Chapter 22
Wilhelmina sat in the Queen's chamber waiting on her to get back from the throne room. She was unsure of what the queen would like her to do. They hadn't official met and all she knew about this new queen was that Snow adored her endlessly. Will knew that the queen was the one that rescued Snow that day and for that reason alone she agreed to serve her. She found herself pacing and was uncharacteristically nervous. She didn't like it.
She made herself stop pacing. She walked over to the balcony at the edge of balcony and looked down into the throne room. She could see King Leopold and Princess Snow, but she didn't see the new Queen. She had seen her in passing, enough to know what she looked like, but she didn't see her in there. Her skin immediately prickled in worry and then she felt someone staring at her. She turned to see a beautiful young woman in a light blue dress standing just before her.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"My apologies, Majesty. I am Wilhelmina and I am at your service. I'll be sure to be at your side from now on," Will stated clearly, giving her a deep bow.
"You're Wilhelmina?"
"Yes, Majesty."
"I thought you were a horse."
"Excuse me?"
"I thought that the Princess was giving me a horse. I must admit that I didn't read the contract very thoroughly. Now, it seems that I must. What are you to me?"
"I am your Vulcannonian guard."
"Vulcannonian? You are from Vulcannon? Why are you here?"
"I was a gift from my father to the King," she replied.
"We are alike in that respect, then," Regina mused aloud. "But, what are your duties to me? I haven't had a personal anything. What am I supposed to do with you?"
"Whatever you wish, Majesty. I am at your disposal. But, my main responsibility is your health and well-being. I am to protect you at all times. I will be at your side, unless you command me away. Where you go, I go," Will told her.
"What about to the King's chambers?" Regina asked.
"I will escort you there and then back here, but I will not enter."
"Ah…there is no reprieve for me, is there? I am stuck because of my mother's magic and I cannot leave the grounds of the castle without him. He and Snow are leaving tomorrow on a tour of the kingdom. He's decided to leave me here, so I can learn the castle and decide what I want to do as his queen."
"Do I need to do anything for you for that, Majesty?" Will asked.
"Can you find a way for me to go home?"
"I will do what I can for you, but do you not wish to be with the King?"
"No, I do not. My mother accepted his proposal on my behalf. Of course, this was after she killed the man I loved," Regina told her.
"I am sorry for your loss, Majesty. Is there anything that you require of me? Anything at all?"
"Will you stay with me here?"
"If that is what you wish, I will stay."
"What are you wearing?" she finally asked me.
I was in a typical Vulcannonian dress. It was loose fitting and tight in the right spaces for fighting, but it was a courtly dress and not something that Will was used to wearing on the regular. She put it on because she was going to be in the presence of the Queen, not the Princess, and there were different protocols for that.
"It is a Vulcannonian Court dress."
"Do you wear that normally?"
"If you don't wish it, no, Majesty, I don't," she replied.
"Then what would you wear?"
"When I served the Princess, I generally wore a pair of pants, a sword shirt, and a jerkin."
"Then, please change. That will be your uniform with me as well. Does everyone in the palace know who you are and what your relationship is to me?"
"They do, Majesty."
"What is your full name Wilhelmina?" Regina asked, eyeing her curiously.
"Wilhelmina Conulf, daughter of King Pyroxes of Vulcannonian, Princess of the Realm."
"You're a princess?" Regina asked in disbelief.
"Yes, Majesty, I am."
"Am I to refer to you as 'Highness'?"
"No, Majesty. You may call me whatever you'd like. Princess Snow referred to me as Highness because she felt the need and I don't know why. The King usually just calls me Will, as does most of the rest of the knights and servants of the castle. But, whatever you wish to call I will answer to. I am at your bidding."
"At my bidding? Like a slave? You will do anything I ask of you?" Regina questioned.
"Within reason and my power, Majesty, yes," Will told her.
"Well, for now, I will call you Will. And, for tonight, I wish that you stay with me. Tomorrow, I will reread that contract about you. Will you sleep in here with me?"
"If you wish."
"Where will you sleep?"
"I have my own rooms, near yours, just through that door, there," Will told her pointing to the hidden door in the wall. "But, I can sleep here on the chaise. I will be fine. It is better than many a bed that I have had. I will go change and come back. Would you like anything?"
"I have a cask of apple cider. Will you bring it up to my room and some glasses? I feel that I am going to need something to drink."
"Yes, Majesty, I'll be back shortly. I will change while I am gone. Would you like me to send your maid in to help you change?"
"That's fine," Regina replied, dismissing her.
Regina didn't want her go. She walked over to the balcony and looked down into the throne room. She could be happy here, if she wanted to be. But, that was the problem, she didn't want to be happy. Snow had caused Daniel's death and now, she had to be her step-mother. It wasn't fair. Why did she have to deal with all of this? She was barely eighteen. Thankfully, the King hadn't called on her to come to his bed yet. She feared the night he did.
"Worried about something, Dearie?"
"Rumpelstiltskin!"
"In the flesh," he stated giving her a dramatic bow.
"What do you want with me?"
"You wanted to learn magic, Dearie. Are you ready now? Or, do you not want your revenge?"
"She is just a girl. I cannot hurt her. I've sent my mother away as you wanted with that looking glass. What more do you want from me?"
"Ah…ah…ah, Dearie. You called on me for all of that, remember?" he asked and then giggled. "I merely supplied you with the means. You decided that your mother needed to fall through the glass. That was all you, my dear Regina. Now, what else do you want?"
"I want Daniel back," Regina told him.
"Ah, your stable boy, but he is dead. And, dead is dead. I cannot change that, Dearie."
"Then, I have no use for you," Regina stated and turned back around.
"I'll leave you to your misery, then. Call me when you have need of me or when you realize that you can actually have everything that you want if you are just willing to take it. I'll be waiting."
"Then, until you can find a way to give me Daniel back, I won't need you."
He smiled and giggled in his impish way before saying, "We shall see about that, Dearie."
When she turned around there was a flourish of green smoke. She blinked a few times before she realized that he was gone. She walked over to her wardrobe to find something less elegant to wear. She was tired. She wanted Daniel, but he was something that she would never have, again. She started to change on her own.
She didn't hear Will come back into the chambers. She was so lost in her thoughts. She didn't even realize that she was crying until Will turned her around and hugged her.
"What are you doing?" Regina asked her, shoving her away.
Regina and Emma were still sleeping soundly in each other's arms when the pounding on the door started. Emma rolled over, immediately, and grabbed her side arm. She didn't even realize that she was still naked until she got to the bedroom door.
"Sheriff, unless you plan on shocking the town, I would think some clothes are in order," Regina told her, sitting up in the bed and giving her a smirk.
Emma looked down at herself and then over at Regina. She crossed the room and grabbed her jeans. She began pulling them up when Regina effortlessly got out of the bed. She watched she waved her hands in front of her body and she was suddenly clothed.
"We need to work on your spells, Dear," Regina told her as she left the room, leaving Emma to struggle with getting dressed.
Emma couldn't believe that the woman conjured herself dressed. Not that she looked bad in the gray blue satin pajamas and the matching robe, but damn, couldn't she at least given Emma some, too. She shook her head and grabbed her bra and her shredded tank.
"Damn it, Regina," Emma said aloud as she went to her closet and grabbed the closest thing to a t-shirt that she could find.
She pulled it over her head and headed down the stairs. She stopped short on the end of the stairs when she saw Will and Coraline standing there. She didn't know what was going on, but there was some obvious tension between the three.
"We need to talk," Will told Regina.
"I imagine that we do," Regina replied.
Emma cocked her head. She'd had this same conversation with Regina on the day she decided to leave Storybrooke. The look on Coraline and Will's face showed her that it wasn't going to be the same though.
Then she studied Will. She didn't have red hair. It was dark, like charcoal. And, her eyes were a brilliant and piercing blue. She watched the way she moved as she was escorted to Regina's personal study. There was something different about her, something that Emma couldn't read, and it was something that Emma had never seen in her bounty hunter friend.
"I'll speak with you soon, Emma. I promise. I'll explain everything the best that I can."
Emma turned to Regina and then Coraline. Neither of them gave her an answer. She looked at Regina as Regina closed the door to the room. Coraline came up to her and took her hand. She allowed her daughter to pull her into the kitchen.
"What the hell was that?" Emma asked her as Coraline sat her on a stool at the bar.
"They need to talk."
"I heard that much. But, what was that? Why is she talking to your mother?" Emma asked her.
"I am not the only one that Will needs to apologize to, Ma. Let's just leave it at that for now. I am sure that Will and Mom will explain everything once they are finished."
"I don't know that I can wait that long," Emma huffed.
"Trust them both…for me," Coraline stated.
Emma raised her eyes quickly to her daughter's. She saw nothing in them that would betray what her lover and her friend were discussing. She only saw the plea of trust from her daughter. She shook her head absentmindedly in affirmation.
"Will you give me a hint?"
"Will is older than she looks, like Mom."
Emma stared at her. She couldn't believe what her daughter was telling her. If that was true, then that meant that Will was…. No, she couldn't be. Emma would have known. She would have…sensed something.
"Is she from…?"
"Ma, do yourself a favor and wait for her to tell you," Coraline stated as she went into the fridge for some orange juice. "You'll just hurt your head with all the wild scenarios that you are going to try and come up with. Trust me. She'll explain everything. She just needs to talk to Mom first. There is nothing to worry about. Now, sit down and I'll make you breakfast."
"Did I hear something about breakfast?" Henry asked coming into the kitchen.
"Yeah, I'm making pancakes. Do you want eggs and bacon? I'll make it, too," Coraline stated as she moved around the kitchen gathering up what she needed to cook with.
Henry made his way to the fridge and made himself a glass of OJ. He grabbed the eggs and bacon, too. As he walked back across the kitchen to the bar top, he set them down on the counter near the stove but far enough away from the stove so they wouldn't burn.
"Where's Mom?" he asked, nonchalantly as he took a swing of his OJ.
"In her study," Coraline answered.
She watched as Emma bristled at the thought. All she could think about was that Coraline and Will were keeping something from her. She looked up at Coraline again, hoping this time that she might give her something more to go on and hoping it would make all the craziness in her head stop. She didn't want to think about Will and Regina. She really didn't, but the more that she sat there and she didn't know what was going on with them, the crazier the relationships between Regina and Will seemed to get.
"I'll just go see what-"
"Sit down, Ma," Coraline commanded.
Emma met her eyes and saw the flash of green. She knew that Coraline wouldn't use her magic against her, but it only spurred her thoughts down the rails of the crazy train she was driving. Coraline leaned over the stove and put a hand on Emma's. It was meant to be a gesture of comfort and love, but Emma could feel the magic moving from her daughter into her.
"Please don't make me make you," Coraline stated.
"Uh, Ma? Coraline? What's going on?"
"It seems that your mother and my friend know each other from before," Emma gritted out, trying to pull her hand back but failing as her daughter kept it there and under hers.
"From before where?" Henry asked.
"Here!" Emma shouted and then turned her eyes back up at Coraline. "Let me go, Coraline."
"Leave them alone, Ma. They need to talk. I have an idea, why don't you talk to me about what we've learned so far about the Blackness, huh? That'll get your mind off of things."
Emma looked at her like she two heads. She didn't want to talk about the Blackness. She wanted to know what the Hell was going on with Regina and Will. She wanted to know how Will knew Regina. She wanted to know why Will never told her who she really was. No, scratch that, she knew why Will never told her that she was from the Enchanted Forest. Emma wouldn't have believed her then. Hell, she doesn't know if she believes it now.
"She isn't from the Enchanted Forest," Coraline stated as she began to whip the eggs in a bowl.
"Wait, who isn't from the Enchanted Forest?" Henry asked.
"Will isn't from the Enchanted Forest?" Emma asked.
"Correct," Coraline answered.
"Then, where the Hell is she from?"
"Who is Will?" Henry asked.
They both stopped and turned to Henry. He looked confused. He didn't know what was going on or the fact that Coraline and Will had even come over that morning. He didn't know what happened in his mother's bedroom the night before only because Regina had put enough thought into casting a sound damping spell on her room. It would allow sound in, but not out.
"Uh…well…" Emma started.
"Will is a friend of Ma's back from when she was a bounty hunter in Boston."
"Oh, well, why didn't we go see her when we were in New York?" Henry asked her.
"Well…honestly…"
"That year was hard on both of you, Henry. She didn't remember everything that happened in Boston before she came to Storybrooke. Remember, Mom changed her memories. I don't know if she knew about Will before I showed up. Plus she was worried about you all the time."
Emma looked over at Coraline and mouthed a "thank you" at her. She didn't know why she didn't call Will during that year, but Coraline's explanation made sense. She really hadn't thought about anyone back in Boston until Coraline showed up. She wondered if that was on purpose or she was so busy dealing with everything there that she just let life happen.
"I need to go check on your mother," Emma said, getting up again, anger lessened by talking with her children and realizing that Will must have had her reasons for not telling her.
"Ma," Coraline started as she poured the eggs in a skillet, "Just remember this about the whole situation. She may be from that realm, but she didn't know who you were. She never knew that you were Grams and Gramps' kid. She had no reason to know. She left before the Curse."
"I'll keep that in mind," Emma replied as she left the kitchen in search of Regina and Will.
She made her way through the house and to Regina's study. The door was closed. She knocked on it twice and then leaned into to listen. She didn't hear anything at all so she opened the door. She completely caught off guard when she couldn't see them. She knew that they had been in the room talking. She knew they had gone in there together and now they were gone.
It felt like someone had punched her in the gut. She didn't know why, but she felt uneasy about the entire situation. Something was off and she couldn't figure out what it was, but she knew if she didn't figure it out soon it would be worse for everyone. She always trusted her gut even when things didn't seem to be that bad, because her gut was never wrong.
"Coraline!" she yelled from the doorway.
Coraline and Henry came running from the kitchen. The look of worry on their faces met the anger and worry on Emma's. Coraline cocked her head in question and peeked around the door jamb as soon as Emma allowed her to see around it. She followed Emma's gestured hand into the empty room.
"Where are they?" Coraline asked her.
"That is what I would like to know," Emma replied.
"Where's who?" Henry questioned.
Regina didn't give her time to say anything else to her as they went into her study. She found her way to a couch and sat down. Will didn't follow suit. She seemed happy to pace behind the other couch for a while, still unsure how to approach this entire conversation.
"Would some cider help you calm down, dear?" Regina asked her, crossing her legs and leaning back in the couch, taking a very regal posture.
"I doubt it."
"Well, then…"
"I'm sorry."
Regina didn't reply. She didn't know if she could in that moment. It had been too long since Will left her and then she fell in with Rumple. He'd filled the hole that Will left.
"I know that will never be enough for you, but I am truly sorry I left you."
"Why?" Regina finally asked quietly.
"It wasn't you."
"It never was, was it?" Regina asked.
"I know that you wanted something more from me, Regina, but I couldn't do that to you. It would have been worse than me leaving you. You were still grieving. I was merely a tool that helped you feel better for a while. Your need for revenge was never going to allow your heart to mend fully. And, now, we both know why." Will stated.
"What does that mean?"
"You were Rumple's means to an end. He didn't do anything for you that didn't help him. I'm just wondering why he didn't push things while I was there with you. He just faded away for a few years. He needed you broken. He needed you angry."
"I wasn't that angry with you."
"No, because you had something to take it out on completely. I knew than you needed it and that is why I never stopped you. I could take it. No one else in your world could. But, even I had limitations. Did you ever wonder why I left?"
"Every day...until the Genie arrived. He was a decent distraction for me while Rumple weaved his web around me. He killed Leopold for me, something you could never do," Regina stated.
"He was the king, Regina. I could no more kill him than you or Snow. I haven't forgotten what you asked me to do to the Princess. I did what I could do for you, no more, no less. I know you thought you needed their deaths, but now, you have learned from that mistake."
"I can't kill you anyway."
"Would you try?"
"Back then, maybe. Now, no, I wouldn't. I've come to realize than I needed the darkness to see the light in my future. I was turning into my mother and I never even saw it. You did though."
"I knew enough to see that you weren't heading down the path you were meant," Will replied.
"But you still left," Regina added.
"Rumple needed me out of the way. So he got rid of me. He knew that he couldn't order you to give me up. He knew you wouldn't. He had to create a reason for me to leave you."
"Which was?"
"The destruction of my people."
"He made the virus?"
"Yes, he did. He is the reason that my brother and sister-in-law died. He is the reason my father gave up himself. He is the reason that the people of Vulcannon scattered into the wind. My island homeland is vacant and nothing but volcanoes. The people are gone. The Vulcannonians do not exist anymore. He destroyed an entire race and nation just to have you, Regina."
"That isn't all he destroyed."
"I know. The man knows no boundaries as long as he gets what he wants. He will stop at nothing for the power he seeks. Surely, you know that. You've seen it firsthand. But, yet, you let him live here like it doesn't matter," Will accused her.
"I had no choice in that matter. But, he is slowly getting his comeuppance. He is finally paying for everything that he has done."
"I'm not even going to ask when it comes to that. I am sure that I don't want to know. But, that is not why I really left you, Regina and you know it. You knew that I would fight him for you."
"Then, why didn't you?" she asked, with the years of pain and defeat in her voice.
"I was dealing with my grief and he exploited it completely."
"How?" Regina asked her suddenly concerned for what the Imp did to her.
"He told me that he could cure my brother. He made an elixir, an antidote, to the poison that he created. But, like anything he does, it required a deal."
"What did you have to give him?"
"He wanted my mother's cloak."
"Your mother's cloak? What was so special about it? Did you give it to him?"
"Of course, I did. I wanted my brother to live, but it didn't matter. I was still too late. He got what he wanted, which was the cloak. I don't know why he wanted it so bad, but he did. I lost not only at piece of my mother, but my brother and my father. Only for him to insult me further, when I made the decision to rebel and leave you. I could no longer take my grief and our arrangement was no longer helping either of us. We were stuck in at routine of pain."
"What did he ask for when you decided to leave?" Regina asked her.
"At first, he wanted my brother's cloak. When I refused to give it to him, he changed tactics. He finally found a nerve within me that he could twist for his own pleasure. He liked to watch people squirm. So he plucked at it until I relented," Will told her.
"How long did it take?"
"About three years," Will answered. "Three years into your marriage. He knew that you weren't ever going to be happy with the King. Why do you think that Genie showed up after I left? Rumple could mold you and you in turn would mold the Genie into what you needed. It was a win-win for him."
"He does have that way about him. I am not sure that will excuse your behavior or the fact that you've violated our contract. What am I to do with you?" Regina asked her.
"I never let any harm come to you or your family, Regina. I protected you even when I wasn't with you. I still do and will. But, being who I am, I am asking for you to forgive me and release me from my bindings of the contract. Let me go, Regina. I cannot help you anymore," she said.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why should I let you go?" Regina asked her.
Will started pacing again. Her body rigid with worry and fight. She knew that Regina wasn't going to make this easy and she shouldn't. She'd violated the terms of their contract. She was in the wrong, not Regina. She had wronged Regina and needed to make amends for it.
"You aren't going to like my answer and we both know it."
"You love her?" Regina stated, uncrossing her legs and leaned forward, before shifting on the couch. She leaned back and regarded Will in front of her. Her eyes darkened and her face looked on a more regal appearance. She had been schooled since birth for this. "You want me to release you so you can be with my daughter?"
"It is more complicated than that."
"I would say so."
"Would you still own me now, Regina?" Will asked.
"That isn't the point."
"It is. I have been free since I have been in this world. I have been lonely since my arrival. I have been here a lot longer than you have, Majesty, but even I have found companionship with others here. You have Emma now. Am I not allowed to find love?"
"I know what loving you entails for her, Wilhelmina. Do you think that I will condone that? I loved you in my own way and you left me. Do you think that I would willingly let her be with you knowing that you would outlive her? Have you told her that you are damn near indestructible?"
"I have."
"Then why?" Regina questioned.
"It is a long story and one that will take us back to our days in the Enchanted Forest," Will said.
"I seem to have the time," Regina replied.
"As you wish, Majesty."
"Sit, Wilhelmina, and tell me your tale. I wish to know why you think that you would be good enough for my daughter. Let alone why I should free you from my service. I might have need of you in the coming future," Regina explained.
Will stepped around the opposite couch and sat down. She knew that Regina wouldn't make this easy, and she'd hoped she might have more time before they had this conversation but Regina had other plans, like always. She knew that Regina had a working knowledge of Vulcannonian lore, and like Regina, neither of them believed half of it. It had all been speculation until Coraline.
"I love her, Regina. What more can I say about that? I love her. I would do anything for her."
"Even leave?"
"If that was for the best, yes, I would. It would hurt me to do it. It did hurt me to leave her in Boston, but I wasn't ready to face you. I wasn't prepared for you to actually be the Regina that she called Mom. I should have known. She favors you, but I didn't want to think about that."
"You've slept with her?" Regina asked turning her hands over.
Before she could stop herself, Will told her the truth. She knew that it would hurt more and longer, even if it wouldn't kill her, if she didn't tell Regina the truth. She saw the flash of purple in Regina's eyes. She took a quick breath and said, simply, "Yes."
The fire balls erupted in Regina's hands quicker than she anticipated. Her anger was boiling over. She knew that it wasn't a good thing, but she needed to punish Wilhelmina. She needed to get it out of her system. She needed to find a way to let her go now that she was back.
"Come with me," Regina growled through gritted teeth as she stood up, extinguishing the fire.
"As you wish, Majesty," Will answered her.
Regina was upon her before Will could have stopped it. She grabbed both of Will's shoulders and flashed them to her family's mausoleum. It was the only place that she could think of that she could try to destroy Wilhelmina without any interference.
She quickly pushed her against a wall and had her in chains. This was the one room than she hadn't used since they came to Storybrooke. It was simply designed for Wilhelmina. It was a way that Regina could relieve stress, but no one ever held a candle to the abuse that Will could take. Graham was at her mercy because she held his heart. The Genie was because he was in love with her. But, Wilhelmina, she was special.
"This was for me, wasn't it?"
"Yes," Regina answered.
"You made this hoping I would come back..." Will stated realizing that Regina held her anger longer than most and this was not going to be an easy day for either of them.
"You can punish me, Regina, but it won't change the fact that I love her."
"Have your bonded with her yet?"
"No, I haven't. I don't know if I will have to do it anyway. She is a magical being and the pull is already there between us, just like it is between you and Emma. We can try to deny it, but it is there. I would never have betrayed you like that, Majesty. Once I knew who she was, I knew that I had to come to you," Will told her as she pulled away from the wall and the chains.
"You are not worthy of her," Regina spat at her.
"I may not be, but hope to try to be," Will replied.
Over at the diner, Ruby was waiting tables while Belle sat in the back booth still pouring over the books about Vulcannon. She wasn't going to let it go, now. She figured that she was close to whatever Regina was worried about it. She wondered what Snow and Regina knew that wasn't in the books. It was obvious from the contracts that they had both employed the same Vulcannonian before the Curse. She wondered if they thought that the Vulcannonians were the cause of the Blackness.
Ruby came over and refilled her tea while asking, "Find anything new yet?"
"No, not really. Most of the documents are contracts for different Vulcannonians and the royal houses of the Enchanted Forest. I even found one for my father, but it was different than the rest. He didn't ask for protection or service. It was more a mercenary assignment."
"How so?" Ruby asked, sitting down in the booth across from her and setting the pitcher of tea on the table in front of her.
"He hired a Vulcannonian named Rojan Fajro," Belle answered.
"For what purpose?"
"To kill Rumple and bring me home," Belle stated.
"Well, we can see that didn't work," Ruby stated. "But, wait, I thought that Vulcannonians were indestructible? You know like immortal or something? How did this Vulcannonian fair against the Dark One? Is there any record of him beyond that contract?"
"Just this picture," Belle said turning the book around.
Ruby looked at the drawing in the heavy leather bound, parchment filled, tome. She saw three woman all around the same age and two men. The taller of the men bore a tall crown like that of a king and the other man a small crown. The woman in the middle of the drawing had a tall crown and red cloak. She was the only dressed in her cloak, Ruby noted. The rest of them were hold their cloaks draped across an arm. Ruby studied the woman in the middle, before she gasped. There was something familiar about her and the youngest looking girl to her right. The younger woman bore small crown, while the woman to the left of the small crowned man had a tiara on her head. It looked like a royal family portrait, except they were all about the same age.
"What?" Belle asked when Ruby pointed at the "Queen."
"That's…that's…GRANNY!" Ruby yelled.
"What is it, girl? You don't need to yell like that. What's wrong with you?" Granny asked coming out of the kitchen to see what had her granddaughter so riled up.
"Who is that?" Ruby asked her pointing to the Queen again.
"It can't be…" Granny answered.
"Who is she?" Belle asked tentatively, realizing that this was a tense situation for them.
"Granny, that isn't her, is it?" Ruby pleadingly asked.
"I don't know, Ruby. I don't know. Your father's sister was…"
"That's your aunt?" Belle inquired, trying to hide the excitement and the worry in her voice.
"Yes, well, it could be. I don't know. She died before I ever knew her. But, Granny always told me that she looked like my father. She'd run off to some island nation to live. We never heard from her again, until she died. A young man brought her the news. I was only about twelve. It was before I turned. It was before I got that cloak," Ruby said pointing at the picture again.
"But, it couldn't be that cloak, Ruby," Granny told her.
"Why not?"
"Because Regina gave me the cloak."
"She what?"
"Don't look so surprised. She cared for you from the beginning. As soon as she figured out that you were her sister, she started looking in on us. Why do you think that she spared us at every turn? She wouldn't have harmed a hair on your head, but she knew that she couldn't bring you to the castle. Cora would have killed you just because you existed. She protected not only you but her father in that respect. She never told her mother about you."
"But, why?"
"Because she wanted a little sister."
"Did she ever…"
"Every chance she could, until she was older and Cora watched her more closely."
"Why don't I remember it?" Ruby asked.
"I asked her to give a potion when the time came. You needed to forget about her. It was the same day that she gave me the cloak. It was just before you thirteenth birthday, right before you changed. She was trying to protect you because she knew that she would be there for you."
"She gave me the cloak?"
"Yes, she is the one that told me that it would keep you from turning," Granny explained.
"But…"
"She loves you, Ruby. She always has. And, for all her faults and all her want to believe that love is weakness, it is her greatest strength. Regina loves so hard and so completely that it blinds her sometimes. Her love of Daniel clouded everything. She cast the Curse in pain more than her want for revenge. Why do you think that she wanted Henry so bad?"
"She's always known that I was her half-sister?"
"Since you were little, yes."
"Well, that add some more dynamics to the family trees of the Enchanted Forest," Belle said.
"You have no idea," Granny stated.
"What about that girl?"
"Your cousin? You met her once. It was just before the Curse I believe, but she had red hair then. What was her name…? Oh, yeah, Willow Scarlet, she was with Robin Hood, I think."