Staying up on their hind legs for a good four heartbeats, the frogs extended their right front legs, crossed their chests ... and bowed low to her. More tears filled her eyes.
"Tell—" Her voice cracked. She coughed. "Please, tell Veridian—tell him—I'm sorry."
The frogs croaked in unison three times, then dropped into normal froggy crouches, turned somersaults over each other, and hopped back to the pond.
"Why did you never mention that you were friends with the prince of frogs when you were a child, Mi'Lady?" Bib asked.
"I suppose ..." She sighed, found her handkerchief tucked up her sleeve, and dabbed at her eyes. "I suppose I was ashamed and tried to forget. And then there was the whole ... oh, it's so shameful. I ate frogs' legs for so long, demanded them, just to make sure I never ran into a frog while I was living in Carlion."
"If it's any comfort, Mi'Lady, I think what we saw just now means you're forgiven."
"Yes, I think it is some comfort."
She had some doubts about that, however, when her dreams that night and several nights until the wedding, were of misty, twisted, indecipherable memories from childhood. Merrigan woke to the sounds of brassy honking overhead, and at first thought it came from her dreams. Her ugly little gray, awkward duck, whom she had named Honk, had made the same sound. He had followed her everywhere, waddling around the palace, sticking his long neck and oversized bill and feet into everything. She had adored him. Or rather, she had adored him until her world changed, her mother died, and she listened too well when Nanny Tulip told her how to be a proper princess.
Bib flipped open to offer her a lace-edge handkerchief that smelled of the spicy leaves of her favorite bush in her mother's garden. Merrigan couldn't remember the name of the bush, but she did love the sweetly delicate, slightly peppery aroma. She blotted her eyes and told Bib about Honk, how she had been so cruel until finally he flew away, never to return.
"Veridian, and Bryan, and the children I used to play with among the palace servants and the nobles and ..." She sighed one last time. "I'm afraid, Bib, I have a dreadful, cruel habit of driving people away. If I have no friends, it is my own wretched fault."
"Forgive me, Mi'Lady, but you are sadly mistaken."
"Hmm?" She blotted her eyes one last time and sat up, sniffing delicately.
"You will never drive me away."
Bib had to produce a second sweetly spicy handkerchief, and Merrigan had to resort to dousing her face in water until she came near drowning, to soothe her red, tear-swollen eyes.
She felt better when she learned that the honking hadn't been entirely in her dreams. A pair of swans had arrived on the dawn breezes from the sea, and settled in the queen's garden. A sure sign of blessing and the return of healing magic to Seafoam. She had helped to do that. She had done something good.
THE DAY OF THE WEDDING, Chancellor Morton presented Merrigan with Elli's knife. All the jewels encrusting it had indeed been removed. The money had to come from somewhere, after all, to pay for the festivities that included the entire town. Merrigan tried not to feel a few flickers of resentment, because didn't she deserve a few jewels for helping to resolve several sticky problems for the kingdom? Then Bib pointed out that she had no idea how to remove the jewels without damaging the knife. Besides, he suspected the jewels had been put there to help stunt the magical powers of the knife.
"Do you mean to tell me if it was still covered with jewels, it wouldn't help Elli?" Merrigan dropped the knife on the table next to Bib and scrubbed her hands on her skirts.
They had returned to their room at the inn. Elli, Miles, Rosa and Quincy were still out dancing and enjoying the wedding festivities. Merrigan felt rather tired, maybe a little sad, and had decided to go upstairs and rest.
"It is possible." Bib flipped his pages open. "I think if I'm touching it, I can study it better and be absolutely sure."
"That villain. That wretch. That ... snot!" Merrigan picked up the knife by the end of the handle, with two fingers, and placed it in the center of Bib's open page. "I hope Arabella's portion of the curse is so large, his entire kingdom lacks the sense to come in out of the rain."
In short order, Bib confirmed the scheming prince had tried to limit the magic inherent in the knife used to cut the mermaid's hair. However, whoever he hired to do the job had bungled. The most he and the jeweler and the minor enchanter had managed was to cast an unsteady I'm-not-really-here spell on the knife. Merrigan elected not to tell Elli about that part of the prince's nasty schemes. After all, she had started to fall in love with him, and might still have a few tender feelings.
"The world would be a much better place if men weren't such useless, childish fools and women didn't fall in love with them," Merrigan mused.
Then Elli and Miles burst into the room with flowers and a skin of wine and an enormous meat pie to share. Merrigan's eyes got misty when they declared they didn't think it right she should
