My Name is Rapunzel(72)

“All right. I won't look at you. Are you going to answer my questions?”

“Why are you leaving? Where will you go?”

Now, he was supposed to be answering my questions, not the other way around, but I'd play along for a bit.

“There's nothing for me here and never has been. It's time for a change,” I said.

“Where will you go?”

“What's with all the questions? Look, I don't know who you are or even your name.” I didn't have to tell him anything. He was the one trespassing.

“You know who I am. I've loved you since the day I saw you.” He slid one hand to the side of my arm.

What nerve! “You don't even know me! How could you say that?”

“I would have had a happy life, having you as my wife,” he whispered.

Was this some sort of game? How would he know the words so similar to those I recited to myself every night as I drifted off to sleep and every morning as I awakened? Only one person had ever said those words to me. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible!

I pulled away from his grip and spun around. Before I could see his face, he covered it with his hands and cowered away from me.

“Do not look at me!” he yelled.

I reached out and touched his hair. He didn't jerk away from me this time.

“Henry?” I whispered.





CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE




“Henry! Is it you?”

“Yes, it is me.”

I grabbed his wrists and tried to remove his hands from his face. He only held them tighter and resisted me. “Why will you not look at me? If it's truly you, then show yourself!”

“Stop! You can not look at my face.”

Tears soaked my cheeks. I wanted to see the face I had only seen in my dreams for the past 250 years. I wanted him to hold me in his arms and tell me he loved me. I’d tortured myself and believed Henry was dead, but now he stood in front of me, and wouldn’t even look at me.

“If I see your face, then I will change.”

I shook my head, not willing to believe that anything could come between me and my Henry. If he was here after this many years, then we were meant to be together. And we would be.

John. What about John? All this time Henry had been here, he could have reached out to me. He could have kept me from falling in love with John. But was I even in love? Or was John just convenient? Someone who was here. The only one who was here.

Oh, why hadn't Henry spoken up sooner? Did he have doubts?

“I need to see you. Please. Move your hands.” I pulled on his fingers that pressed over his eyes. “I don't understand. Tell me what's wrong.” I needed to see his face. I wanted to hold him. I wanted to kiss him. “I thought you were dead. After all these years, I find out you're alive, and you won't even look at me!”

It was a miracle he was alive. Everything came rushing through my mind about that horrible night—all the details, the yelling and screaming and Henry being gone when I woke up on the ground. It was too much to bear. Why had Henry left me alone? Why had he not told me he was alive? My muffled cries turned into wailing, and Henry just stood there, slumped over and covering his face.

“I am sorry, Rapunzel,” Henry whispered in my ear.

“Wait.” I stopped crying and glared at him. “How is it possible you're alive? The witch killed you!” I needed answers and I wanted them now. “Why did you wait all these years to tell me you're alive? Why?”

How was it possible to be so happy and so angry at the same time? My Henry was alive and standing in front of me. I wanted to reach out and touch him, but first I had to know. The anger had overpowered my joy. “You left me alone!”

“I never left you, Rapunzel. I have always been with you, watching you.”

“Was that you on the hillside watching me?” I asked. If it had been him all this time, then it was true. He’d betrayed me. He left me in the clutches of the dragon when we clearly could have broken free. Together.

“Yes, that was me.”

“Then why didn't you come to me and tell me you were alive? We could've been together. I don't understand any of this!” Did he not love me enough to actually be with me?

“I could not.”

That was it? That was his explanation? “Are you going to tell me more?” I asked. Henry never used to be like this, this secretive. What had happened to him? I feared I might lose my mind if I didn’t find out.

“If I see your face I will change into a dreadful creature, and I do not want you to see me like that.” Henry sighed with despair.

“What do you mean? What sort of creature?” I took a few steps back. Was he a werewolf? I took a few more steps back.

“It does not matter! You said you were leaving tomorrow. I assume you are leaving with that man?” Henry asked firmly. “And what about the witch? Are you taking her along too?”