How to Turn a Frog into a Prince - Bree Wolf Page 0,72
chuckled. “Perhaps it’ll be like the sword in the stone. Everyone gets a turn, and only his rightful bride’s kiss will turn the frog into a prince.” She grinned up at him. “I suspect girls from far and wide will be drawn here.”
Nathanial laughed. “Too bad they’ll all be disappointed.”
“You cannot know that,” Charlaine objected with a wagging finger. “Perhaps the impossible will happen after all.”
“The impossible is called that for a reason,” Nathanial remarked, relieved to fall back into their usual banter.
Up ahead, they spotted the girls sitting on their heels on the ground, looking down at something with great interest. “He’s so small,” Daphne observed. Then she looked at Susan. “I thought he’d be bigger.”
“The frog is small,” Susan replied rationally. “The prince will be…” She frowned, then looked up as Charlaine and Nathanial joined them. “How tall will the prince be?”
Charlaine shrugged and knelt down. “I don’t know. I suppose it depends on whose perfect match he’ll be.”
Nathanial fought to suppress a grin, trying to remember his own childhood days when nothing at all had seemed impossible. Perhaps that in itself was magic, the belief that anything could be achieved, conquered or won.
That nothing was impossible.
The thought was inspiring.
“Careful when you pick him up,” Charlaine cautioned as Daphne reached her little hands into the bucket. “You don’t want to hurt him.”
Daphne squealed when her fingers touched the frog. “Ugh! He’s so cold and slimy!” She looked up at Susan. “Do you want to kiss him first?”
Susan frowned, reluctance marking her little face. “I don’t know how. Do you?”
Daphne shook her head. “Charlaine, do you know how to kiss?” She sat up. “How about you kiss him first?”
Charlaine grinned. “But what if he turns into a prince when I kiss him?” she asked, looking from one girl to the other. “Will I be his bride then?”
Quite obviously, that thought had not occurred to either one of the girls for their expressions became contemplative. “I suppose we need to think about this,” Daphne declared before her gaze swept the rim of the bucket. “I think we should dig it out and take him back with us.”
Susan nodded her approval and, a moment later, the two girls were digging out the loose dirt around the bucket with their hands, careful not to shake it too much in the process. Their gazes drifted back to the small, green animal within again and again, curiosity mixing with a hint of apprehension. “I wonder who ever got the idea of kissing a frog,” Daphne remarked, frowning. “I’d certainly not mind kissing a prince, but a frog?”
Again, Susan agreed.
Nathanial watched as Charlaine rose to her feet, laughing. Then her sparkling, brown eyes met his as though they shared a secret no one else knew about. “Well, I suppose the idea is that you need to have faith, that you need to prove your devotion before receiving something in return.” She sighed, watching the girls slowly lift the bucket out of the hole. “Life sometimes leads us down a difficult path, but we must never lose faith that eventually all will be well again.”
Nathanial knew that Charlaine spoke from personal experience. He knew that her path had been a most trying one, and he also knew that she had shown true strength in her convictions to emerge from this dark time with her spirits intact.
Daphne and Susan had both known hard times when they had been very young. Still, here and now, out in the country, away from all that had ever darkened their world, they knew only joy and peace.
Nathanial was glad for it.
With the bucket held between them, Daphne and Susan began their way back toward the house with Charlaine and Nathanial walking behind. “We still don’t know how to kiss,” Susan remarked with a sideways glance at Daphne.
Daphne shrugged. “I suppose it’s no different than kissing your mother. You purse your lips and then…” She smacked them loudly.
Susan frowned, clearly not convinced. “But on the lips? I saw Pierce and Caroline kiss like that.”
Nathanial fought to contain a laugh as Daphne turned around to look at them. “Do we have to kiss the frog on the lips?” She paused. “Does it even have lips?”
Charlaine chuckled, and Nathanial held his breath to keep silent. His head felt like it would explode. “That, I cannot say,” she replied after a deep breath. “I’ve never quite looked at a frog with such diligence. But I do suppose it has lips.” She grinned. “Green ones.”