. .’The prince was surprised that after the huntsman and Rumplestiltskin had left he did manage to fall asleep for a fitful few hours although he had left all the lamps burning. He met Beauty on the terrace for breakfast and she rose from her chair and dashed towards him, a sweet smile making her face glow.‘I missed you,’ she whispered, reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss him. She tasted of the sweet apple she’d been eating, but still his stomach flipped and churned as their lips touched. He focused on the darkness of her hair, so different to the blood-streaked blonde of the Beast who’d tormented him the previous day. He forced the memory away, doing his best to lock it in a far corner of his mind.‘I missed you too,’ he answered weakly. ‘I barely slept.’ The last part wasn’t a lie. He wondered if she had realised an entire day was missing from her memory. She took his hand and they sat in the sunshine and she talked merrily about their wedding plans as he forced a pastry and some juice inside him.
