She should have screamed. In fact, it was a thought that passed through Mimi's mind immediately, but she was still not entirely used to being captured. All she could do was kick, twist, and be amazed at Matthias' strength.
"Mimi!" he cried. "It's me! Prince Matthias! Calm down!"
She did not want to calm down. She wanted to spit into his eyes. But she kept that back and wished she knew a useful spell for sending him away, preferably on fire. "Let go of me!"
"Where have you been?" he demanded. His grip around her wrists was painful. "You disappeared. We had a single fight, and I don't see you for days!"
"Get away from her!"
Matthias jerked back, and Mimi fell to the ground. Her wrists stung.
Jacob had moved from the church's doorway. His eyes gleamed, and one hand squeezed the collar of Matthias' stupid royal shirt. Jacob was bigger than the prince, with a body more suited to pushing people around. How much did Matthias envy that.
But the surprise in Matthias' eyes did not last long. "Get away from me," he demanded.
"So you can torment another girl?"
"I was not tormenting her, we know each other. We are to be married, in fact."
"No, we're not!" Mimi shouted.
Both men seemed to remember she was there. With a final glare Jacob let go of Matthias and helped Mimi to her feet. "She says she's not marrying you."
Matthias' mouth thinned considerably before he spoke. "Do you have any idea who I am?"
"Some prince or another. Not even the Prince Regent. Someone entirely meaningless to me."
That was only going to make Matthias mad. "Shush," Mimi whispered to Jacob.
"Guards!" Matthias suddenly shouted.
Mimi's first instinct was to laugh. She had never seen Matthias with guards, and the city did not seem particularly dangerous. Was he so afraid as to travel with guards when he was away from the manor?
Apparently he was. A turn of her head revealed two massive guards trudging across her yard. They must have been waiting.
"You are such an idiot," she murmured to Jacob.
Matthias looked to her, mouth trying to copy a smile. "Mimi, please. What's gotten into you? I'm going to make this stranger unhand you, he will be arrested, and then we will be returning to the manor. I promise, as soon as we can, we'll be heading for the capital and our wedding."
She stared at him, dumbfounded. Was this supposed to be romantic? Had she not thrown the ring he had given her? "No!"
He sighed. "I see your curse has confused you. You were upset with me. You threw away the ring I gave you. But I still have it. Back at the manor. I forgive you, Mimi. I love you."
She took a step back, pulling Jacob with her. "I don't want anything to do with you. You're a monster. I hate you."
"You heard her," said Jacob. "She doesn't want to have anything to do with you."
Any semblance of a smile vanished, and his eyes grew cold. "You do not speak that way to me. I don't think you were ever under a curse."
The guards were there. Mimi could hear their breathing as they awaited instructions. Idiots.
"Seize this insolent fool," Matthias commanded. "Take him back to the manor, and I will tell of his crime to the Duke."
In a flash they had Jacob with his hands bound behind his back.
"Let him go!" Mimi shrieked, but Matthias once again took hold of her wrists.
"We're going back to the manor," he said tersely.
He led her through the front door of the manor, a gesture that otherwise would have been an honor for only guests of the Duke if she hadn't been so fit to kill. She refused to look at the Prince, and eventually he gave up trying to talk to her.
She received plenty of stares. Here was the Prince with some wild-haired girl and neither of them looked happy. She was amazed at how many of them she recognized, familiar faces that had crossed in and out of the kitchen. She could even put names with faces. Yet they had no idea who she was.
There wasn't enough room in her thoughts to care about that. She wanted to know where Jacob had been taken. He had not supposed to return to the manor. He was supposed to be far, far away, opening an inn or something. Now he was back and once again captured and it was all her fault.
No, it wasn't. He had chosen to return. Jacob deserved everything that had happened to him.
Matthias did not speak again they had reached a room and he had shut them inside of it. The library, all big, cozy, and filled with books. It should have been a happy place, but for all Mimi cared it could have been a chicken coop. She stood still while he closed the door, seeing no point in moving while his back was turned. What was he going to try next? Resuming their romance?
Indeed, he turned back to her with the shy smile that only days before had stolen her heart. Confused, innocent, so sweet… it was difficult to believe the person in front of her could wear such a smile.
"Mimi," he said gently, "Talk to me. Tell me what's going on."
She didn't want to look at him, but she couldn't help it. She had been raised to like people, all the kind and interesting men and women who journeyed so far for her father's help. Why was it so difficult for some people to not be that way of so many others? Why had Lavender, Matthias, and even the Duke entered her life? All trying to wreck the lives of so many good people? And there Matthias stood, smiling and speaking softly and acting like nothing was wrong, that there had been no scene in the church yard, that he could just make all the bad go way, that she hadn't overheard what he was trying to do.
But he did not know she had overheard his plot to have the Duke arrested. He had no idea of what she knew.
It felt rather good to have power over someone.
"What's going on?" she repeated with calmness that surprised eve herself. "You dare to ask me what's going on? You were there! I'm quite sure that was you who grabbed me and would not let go!"
"I hurt you?" he asked innocently.
She rolled her eyes and held up her wrists, still red from his grip. "Oh, yeah. Good strong hands you have there. A wondrous way to treat a lady. Unless I'm not a lady. Unless I'm just a servant."
"I didn't mean to hurt—"
"Like you didn't mean to have that man arrested." She walked over to a chair and slumped into it. She felt mean and slightly obnoxious. They were marvelous feelings. "You are the worst kind of prince, Matthias. It's such a good thing you are not the heir to the throne."
He gave a nervous laugh, an agreement to finish his charade. "Did you not hear what he said to me?"
"Yes, I was right there and I'm not deaf, Matthias. You chased me down and grabbed me. You did not let go even when I demanded it. You deserved everything he said to you."
He took a deep breath, then crossed the floor to her. "I did nothing wrong. We're going to be married."
She met his eyes. They were weak, not beautiful. "No. We. Are. Not."
His second deep breath was held for a long time before he spoke. "I love you. I'm going to take you back to the capital. We will be married. I'll see that you are freed from your spell—"
Spell? She laughed, good and long and hard while Matthias only watched in amazement. "My spell is no longer a problem. You hardly even noticed you can see me in daylight. I'm afraid I no longer need your assistance in that regard."
"It's good, then—"
"And we both know that even if we were to be married, we would not be leaving the city. You want this duchy. You wanted His Madness the Duke to kill Jacob so you could complain of him to your father and steal his title."
Matthias' face paled, and he stepped back. "That's not—"
Interrupting him was becoming addictive. Her smile was so broad it hurt her face, and her speech came faster and faster. "You wanted to steal the title of an insignificant Duke who is not even rightly in the position. He murdered the real duke years ago. You are incapable of stealing from a true duke. If you really wanted something, you would steal from your older brothers. But you can't. You're even afraid of that. Because you're a coward, Matthias. A coward who slinks around snatching little things. I imagine you fell in love with me because I was a pretty enchanted girl, not even a princess. You probably thought I would love you madly if you rescued me."
She couldn't even scream as the blow came, a sharp pain right across her face.
"Step away from her!"
For a wild moment she thought it was Jacob, somehow escaped from the guards.
"Who are you?" Matthias' voice demanded.
Blinking away tears of pain and surprise, Mimi looked up.
Blake stood in the doorway, handsome and human Blake, and next to him was the priest.
"He's the real Duke," the priest said proudly.