A Happily Ever After of Her Own Read Online Free Page B

and scouting the area for good escape routes and possible traps.
    "Why do we need escape routes?" Melinda asked him. "All we have to do is get in the same room with Beauty and the Evil Witch. Then I tap my watch, and yay, we're back in the Fairy Tale World."
    "I am the prince here. Leave the battle planning to me."
    And leave the driving to me,
she thought, smiling a bit as she recalled the enormous conniption fit Edward had thrown when he had discovered what her "Charger" really was -- and that he couldn't drive it. But it had been her only victory so far. Logic didn't work with him, and he'd never encountered the concept of gender equality. She found herself wishing that Cinderella had come to Bolinsville instead. Prince Charming simply had to be more enlightened.
    *** *** ***
     
    The original owner of Tudor Land had been an eccentric historian, and he'd converted his one hundred acres of family farm into a theme park. Edward jumped out of the car the moment it stopped and jogged around to open her door for her. He held out a hand.
    "I'm perfectly capable of getting out on my own," she said.
    Sighing, he reached down and lightly took her hand, fingers to fingers. The contact was sweeter than she remembered, and for a moment she inhabited those fingers entirely. He pulled her out, shut the door, and rested his hand on the small of her back while he looked around vigilantly. She shivered.
    "A gentleman never allows a lady to step out of a carriage unaided," he informed her.
    "A lady." She raised an eyebrow. "I thought I was a Trespasser."
    "That was admittedly rude of me. You haven't been convicted."
    Yet
lingered in his tone, but she didn't want to argue and ruin the moment, even as she was telling herself she was shivering because of the cool early morning air against her skin, not because Edward's hand felt impossibly good or she was doing her best to not lean against him.
    "Where is the entrance?"
    "There." With almost an inhuman strength of will, she stepped away from him and gestured at the closed gates. "See? What did I tell you?"
    Edward stepped up to the gates and ran a finger over the bolt and padlock. "It seems not to be enchanted."
    "Of course not. But it's locked."
    "What is locked can be scaled." He gripped one of the fence's iron bars experimentally. "It even has handholds."
    "Absolutely not--"
    Too late. He was already over the other side. For a prince, he moved with a lightness and quickness thieves would envy. "Come," he said through the fence.
    She crossed her arms and shook her head.
    "Come!" he said more impatiently.
    "Do you know what's going to happen if we get caught?"
    Edward glanced around. "'Caught'? There are no guards about. And if we must escape we can take their horses."
    "No," she said. "There will be no taking of horses. The ones they have here are for jousting."
    "Jousting!" His eyes gleamed briefly, but then the eyebrows above them came together. "They are truly horses, not flatulent moving metal boxes?"
    "They're really horses. But you can't take them."
    "Oh, very well." He gestured her forward. "Now come. Or if you are too cowardly to face the Evil Witch, I shall go alone."
    There was something endearing about his attempt to manipulate her, but she couldn't let a fairy tale character wander around by himself at the theme park, especially when he thought he could just take whatever he wanted without asking.
    Prince my pert tushy.
Grumbling, she pushed herself over the fence.
More like dictator.
    Tudor Land was a mishmash of themes and rides: Ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, archery lanes, jousting fields and more. And of course there was the Tudor House.
    It was the most impressive of all the attractions in the park. It towered over them like a fat haughty king -- Henry VIII, to be precise. The park's builder had apparently idolized Henry to a certain degree.
    Of course, he would.
Melinda would've too if she'd been a man.
Off with your head, and no alimony or child support to worry