A Midwinter's Wedding: A Retelling of The Frog Prince by Melanie Cellier

Author:Melanie Cellier [Cellier, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780980696394
Publisher: Luminant Publications
Published: 2017-04-20T04:00:00+00:00

They found the lake outside the city gates, on the fringes of the huge forest that carpeted the whole kingdom north of the capital. A layer of blue-green ice covered the decent sized expanse. Cordelia eyed it uncertainly. It looked bumpier than she had imagined.

The children all began to strap on their skates, and Ferdinand directed Cordelia towards a fallen log where she could sit to put on her own skates. The biggest boy and two of the girls had their skates on fastest, and the three of them rushed straight onto the ice.

Cordelia watched them make a large circle around the edge of the lake, going more slowly than she had been picturing. If that was normal skating speed, she felt a little more confident.

“Are we sure it’s safe?” she asked Ferdinand.

“That’s what they’re checking,” he said. “It’s why they’re going so slowly.”

Oh. “You trust them to do that?”

“Of course. They’ve been coming to this lake every winter since before they could walk. They know how the ice should look and feel.”

The three of them stopped, clumped together at the far end of the lake. Ferdinand frowned and began to stride around the edge of the lake towards them, but after a moment they took off skating again, and he returned to Cordelia’s side, although his eyes stayed on the children.

With some difficulty, she managed to wrestle the skates onto her feet and stood up, grabbing at Ferdinand’s arm when she began to wobble. The three skaters returned and smoothly stepped off the ice and over towards the adults.

“What did you find?” asked Ferdinand.

“There’s a patch of dark ice at the far end. It doesn’t look safe.”

Ferdinand frowned.

“But my da was here yesterday,” one of the girls said quickly. “He tested the thickness of the ice at this end. It’s frozen deep.”

“I don’t want to see any of you put at risk,” said Ferdinand. “I think it would be best if we go back.”

“No, no!” cried the children, crowding around. “We promise we’ll stay up this end of the lake.”

“Please, Major,” said one of the girls who had tested the ice. “None of us want to fall through the ice. We’ll stay on this side.”

He looked around at all the pleading faces. “Oh, all right. But the first person who goes down the other end, gets everyone sent back home.”

A cheer went up, and the children streamed onto the ice. Within moments they were racing each other or skating around in circles and other figures. Several of the girls moved away from the others to do small jumps.

Cordelia watched them, fascinated. Everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time, but she could barely keep her balance standing still. And she wasn’t even on the ice yet.

She looked down at Ferdinand’s feet. “Hey! Where are your skates?”

“I don’t skate. I’m even worse at skating than I am at dancing.”

“But you said you used to love it as a boy.”

His whole body tensed for the briefest moment, and then he relaxed again and shrugged.

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