Page 21 of A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart)

“Hello, Your Highness.” The guards greeted her instantly with deep bows and intense attention.

“I’m Hansel.”

“And I’m Victor,” said the other.

Evangeline imagined they must have been brothers—they had the same cleft chins, the same thick necks, and even the same red mustaches. She wondered briefly if having mustaches was a requirement for guards.

“What can we do for you?” Hansel said with a smile.

Evangeline briefly forgot why she had opened the door. Both guards were new, and so far they appeared to benice.

Apollo had kept his word.

It was no doubt an easy thing for him to change a few guards. Apollo probably had thousands of guards at his disposal. And yet Evangeline felt her heart soften just a little.

“Can either of you tell me where Prince Apollo has gone?”

“We’re sorry, Your Highness. His Highness didn’t tell us where he was going,” said Hansel.

“But we do have a message for you,” said Victor. “Your tutor just stopped by and said to give you this.” He handed Evangeline a scroll tied with wine-colored twine.

There wasn’t a wax seal, and therefore the letter was not private. And just like that, her heart put up its guard once more.

She almost didn’t read the note from the tutor—a proper prisoner wouldn’t have been eager to obey any instructions. But she’d already undone the twine, so she read the message.

Your Highness,

I thought for today’s lesson we might see a bit of the royal gardens. Shall we meet on the half hour before noon at the Well of Wishes?

I will of course try to be there on time, but if I’m late, don’t hesitate to make a wish.

After signing the missive, the tutor had drawn a painstaking map of the Wolf Hall gardens. Then in handwriting so small that Evangeline nearly missed it, she’d written the wordsPlease come!

Evangeline didn’t know if it was the wordpleaseor the exclamation mark that struck her. Perhaps it was the combination of both that made her feel this request was perhaps a bit more than it appeared on the surface.

Tower bells rang in the eleventh hour right as Evangeline stepped outside the castle.

The sky was velvet gray and full of swirling clouds thatthreatened more rain and told her to move quickly down the cobbled paths lined in hedges with pops of bright purple flowers.

There were four major gardens on the Wolf Hall grounds—the Sunken Garden, the Water Garden, the Flower Garden, and the Ancient Garden. Tucked away within each of these gardens were the four minor gardens—the Fairy Garden, the Moss Garden, the Secret Garden, and the Wishing Garden.

According to the tutor’s carefully drawn map, the Wishing Garden with its Well of Wishes was situated in the center of the Flower Garden. It appeared to be a walled garden, surrounded by a moat and reachable by a bridge.

It should have been easy enough to find. The map was quite good, and the Flower Garden was manicured to perfection.

Yesterday’s rain had left the castle grounds full of rich, damp colors so deep that Evangeline imagined that were she to touch any flowers, their petals would stain the tips of her gloves. It was lovely in a way she almost wished it wasn’t. Evangeline didn’t want to be ensorcelled by the beauty. It felt too close to being dazzled once more by Apollo.

But it was hard not to feel just a little bit enchanted. The silver fog swirled around the grounds like magic, adding misty sparkles to all the trees and shrubs. It was such a lovely fog that Evangeline didn’t notice how dense it had become until she took a step and realized she could see nothing but the stone path a couple of feet directly before her. The fog was so thick she couldn’t even make out where her guards were behind her.She almost called out to see if they were still following. But then she thought better of it.

Evangeline didn’t really want to be followed by guards and… a wild idea struck her.

Perhaps losing the guards was the tutor’s plan. Maybe she wanted to see Evangeline alone. The woman was supposed to be an expert in all things Wolf Hall and royal, so she must have expected that the garden would be concealed by fog. Perhaps the tutor had arranged this to tell Evangeline something she did not wish others to hear.

It was perhaps too much to hope that thissomethingwould also help Evangeline find her memories, and yet she found herself quickening her steps.

“Princess, could you slow down?” called Hansel. Or maybe it was Victor. She couldn’t distinguish who was yelling, only that they both were calling after her.

“We seem to have lost you!” one of them cried.

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