frowned for a minute. "But I wonder why that Fairy attacked her in the first place?"

Labelle bit her lip, dark eyes suddenly worried. "I'm not sure, either. Perhaps Theo or Jacques will know more. I'll leave you to finish your bath."

As she scurried out of the room, Mable was left to wonder just what Labelle was hiding from her.