Free Twice Upon a Time by Kate Forster Page A

shoulder.
    ‘You’re very good,’ he said, sounding surprised.
    Cinda said nothing, concentrating on the picture.
    ‘I wish I could draw,’ Gus said.
    Cinda tried not to roll her eyes. If she had a dollar for every person who said that to her she would have a very nice collection of sable paintbrushes by now.
    Gus sat on the log next to her and stared ahead.
    ‘Tell me how you do it.’
    Cinda paused and looked at him. He was so like Ludo it was crazy. If it weren’t for the clothes and hair, they’d be impossible to tell apart.
    ‘You draw what you see,’ she said. ‘Not what you think you see.’
    Gus frowned. ‘I’m not sure I understand.’
    Cinda turned the sketchpad over to a new page and handed it to Gus, along with a pencil that she pulled from her backpack.
    ‘Draw my mouth,’ she instructed.
    Gus hesitated.
    ‘Just draw my mouth. Not the whole face, just the mouth.’
    Gus stared at her mouth and then put his pencil to paper and started to draw, occasionally looking up to study her mouth again. He turned it around and showed her. ‘It’s pretty terrible, I know,’ said Gus, half-laughing to cover his embarrassment.
    ‘No, it’s not bad. It’s just that it’s a caricature,’ said Cinda. ‘You’ve drawn what you think a mouth looks like, which happens to be vaguely shaped like mine.’
    Gus was nodding as she looked at him. She noticed a tiny freckle on his right cheekbone.
    ‘This time, draw what you see. And don’t draw the whole mouth, draw it line by line. Put it exactly on the paper as it appears to your eye,’ she said. ‘Don’t judge it until it’s finished. Some lines may not make sense but they’ll all come together at the end.’
    Gus stared at her mouth for a long time, concentrating as he ran the pencil across the page. Cinda relaxed her mouth, letting it open just a little.
    He was looking at her so intently she didn’t know where to look, so she chose a spot over his left shoulder, on the horizon. His gaze made her feel nervous, but she didn’t want him to stop looking at her. She brought her eyes back to him and watched as he looked down and sketched. When he wasn’t being an uptight prig, he was as handsome as Ludo, she realised.
    Finally Gus stopped and looked down at the picture and then up at Cinda. He turned the pad around so she could see what he’d done.
    She looked down and smiled. ‘There you go! That’s actually pretty great,’ she said. It was a good drawing, especially for a beginner. She studied the sketch of her mouth, knowing it revealed how Gus saw it.
    ‘Actually, it’s wonderful,’ she said, and she tore off the piece of paper from the pad and handed it to him. ‘You should sign it, it might be worth something when you become king,’ she teased.
    Gus took the paper from her hand. He looked pleased with himself as he stood up. ‘Well, I’ll leave you to it,’ he said. ‘Thanks for the lesson.’
    ‘Anytime,’ said Cinda as he walked away and back up the path.
    She turned back to her own sketch again, before turning over to a fresh page. Starting again, this time with inspiration, her perfect view came into being upon the page.

10

    It wasn’t until Gus was at the top of the path that he realised he hadn’t spoken to Cinda about the situation with Ludo. He had followed her down to the beach to encourage her to leave but instead he had been bewitched by her talent – and her mouth. He looked at the picture again.
    It really was quite amazing how she had helped him see beyond what he assumed he’d see.
    When he reached the villa, he saw that Ludo and Jonas were lounging by the pool. While it annoyed him a little to see them lazing about, it didn’t annoy him as much as usual. He went inside and headed upstairs to his chambers.
    He propped the piece of paper against the silver-framed photo of Perrette on his mantelpiece. Their mouths couldn’t be more different , he thought as he examined them side-by-side. Cinda’s lips reminded him