Free The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde Page B

"Oh, it's you, lit—It's you. Thank goodness!" She gave the charming smile which no doubt had melted the hearts of all the village youths.
    Rumpelstiltskin only said, "More straw."
    Luella gestured to indicate the whole huge room. "As you see." But she was not nearly as upset as she'd been the previous night. She was already counting on being rescued.
    "What will you give me," Rumpelstiltskin asked, "to spin
this
straw into gold?"
    "This locket?" Luella said. She unfastened the chain from around her neck and held the heart-shaped locket up for Rumpelstiltskin to see.
    Rumpelstiltskin opened it and saw a tiny painted portrait of a young man. Luella released the chain so that the locket rested in Rumpelstiltskin's hand.
    So once again Rumpelstiltskin spent the night spinning straw into gold, and once again she was finished just before dawn, and Luella thanked her, and Rumpelstiltskin left through the window. And once again she waited.
    The third night Rumpelstiltskin found Luella not in a tower room at all, but in the great ballroom. This time Luella had thought beforehand and had opened the shutter herself, so that Rumpelstiltskin could find her.
    When Rumpelstiltskin came in through the window, there was barely enough room to step without tripping over all those bales of straw. Still, she saw that Luella hadn't been crying at all.
Presumptuous,
she thought. But that wasn't it, or at least not all of it.
    "The king," Luella said, smugly and proud of herself, "has said he will marry me."
    Rumpelstiltskin asked, "And what have
you
said to
the king?
"
    Luella had to pause to work this out. "Why, I said yes, of course."
    "Of course," Rumpelstiltskin said. "On account of his courting you so sweetly." She glanced around at all that straw and decided that Luella was free to make her own choices. "So you won't be needing me." She started to back up to go out the window.
    Luella took hold of her arm. "Oh, but I do. One more time. The king said that if I spun this roomful of straw into gold, he'd have more gold than any man had a right to.
    That,
Rumpelstiltskin thought,
never stopped anyone from
wanting more.
But all she said was, "What will you give me for doing this for you?"
    "Whatever you want," Luella said.
    "
Whatever I want?
" Rumpelstiltskin repeated, remembering for the first time in years that long-ago dream, the only thing she had ever wanted: a child to love her. She tried to shake the ridiculous notion out of her head.
    "Gold," Luella said, "however much of it you want. Tomorrow when I'm named queen-to-be, I can give you however much your heart desires."
    "
Tomorrow,
" Rumpelstiltskin echoed.
    "Well, yes," Luella said with a slight hint of exasperation creeping into her tone. "I have nothing to give you tonight, but tomorrow when the king announces I am to be wed—"
    "I," Rumpelstiltskin interrupted, shaking her head, "I don't want your gold, you silly girl. If I can spin straw into gold, what need have I of gold?"
    "Well, you took the ring and the locket," Luella said peevishly. "All right, then, pick something besides gold. Gems, clothes, horses." She was getting nowhere. "Servants, lands, a title."
    The more she talked, the more Rumpelstiltskin got aggravated with her.
I should never have helped her at all,
she thought.
Spoiled thing that she is. Of course the king will
marry her. He'll probably even be satisfied with the gold that he has, if he has her, too. They'll live in this castle, with servants to wait on them, and the people of the kingdom to love them, and she'll have dozens of babies, all as pretty and empty-headed as she is.
    Luella stamped her foot. "Well, what do you want, you horrid little man?" she demanded.
    Rumpelstiltskin had to fight herself to keep from grabbing Luella and shaking her. "I am
not
a little man," she shouted. "And what I want..."
Oh, go ahead, say it.
"What I want is your firstborn child." She couldn't believe the words had come out of her.
    Luella gave a hoot of disbelief or