It was a dream. Nothing but a dream, she told herself.
She sat up, hugging her knees to her chest, and took several long breaths. As she breathed, she became aware of the burning in her hands.
This time, the burns did not go away. When at last her maid came in to stoke up her fire an hour before dawn, Una still lay awake in her bed, grimacing in pain. The burns weren’t severe enough for her to demand an apothecary’s attentions, but they hurt even so. Nurse clucked when she saw them and concocted a soothing ointment, which she spread on Una’s fingers, then made the princess put on a pair of kid gloves to help it soak in. Una obeyed willingly enough, but when she removed the gloves later that afternoon, the burns were as red as before.
“What did you do to yourself, Miss Princess?” Nurse demanded, inspecting them and clucking still more. “Were you grabbing the fire irons in the night? You know you’re supposed to let the maid do her work; that’s why you’ve got a bell to summon her with!”
Una did not try to explain. She did not understand herself. Instead she gratefully accepted the excuse not to embroider and went to sit quietly in her window. Monster placed himself in her lap and started grooming with all the care of a dandy. Absently, Una rubbed behind his ears. His silky fur felt pleasant against the burns.
“Curious, isn’t it, Monster,” she whispered as she looked out across the gardens, on down to the Wood. “Curious how time works. How can a day be so much longer than a month?”
Monster twisted his ears without much interest and switched to washing his other paw.
“Where is he now, I wonder?” she whispered, stroking her cat’s back. Monster started to purr and raised his haunches to welcome a scratch. “You don’t suppose he has forgotten me, do you?”
Monster stated an opinion.
“Yes, well, ‘meow’ is little comfort,” Una said and tousled his ears. “I suppose I can’t expect anything, though. He said he would not be able to contact me. I wonder, how long does it take to slay a dragon? I wonder if he’ll be hurt.”
“Mreeow,” Monster said.
“Oh, don’t say that! No, he will be fine, I know it. He has learned much about dragons, you know, in the Far East. He will be fine, and he will be back by spring.”
“Mreeeow?”
“I just know it, that’s all.”
“What are you talking about to yourself?” Nurse demanded, entering the room with a basket of mending. She was generally disposed to be short with Una these days. Although Una had ceased her random fits of sobbing long ago, Nurse still disliked the mysterious bubble surrounding the princess that she was not permitted to puncture.
“I wasn’t talking to myself,” Una said. “I was talking to Monster.”
“Stop that nonsense and come talk to me instead. I’ll at least listen to you!” Nurse settled into her chair and raised her eyebrows at Una. “Well, Miss Princess?”
“Don’t call me Miss Princess,” Una said. “You only call me Miss Princess when you’re mad at me, and I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Heaven help us, if we aren’t persnickety this afternoon!” Nurse cried. She pulled a long stocking with a hole in the toe from her basket. “Can’t even use a nickname without offending these days . . . Where are you going? It’s too late to go out walking – you hear me?”
Una did not. She’d grabbed her cloak and made a swift exit. Monster trotted after her down the stairs, trilling loudly at her ankles, but she refused to let him follow her outside. Shutting the door in his nose, she ran lightly out into the garden and down to her forest.
The evening was bitter, promising a night as cold as the last. The trees cast long and longer shadows, but a bit of orange sunlight still dappled the forest floor. Una had taken to coming out to the Old Bridge nearly every day, weather permitting. It was a sweet, solitary spot where she could sit alone with her memories. She liked to recall her first meeting with the jester, when he landed on her after sneaking over the wall, a memory that always brought a smile to her face. Who would have believed that garish lunatic would, only weeks later, steal her heart so completely? This thought made her laugh as well, but always with tears behind the laughter.
Una pulled her cloak tight about herself as she stepped onto the Old Bridge. She sat down and dangled her feet over the edge but did not touch the icy water. A brisk wind blew winter smells of wet leaves and cold earth and perhaps of coming snow into her face. She closed her eyes and, leaning back on her hands and lifting her chin into the wind, let herself dream.
“Hello, Una.”
She looked over her shoulder. “My jester!” She leapt up, stumbling over her cloak. There he stood on the far side of the bridge, his foolish, bell-covered hat in his hand and his hair standing all on end. “You’re back!”