Page 18 of The Midnight Blizzard (The Christmas Chronicles)

W hen we got back inside the castle, a flurry of commotion met us. Physicians and nurses hurried back and forth, shouting instructions to each other as they dashed around, scurrying like mice before a cat.

Jack caught one of the doctors by the arm. “What’s going on?”

“Two of the women never took off the ice slippers from last night. One of them has dreadful frostbite, and we will need to amputate parts of her feet immediately.”

Vallia and Vanessa! I had never had much sympathy for my stepsisters, but now I ran after the doctors as they tore up to the guest rooms with their satchels full of medical supplies.

As we drew nearer to their room, a woman’s hysterical cries nearly paralyzed me with fright. Doctors and nurses, looking panicked and frantic, shoved their way through the doors to tend to my stepsister.

It wasn’t a pretty sight. Both Vallia and Vanessa had finally removed the ice slippers, but while Vallia’s feet looked normal, Vanessa’s feet were discolored and swollen, and some parts had even turned an ugly black color. My hands flew up to cover my mouth, aghast. Though my stepsisters were panicked about the appearance of Vanessa’s feet, it didn’t sound as though she was in any physical pain. Had the nerves died so much that they were unaware of the pain?

“What’s wrong with my feet?” Vanessa cried. “Why did they go all black? I can’t feel anything!”

“How did you keep the slippers on that long?” Jack asked, looking even more horrified than my stepsister did as he stared at her feet. “They were supposed to be too cold to wear.”

“I didn’t feel anything unusual,” Vallia sobbed, tears pouring down her face. The physicians examined her feet and found nothing unusual. “But look what they did to my sister!”

“He’s to blame!” Vanessa shrieked, pointing dramatically at Jack.

“Yes! It’s all the mage’s fault!” Valencia glowered. “How could you do this to my daughter?”

Jack backed away from their accusatory fingers, even paler than usual. “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he said, staring horrified at the doctors as they pulled out scalpels.

One of the nurses pointed at Vanessa’s left foot. “These three toes need to go, and the heel of the other foot.”

Jack’s pale complexion drained of all color. “I…I don’t understand why the magic malfunctioned.”

“Come on,” I told him, steering him toward the door. “You don’t need to see this.”

“I don’t understand,” he kept repeating, over and over. “ She shouldn’t have been able to bear the pain unless the ice turned warm for her like it did for you.” Then a look of sheer terror crossed his face. “Take your shoes off.”

Obediently, I sat and stripped off the ice slippers. Jack knelt and lifted my feet, inspecting them from every angle, but they appeared and felt fine. He ran his hand through his hair as he slumped down against the wall and stared at the slippers. “I don’t understand. How could this have happened? You and Vallia were fine. Why wasn’t Vanessa?”

“It isn’t your fault,” I said automatically.

“Then whose could it be? I was the one who enchanted the slippers. It worked for everyone else. Why not her? I’ve ruined her life. What if she never walks again?”

“I don’t know.” I certainly didn’t like Vanessa, but that didn’t mean I wanted her to have her toes and heel amputated. “You wouldn’t do anything that would harm someone; I know it.”

“But I did.”

“Jack!” Both of us turned to see the king hurrying down the hall toward us, the queen trotting along beside him. “We heard what happened.” He looked at the door in concern, where my stepsister’s hysterical shrieks were still reverberating off the walls.

“And we’re glad you’re safe, Noelle,” Queen Isolde added. “You gave us such a fright last night.” She spoke to me even as she, too, looked anxiously at the door to my stepfamily’s chambers.

“It looks bad,” Jack said miserably.

“Let’s go see,” the king said, resolutely squaring his shoulders and adjusting his crown. He reached down to pull Jack up to stand, who in turn did the same for me.

I held Jack’s hand for support as we all filed back into the room, where the doctors were busily cutting away the blackened toes on one foot and the heel on the other. My stepmother sat in the corner, shielding her face from her daughters. Even though I despised the woman, my heart gave a small pang. I’d had to look away, too. I’d never done well with blood, and I couldn’t imagine having to watch such an operation be performed on one’s own child.

Leaving Jack with his parents, I approached my stepmother. “I’m sorry,” I told her quietly. She glanced up at me, then hurriedly looked away. Queen Isolde had noticed our brief exchange. She came forward, eyebrows furrowed as she looked closely at Valencia, who was staring at the floor as if determined to count the number of stones.

“Glora?”

“My name’s Valencia,” my stepmother answered, but her voice shook.

The queen shook her head. “I never forget a face. You’re Glora.”

“Your midwife?” The king puffed out his chest and crossed the room to step protectively in front of his wife. “You were told never to come back here.”

“I…I merely wished to thank you properly for what you gave me?—”

“You were paid and told to leave.”

I stared between the queen and my stepmother, confused.

“She’s a mage,” the queen said in hushed tones.

I looked at my stepmother, but didn’t see any evidence to support the claim. Her hair was the model of perfectly curled auburn locks, without a strand out of place, just as always. She never missed an opportunity to examine her reflection in the mirror or fix her hair, which still didn’t have a single strand of grey even as she aged… Un derstanding thunked into place faster than snow fell from rooftops. The thin, stretchy, skin-colored material Jack and I had found while searching her room suddenly made sense. “You wear a wig.”

Valencia threw a dirty look at me. “It only took you three years to figure it out, did it?”

“Let’s continue this conversation elsewhere,” Queen Isolde said, looking pointedly at the doctors and nurses, all of whom seemed to be engrossed in their task but would have been able to easily overhear anything.

“I should stay here with my girls,” Valencia said hesitantly.

“Don’t disobey your queen.” King Wenceslas spoke coldly. “Jack, Noelle, Glora, come.”

Silently, Valencia rose and we all left, following the king. Once the door closed and we moved down the hall, Vanessa’s screams redoubled, and Valencia flinched at the sound.

“In,” the queen ordered Valencia, pointing into an empty room. We all filed in, and the queen gave two nods to the guards standing at attention on either side of the door.

Valencia stared at the floor, wringing her hands in front of her. Jack looked just as confused as I felt, and even the king had an eyebrow raised.

“She was one of the midwives at my birthing,” the queen explained. “She can remove anyone’s discomfort or pain when she focuses on them, so doctors often brought her along to their appointments so she could alleviate the patient’s suffering. Once they saw I had twins and one was a mage, they all promised to never speak of it…except for her.”

Valencia locked her jaw and said nothing, her features set in the same stubborn expression that often crossed my own face.

“She threatened to tell and said that people had the right to know, but back then, mages were often persecuted or taken from their families. We just wanted to protect Jack,” Queen Isolde said in hushed tones. “Wenceslas and I paid an exorbitant sum to send her to a different kingdom, Sorana I believe, to start a new life.”

“So, she likely hid that she was a mage and had her two daughters,” I breathed. “But why return?”

“Your father was working on a great deal of laws related to mage rights,” Jack pointed out.

“And that’s how she met Papa. They became acquainted when he was speaking about mage rights.” Additional understanding hit me with stampeding force. “That’s why Papa always felt so healthy and energetic around her. He wasn’t recovering from his illness; she was masking his pain.”

“And when he left the estate to her,” Jack chimed in, “she would have had to provide a birth certificate to validate that she was who she claimed to be. But since she used another identity?—”

“It was a legal name change,” Valencia interjected, holding her chin aloft. “I have the paperwork to prove it.”

“Ah, but you would have needed to have the birth certificate, name change paperwork, and the marriage certificate, and when they checked your birth record, they would know that your marriage wasn’t legal,” Jack pointed out.

My mouth fell open and I addressed my stepmother. “So that is why you wanted that law to pass so badly. It was to grant full rights so you could inherit property and to legalize your marriage to Papa so he could pass the full estate on to you. It wasn’t ever to help me. It was all for you. Then you would get everything.”

Valencia’s silence was confession enough. No wonder she always feigned an injury or faded into the background anytime the queen was around. The time when Jack had convinced Stephen to take my stepfamily to meet his mother to give Jack and me time to snoop through their rooms…of course Valencia had come back early to avoid her. And she had faked an ankle injury when she’d learned that the queen would be in attendance when we presented the bill.

“Did Papa know?” I asked. “Did he know about you?”

Finally, she raised her eyes to meet mine. “Of course he knew. Why do you think he kept our wedding so private and never had us accompany him on his trips? Why do you think he always gave me ample time to get ready each day? It was to conceal it from everyone for my own safety. I knew exactly what would happen if I revealed myself to the public, and I was right.”

“Glora, what did you do to your daughter?” the queen asked crisply.

“Nothing.”

The look Queen Isolde gave her could have frozen the sun. “You want me to believe that you didn’t mask the pain she experienced while wearing the slippers, hoping one of your girls would beat out the other competition and marry Stephen?”

Valencia didn’t blush, but her eyes dropped in shame.

“You disgust me,” King Wenceslas growled. “Your own daughter. How could you? Can’t you hear her?”

She lifted her chin defiantly. “She didn’t feel anything until you took me away. But you have no right to scold me. How could you abandon your own son and force him to live as a servant simply because he was born with magic? You claim you’re helping mages, but do you have any idea how many years I was exploited for my abilities? You even did it yourself. And now you are forcing your son into servitude. Even if you don’t care, I do.”

“I chose my life,” Jack snapped. “And you were the one trying to blackmail me.”

“I’ve done more for mages than you ever have,” Valencia said, glaring at Jack and me. “Both of you. I was the one encouraging Cedric to push for more bills. I was the one who secured those final signatures when no one else could.”

“You shut down my school for mages!” I cried out. “I was helping them!”

“By segregating them?”

“By educating them when no one else would!” I shot back. “What, did you hope that by your daughter being injured, Jack would be blamed? He’s a mage, just like you! You face the same prejudices.”

“No, he’s a mage born to privilege who has been shielded from what the world is really like for mages!” she snapped. “What does sitting in a castle do? Nothing! I was the one out there struggling to feed my family. I was the one actually getting signatures to initiate change instead of giving myself a pat on the back for helping the poor, pitiful mage children. You wanted praise for teaching them a few lessons, but I’m giving them a better future.”

For the tiniest moment, I could see things from Valencia’s point of view, and despite all reason, it made some sense. In many ways, she was right. While I’d been so focused on the day to day, she was the one ensuring that changes would last a lifetime.

“His birth,” Valencia went on, “ forced me out of my homeland and left me to fend for myself so that his identity could be concealed, but what of my entire life?” She turned to the king and queen. “You want to claim you fight for mages, but you cast me off without a second thought simply because I wanted to tell the truth. If anyone is in the wrong, it’s everyone else here. I’ve done nothing worthy of being punished.”

“What about Vanessa?”

Valencia’s eyes filled with tears. “I didn’t know that would happen. She only told me that they were uncomfortable, and I was trying to help ease her discomfort.”

Stephen burst into the room. “I came as soon as I could,” he panted.

“Even if you punish me,” Valencia said, her voice changing from defensive to pleading, “my daughters kept their slippers on longest. One of them should marry the prince. Don’t punish them for anything I’ve done.”

Queen Isolde met her gaze levelly. “Your daughters won by cheating, and I won’t have my son marry anyone he doesn’t love. Stephen?”

Stephen crossed the room to his mother, avoiding looking at my stepmother.

“Are you in love with either of this woman’s daughters?”

After a look at Valencia, Stephen shifted his weight from side to side and didn’t say anything.

“Get the guards,” Queen Isolde told her husband. “I’ll need to question this woman further.” King Wenceslas stuck his head out into the corridor to obey, and within a minute, Valencia had been escorted away.

“Stephen?” his mother probed. “Do you wish to pursue a relationship with any of the women from the balls?”

“I’m not prepared to propose to anyone right now. It’s still too early, but I would like to get to know Vallia better. Just not around her sister and mother. She seems too scared around them to be herself, and I do think her feelings are genuine.” He shot me a quizzical look.

I smiled. “I think that would be good for her. She does seem to like you. If you noticed, her feet aren’t frostbitten.”

Stephen smiled shyly.

“Jack dear?” the queen said, her eyes misty and soft. “With this new bill passed, we will finally be able to tell everyone that you’re our son. You’ll be recognized as the prince you are.”

Jack remained quiet for so long that I wondered if he’d heard his mother. Then, he answered very softly, “Before I answer, I’d like to discuss it privately with Noelle.”

With me?

“Take your time,” Queen Isolde told us, shooing her husband and other son into the hall to wait.

“Noelle, now that relationships between people like us have been legalized, I want to be very clear about my intentions,” Jack told me the moment the door was closed. “I have feelings for you, and I want to pursue a future with you, if you feel simil?—”

“Yes, I do.”

Joy lit up Jack’s face, and he took my hands into his. “If I was named a prince or later became king, that would affect you as well. I didn’t want to make this big of a decision without your input.”

“I’ll support you no matter what. You know that.”

“Now you know why I was so confident you can get a license and secure funding for your school. Would you want to live here?”

I thought about it. Wasn’t this every girl’s dream—to marry a prince, become queen, and live happily ever after? I would want for nothing, and yet…that prospect held no joy for me. Being royalty came with constant scrutiny and advisors and chamberlains who controlled every moment of their schedule. I was happiest when I was teaching or ice skating, but I also knew that I didn’t want to give up a future with Jack. “That isn’t a decision for just me to make. I want you to do what makes you happy. Would you be happy being a prince?”

Jack slowly shook his head. “I don’t think so, but I don’t want to deprive you of a royal life if you want it.”

I laughed out loud. “I don’t want that, Jack. I want the freedom to go ice skating whenever we want. I want to teach and go on sled rides with you, and I wouldn’t have that as a princess.”

A light breeze of snow whirled up around the room as Jack’s face split into the widest smile I’d ever seen. “That’s what I want, too.”

When the rest of his family re-entered, Jack took a deep breath. “I’m honored by your offer, but I’d much rather stay as I am.”

His mother’s face crumpled. “You don’t want people to know you’re our son? Think of what you could do, showing everyone that a mage is a prince.”

“I don’t have anything to prove. Our family knows, and now Noelle knows. That is enough for me. I’d much rather remain as I am, help Noelle with her school, and continue to be an advisor.” He shot a mischievous look at Stephen. “Besides, I don’t want to perform the same boring duties that Stephen has to deal with. I think I can do much more good talking to people without the clout of a royal name attached.”

“You’ll never reveal your surname?” Stephen asked .

“He can share mine,” I said, glowing with happiness. “Jack Frost has a good ring to it.”

King Wenceslas smiled at his son. “If that is what you want, you know we will gladly honor your wishes, and if you ever change your mind, we will support that, too. I just wish we could claim you.”

“I’m already claimed,” Jack said with a smile, squeezing my fingers.