The Frog Prince Read Online Free Page A

about a frog?”
    Jeremiah laughed. “Yes, what type of riff-raff have you been keeping company with?”
    “Perhaps she is in love with it.” David grinned.
    She could have boxed their ears. “Very humorous.”
    “Hey, if you are half as in love with the frog as Jeremiah is with the horse, this could be fun. Let us all go and meet him,” David said as he sat his plate upon a nearby end table.
    “Now this I have to see—little Blythe’s gentleman caller.” Jeremiah’s laughter grew louder as they came toward her.
    “You would not dare!” Blythe blocked the doorway. “You will not go and mock him. He came to see me, not you.”
    “Aye, perhaps she does love him!” Jeremiah whispered loudly behind his hand. “Do you see how defensive she has become?”
    David waggled his brows. “He must be quite the looker.”
    “If you take another step, I will flatten you both!” Blythe glared as her brothers attempted to remove her hands from their vice grip upon the doorframe. “Mother, help me.”
    “Boys!” the queen chided. “Get your plates and eat your food, or you will be sent back outside to muck the stalls.” She turned toward Blythe. “Remove your hands from the door. You may have unusual animal playmates, but kindly do not act like a monkey in this castle.” When Blythe lowered her arms to the snickers of her brothers, her mother brushed past her and said, “Come now. We shall meet this toad together.”
    “He is a frog.”
    Her mother gave her “the look” as she waited for the butler to lead the way. “Well, thank the heavens! A frog! And here I was worried it was a toad. I am so much more relieved now.”
    If ever there was a woman who had mastered the art of sarcasm, it was the queen. “He is an enchanted frog,” Blythe replied as they began to follow the butler down the long hallway.
    “Better and better,” her mother mumbled. “Honestly, Blythe, tell me this instant if he is a pet you found at the filthy pond.”
    “Yes. He is.”
    “And why did he come? Did you not explain to him that you were not in the habit of entertaining animal callers? Or did you invite him along to try my patience even more?”
    “Mother! Must you be so against everything?”
    “When it comes to slimy toads coming to speak with my daughter, yes, I will be against it!”
    “He is a frog.”
    “Is there a difference?”
    “Well, yes. A toad is at least three times bigger.”
    Her mother shuddered. “Mercy, do not say another word!”
    The butler stopped at the small waiting room near the great hall and swung his arm out. “He is just through here, Your Majesty.”
    “Thank you,” she said as she swept into the room.
    Blythe quickly followed to find the frog perched quite respectably upon the blue chair by the window.
    “Hello,” the queen said as she folded her arms. “My butler has informed me that you can speak. Is this true?”
    “Yes,” answered the frog.
    “So you are enchanted?”
    “I am, Your Majesty.” He bowed his head.
    “And you are here to converse with my daughter?” They both glanced at Blythe.
    “Yes. She has made me a promise and I have come to remind her of it.”
    Blythe rolled her eyes. This was just wonderful. Things became so much more awkward once one’s mother knew about them. Could he not have come in another way and allowed her to keep her pledge secretly so as not to alarm her mother? Already the queen looked as if she were about to explode.
    “I beg your pardon—did you say my daughter made you a promise?”
    “Yes.”
    “And when was this?” She placed her hands on her hips. “How well acquainted are you two?”
    “We have only just met today.”
    “And already my daughter has pledged herself to a frog ?”
    Oh, for heaven’s sake! “Mother, I did not pledge myself—it is not that type of promise. He did not ask to marry me—my word!”
    “Well!” Her mother waved her hand in front of her face like a fan. “Then before I draw too many more false