Charm by Sarah Pinborough

behind curtains or hide beneath tables as servants or soldiers toured the building checking it was safe. What surprised her more, however, was the discovery that she found her secret task quite exciting – far more than her new life as a princess – especially when she came close to getting caught. On those nights she would arrive at the kitchen door with her face flushed and so high on the thrill that the huntsman would laugh out loud; a rough, earthy sound, and she would laugh with him even though she had nothing to report.
    One night her search brought her to the prince’s apartments. That afternoon they had played chess together and she had won and he’d looked at her in such surprise, as if seeing beyond the pretty little thing she was to the woman beneath. The woman she was growing into. Her heart had surged with the possibility that he might love her after all.
    As she stood outside his bedroom, the floor cold beneath her bare feet, she couldn’t help but push the door open a little to look inside. She didn’t want to wake him, just to see him sleeping and imagine herself next to him, their naked bodies entwined in life as they often were in her fantasies.
    The bedroom was empty and the covers still perfectly made. She stared for a long moment, the cold from the floor suddenly nothing next to the chill in her heart. Where was he? It was nearly three in the morning and he’d said at dinner that he was tired. Slowly, she closed the door. She tried to turn her mind from the only logical reason for his absence but she couldn’t quite manage it. He was somewhere in the castle with another woman. She felt sick. Suddenly, she wanted her old bedroom with his picture on her wall where she could look at him and imagine him perfect. She’d been stupid. A stupid little girl. She turned and ran, her heart a little more broken.
     
    ‘ I still haven’t found anything,’ she snapped at the fairy godmother’s man, waiting as he was for her by the kitchen door. ‘But it would help if I knew what I was looking for.’
    ‘Trust me,’ he said. ‘You’ll know when you find it.’
    ‘Trust you? I don’t even know you.’ She knew the words were harsh but she couldn’t help it. She felt sick. Her prince was in another woman’s bed. He hadn’t even tried to get into hers – even after everything at the Bride Ball. She thought of the fairy godmother. What had she said? She’d make sure Cinderella got her prince, but she couldn’t guarantee true love? How arrogant she’d been to think that love wouldn’t be a problem. She thought of the third dark nut tucked into the folds of her dress. What would happen if she cracked it? Would life go back to as it was before? Her stomach tightened. Even if she really wanted to – and she wasn’t sure she was ready yet – she couldn’t escape before fulfilling the fairy godmother’s commands. She’d made a promise to search the castle. She had to see that through.
    ‘You know me well enough. As I know you.’
    ‘That’s not true. I don’t know anything about you.’
    ‘I’m a huntsman,’ he said. ‘One who is very tired of royal games. Will that do?’ She felt his dark eyes studying her. ‘Why did you fall in love with the prince?’ he asked eventually.
    The question came so far out of the blue and cut through the pain in her heart so suddenly that she found herself answering without any thought. ‘He was so very beautiful.’ She didn’t think about the past tense. She didn’t think about what that meant.
    ‘I suppose he is, if you like that kind of thing,’ the huntsman said. ‘But tell me,’ he leaned against the wall in his easy fashion, ‘didn’t you wonder for a moment how foolish and self-absorbed a man must be to only recognise the woman he claims to love from her foot fitting a shoe?’
    ‘No,’ she said, her face burning. ‘No I didn’t, because I’m a stupid, stupid girl. Is that what you want to hear?’ She spat her anger at him with tears