Once Upon a Winter's Night

10

With sudden tears springing to her eyes, Camille rushed forward and threw her arms about the neck of the Bear and hugged him fiercely, murmuring, “Oh, Bear, oh, Bear, where have you been?”

She stood a long while with her face buried in fur, the Bear sitting quite still as she did so. Finally she released him and glanced ’round, scarcely noticing the stone benches placed about the green sward and the statues of a man and woman on a low pedestal in the center. “Oh, Bear, are you lost? Is that why I heard you moaning?”

The Bear gave a low rumble somewhere between that of a whuff and a deep growl. At this Camille laughed gaily, saying, “Tell me, O Bear, is that rrrumm a yes or a no? Ah, tchaa, but never mind, for I shall set you free of this maze. You see, I know the way out. Come along.”

With Camille strolling beside the Bear, down the shadowed way between hedgerows they went, Camille chatting gaily of her explorations throughout the manor and surrounding grounds, and her working with Andre to plant camellias, and the terribly lonely dinners she had eaten surrounded by dozens of servants. The Bear made no comment whatsoever, but merely padded along.

As they neared the exit, Camille heard voices calling, dozens of voices, and they all seemed to be crying her name.

“Oh, Bear, I wonder whatever could be the matter?”

Camille hurried forward, the Bear lagging behind, and she exited the maze to see servants scattered throughout the grounds, all calling “ Lady Camille!” Nearby, she espied Blanche and Renaud. “Blanche, I am over here!” cried Camille. “Whatever is this clamor all about?”

“Oh, my lady, my lady,” cried Blanche, as she rushed toward Camille, Renaud following, “we thought you had been kidnapped, or vanished into thin air, just like Lord Valeray and Lady Saissa.”

“Valeray? Saissa?”

“Prince Alain’s dam and sire,” said Blanche, puffing up, Renaud right behind, just as the Bear stepped out from the hedge. The handmaid and blacksmith curtseyed and bowed in deference, even as Camille frowned and asked, “Is that the why of this fuss? You thought I had been taken? Stolen away or some such?”

Blanche gulped and glanced at the Bear and said, “Oh, my lady, when I discovered you gone from your chambers, I didn’t know what might have happened to you, and now I find you at this dreadful maze.”

“Not dreadful at all, Blanche,” said Camille. “You see, therein I discovered my Bear.” She turned and threw her arms about the Bear’s neck.

“Not meaning to gainsay you, Lady Camille,” said Renaud, running his hand through the dark shock of his hair, “but there is something terrible about that maze. Just like Blanche, I feel it in my bones, and, like her, I think if I ever went in there, I would lose myself forever. And if you take my advice, you’ll not go in there ever again.”

“Ah, fie,” said Camille, releasing the Bear. “All is quite splendid within, and it’s a marvelous puzzle to solve. Besides, someone must tend it regularly-a gardener, that is-for it is well trimmed.”

“Aye, my lady,” replied Blanche, “Andre does go in there, as do other groundskeepers and gardeners, but I think none else of the staff does.”

Camille sighed and shook her head. Then, looking about, said, “They’re still out there shouting my name.”

“Blanche, you take care of Lady Camille,” said Renaud. “I’ll call off the hunt.” As Renaud hallooed and went across the grounds to round up searchers, Blanche and Camille and the Bear headed for the mansion, Camille saying, “May I be served a breakfast out here, Blanche? In the gazebo where you and I had lunch? I have much to tell the Bear, and I would not lose him again.”

“Certainly, my lady,” replied Blanche. “But wouldn’t you like to bathe, and change into something more apropos for dining and chatting with the… the Bear?”

Camille smiled. “Blanche, he has seen me at my worst: grimy and disheveled and exhausted. And we have dined together in quite trying circumstances-digging in dirt for food, eating in a cold nearly beyond enduring, drinking brimstone-tinged water. Nay, I think a meal in the gazebo just as I am and just as he is seems quite genteel to me. Don’t you think so, Bear?”

“ Whuff. ”

“There you have it, Blanche. He and I agree.”

“As you wish,” said Blanche, curtseying and then starting toward the manor as Camille and the Bear headed for the chosen gazebo.

“Oh, Blanche!” called Camille after. “Have them bring plenty for the Bear.”

In midafternoon, Camille and the Bear strolled toward the manse, she having told him of her explorations in full, and her concerns at not yet having met Prince Alain, and her fears that Alain would be a monster for none of the staff would tell her what he was like. “Of course, I have only spoken at length to Blanche, though Lanval would say nought of the prince, either. The only others to whom I have said more than a word are Andre the gardener and Renaud the smith. Andre talks only about plants and planting, and from Renaud, I’ve heard even less. From something he said I get the impression that, as a smith, he seems to be yet learning his trade, though for the life of me, I cannot recall why. Regardless, there is no one to whom I can pour out my hopes and fears as I can with you, dear Bear, and you’d gone missing these last few days. Where have you been, I wonder. In the maze hiding away? Oh, would that you could talk, I am sure you have many wonderful things to tell.”

As she came nigh one of the many entrances into the great chateau, the Bear stopped. “Aren’t you coming with me?” asked Camille.

The Bear gave a low rumble in his chest.

“Well, then, I take that as a no.” Camille embraced the Bear and whispered, “Promise me, Bear, that you will not disappear again except in the most dire of needs, and that in some part of the day I will find you to unburden my qualms and to speak of my dreams.”

A soft whuff was her answer.

Camille then turned toward Blanche, who stood waiting. “All right, Blanche. All right. I am coming to take that bath you insist I must have, and to change into something more ladylike.”

Blanche curtseyed in homage, and the Bear watched as Camille moved toward the entry, and when she was gone inside, the Bear stood a moment longer, staring after, but then ambled away.

After the bath and changing into an elegant pale green gown with cream-hued garniture and trim, and pale green ribbons entwined through her golden hair, and matching green slippers afoot, Camille went looking for her Bear, having now remembered what it was that Renaud had said which caused her to believe he was yet learning his craft. Out into the gardens she went, Blanche standing on one of the balconies and watching after her.

As the sun sank into the horizon and dusk drew nigh, groundskeepers moved across the landscape, lighting candle-lanterns along the paths within the gardens, and over the bridges, and in the several gazebos. That eve the twilight was quite magical, oranges and pinks in the sky fading into lavenders and indigos.

It was as she was standing on a lantern-lit bridge over the wide stream and gazing at sleeping black swans huddled on the mossy bank, that she heard a quiet footfall behind, and a soft voice said, “Lady, I am Alain.”

With her heart racing and blood thundering in her ears, Camille turned to see a tall and slender dark-haired man, his face concealed by a mask.