Page 11 of The Abandoned Princess

Determination filled me instead. She was taunting me because she thought I couldn’t escape. I would just have to prove her wrong.

* * *

I didn’t prove her wrong.

Even when she walked away, leaving me alone in the back of the cart, I still didn’t manage to get anyone’s attention. And alone, I couldn’t even untie myself.

The more time passed, the angrier I became with my failure. But the heightened emotions did nothing to make me more effective. I shouted, screamed, even threw myself back and forth, making the wagon rock and the things inside it bounce around. No response.

I eventually gave way to the most humiliating thing of all. Tears.

I sobbed quietly, aware of being alone in a way I had never been alone in my life before.

“Are you all right?” The soft voice took me entirely off guard.

My tears stopped instantly, and I looked up, eyes wide.

The frowning face of a young boy filled my vision, his eyes concerned as they traveled from my tear-stained face to my bound hands. “Did someone tie you up?”

“You…you can see me?” I asked, sounding tear-logged and hesitant, utterly unlike my usual self.

“Of course.” The boy frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?”

I got onto my knees, inching as far toward him as I could. “Can you go and get help? Tell your parents I’m tied up here and need rescuing? You should hurry!”

His eyes grew rounder, his expression hovering somewhere between anxious and excited.

“Hurry!” I repeated, gesturing with my bound hands for him to leave.

He hesitated only a second longer before fleeing at full pace. I watched him go, torn between hope and tension.

Would he follow through or get distracted? And if he did bring his parents, would they make it back before Eulalie?

Each second seemed like a minute, and every set of footsteps made my heart rate increase. Was it the boy and his family or Eulalie returning?

After three random people wandered past, playing havoc with my blood pressure, I finally heard the sound of multiple hurrying feet.

“There!” a proud, childish voice announced. “There she is!”

“Thank you,” I gasped out. “Thank you for coming back.”

He smiled at me, but both his parents were frowning.

“Please help me,” I said. “I’m under an enchantment. It must have finally worn off, but my captor could be back any minute.”

“An enchantment?” the boy asked with interest. Now that his parents were beside him, the excitement seemed to have won over the nerves.

“Enchantment?” The boy’s mother looked at him with an exasperated sigh. “You mean this is just another one of your games? You had me genuinely worried!”

The boy gave her an offended look. “It’s not a game! She’s right there. Look!” He pointed at me again.

“Yes, I’m right here,” I said, breathlessly. “I need your help. If you could just untie me.” I held out my bound hands, but already my tight nerves were unwinding, crushing disappointment settling in to take their place.

The child had been a fluke. It wasn’t that the enchantment had expired, but that he was somehow immune from it.

“That’s enough,” the father said sternly to his son. “You should know better than to worry your mother and me like that.”

“But Father!” the boy protested, his voice turning whiny. “I didn’t make it up! She’s really there!”

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