Golden by Cameron Dokey Page A

wasn’t perfect, but at least I had the illusion that it was mine. As of today, I’ve been dragged halfway across the country only to be informed that the reason your mother raised me in the first place was to help break the curse that keeps you in this tower.
    â€œI learned about you yesterday, I’m meeting you for the first time today, and I have yet to decide whether or not I like you. What makes you think I’m any happier about all this than you are?”
    â€œWell, don’t expect me to ask you to stay,” Rue said. “As far as I’m concerned, you can go whenever you want.”
    â€œFine,” I said. “Nice meeting you.” I turned to her mother. “I’d like to go back down now.”
    â€œRapunzel,” said Melisande.
    â€œNo,” I said. “I’m sorry, but no. ‘Of my own free will,’ you said. But she has to ask, some part of her has to want me to stay, or there’s no point in this at all. I’m right and you know it.”
    â€œBut I don’t want you,” Rue said. “I want—”
    â€œI know, I know,” I said. “You want a knight in shining armor.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong with that?” Rue demanded.
    â€œNot a thing,” I responded. “But I’m not making any promises.”
    â€œYou’ll never get anything accomplished with an attitude like that.”
    â€œNo,
we’ll
never get anything accomplished unless you ask me to stay in the first place,” I all but shouted.
    We eyed each other for a moment, both of us breathing just a little too hard.
    That was the moment the cat intervened. Bounding up the spiral staircase to pounce upon the ribbon at the end of Rue’s hair. I hadn’t thought about Mr. Jones since our arrival. But now here he was, a great fat copper penny wrestling with all that gold.
    â€œOh,” Rue breathed. “A cat. Whose cat is it? Is it yours?”
    At the tone of her daughter’s voice, Melisande went very still. Together, we watched as Rue knelt and ran her fingers over Mr. Jones’s fur. A moment later, his rich purr filled the room.
    â€œDoes it have a name?”
    â€œOf course it has a name,” I said. “It is a he and his name is Mr. Jones.”
    Rue was sitting on the floor now, sitting on her own hair, though I don’t think she noticed. If you can let people climb up your hair, sitting on it yourself probably counts as nothing.
    â€œThat’s a silly name for a cat,” she said, at which he crawled up into her lap as if he’d known her all his life, turned around three times, then curled up with his tail tucked beneath him, just the way he always did in my lap.
    I felt a pang in my heart.
So that’s the way things are going to be,
I thought.
    â€œHe’s named for the person who gave him to me,” I explained. “A tinker, called Mr. Jones. He has ginger whiskers. It was meant to be a compliment to all concerned, and it seemed a good idea at the time.”
    â€œCan we keep him?” Rue suddenly inquired. She looked up. Not at her mother, but straight at me, and now I could see the way those violet eyes could shine. Almost as brightly and beautifully as all that golden hair. “If you were to stay, could he stay too?”
    â€œI hope so,” I said simply. “For I love him.”
    Her expression changed then, and Melisande became even more still than before, so still she could have been one of the stones of the tower.
    â€œWould you, could I—”
    Rue exhaled a frustrated breath and began again, though I noticed she no longer met my eyes, but kept hers fixed on Mr. Jones.
    â€œIf you stayed, would you be willing to share him with me? Could I learn to love him as well?”
    I took one very deep breath of my own, held it for a count of six, then let it out.
    â€œI would be willing to share him,” I said. “Butwhether or not you can learn to love him,