Papa hurried forward, unlocking his cell door and releasing Justin, apologising to him and explaining the fact that another body had been discovered while I lingered in the wings like a fart no one had noticed yet. But as his gaze rose to meet mine, I knew the stench of betrayal had found him.
“Oh sweet salamanders,” I said. “Can you ever forgive me for believing you capable of such heinous and brutal acts?”
Justin’s brows arched in surprise, his simple face a picture of confusion as he found himself free, Papa removing the magic restricting cuffs that had been used to contain him with a key from his pocket.
“Did you catch the real culprit?” he asked, not answering my question and I sucked in a shameful breath as I shook my head.
“Whatever will it take to earn your forgiveness?” I begged of him and he blushed a little as his gaze dropped to the bounty of my bosoms, letting me know he desired a reward of the flesh.
“Bagels!” I cried, so loud that Papa darn near fell over and Justin flinched. “This man needs a bagel if ever I saw a man in need of one.”
I turned sharply and hurried away, hearing Justin’s footsteps hounding me as my ears burned with the terrifying prospect of allowing him to water my lawn.
I ran like a peacock on a tennis court, leading him to the dining hall where I bellowed at everyone in attendance to applaud him and apologise for ever doubting his stalwart heart before escaping through the crowd to the kitchens.
A sob caught in my throat as I began to prepare the dough, beating it like a lizard on a tumbleweed as I worked to create my signature bagels. But today’s batch were sure to be a failure. Because my tears were going to add more salt than a barracuda with a bum rash and there wouldn’t be a Fae who ate them who didn’t know the truth soon.
“Gerry?”
My heart stilled at the sound of that voice and I sucked in a sharp breath, freezing where I was and wondering if I hadn’t just conjured the idea of him into my mind.
“Gerry, talk to me.”
I felt him at my back even before he touched me, his hands finding my forearms and sliding down my skin until his fingers met with mine and he began to guide me in the dance of kneading the dough.
“I can feel your heart breaking,” he murmured in my ear and I heaved another sob as I closed my eyes and leaned back against him, focusing on the feeling of the dough between our fingers and his chest pressed to my back
“Who am I if I am not a lady of my word?” I asked, feeling the heat of his breath on my neck like a dawn crested feather spinning through the air.
“You’re Geraldine Grus,” he replied. “And you’re fucking everything to me.”
My fluttering heart free fell to my nether regions at those words and I broke for him, opening up like an egg cracking apart and offering him a view of my yolky insides.
“But you are a cad and I am a lady,” I breathed. “We are as unlikely as a fish and a dandelion finding truest love.”
“Well this fish would grow legs and crawl from the water to sit with you, dandelion.”
My throat bobbed and my fingers stilling in the dough.
“And what if the wind blows and my seeds take flight?” I murmured.
“Then I would grow wings and follow you to the moon,” he replied. “Because nothing in this world means more to me than you do, Gerry. And there are no differences we can’t overcome to be together.”
I turned my head, my eyes cracking open and swimming with tears that revealed a watery view of his handsome face.
“Then meet me on the moon,” I breathed, agreeing to something I knew I shouldn’t and parting my lips for the caress of his mouth. Would Mama hate me for this, would she curse my name once, twice, three times beyond the Veil and call me a tongue twizzler of a tuppence?
He kissed me like I was a hogmoth dancing in the nether breeze and I kissed him like he was a mongoose who just needed love.
It was sweet and honest and utterly ours and as our hands returned to kneading the dough, I fell into the rhythm of baking with him and together we made the butteriest bagels that I ever had made which we devoured together away from the crowd. And not a single crumb was offered to Justin’s thin lips.
I stood with my hands clasped at the based of my spine, staring out into the sheeting rain that beat down on the glass of the royal conservatory. The doors before me held the near transparent images of a Hydra and a Harpy within the glass, and I watched as rain droplets drizzled over them, the king and queen appearing to weep before me. But not even that could bring me any satisfaction this morning.