Free Wickedly Charming by Kristine Grayson Page B

himself. He knew he could pour on the charm. He had just never done it unintentionally before.
    His thumb had a mind of its own, touching that soft skin of hers. And if he got any closer, he would kiss her, and wouldn’t that just scare her to death?
    It scared him.
    So he talked. He talked instead of kissing her because he didn’t want her to run away.
    But he kept his voice soft and gentle, as if he were talking to a frightened rabbit.
    â€œI mean,” he said, “do those fairy tales mention any identifying marks, anything about you that’s unique to you, something that someone—when they first meet you—would say, ‘Why look, Gladys! That’s the Evil Stepmother from the Snow White tale.’”
    She let out a reluctant bark of a laugh. “No, of course not.”
    â€œThen what angers you so?” he asked.
    She sighed. Her hand moved in his, as if she thought of taking it out of his grasp, but she didn’t.
    Instead, she leaned into his caressing thumb, just a little, as if she didn’t realize that she had done so.
    â€œIt affects all of us stepmothers,” she said as if she were confiding in him. Maybe she was. “We’ve become a cultural stereotype, especially here, in the Greater World. We’re expected to be hateful and evil, to try to kill our husbands’ children, and to try to destroy his family when in reality, most of us do our best to become part of the family—sometimes to heal it. It’s a destructive, horrible myth. Think about it. Children read stories about horrible stepmothers, and then their mother dies or leaves in a divorce, and suddenly they have a stepmother. Whom they’re programmed to hate. We have not just the difficulties of blending families. We have to fight this horrible perception all the time.”
    Charming sighed. Ella had hated her stepmother. Lavinia had come into Ella’s house with her father, already married (which Charming blamed on the father) and with two daughters of her own, and, Ella said, seemed nice enough. Then Ella’s father died, and everything changed. Ella got treated poorly. ( She ran wild , Lavinia said. I just imposed some discipline; not well, because I was in terrible, horrible grief .)
    â€œYou don’t agree, do you?” Mellie said. He had been silent too long, lost in his own thoughts, a problem he’d had his whole life.
    She moved that beautiful head away from his thumb. Then she pulled her hand back.
    â€œYou don’t think this is a problem at all,” she said, her tone becoming strident again.
    Maybe that was how she dealt with embarrassment. She used her anger, her power, to keep people from seeing how vulnerable she was.
    He couldn’t grab her hand again; that would be wrong. But he felt like he had missed an important moment—and he didn’t want to. He didn’t want that closeness to go away.
    â€œActually, I do think this is a problem,” he said. “It’s a serious one, and no amount of picketing will change it.”
    She blinked hard, looking away from him. He could sense her frustration. Unless he missed his guess, she was very close to tears.
    â€œSo tell me, Mr. Perfectly Charming? What am I doing wrong? I suppose I’m not nice enough or charming enough to make my point properly.”
    She did have a wicked tongue, he would give that to the storytellers. But she only seemed to wield it when she was frustrated.
    â€œYou can make your point any way you want,” he said. “But you need to use the right vehicle.”
    â€œI’m trying to get on television. I’m trying to get interviews—”
    â€œI know,” he said. “But that’s ephemeral. You need to try it my way.”
    â€œThe Charming way?” she asked. “Oh, good. Because I’m clearly the most charming person in the room.”
    He smiled. “You don’t need to be charming to follow the Charming