One Kiss Read Online Free Page B

regarded Molly. Bitterness and anger etched deep lines ’round her mouth and eyes. Whatever had happened wasn’t just annoying her. He could see a fury building inside.
    The need to punish whomever was responsible for her unhappiness surged within him. He’d seen her kindness at the butcher shop and her loving patience with her mother. She didn’t deserve to feel bad. “You didn’t have any duck,” he said, trying to drag her mind away from bad memories.
    “What?”
    “The duck. I saw you buy it from the butcher. Why didn’t you tell your mother the truth?”
    “Ha. One cannot help but tell my mother the truth. She sees it in any case. But I didn’t say I’d eaten duck, I said I’d had my fill.”
    “So not a lie, precisely, a…dissembling.”
    “Yes.”
    “Still, you should have some. The money that bought it was yours.”
    “If I show that I desire any at all, she won’t eat it until I have at least half. I want her to have all she likes, especially since smoked duck is her favorite, and I didn’t buy that much.”
    “Surely a single one of the five hundred gold coins I gave you can buy all the duck you want.”
    She sat on a knee-high rock. “It can, but I’ve never spent much at the butcher. If I start now, he may wonder. It’s unwise to draw attention to oneself.”
    Robert tilted his head. “A stressful way to live.”
    “No. Just necessary.”
    “If you can’t spend the money or draw any attention to yourself, what are you going to do with all the gold coins? Keep them under your mattress?”
    She laughed, the sound full and throaty. Not at all princess-like.
    Yet it struck something deep inside him, conjured images of wild fairy dancers in lush lazy summer. A little shiver traveled along his skin. He forced himself to squat still.
    “No. I’m not that crazy,” she said. “I plan to spend it…but how and when are my affair.”
    Buying more slices of duck for her mother, probably. Robert still couldn’t quite understand why she didn’t want to have at least
some
of the meat. It had smelled amazing at the butcher shop, and he bet it tasted just as wonderful. He doubted he could be as disciplined as Molly about what he wanted. He’d never had to deny himself anything.
    As the only son of a king, Robert had been spoiled to the core, even by those who didn’t care for him much. They’d been investing in their future, since it was inevitable that he would one day inherit the throne. Women too had indulged him when he was young and loved him when he was older.
    He’d taken all of that and more for granted. He’d felt like he was the best and the greatest…until the Wicked Witch transformed him into a frog, after which nobody believed the claim that he was a royal prince and treated him like a common amphibian.
    “By the way, about what your mother said… Can she really see me in my true form?”
    “No,” Molly said quickly with a little too much force. “She’s blind. She’s been that way for over three years.”
    “But she said—”
    “A handsome young man. That’s not you, Prince Ribbit.”
    He croaked at the undignified name. “Robert. Prince Robert.”
    “Of course. Tell me, do you keep
rabbits
in your castle? Make them wear
ribbons
?” Molly’s fingers were fiddling with one another, and he could tell that she was trying to distract him from the topic of her mother with her horrible taunts.
    “Are you quite done?”
    “Sorry. Didn’t mean to
rubbit
in.”
    “I don’t believe you about your mother.”
    “Leave my mother out of this. Our bargain was that I would help you, not her. If you try to involve her in your mad scheme to win a kiss from Princess Serenia, I’ll leave you at the princess’s mercy.”
    It took all of his self-control to adopt a conciliatory tone. “As you wish.”
We’ll see about that.
    He would undo the curse no matter what it took.

IV. In Which Our Hero Gives the First Golden Ball to the Princess
     
    Robert waited for Princess