Chapters (18)
They lay side by side in the growing dark as their sweat cooled on their skin. The prince didn’t pull her close to him and neither did she move. There was only the sound of their slowing breathing and the flutter of wings on the windowsill outside.
‘Must be an owl,’ Snow White said, eventually. Her voice was soft and small. Guilty. He rolled onto his side, away from her, and stared into the gloom. His jaw tightened. What was it with women and deception? Why could they never be as they appeared?
‘Look, I . . .’ The bed creaked as she turned to face his back.
‘It wasn’t your first time.’ It wasn’t a question. He knew it as fact. It was obvious from everything she’d done. He’d been deceived.
‘It’s not like . . . there was only . . . it wasn’t like you think.’
He didn’t move. He didn’t speak and the silence became interminable. He squeezed his eyes shut and wished sleep would come.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, eventually, and rolled the other way, pulling her knees up under her chin. The air between them was cold; a few inches and yet vast as an ocean. How had it come to this so quickly? And why had that stupid dwarf not just told him the truth about her? Would he have loved her anyway if she hadn’t been such a shock?
What was his father going to say?
By morning, he had made up his mind.
After a fitful hour or so’s sleep he woke to find her lying on her side watching him, her dark hair spread out on the pillow behind her. As ever, for a moment, he was lost in her beauty.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ she said. She chewed her rosebud bottom lip slightly, with her perfect white teeth. ‘We could just pretend we never got married. I’d understand. I wouldn’t say anything. I could go back to the dwarves. Or somewhere else. You can go back to your kingdom. No one would ever have to know. I should have said . . .’
He reached a hand out and stroked her face and then leaned forward and kissed her. ‘It’s okay.’
‘But you . . .?’
‘I said it’s okay.’ He moved closer, pulling her ripe body next to his. ‘You’re so beautiful,’ he whispered, as he felt himself react to the feel of her. ‘So perfect. I could never let you go.’
He rolled her under him, taking control, and when she tried to speak he silenced her words with his mouth on hers. She was his princess. She was his. And she would stay that way.
