Update December 28
Just to let you know, I’m removing my story from here – just leaving the first few paragraphs – and linking to it on Instafreebie. It’s still free, but you have to provide an email so Instafreebie can send it to you.
Jacinta
***
Princess Rapunzel hitched up her skirts and raced through the glade that led to the deserted tower. The blustery wind whistled through the pine trees while swirling snow fell beneath her feet and carpeted the path. Rapunzel’s freckled nose and auburn tresses were sprinkled with snowflakes by the time she reached the thicket that surrounded her hideaway.
Yuletide Eve was on the morrow, and this was the last opportunity for the princess to meet her lover, Gisela before the festivities. As wife to Prince Franz, heir to his father’s kingdom, Rapunzel could not be absent during the celebrations especially as the king was a widower, and she must undertake the duties of consort.
She crunched over the hardened ground and elbowed her way through the briars laden with powdery snow which blanketed her shawl and braided hair. As the princess scrambled up the circular stone staircase that led to the turret, her mind wandered to the previous evening when she had found a message Gisela left under her pillow.
***
The princess had been sitting by the hearth in her bedchamber as she scrunched a piece of parchment between her fingers. Her forehead furrowed as she pondered the meaning of the words.
Not wishing her servants to find the secretive message, she shredded it and watched as each piece crinkled and burned in the fireplace. Once satisfied nothing remained of the letter, she paced the room wondering how to prepare for the rendezvous with her lover. Though she had destroyed the note, she knew the words from memory and repeated them as she twisted her fingers through her loose curls and puzzled over a suitable gift.
The scrawl on the parchment had said, ‘I am hoping the Yuletide gift you promised me is sweet and delicious, and that it will make my teeth ache and my flesh sizzle.’
Read the rest of Rapunzel Unadorned here
https://www.instafreebie.com/free/l2pL5
