Pumpkin Patch Princess

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: So Close, and Still So Far

"Thank you for that. And please get off her, you're shedding all over her gown." I pulled a handkerchief out of my handbag and gave it to him. "Find some water to dip this in, will you?"

Cynthia tried to sit up when she saw me. "I'm so sorry," she moaned. "I lied to the guards. I told them you were Princess Cynthia and I was Noelle, your fairy godmother. I said I was nervous about you landing the prince, and then I fainted and they carried me up here to rest. I just couldn't go into that ballroom with everyone watching me." She chuckled weakly. "I never thought I'd be afraid of going inside, as opposed to outside."

I sighed. "Look, Cynthia. I want to help you, but you need to tell me what's going on."

The princess was quiet for a long moment. "You know that saying, be careful what you wish for? Well, I should have been more careful about wishing to leave Indigo. I'm not ready for the real world. I want my old life back."

"But it wasn't a good life, remember?" I reminded her gently. "You were a servant."

"Cleaning isn't all that bad, you know. I felt safe, snug. Every day was just like the next. Nothing unexpected. I like being at home, Noelle, and I'm okay with that. I can take the world in small doses, but . . . I like walls and ceilings and a roof. I like my broom and my dust pan." She glanced at me. "Does that sound weird?"

I looked at her pale, exhausted face and felt a rush of guilt. All I had cared about was seeking glory for Maud and myself, and I had forced too much, too soon. How could I have expected poor Cynthia to just waltz out of the castle she hadn't left for a decade and suddenly be the life of the party?

"It doesn't sound weird at all." I hugged her. "Come on. Let's go get the pumpkin and go home."

Cynthia gasped. "No, not after all your hard work! We're here anyway and I feel much better, I promise. I'll go meet Prince Christopher." The corners of her mouth turned up slightly. "I'm not nervous about talking to him anymore, you know."

"Why not?"

"Because his heart's already taken. Oh, Noelle." She took my hand and squeezed it. "Why didn't you tell me he was the boy at the market?"

I closed my eyes in pain. "I didn't know. If I had, I would have stayed far, far away from him. I don't deserve a prince, Cynthia. I'm just a fairy godmother."

"He doesn't seem to care about that," she said softly.

"He thinks I'm a princess. He hates fairy godmothers."

Cynthia waved away my protests. "You know that day when we went shopping in the Tented Market? And you introduced me to him? All he wanted to talk about was you. He kept asking me questions about you, but I didn't know you well enough yet. I told him how sweet you were to help me move out of Indigo."

So I had been silly and childish. I had stomped out of the market, thinking he had developed a new crush on Cynthia, when he had been asking her all about me. I had been jealous for absolutely nothing.

But under all the shame, I felt joy. I told myself I shouldn't feel happy, but I did. I couldn't help it. He liked me. I was the one he cared for.

"So he knows?" I asked Cynthia anxiously. "He knows you are Princess Cynthia and I'm a fairy godmother?"

She shook her head. "We didn't talk about that. I didn't say anything about you being a fairy godmother. To be honest, I'm not used to the princess thing, so I just said you were my friend. I do think of you as more of a friend than anything."

Before I could ask her more, I heard a loud, clanking noise and looked up to see Geoff Oakdale in a suit of armor. Beside him was Muffet, who had my wet handkerchief in his mouth.