Deidre's Faerie Tale

"Hello."

"Hey, mama!" I said in my perkiest voice. It came out in a high-pitched squeak.

"Oh, Lord," she sighed. "What's wrong?"

My face burned. How was I going to tell my mother that I was moving clear out of the country and taking her granddaughter with me?

It had been hard enough telling Lady Ilyn and Lyrik at dinner, the week before. Lyrik's usually pale face turned red as a fire hydrant. Lady Ilyn just smiled knowingly.

"Absolutely not!" Lyrik had exclaimed slamming her open hand onto the table causing her plate to jump and her wine glass to teeter.

Her mother frowned. "These histrionics are not necessary, dear."

Lyrik gave her mother a look that would have earned me a quick slap across the face if I pointed it at my mother. "There is no way I'll allow her to take the crown tomorrow! Just yesterday she didn't want anything to do with being queen! Now, she's changed her mind? What happens when she decides to run back to America and surrender the throne?"

I frowned. "I will not!"

Tolem cleared his throat and Lady Ilyn sighed. "You're grossly overreacting. Deidre is the rightful heir." Her voice was slightly urgent around the word rightful, but other than that she remained un-phased by my stepsister's outburst.

Even though I was pissed, I couldn't help but admire my step-mother's unflappable demeanor. I suddenly got the feeling that I should be taking notes.

"I won't have it mother. I'll have the coronation postponed!" Lyrik's cold blue eyes flashed in anger.

"Trilla's already began making calls...people are on their way!" I shrieked. Yup, judging from the way my blood pressure was rising along with my voice, I definitely needed some tutelage from Lady Ilyn.

"I don't care!" Lyrik screamed grabbing her plate and slinging it into the wall. The rest of us jumped when it shattered, scattering rice and vegetables everywhere. Lady Ilyn was officially flapped. Her hand was splayed across her chest and her mouth was frozen in an "o" of surprise. Lyrik stomped out of the room, long white skirt fisted in her hands, blonde hair flying behind her.

The next day, Trilla met me at the breakfast table. "The coronation has been postponed until next month," she muttered when I sat down.

I sighed and stared at my breakfast of toast, tomatoes, and a bowl of fruit salad. "Lyirk?"

"Yes," Trilla sighed. "She called last night and ranted for over an hour."

I rolled my eyes.

"She thinks that if you stay here long enough, you'll miss home and relinquish the crown."

"She wants to wait me out, huh? Fine, we'll play it that way." I stabbed a piece of tomato with unnecessary roughness.

Trilla smiled.

Lyrik hadn't spoken to me since that infamous dinner. Somehow, I didn't feel any loss.

I sighed. "I have something really important to tell you," I started.

"You're staying in England." My mother's tone was flat.

"How'd you know I was gonna say that?"

My mother sighed. "I've gotten this phone call before."

"I want you to move here with me."

"Ah," she said with a dry laugh. "That sounds familiar too."

My eyes filled. I felt so guilty. "Please, mama."

"I'll have to think about it, honey. How can I just up and leave my home...my life?"

"I thought Ella and me were your life."

"Well, you got me there!" This time her laugh was genuine. "Why don't you tell me about the place?"

"Oh, mama, it's beautiful here. It's green from all the rain, and its not as hot as home, it's still hot, though. Everyone is so nice here...and there's this guy..."

"Oh...is he tall, dark, and handsome?"

I grinned. "He's handsome, but blonde with these gorgeous blue eyes. He is tall, though...so fuckin' tall."

My mother giggled. "How fuckin' tall is he?"

"He's so fuckin' tall; you could climb him like a cypress."

"Oh, honey. I'm way too old to climb anything or anybody. Besides, I'm not much attracted to blondes. I'll leave him to you."

"Well then, I'll take him," I sang happily.

"Listen, honey, my stories are comin' on so I'm gonna let you go. Call me soon!"

"Okay, mama. I love you."

"I love you too, be careful."

***

I knocked and entered Trilla's office when she called for me to come in.

"Your highness!" she gasped leaping to her feet. She smoothed down her cream colored button up shirt and the front of her short black skirt. "How may I help you?"

"First of all, sit down. Don't get all weird on me just because I've decided to be queen."

"Weird?" she queried sinking back into her seat.

"Yeah, don't stand on airs on my account. I need your help more than I need your reverence."

Trilla smiled, making her face even more beautiful.

"Okay, so it's been a week since the coronation was postponed and I feel like I'm floundering here. There has to be something I can do."

"What do you mean?"

I leaned forward, putting my hands on her desk. "I've worked since I was fifteen, Trilla. I can't get used to sitting around reading books and taking walks all day."

She nodded. "I understand...you're feeling...idle."

"Exactly. There has to be something I can do here. I mean, what does Lady Ilyn do all day?"

"She has charities that she organizes. She meets with citizens, plans the festivals and holiday celebrations, organizes balls, and parades. She meets with dignitaries that pass through here on the way to London."

I nodded.

"Of course, she'll retain most of these duties once you are crowned. She will still have her title, after all. She'll remain perfectly qualified."

"What about Lyrik? What does she do besides her daily walk through town?"

Trilla's expression became puzzled. A look I'd never expected to see on her. "Nothing."

"How can she possibly do nothing?" I slumped back into my chair and crossed my arms. I was out of my mind from boredom since I'd finished reading the mountain of books Trilla had loaned me. How could Lyrik do nothing all day, every day?

Trilla stood suddenly causing me to jump. I watched her run to the door and lock it, then pull the curtains on the windows. She settled into her chair, disconnected the cord from the phone and shoved the phone itself into her bottom drawer.

When she was done, the room was lit only a few lamps. The lack of light made me a little nervous. It was almost noon, and yet we were sitting in almost total darkness. She leaned forward and I automatically did the same.

"Our Lyrik bides her time by clinging to the hope that she will one day be queen. That's what occupied her mind more than any menial task ever could. She's obsessed with it. We were schooled together because my parents are nobles who were in the king's favor. In fact, we basically grew up together."

"Really? You don't seem like friends."

"That's because we're not friends. I spent most of my life with her alternating between playing with me and insulting me. I was never good enough to be her friend, but I was her only option because she refused to play with the children of the maids and gardeners."

I nodded. "I believe it."

"Well, for as long as I can remember, Lyrik has been telling everyone how she will be queen someday. Even as we got older, she would use that excuse as a reason not to directly engage with people she felt were below her. She's an aristocrat, even if she's not a royal."

"What do you mean 'not a royal'? Her mother was married to the king."

"True, but Lyrik has no royal blood in her. Lady Ilyn's title came from her father. Lyrik was born out of wedlock, conceived while her mother was away at University."

I nodded. Lady Ilyn got knocked up in college? I could barely believe it when it happened to me, but to imagine Lady Ilyn in the family way was down right mind-blowing!

"All that's known about him is that he was a Frenchman, for all we know he could have been a human. No offense."

"Of course," I shrugged. The scandal of being half human was not lost on me. I could easily tell what my step-sister thought of me and my non-elvin mother. I imagined Lyrik's head would blow clear off if she were to find out her biological father was a human. The idea was almost enough to make me giggle.

"Well, Lyrik is dead set on ruling and finding out about you...then finding you and you showing up here has ruined her plans."

"I don't get it. Why does she want to be queen so bad?"

"She feels entitled. She was raised by a king, in a palace full of servants. Her sense of entitlement probably comes from the same place as your hesitation. You didn't grow up a princess, so the idea is foreign to you. Trilla wants to rule. She wants the power and the respect."

"I don't see how she can feel so entitled when even her mother insists that I'm the one that should be queen."

Trilla laughed...it sounded like wind moving through one of those delicate chimes, melodic tinkling. "Trilla could have been queen of another province by now. She turned down four marriage proposals in the past seven years, three of which were from princes that had already ascended their throne."

"Why the hell would she do that if she's dying to be a queen?"

Trilla sighed. "She doesn't want to marry into the crown; Lady Ilyn is more of a figure head than a ruling monarch. If Lyrik were to be crowned as the one and only ruler of Ellyrinia, she would be able to create and change laws. She'd be able to implement changes in the deepest most entrenched parts of our ruling counsel. She'd be able to do away with Parliament if she wanted! I've known her for a long time, and I know that she would do anything to make sure her reign was unquestionable and long. Lyrik is too selfish to be queen."

I smiled ruefully. "So, I'm your other option...a clueless half-breed."

Trilla's green gaze studied me, her dark brows knit together for a second. "You're not as clueless as you think. You decided to do what's best for Ellyrinia, didn't you?"

I smiled. "Yeah...well...maybe I'm starting to understand this whole queen thing."

We laughed together and I excused myself to go find my step-mother, figure head or not, she was the best person to clue me in on some of my responsibilities as queen.

***

The next day, Lady Ilyn joined me at breakfast.

"Tomorrow," she said leaning back in the high back chair, "there is a grand festival."

"Tomorrow?" I repeated.

I ran down my mental list of summer holidays, but none of them coincided with any date in late June.

"Yes," it's Summer Solstice, we celebrate it extensively. "I have met with our Parliament and they agree that it would be bad for us to cross the solstice without our queen on her throne."

I swallowed a piece of dry toast around the lump that had suddenly formed in my throat.

Lady Ilyn stared at me, probably waiting for me to say something. I couldn't think of anything...I couldn't sound too excited about taking her place...could I?

"The celebration begins tonight," she continued in my silence, "You will be expected to attend of course, and since you are not yet queen, I will oversee the events of tonight and tomorrow."

I nodded dumbly.

"I understand that you have never celebrated Solstice, but it is very important to our society. We celebrate the sun, and nature itself. It's the longest day of the year, a time of renewal, love, appreciation and growth."

"I can't wait," I said trying to smile.

"Very good. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Tomorrow, we will have the coronation at eleven, paying homage to Solstice. Tolem and Trilla have your schedule."

"Okay. What about—uh..."

Lady Ilyn shook her head. "Don't worry about Lyrik. She has been spoken to and understands that this is what's best. She'll come around."

"I'm sure she will," I lied.

"So," Lady Ilyn purred, "what will you be doing on your last day as a free woman?"

I smiled. "It's been so hot, I was thinking about finding a pool. Swimming always makes me feel better."

She smiled, tilting her blonde head to the side. "Really? Maybe you've got a little bit of mermaid in you!"

I choked and sputtered. She laughed.

"Mermaid...seriously?"

"I was just teasing, but it's not completely out of the question. England is surrounded by water after all."

"So they're...have you ever seen..." I stuttered. Lady Ilyn waved my questions away with a fan of her lithe fingers. "A conversation for later, perhaps when there are fewer choking hazards involved."

I nodded and gulped down my glass of water. The mermaid conversation was definitely on my to-do-list.

"I will instruct Tolem to escort you to the river that runs through the woods behind the castle. It's small, but very refreshing on a hot summer's day...and without the scent of chlorine."

I nodded and she excused herself. I stared after her; she seemed to glide across the polished floor, the skirt of her off-white dress barely moving. I wondered if she would give me some lessons on how to be more graceful. So far the list of things I wanted from my step-mother was filling up faster than I could mark them off.

***

Tolem's eyes widened and he whipped around so fast his hair went out in a broad blanket that fell over his right shoulder when he came to a sudden stop.

"Relax," I said pulling my dress off and letting if fall onto the grass. "I have on a bathing suit."

I heard him sigh and watched his head move back and forth. "Perhaps I should leave you alone to swim."

"What kinda bodyguard would you be if you left me alone in the middle of the woods?"

"Security detail...and as such, I should respect your modesty, your highness."

I shoved his shoulder as hard as I could. "Stop calling me that, besides, I'm not that modest. I mean, I'm not on any Girls Gone Wild videos, but I'm not a prude either."

He just stood there, with his back to me.

"Fine," I snapped. "If you're not going to swim with me, I'll get dressed and we can go back to the castle."

"You said you wanted to cool off."

"I do but I'll just put my dress back on and tell my step mother you kept me from my swim." I know I sounded like a spoiled child and every bit the princess I kept insisting I wasn't but at that moment, I didn't care.

The back of Tolem's neck turned pink and I smiled.

"Are you trying to get me in trouble?" he growled.

"No," I responded, trying to sound as innocent as possible, "It's just that you were hired to serve the royal family...namely me...and I want you to swim with me."

"You sound so self-centered," he growled. "Almost like—."

"If you say that I sound like Lyrik, you won't be walkin' out of these woods...at least not the same way you walked in here."

He chuckled. We both knew that I couldn't possibly put a dent in his shin if I kicked him while wearing steel-toed boots, but my threat at least sounded menacing.

I put my hand on his arm and tugged at it. He turned back around to face me.

"Don't be such a hard-ass, Tolem."

His brows knit together for a moment and his face fluctuated between a look of amusement and insistence. I smiled up at him, hoping he'd land on the side of amusement. He sighed. "Fine, I will have a swim."

"Wait!" I said taking a step backwards. "First you have to tell me if you like my bathing suit." I did a model-spin with my arms held out.

"Do I really have to answer that?"

"Sooner or later," I said with a shrug before turning to go into the water of the still river.

Being next to naked had distracted me from the head. The cool water made me moan. "So nice," I muttered sinking into the water until it was over my head.

When I resurfaced, Tolem was still on the bank. He had however, taken off his shirt and jeans. He was only in a pair of white boxer shorts that I silently encouraged him to go ahead and add to the pile of clothing on the ground behind him.

No such luck. He was frowning as he stood with his arms folded. I took the opportunity to appreciate his body sans clothing. Actually, it was more than a moment because I was staring, almost to the point of open-mouth drooling. His body was magnificent without clothes. His shoulders were squared and broad, tapering down to a narrow waste. His pectorals were rounded and his abs, knotted with definition. A river could run down the divet in between the rows of knotted muscles. His legs were thick and powerful. I flashed back to the image of climbing him and sliding back down...slowly.

"Hurry your ass up!" I yelled at him. If and when he got in the water, I couldn't see his body and I wouldn't be staring like an idiot.

As a plus, the loudness of my voice cleared my mind of the haze that had settled over it. One minute I was watching Tolem frown at me and the next my brain was trying to reach back in time and remember the last time I'd gotten some. I knew why I was thinking along those lines, but a queen should be able to enact some self-restraint! Even with an Adonis a stone's throw away.

I tread water and watched Tolem slide into the water. He was so graceful, even as tall and wide as he was; he barely disturbed the water once he was in the river. He made his way toward me quicker than any non-amphibian should be able to move off land. The water cut away from him as if he'd just bathed in baby oil.

There was that familiar knot in my gut as I watched him come closer with each impossible long stroke. He stopped about a foot away from me and I temporarily lost my mind. Well, not really but that has to be the only acceptable explanation for my actions!

I quickly closed the distance between us, coming so close that I could practically see the question in his mind. He smelled wonderful, like a man...woodsy, but not because of our trek through the trees, spicy, and clean. His jaw tensed as I leaned forward, grabbing his biceps. I kissed him! Everything in me screamed BAD IDEA, but I couldn't hear it over the tribal chanting of my sex-deprived, hormone ridden brain. All I could register was YES, YES, YES!

His lips were warm, and soft. I felt him tense under my hands and I dug my fingers into his arms, trying to relay the message that he was not, under any circumstance, to move. He got it! Instead of pulling away and swimming back to shore, he touched me! He put his massive hands on my waist and dragged me against his front. My nipples were instantly hard, but not as hard as the torso I was wrapped around. His chest was what I imagined heated marble to feel like. The solid, planes and ridges all evident under his taught flesh. I wasn't treading water anymore. My legs were wrapped around Tolem's waist, ankles crossed behind his back. I sighed against his mouth and he growled and slanted his mouth roughly against mine. I was so thankful to be in the water at that moment. The way my body reacted to his roughness was embarrassing. If I was on dry land hell—if I was in the Mohave Desert my bottoms would be soaked through to the point of moving the needle of a barometer.

I parted my lips and searched for his tongue with my own. Once they connected I was once again overpowered. It was as if Tolem was searching for something in me. His hands splayed across my back held me firm against him. I wished I could reach down and feeling him, just to check and see if he was as turned on as me. I wanted to feel the package I'd stared at when we'd met at the airport. As much as I wanted to feel him, I couldn't, daylight couldn't get between our bodies, much less my hand. I moaned, digging my fingers into his long hair, it was soft, but heavy from being saturated.

Suddenly, I felt myself being pushed away. My eyes flew open in time to see Tolem swimming back to shore. It took a moment for my brain to overpower my hormones and function as it should so I didn't start swimming after him until he was already halfway to land. By the time I stepped out of the water I was pissed.

Tolem sunk into the grass and dropped his head into his hands as I stumbled onto the bank. I watched his shoulders slump and my anger dissipated, just a little. My water-logged hair cooled me by dripping down my back.