“When I met you, my darling, I knew you were the only girl I wanted, and since you had not seen my face, you would be suitable. I enlisted Kendra’s help to persuade you to marry me. She knew you would do anything to save your brother.”
“Jack? Will Jack still be all right?” In all that had happened, I had almost forgotten about poor Jack! How had Kendra known about Jack? “Did Kendra kidnap him?”
“No. He is all right, but imprisoned by the Nazis. Kendra found out about him from your sisters. She used her mirror to locate him and has been protecting him with her spells. Perhaps it was wrong of me to use your brother as bait, but I was desperate. I will ask Kendra to help you find him.”
“But you?” Now that I knew Jack was safe, my thoughts returned to my husband. I wanted him to stay my husband! It was as if, in that short amount of time, I had lived a lifetime, a lifetime of standing by the piano with Phillip each evening, of falling asleep in his strong arms. I could not live without him.
“I must carry out my bargain.”
“By marrying a troll?” I knew little of trolls, except that they were said to lurk under bridges in children’s stories. It seemed impossible that trolls even existed, but still more impossible that he would not be here, always, with me. That I had doomed him. I wanted to do anything to keep him from leaving, even if I had to burn the whole house down and turn us both to ash. “Oh, how could I have done this to you?”
“It wasn’t your fault. I should have known it would be impossible. Don’t blame yourself.”
“But how can I not?” I began to sob. “And how can she punish you for my mistake?”
“Please don’t cry, Grace.” He touched my wrist, then pulled me toward him in an embrace.
“Can you stay?” I asked. “Stay with me?”
“I want to. I so want to, even more now that I know you, now that I have loved you.” His embrace tightened.
“Then stay! What can she do?”
“I am supposed to go to a castle, east of the sun, west of the moon. There I will find my bride.”
“Please! Please!” It was like the moment after hearing about George’s death, when it felt like there was still something that could be done to reverse it, though of course there wasn’t. At such moments, time seemed like a map with one event on one side of some chasm and the present on the other side. It seemed like it should be easy to traverse the pit, but in fact it was impossible.
“It was only a tiny mistake. Please don’t leave me,” I begged him.
He held me and stroked my hair. “I’ll try not to,” he said.
And yet, even as I fell asleep in his arms, I knew he would be gone when I awoke.
In the morning, he was nowhere to be found. In the evening, he did not come home for dinner.
Phillip was gone.
5
That night, I lay alone in the silent darkness. In the time we had been married, our sleep had not been interrupted by air raid sirens, but now I wondered what happened if there was a wailing in the night. Would I flee to the building’s cellar? Would I cower there alone? Or should I return to my family’s home? I didn’t know if I should wait for my husband. I didn’t know if I was even a wife anymore.
As I waited for morning to come, I decided. I had to find Phillip. I didn’t know where he was, but I knew he would only be happy and safe in my arms—and I would only be happy and safe with him. Plus, I couldn’t face my sisters. I couldn’t let them know my husband had abandoned me. And I especially couldn’t let them know it was because I had listened to their nonsense—though, really, it was their fault.
I slept for about an hour. The next morning, when I knew my sisters would be at work, I went to find Kendra.
She let me in cheerily, as if she’d been expecting me. “Grace! How are you? And how is dear Phillip?”
The way she said it, I suspected she knew that too. “He’s missing. I must find him.”
She invited me into her flat. It was much larger than our flat, larger, in fact, than I would have believed possible from the outside, and decorated much like I imagined Buckingham Palace would be. I sat on an antique chair and poured out the whole story.
When I finished, she smiled the sad smile of one who is sorry to be right. “I told him it would be impossible to expect a young woman not to see the face of her husband.”
“But I love him. I love him despite his scars, despite his nightmares, despite the curse that is upon him. I love him. I want him back. You must help me.”
“I will help you find your brother.”
“I want that too—but I can’t allow Phillip to marry a troll. Please!”
She picked up a mirror—the mirror—from a small table. She spoke into it. “Show me Phillip.”
I saw Phillip. He was alive! But he appeared to be in a small room, very dark, and I could see nothing else.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“I cannot tell,” she said. “I can’t always tell. Even with my beloved . . .” She stopped.
“Then how will—?”