*Rapunzel*
By the third day of Horace’s absence, it is clear to me that he isn’t coming back. The first night and the second, I wake at every sound in the castle, certain that he will be home any moment. On the morning of the third day, I take a walk outside the castle walls for the first time since Horace left. Standing amidst the cow parsley that I think of as my own, staring down at the tower, the idea comes to me.
The tower is essentially abandoned. And yet it has everything I so desperately need: time and space, silence, a place to practice.
If I move there, Horace cannot surprise me by walking into the room and savaging my heart. I go back into the castle and find my maid. “Mary, will you ask Bardolph to attend me? I have decided to move to the tower, and I need him to make arrang
