Elsa Crane's Arc

Chapter 25 of 66

Two days after the Peters girl kept the bear, Elsa walked to the cottage in the strawberry tree. The teal crystal door glowed against the frost. Fern opened it before she knocked. Clara was at the table with a mug in her hands. "One child is a start," Elsa said. She sat and put her palms flat on the wood. "But one child won't warm a village. The wives still watch him like a visiting prince. He walks the lanes and the other children step back." Clara nodded. "The Peters girl told two of her friends about the bear. They asked their mothers if the boy was safe." "Then we use that," Elsa said. "A play. Four children, maybe five. Small enough that he can't hide behind numbers. Big enough that it isn't a lesson. He learns them one at a time, inside one afternoon." Fern set her key down. "Whose children?" "The Peters girl first," Clara said. "She'll pull the others. The cobbler's twins. The miller's boy. The girl who follows the twins everywhere." "Here?" Fern asked. "Here," Elsa said. "Behind your door. The mothers trust this cottage. Bake something. Let them run in and out. No speeches. No crown. He lends the bear again. He asks the twins what they built yesterday. He listens." Clara wrote the names on the back of a receipt. "I'll ask the mothers today. I'll tell them it's a thank-you for the Peters girl. That gives them a reason." "No coaching him," Elsa said to Fern. "If he performs, they'll smell it. Let him fumble." Fern folded the receipt into her pocket. "And if the twins won't come inside?" "Then we have three," Clara said. "Three is enough." The afternoon came bright and cold. Elsa watched from the window across the lane. The Peters girl arrived first, dragging her mother by the hand. The cobbler's twins came next, cautious, then the miller's boy behind them. Four. The teal door closed. Elsa did not go in. She walked to the edge of the pines where the snow lay clean and waited. The pale wolf came out from between two trunks and sat down in front of her. Frost clung to its ruff. Its blue eyes held on her face. "Tell me if he's alone in there," Elsa said. The wolf did not move for a long moment. Then it lowered its head and pressed its nose once to the snow at her boot. It turned and walked back into the trees. At dusk Clara found Elsa on the path. Her braid was loose. She was smiling without effort. "The twins invited him to their yard tomorrow," she said. "The miller's boy asked if he could keep the bear a night. The Peters girl held his hand at the door." Elsa let the breath out. Four children. Four names he would carry now. The prince was becoming a boy.