Fic: Gerard and Rapunzel (2/2)

[dira]

Part One

One night Frank asked Gerard if he wouldn't like to come down from the tower--he and Robert could bring rope, they could be well away by dawn--and be free to go where he pleased, to be free as Frank and Robert were, and with them both day and night.

Frank spent all his days and all his nights feeling a part of himself torn in two. When he was with Robert he longed for Gerard, and when he was with Rapunzel he longed for Robert. He wished sometimes that the moment he spent caught between them could last forever and not just an instant's pause at dusk and dawn.

Rapunzel shook her head, caught between frowning and laughing. "How could I? This is where I belong. Gothel has bid me stay here, to serve God, and I must obey her."

Frank scowled, for he had never liked to be told he must do anything, and he did not like to hear Rapunzel subjected to anyone's demands, either. "But why must you? She is not your mother or father."

Rapunzel had never had a mother or father, not really--she knew she had parents, but they belonged to Michael, and their son had been Gerard, and they had lost him a long time ago, or he had lost them.

"She is a good and holy woman," Rapunzel said slowly. She had never questioned why she must obey Gothel; she just did. "She raised me and protected me. I love her."

"Love," Frank scoffed. "You call that love? She seals you up in a tower and to stay is love? That isn't love at all. Love--love--" Frank thought that love was the thing inside him that hurt all the time, except for a moment's rest at dawn and dusk, the thing that was forever pulled in two directions and never content, but he was a man, if a young one, and he did not like to admit to things that hurt him.

"Love is what keeps Robert standing watch outside," Frank said instead. "When he could take my sword and my horse and be a dozen leagues away and acclaimed as a knight by dawn. It is only love that keeps him here, keeping guard over me."

Frank dared to look at Rapunzel, who was watching him with a frown of concentration; he had seen Gerard stare that way at a picture when it was half-done, trying to see the way to complete the lines, to bring it all together.

"Keeping watch over us," Frank said softly, correcting himself.

Rapunzel studied him a moment longer, and then said softly, "And what is it that makes you come back here every evening?"

Frank sighed, and leaned into the sturdy comfort of Gerard's shoulder, for he could not meet his eyes and answer straight. "What is it that makes you reach out your hands to me when I do?"

"Oh," Gerard said, soft and low, but he said nothing about leaving the tower, and Frank did not ask again. Rapunzel and Robert seemed happy enough, and perhaps it was only that he was greedy, a rich man's son and spoiled. He would bear the hurt, and keep quiet about it.

The summer wore on, the nights growing cooler and longer, and one cloudless night the wind turned bitterly cold as the moon rose. Frank and Gerard were lying on the floor, curled close together, too tired even to speak. They were near sleep, and yet when the wind's whistle turned sharp and the draft rushed over them, they both sat up at once, looking as one toward the window. They could not see Robert from where they sat, but they both were thinking of him, standing watch alone in the cold. Frank's hand ran restlessly over the braided mass of Rapunzel's hair.

"I would tell him to come up," Frank said. "Only he is my squire, and it is an ugly thing to order him to do something he does not wish. He cannot tell me no if I insist."

Gerard thought of how Frank had said that it could not be love if Gothel forced Rapunzel to stay. He looked miserable now, helpless, and Rapunzel shook her head and stood, gathering her hair up into her arms. She poured it down from the window, and Robert turned at the rustling sound of its descent. Even from where she stood Rapunzel could see him shivering in the weak moonlight.

"It's cold," she announced. "And Frank can only keep me warm on one side. If you won't come up I shall freeze, and then it will do no good to keep watch."

Frank pressed up against her side, peering down, but he said nothing to entice or dissuade Robert.

Robert stood staring up at them both for a moment, and then he reached out and picked up the end of Rapunzel's hair, twining the silky lock through his fingers. His touch was clumsy, his fingers nearly numb, but Rapunzel did not protest, nor repeat herself. She simply waited.

Finally Robert nodded, and Frank gave a whooping cheer, loud enough to startle the birds from their trees for half a league around. Rapunzel and Robert both glared at him, but Frank only took careful hold of Rapunzel's hair, so that he would bear more of Robert's weight than she did, and Robert began to climb.

Gerard reached down his hands to Robert when he was close enough, and Robert took them with a shy, happy smile. Gerard caught his breath as they touched each other, skin to skin, for the first time, and then he hauled Robert through the window so swiftly that all three of them went down into a heap on the floor, Frank beneath them both and laughing harder than either of them.

After a few moments of confusion, they got themselves untangled enough to kneel facing each other, all three, and Robert reached again for Gerard's hands.

"Rapunzel," he said softly, and kissed the palm of one hand.

"Gerard," he said, and kissed the other.

It was not at all like the kisses Frank had given in Robert's place; those kisses had lacked the rough-soft brush of Robert's beard against Gerard's fingers, and the light of Robert's eyes, blue as the sky.

"Robert," Rapunzel said, and turned her hands to hold his as she leaned in to place her own kiss upon his lips, without Frank to intercede for them.

A moment later, as one, they looked to see what Frank was doing; he had lain down again and was watching them both, smiling a smile of perfect contentment. "No, please, play on," he said, waving one hand. "It's clear I'm not needed at all."

Robert and Gerard shared a long glance--they had learned to say a great deal with only their eyes--and then they fell upon Frank together, and proved him a liar.

It was a long time later that they finally settled down to sleep, Rapunzel tucked warmly between Frank and Robert, and all three of their heads pillowed together on the silken mass of her hair. Her eyes had closed, but she was not yet asleep, when she felt Robert's arm stretch across her, and knew his hand had settled on Frank. A moment later she felt Frank do the same, reaching out for Robert, and so caught between them, Rapunzel smiled and slept.

Frank and Gerard had both become accustomed to waking at the time when Robert would call out to them, and so it was that they opened their eyes upon each other before dawn, while Robert was still sleeping, his face tucked into the warm skin of Rapunzel's shoulder.

"It is our turn to wake him, now," Frank whispered, with a look of mischief about him.

Rapunzel shook her head and tried to look stern, which did not seem to dent Frank's determination, and then she turned her back upon him to face Robert, half waking him in the process. He blinked at her, confused, and she pressed her lips to his and whispered, "It is nearly dawn, you must wake."

Robert looked at Rapunzel for a moment, and then past her, at Frank, and then said in a sleep-soft voice, "Not a dream?"

"Yes, a dream," Frank said, pressing tightly against Rapunzel's back. "But you are awake."

Frank leaned over Gerard's shoulder to press his own kiss to Robert's mouth, and Gerard was nearly too close to watch, but watch he did. Goodbyes between three took a good deal longer than goodbyes for two, even when a third waited below, and the sun was above the trees by the time Robert began to climb back down the shining black rope of Rapunzel's hair. Rapunzel could clearly see the thorns looming below, and she could not help telling him, more than once, to be careful of them.

Robert flashed her a bright smile when he had climbed halfway down, pushed off and jumped. He tumbled down well clear of the thorns, lay on the ground for a moment while neither Rapunzel nor Frank drew breath, and then jumped up, brushing himself off and reaching for Frank. Gerard lowered him into Robert's hands, and when he settled himself to wait for Gothel, he felt more alone in the tower than ever. Even his paintings were no company now.

But each night brought Frank and Robert's return, and Robert never hesitated more than the length of a breath before he followed Frank up. Rapunzel had never slept so warm, and now that Robert was not kept awake standing guard all night, he and Frank were able to resume a little of their old adventuring in the day time, exploring here and there in the forest around Rapunzel's tower. They brought back flowers and stories for Rapunzel each night, and tried to describe the sights they had seen so that Gerard might paint them.

One fine day when Frank and Robert had departed safely before daybreak, off to follow some particularly interesting stream to its source, Rapunzel sat painting until Gothel called out for her.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

Rapunzel obeyed, but even as she crossed to the window she was looking back at her painting, smiling at the faces sketched there. Gothel climbed up without preamble, without taking Rapunzel's hand or Rapunzel reaching out for her. She said nothing as they prayed and broke their fast together, and Rapunzel's gaze went often to her new painting, so that finally Gothel went to study it closer. Rapunzel followed her, saying, "It is St. George, fighting the dragon--"

But Gothel was staring, aghast. The saint Rapunzel had drawn had Frank's face, a face Gothel had never seen before, and she knew at once that Rapunzel had seen this stranger, seen him recently and closely, in order to paint him. "Who is this?" she demanded.

Rapunzel said, hesitantly, "It is St. George," for it was, as surely as she was Rapunzel. It was also Frank, and he was also Gerard, and the saint's painted squire was also Robert, but Gothel had never asked what else.

"It is a sin!" The holy woman seemed at once anguished and furious. "I know what you have done! Sinner! Betrayer! You are no more my Rapunzel!"

Rapunzel wanted to say it is love, it is love that brings them to me, love that carries them inside, but the holy woman did not give her a chance to speak. Gothel seized a knife and cut off all of Rapunzel's hair in one swift stroke, and Rapunzel was too bewildered to resist; then she pushed Rapunzel to the window and cast her out.

"You are my Rapunzel no more!" the holy woman cried. "Begone with you, you foul creature!"

Rapunzel had fallen into the thorns she had always feared, and they stabbed and scratched at her, like the arrows that pierced St. Sebastian and the claws and teeth of the dragon that threatened St. George. But Rapunzel was no saint, and she screamed and struggled in terror beyond pain until her gown and skin were both tattered. When she finally broke free she was in a frenzy, and fled blindly into the forest.

She ran a long time, as though dragons and archers pursued her, and finally fell to the ground in a clearing she did not recognize, huddling in the shelter of a tree. Rapunzel was bleeding from a hundred small wounds, scarcely covered by the rags of her gown, and for the first time she could recall, her hair was no more than short strands, brushing uselessly at her face. Gothel's words echoed in her head. You are my Rapunzel no more!

Gerard wept then, terrified and alone, and when night came he was still alone, cold and hurt and naked, a foul creature and a sinner, defaced, defiled, disowned. Rapunzel no more.

Robert and Frank followed the course of their chosen stream just until noon, and then they turned back, to be sure of returning to Rapunzel at dusk. When they did, however, she was not leaning in the window. They looked curiously at one another, for Rapunzel had never yet failed to be waiting for them. Finally Frank cried out, as he had done once, long before.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

Rapunzel's hair instantly poured down, as though she had only been waiting for him to call, but still they could not see Rapunzel's face through the window.

"I do not like this," Robert said, very softly, but Frank climbed up onto Robert's shoulders and took hold of Rapunzel's hair. Something was wrong, and he had to know what it was.

He pulled himself up over the window sill, appreciating Gerard's strength anew--he always pulled Frank and even Robert over quite easily--and then stopped short. Gerard was nowhere to be seen; only Gothel was there, amid the wreckage of Gerard's latest painting, the one he had refused to let Robert or Frank see before it was finished.

"You!" the woman cried. "Fiend! Seducer! Rapunzel is gone, and you shall never see her again!"

Frank jumped onto the window sill, meaning to climb down and make his escape, but the old woman spat upon him, upon his staring wide eyes, and her curse took hold. Frank was struck blind, and lost his balance in the shock of it, tumbling down from the window.

Robert was still standing below; he heard the woman cry out, and rushed closer, watching for Frank. When he saw Frank begin to fall, he dove forward, heedless of danger, and when Frank tumbled down into his arms, Robert's outstretched hands were smashed cruelly against the thorns. Still marked with Rapunzel's blood, they tore at Robert's flesh as well. Robert managed to drag Frank away, and led him to the cover of the trees.

Robert and Frank passed a miserable night, huddled silently together in their blankets. Neither one could speak for the pain he was in, filled with shock and grief. It was only in the morning that each properly understood what had befallen the other, and even then they could hardly bear to speak of Rapunzel. They went to the river so that Robert could wash his hands, and Frank bound the wounds, clumsily, by feel; he had never been much of a nurse even when he had been able to see what he was doing. Robert bathed Frank's eyes with the clear cold water, but it did no good. Even in the glare of noon Frank could see nothing.

Their adventure had ended in disaster, and Robert led Frank back to their camp, already performing the grim calculus: winter was coming, and neither he nor Frank could safely ride. If Robert's hands healed without festering, if he was not crippled, he might eventually be able to hunt and ride again, but meantime he was helpless, and so was Frank, and they were alone.

"She said nothing of Gerard," Frank said abruptly. "And she did not say Rapunzel was dead, only that I would not see her. I cannot see anything, it means nothing."

Robert closed his eyes, that he might see as little as Frank, as if not seeing would make the ache in his chest less, as if he would have only his own grief to bear and not Frank's as well. "She said Rapunzel was gone."

"She did not say where, and she did not say she was dead, and she said nothing of Gerard at all. We must discover what has happened to him."

Robert could not argue with what Frank decreed, and had no heart to. They would not likely escape the forest in any case. He would gladly spend the rest of his days searching for Rapunzel, searching for Gerard, if it meant he need never tell Frank that their beloved was not anywhere to be found. "We will, then. But for now we must rest."

They lay down together in their blankets, and though they had done so together on countless nights before, they both felt that something was missing between them now. They clung to each other as tightly as they might, but the empty place was not filled, and their sleep was restless.

Gerard did not sleep at all, but lay staring into the darkness, huddled at the foot of a tree, roots and the hard ground making a torturous bed under his battered body. Blood leaked from his skin as tears still leaked from his eyes, waiting for death to come. He did not know whether some fearsome beast would finish him, or whether he would quietly succumb to his wounds, but he could feel death breathing cold over his skin, feel it coming closer. He could not live long as only half himself, torn apart and abandoned. It did not occur to Gerard to pray, for he was certain that even God must have abandoned him now, for Gothel was so very close to God, and she had cast Rapunzel out, and cared nothing for Gerard.

When a hand touched his shoulder he was not surprised at all, and only lifted his head to look his end in the face.

Michael looked down at him, frowning in recognition.

"Gerard," he said, and Gerard felt his throat go tight and his heart begin beating again. He was alive, and must keep living, for his brother had found him, found him and seen him this way, ruined and helpless.

Gerard had vanished without a trace years before, and now he huddled in the forest, bleeding and dressed in rags, his hair cut short as if he'd had fever. There were a thousand questions Michael might have asked, and Gerard could not have borne to answer any--but Michael said only, "We've missed you," and offered his hand for Gerard to pull himself up.

He led Gerard away down no path Gerard could make out, and Gerard could not help noticing how surefooted Michael was, confident and silent. They came to a clearing, in which stood a ramshackle building, more shed than cottage. To Gerard, who had lived most of his life in a cave and then in Gothel's stone tower, it looked magnificent; to Michael, it looked like home.

"Ray," Michael called out. He did not speak very loudly, but Gerard could tell it was meant to be a shout; some things had not changed at all.

Ray appeared, taller and curlier-haired than ever. He seemed more surprised to see Gerard than Michael had, but he asked no more questions, only brought Gerard inside, helped him bind his wounds and found clothes for him to wear--trousers and a shirt, which did not fit quite right, being borrowed, and did not feel at all right, being as foreign to Gerard as the cottage was. Still, Gerard accepted their hospitality with all the gratitude he could find it in him to feel, and they were kind and quiet.

It was not until he had been there for some time that Gerard realized that they asked him no questions because they did not wish to be asked any themselves. Ray was the blacksmith's son and should have been his apprentice, or smith in his own right, by now. Michael should have been heir to all the little his parents had. Instead they were living deep in the forest, alone with a straggling garden and no beasts but the ones Michael hunted. They were both thin and weary-looking, the clothes they wore no less ragged than the old ones they gave to Gerard.

But Michael and Ray looked at each other sometimes in the way that Gerard had seen Frank and Robert look at each other--in the way that Frank and Robert had looked at Gerard, at Rapunzel, when she had been whole and beautiful and beloved. He could not bear to think of it too much, for he felt as if he were missing more of himself than he still possessed--he had lost Frank and Robert, lost Rapunzel, lost Gothel and God and everything that mattered. He slept alone on the dirt floor, close to the hearth, though Michael and Ray had offered to share the warmth and comfort of the ramshackle cottage's lone bed.

Gerard could not bear to be so close to anyone when Frank and Robert were so far away, perhaps lost to him forever, and besides that every touch hurt, for the thorn-gouges did not heal, but stayed red and raw, oozing blood. He bound the wounds with the scraps of Rapunzel's gown and kept what distance he could from Michael and Ray, sheltering in a small cottage with the grip of winter tightening outside.

As soon as the worst of the cold and snow had passed, Gerard began to go out alone into the surrounding forest, walking as he had done with Michael and Ray when they were boys, or simply finding places to hide away from them for a few hours. When the snow began to melt, Gerard began to spend his time in the clearing where Michael and Ray had planted the last season's poor garden. He felt a sudden longing for Gothel's garden, which he had spent hours and hours tending before Rapunzel was sent to her tower. Gerard adopted the patch of ground with a will, nurturing the earth and seeds and small, tender plants with all his attention.

He sang softly to the plants, as he had sung to the plants in Gothel's garden to make them grow, but he could think of no joyful songs, nor force happy words from his throat. He sang only the most mournful tunes, and watered the garden with his tears and with the blood that still leaked from his multitude of wounds, pouring all his grief into the ground. As the spring waxed, green things grew up under Gerard's care, beautiful and bountiful, and though he was still more hurt than whole, Gerard began to remember that all living things grow anew with each new season, himself no less than a promising turnip sprout.

Spring came to all parts of the forest in their turn, and as winter loosened its grip Robert was surprised to find that he and Frank had survived. They had turned the horses loose and sheltered in caves, foraging under the snow for green plants and scavenging after wolves and mountain cats. Their horses, being faithful beasts, never went far. On many cold nights Frank and Robert slept against the animals' sides, which grew bonier with every passing day, but were always warm.

Frank's sight did not return, nor did Robert's hands even begin to heal. Somehow they neither froze nor starved, and Robert learned to be sharp-eyed and direct Frank's hands, while Frank learned to listen for danger and warn Robert of directions they should not go. They clung to each other for warmth and never spoke of how cold they were with only two, or how cold they feared Gerard might be, somewhere in the wintry forest all alone.

Each day they wandered, searching for any sign of where Gerard might be. Frank listened. Robert looked at the ground, watching their path and looking for bones, unburied, unhallowed. But they found nothing throughout the winter, and their searches left them colder, wearier, and more disheartened every day.

Spring began to brighten, and Robert began to wonder whether they had not better begin the long walk back to the land of Frank's father, for it was only through some miracle that they had kept alive in this state so long. Still, Robert could not bring himself to suggest it to Frank. Sometimes, at night, he allowed himself to imagine that Frank might be right, that the next day's searching might bring them to Gerard after all.

It was on a warm day late in the spring that Frank and Robert were walking together when Frank's hand tightened suddenly in its accustomed resting place on Robert's shoulder. Robert went still immediately, even holding his breath, for he knew that Frank had heard something, or believed he had. After a moment Frank raised his arm, pointing to the direction of the sound, still inaudible to Robert's less-practiced ears. Robert began to pick a path in that direction, splashing through a creek and down a hillside with Frank following trustingly in his footsteps. When they had reached a small valley, Robert stopped to let Frank listen again, but he found that he heard the sound as well--a low, sad song in a rusty voice Robert recognized.

Frank had to cling hard to Robert's shirt, then, nearly running, but Robert still picked a level path and there was ground under Frank's feet at every stride. The sound was only growing stronger now, and Frank felt tears streaming from his blinded eyes, for he knew it with a perfect, painful, joyous certainty: it was Rapunzel's voice. She was here, somewhere near, and the wandering of the winter was at last repaid. Gerard's voice had grown quite clear when it suddenly stopped, and Robert's hand pressed clumsily against Frank's chest, bringing him to a halt as well.

Robert called out, "Gerard," in a firm voice, not questioning, and Frank found himself trembling, awaiting the answer. Robert's arm pressed against Frank's shoulder as Robert leaned back against him, as though seeking reassurance from Frank's nearness. Frank cursed his blindness more than he ever had, for he had no idea what was happening before him, and he dared not ask.

Gerard stood in the midst of the garden patch, pale as snow and staring, for there stood Robert and Frank, ragged as scarecrows, Robert's hands bandaged and Frank's eyes unseeing. They were beautiful as all the angels and saints to Gerard, and he could not believe they had come for him. He stood in silence, in agony, for they were so near now and his skin, for all its hurt, longed for their touches; but he was no beauty now, and only half himself without Rapunzel.

"Rapunzel," Frank cried out, and his hands reached past Robert, beckoning toward Gerard. Frank could not see what had become of him--and Robert, who could, was watching Gerard without any look of disgust or disdain. He looked only as if he were again keeping his feet on the ground, again keeping watch, as though Rapunzel had not yet demanded his company and so he would not impose himself.

Gerard gathered his courage and stepped forward, crossing through the garden patch and across the clearing to where Frank and Robert stood. Robert stepped aside to let Gerard reach Frank, and Gerard closed his hands around Frank's, and both of them shuddered at the longed-for touch.

"Frank," Gerard said softly, and Gerard's eyes were already streaming with tears, half blind himself. "Frank, oh, what has happened to you?"

Frank hesitated to answer, and Robert made no sound, but Gerard pressed a soft kiss to Frank's mouth, and then to each of his cheeks--and before anyone could speak Frank's eyes flew open. He laughed in delight, looking from Gerard to Robert, for Rapunzel's tears had fallen into his eyes, and his sight was restored. Frank reached instantly for Robert, to share a kiss with him as well, and Robert smiled and returned it, even though his hands still hung useless at his sides.

Gerard had seen this, and gently lifted up Robert's hands in his, pulling the wrappings away to see the wounds that would not heal. As Frank and Robert watched, Gerard pressed a careful kiss to each of Robert's hands, as Robert had so often given a kiss to each palm, one for Rapunzel, one for Gerard. And again Rapunzel's tears fell with the kiss, and again they worked their miracle, for the skin knit together and the wounds disappeared as if they had never been. Robert cried out with joy and reached for Rapunzel to clasp her close and kiss her.

But Gerard sobbed in pain at the touch, full of love and joy as it was, and much though Gerard had desired it. Then Robert and Frank pushed back the sleeves of the Gerard's shirt, and saw the livid wounds bound with rags. Frank and Robert looked at one another across Gerard's body, and then each of them bent his head, one dark, one fair, and each pressed a kiss to pale skin and bright blood--and where their kisses touched, the wounds were healed.

Gerard gasped at their kisses and their healing, for there was no pain, but instead the beautiful feeling of being knit back together where she had come unraveled. Not only did the wounds close, but Frank and Robert's lips and fingers seemed to press Rapunzel back into Gerard and Gerard back into Rapunzel. They spoke over every kiss, "For Rapunzel," and "For Gerard," as though to recompense every kiss they had missed in all the long days that had passed while they were apart. Every touch and every healed hurt was a miracle, and every miracle a sign that God's grace flowed through their love, through all three of them to each other, and though the saint had cast Rapunzel out, yet God's love still encompassed her, and had returned Frank and Robert to her, and her to Gerard.

Frank and Robert did not cease their kisses or their words until at last Rapunzel lay uncovered between them, perfectly restored but for the ragged shortness of her hair. Rapunzel looked from one of them to the other, from Frank's eyes as brown as the fertile earth to Robert's eyes as blue as the warm spring sky, and knew that nothing as green as rapunzel could grow but between them both. Together at last, all three of them were whole.

Later, Gerard led all three back to the dwelling he had shared all winter with Michael and Ray, and introduced his beloveds to his brothers--for so Gerard and Ray had begun to regard themselves, as surely as if Ray were joined to Michael in marriage. Michael and Robert went hunting, finding a kinship in their shared silence.

Ray and Frank helped Gerard gather the first fruits of the garden, the three of them singing all the while, all the happy and silly and bawdy songs they could remember. They had not been in the garden long when Frank and Robert's horses came into the clearing, having followed their masters' trail, and Rapunzel fed them garden greens and scratched their ears, praying over the faithful beasts as she had seen Gothel do--and though Rapunzel was no saint, it seemed that both animals carried their heads and tails a little higher, and soon were chasing one another about the clearing like spring foals.

When all five returned to the cottage with their spoils, they made a fine feast, and they were merry together and ate their fill. By the time they wished each other good night, Michael and Ray were calling Gerard Rapunzel as often as Frank and Robert called Rapunzel Gerard.

The next day Frank and Robert and Gerard set out for the land of Frank's father, Gerard riding sometimes behind Frank and sometimes behind Robert. Michael and Ray had promised that they would follow when the weather turned cold--for Frank's father would surely have places for a smith and a sharp-eyed hunter, and Frank assured them that they would be honored as his friends besides.

Frank and Robert were welcomed home as the beloved sons of the castle, and all of Frank's brothers told stories of how they had searched for their youngest brother and his beloved squire through the winter, all without success. Frank's eldest brother, the heir to the castle, was still away, performing heroic deeds to win the hand of a beautiful princess he had met on his journey. Frank's second brother had run afoul of a witch, and spent much of the winter in the form of a small green lizard before he finally escaped, and had now made a full recovery (except for the peculiar color of his hair). Frank's third brother had ridden deep into the woods and met an old woman there, who blessed his horse and hound, but told him that his brother was dead and would never be seen again; this last part of his story he had never told anyone until Frank was safely home, for he had not believed that it could be true, and so it was not.

Gerard was welcomed as well, beautiful and exotic from the land on the far side of the deep forest, and clearly a dear companion to Frank and Robert. The three dwelled together in Frank's rooms, which had many broad windows and a fine light for painting, as well as a good view of the yard where Robert and Frank practiced their swordplay. They slept every night in one broad bed, larger itself than the top of Rapunzel's tower, for they liked to be warm.

Gerard wore lovely court robes more often than trousers, and half of all of Frank's and Robert's kisses were still for Rapunzel. Gerard began to paint again, sometimes saints, but as often he painted people as themselves, Frank as Frank and Robert as Robert, and his renown as an artist soon spread, until he was loved throughout the land for his own sake as well as that of the lord's youngest son. The priest who led the castle's church asked Gerard to paint a screen for the altar, and when he came into the church to see where it would stand, he found it strange to see a place devoted entirely to God which was so full of beauty and joy, for Gothel's devotion had always been full of pain and sacrifice. For the first time in a long time Rapunzel thought of the holy woman who had raised her, and wondered if she was alone now in her cave, and whether the winter had been a hard and lonely one without an acolyte. Rapunzel wondered whether Gothel would take another child from the village to serve her, and whether the next one would disappoint her as bitterly as Rapunzel had.

Then Rapunzel shook off her thoughts, and went out into the courtyard to watch Robert and Frank at their swordplay, for they always showed off to best advantage when they knew their beloved was watching. Soon Gerard was laughing at the way Frank and Robert taunted each other, admiring the dancing way they moved across the stones, and refusing yet again to be taught to hold a sword. He did not think about the forest again, nor the cave on the edge of a glen, high in the hills above the village, for it was far away and long ago.

The first snow after Gerard and Frank and Robert came to the castle dusted the whole world with white and brought them Michael and Ray two days after. The pair soon settled in, and were much admired. None in the castle thought it strange that two countrymen living in a foreign place desired always to be close to one another, and their cottage was in the forest outside the castle's walls, where even their nearest neighbors did not trouble them much, though Robert often went out with Michael to hunt, and Gerard and Frank often visited the smithy and sang with Ray, when he was not making his anvil sing instead.

Gerard's hair never grew an inch after it was cut, but Frank bought him combs and ribbons of every color to adorn it, and each year for the midsummer's festival Robert made her a leafy crown from the kitchen garden--not of flowers, but of the most beautiful lamb's lettuce, called rapunzel.

And so they all lived for many years, and were content.

THE END