When we reach the castle grounds, I clutch Jack’s hand.
“What’s wrong?” he says.
“I am frightened.”
“Of what?”
“Of what? Let us see…Father was already angry at me a week ago for destroying his kingdom. Now add to that the offense of running away, getting on an airplane, leaving the country, losing my jewels—”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you, Meryl found the jewels. I brought them with me.”
“All right. Not the jewels. But nonetheless…and the offense of falling in love with a commoner.” I gaze up at him. “Not that that is an offense to me, my dearest.”
He rolls his eyes. “Of course not.”
“But Father may possibly disagree with me.”
“Understood. He’s been in a bad mood.”
“So do I not have reason to be frightened?”
But at that moment, the castle door is thrown open and a mob descends—not only people, although every scullery maid, cook, lady-in-waiting, groom, and guard is there, but also animals, the palace dogs and cats and chickens and cows and horses, and even the five fairies, Flavia, Celia, Violet, Leila, and Xanthe, all pour forth from the castle door to see me, to greet me, their beloved princess.
At the head of the group are Father and Mother. I drop Jack’s hand—he will forgive me—and run screaming into their arms.
“You are not angry at me, Father?” I ask as soon as I can easily breathe under his embrace.
“No, no, my dearest.”
Mother says, “Your father lost his temper, dear. But now, he realizes you could not have helped what happened. You were dealing, after all, with the forces of evil.”
I remember Malvolia’s story of the baby, and I know I should protest. But on the other hand, Malvolia is gone, and Mother and Father have stopped being angry at me. There will be time to straighten out that matter in the future. And I will straighten it out.
“I am so glad to be home!” I say, and we hug some more.
Behind me, I hear a tiny voice—Flavia’s voice—saying, “He was her true love after all!”
“Besides,” Father says, “I believe we have it all settled now, how Euphrasia will survive in the twenty-first century.”
“You have?” I say.
“Yes. Perhaps we should discuss it over breakfast.”
We adjourn into the castle. The dining table is laid for a small group, a dozen or so, and Mother is all smiles. “Did you know,” she says, “that they have something called a truck now, which moves so quickly that it is possible to bring in food and other necessities from Belgium and even France?”
I beam. I did know that. I move closer to Jack, for it has occurred to me that—true love or not—we may not be long in each other’s company. He must go back to America, for school, and I will stay in Euphrasia with Father and Mother. But we are together now, and I shall make the most of it.
“Evan.” My father turns to Jack’s father. “Tell them about Royal Euphrasia.”
“What’s Royal Euphrasia?” Jack and I both say together.
“Well, it’s an idea King Louis and I had, a joint venture between the Euphrasian government and my company. King Louis was concerned that now that Euphrasia is visible again—now that the hedge is gone—the kingdom might be vulnerable to some sort of outside takeover. King Louis might be overthrown. He did not want that, so we had to think of a way in which Euphrasia could support itself.”
“Support itself?” I think of the world I have seen, a world of airplanes and computers, photographs and televisions. How can Euphrasia possibly compete?
But Jack’s father continues. “See, when the kids were little, my wife and I liked to go to these tourist attractions—Colonial Williamsburg, Medieval Times…remember, Jack?”
Jack nods. “That was fun.”
“So when I saw this place, I thought what a great idea it would be to develop Euphrasia as a tourist attraction. It would be just like Williamsburg, only real, with real people from the seventeenth century, and maybe we could open some cute little hotels where people could actually live like they did in your time.”
“With no toilets?” Jack says.
“I have to admit, I really do like toilets,” I say, although I am ready to say I like anything at all if it will make Father happy. “Perhaps we could have some toilets.”
“But you see, Talia,” Father says, “in this way, the people of Euphrasia could continue to live as they are accustomed. And I would be able to continue being a king, and you a princess. The curse caused the world to forget us. But once they find out that we are here, that we are back again, there may be a movement to change things.”
I nod. I remember seeing Euphrasia from the airplane. It was small, but it was there.
“Of course, we’d need to do some painting and repairs before we could open,” Mr. O’Neill says, “and maybe get some better costumes for people.”
“But what they are wearing is authentic,” I say.
“Oh, I know,” Mother says. “But Mr. O’Neill explained that there is authentic and there is authentic. People want things to be more colorful, and not have the townspeople running about looking like mushrooms.”
And in a second, I think, I could sew the clothes. Would they allow me to sew?
“And we’d need to do some better landscaping, too,” Mr. O’Neill says. “I’ve just found this design my son has been working on.”
I hear Jack draw in a breath. “You found that?”
I draw my breath, too. Jack told me, on the way back, how he showed his landscape design to the dragon father Malvolia created. He told me that, in this vision, his father laughed at him, ridiculed him. I pray he will be strong. I dearly hope his father will not hurt him.
“So…” Jack kicks the ground with his shoe, not making eye contact with his father. “Do you like it?”
Please let him like it.
His father nods, smiling. “It was the inspiration for all of this. Once we found this, it helped us to visualize, and that’s how the whole plan got started. You have talent, Jack. You can work with the landscape designers to help us achieve a really great look for Royal Euphrasia.”
“But…” Jack stammers. “But I thought you wanted me to go to business school.”
“That was before I saw what a talent you had for this. Your mother and I hadn’t realized you had an interest in landscape design. For a while, we worried you weren’t interested in anything. But now…”
It is as Meryl said. Jack’s parents were worried about him, as mine were about me.
“Jack has a talent for gardening,” I say, “a great affinity for the land.”
Jack’s father nods. “You can help us with Royal Euphrasia in the summers.”
“Really? I could stay here and work on it?” Jack asks.
“Well, for the rest of the summer…and then you could come over for Christmas break and spring break and, of course, college.”
I know how Jack detests talk of college, but now he says, “Yeah, that’d be cool. I could go to college in Europe and maybe major in landscape design.” He glances at his father, whose face is inscrutable. “I could minor in business, so I’ll be able to help you with this.”
“But you’d better get your grades up, if you want to be able to do that,” his father says. “And maybe take French.”
“That’ll be easy,” Jack says. “With my girlfriend over here, and me over there, I’ll have lots of time to study.”
“So you approve of Jack…Jack and me?” I say to Father.
Father laughs. “Of course I do. Clearly, he was your destiny. And he and his father are saving…how would you say it, Travis?” He looks at him. “…our Euphrasian behinds.”
I gaze into Jack’s eyes. I would like to kiss him again, but that would be impossible, with our fathers here. Still, I move toward him and grasp his hand.
I hadn’t noticed Travis before, but now he interrupts. “Hey, can I be in charge of food? Maybe we could open the first Euphrasian hot-dog stand.”
I clap my hands. “Yes! I love hot dogs! Can you make them, then?”
We all laugh, and I know it will be all right. It is finally all right.