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“There, there, Mrs. Tiddlebottom. Look at all these gifts my sisters brought for me for my birthday!”
“Very nice of them, lady.”
“Yes, now go upstairs, and I will be there soon with some tea.”
After Gothel saw Mrs. Tiddlebottom disappear up the stairs, she gave the odd sisters a wrathful look.
“What in Hades are you doing to that cake?”
The odd sisters all stopped eating at once and looked at Gothel with the most confused and surprised expressions on their faces.
“What?”
“We have to conduct ourselves as normally as possible! And we have to make that woman up there believe we like her.”
“That’s stupid. Let’s just kill her,” said Ruby.
“No! I need her. I’m taking Rapunzel somewhere safe. Somewhere no one can find her. It was stupid of me to think I could keep her here. She’s always running about in those fields. Someone is going to happen by one day, and they will put it together and guess she is the missing princess. I’ve been very sloppy to let this go on so long. No, we need to hide my precious flower away, so no one ever gets their hands on her.”
“Then why do you need the old woman?” asked all three of the sisters at once.
“I need someone to watch over my sisters while I’m with Rapunzel,” said Gothel, looking at them like they were idiots for not realizing that themselves.
“Oh, and, Lucinda, I will need you to do a memory charm on Rapunzel. Wipe her memory of this place. I want her to think she’s always lived in her tower, with me as her doting mother. The only person in the world who loves her.”
“And what about her aunties?”
“Best we don’t introduce you just yet. I’ll have a hard enough time convincing the little brat that I love her.”
“Why bother with the pretense at all? Why not just wipe her memory and keep her asleep?” asked Lucinda.
“Oh yes! I love that idea! Yes. Let’s keep her asleep! I can’t stand the idea of having to spend my days entertaining the little brat!”
“Yes, then it’s all set. We’ll keep Rapunzel asleep in her tower!” said Ruby, clapping her hands and then stuffing more cake into her mouth.
“And her hair will grow and grow!” said Martha.
“Yes! It will grow so long we will wrap it around your sisters and heal them!” said Lucinda.
“Do you think that will work?” asked Gothel, her eyes wide.
“We do!” the odd sisters said together. It sounded like the clamor of freakish blackbirds.
“Imagine how long her hair will be in ten years!”
Gothel and the odd sisters laughed and laughed. Their cackling rang out into the many kingdoms. They didn’t care who or what heard them. As far as anyone knew, they were just four happy sisters eating cake.
The tower was hidden away in a valley with a lovely waterfall and surrounded by mountains and a river on three sides. Though low in the valley, it was often drenched in sunlight, and the lands were bursting with greenery. It was a happy tranquil place, an unlikely hiding spot for the queen of the dead, but that was exactly what it had been very long ago. Gothel had learned about the tower in one of her mother’s journals. It wasn’t far from the dead woods, which now stood in ruins and were completely deserted, considered to be haunted. Haunted by the old queen of the dead and her many minions. Wild tales spread throughout the surrounding lands and became more elaborate as the years passed. It was still a mystery how the soldiers had been able to breach the enchanted thicket all those years ago. It was rumored that the King had employed a very powerful witch to break the enchantment, but to that day the sordid tale was still veiled in mystery and speculation. Gothel hadn’t even thought of the enchantment at the time. She just took Jacob’s advice and fled. She wondered what would have happened to her and her sisters if she had insisted the soldiers wouldn’t be able to enter. She wondered a lot of things.
But that was another lifetime ago, she thought.
Gothel sighed. This was her life now. Traveling between the tower and her country house. Checking on the sleeping Rapunzel and then going back home to check on her sisters. Back and forth. Hither and thither, never staying in either place for long. If she had, she would have had time to think about the ruins of her life and how she’d failed her sisters. Now her entire focus was on bringing them back to life—and keeping herself young so she could.
Even though the odd sisters had given Gothel an enchanted mirror for the tower and one for her pocket, she still made the trip to see that her flower was safe and to use the healing powers to keep herself young. She still resented the Queen for having eaten the flower when she was ill and doing the same when she feared for the life of her unborn child. Stupid woman. Gothel wouldn’t have had to take their child if the Queen had just used the flower properly, but now the child was infused with the flower’s magic and was the only living source of its power. It had been almost ten years since Gothel and the odd sisters brought Rapunzel and her pet, Pascal, to the tower. These days Gothel couldn’t go for long without using the flower. Within a day, she would start to age dramatically. She had no idea how the odd sisters stayed so young without the help of the flower, and wondered if they had actually taken her mother’s blood, like she had suspected so many years ago.
Rapunzel and Pascal were living in a dreamworld created by the odd sisters, in which the Princess spent her days painting a beautiful mural with paints, made from white seashells, that her mother thoughtfully procured for her from far-off places. She played hide-and-seek with Pascal, did her chores like a good daughter, read stories, played music, baked pies, brushed her exceedingly long hair, did puzzles, and baked even more pies. She filled her days with frivolity and distractions. It was a happy sort of life.
For the most part.
