Ever After (Unfinished Fairy Tales #3)(10)

I cannot believe she is telling me this, her expression serene and her hands folded across her lap. “How do you know?”

Mother sighs. “It is a long story. But since Kat appeared...”

Hope rises in my heart. Can it be possible Mother could help us? “Tell me.”

“Do you remember when you were a boy, Henry’s mother had mentioned she did not expect Leon would have picked me?”

“How could I forget?” I grimace. “She was not the only one who didn’t approve of Father’s choice. I beat up a few boys who called you a country bumpkin. Too bad I cannot use my fists now; you know how the nobles sneer at Kat behind her back.”

To this day, I am offended by the jabs and insults hurled at Kat. She takes the criticism with good humor, but sometimes I wonder if I am being selfish for making her stay when she came back at twenty-four. A truly honorable gentleman would have let her return, as she seemed content with her suitor in her own world. But when she slowly fell in love and promised to stay...a sigh escapes my lips. I do not mind being selfish, if that’s what it takes to have those months with Kat.

Mother pours another cup of tea. “I did not expect I’d grow up and marry the king either. Leon was more than ten years my senior, and I always believed he’d be married before I came of age. Moreover, even if there was little difference in age, I was the mediocre child in my family. I was pretty but not eye-catching. I could sing, dance, and play the piano, but my accomplishments were nothing to brag about. My prospects for a husband were not terribly promising as the daughter of a country baron. I also had two older sisters who were more beautiful and accomplished than I. It came as an enormous shock that I ended up marrying your father.”

Father did not marry until he was in his late thirties. It is for this reason that people say I take after him, but very few wish that I was actually like him when it came to choosing a wife. Luckily, I fell in love at twenty-one and married at twenty-two.

“Now, the strangest thing happened to me when I was thirteen. One morning, when I brought my father his morning tea, there was something peculiar in his behavior. He did not recognize me, nor anything in his study. At first I thought he had lost his memory, but I knew it could not be that simple. He could have lost his memory, but he couldn’t have lost his character. After I questioned him a few times, he finally told me he was in fact from another world. His name was Arthur Bartlett, and he came from a strange place called Wales.”

Wales? I’ve never heard about that place. “Kat’s from Oakleigh—a city in a country called the United States of America.”

“You cannot expect that they will come from the same town or district. However, is it true that where your Kat came from, they have this strange automated carriage called a car? And they can travel through the air in a machine called an airplane?”

I nod. This Arthur Bartlett, whoever he is, must have come from the same world as Kat. She had described to me a car, an airplane, and various means of transportation I could never have dreamed of. I had thought we were most advanced of all countries, since the railroad construction was completed. But a vehicle traveling through air is beyond my comprehension.

“Mr. Bartlett had an infant son in his own world, who was playing with an old storybook. When his son nearly ripped apart the book, Mr. Bartlett snatched it from his son’s hands and the cover was torn off. He was transported to our country, and if he wanted to return to his own world, he had to fulfill a happy ending for the royal prince. And so in the beginning, he tried finding suitable candidates for your father. Like you,” she gives me a knowing look, “he was extremely picky. He liked women, but when it came to marriage, he was reluctant to find someone to settle down. It had to be a woman he would want to stay with the rest of his life, rather than someone he might be infatuated with for a few days and then find her a disappointing choice.”

“And he eventually chose you.”

“It was a surprise to Mr. Bartlett as well. During the five years he took my father’s place, he instructed me in so many unusual lessons, in knowledge that I never knew existed. I read books, I learned new things, and when I reached eighteen, I was arguably the most intelligent debutante at the time.” Mother smiles—a confident, charming smile that must have attracted Father when he made her acquaintance. “As a history scholar, he occasionally served as a consultant for the king. And because of that, when I accompanied him to the palace and inadvertently met your father, we talked. He was impressed by my intellect, and I by his behavior. Your grandfather was already a shame on the family. Your father was trying to rectify this, and my middle-class ideas aligned with his. We fell in love, and he proposed. Mr. Bartlett was overjoyed when he heard it. It meant that he could return to his own country, though he also told me he had grown fond of me and would be sorry to leave.”

Mother puts down her teacup and looks at me. “If Mr. Bartlett, with his five years of training, could influence me and catch the eye of your father, then I am not surprised by the effect that Kat has on you. When I first met her, I did not suspect she could be from another world, but I was impressed by her delightful character. I did not wonder why she captivated you. And sometimes I even became a little jealous because she had all your attention.” She pats my hand. “Now I fully understand your attachment. Since you are similar to your father, a girl born and bred in that other world would be irresistible to you.”