Free Touching the Wire by Rebecca Bryn Page B

become as bad as the
wolf. Finally he couldn’t bear his guilt and he went to the king. The king also
had two daughters. They lived in a castle on a wide sparkling river, surrounded
by vineyards and forests. The castle had tall towers built of huge blocks of
stone. The towers were round on one side of the building…’
    ‘And square on the other.’
    ‘Yes, Charlotte.’
    ‘And one tower was very
tall.’
    ‘The castle had round and
square towers where the king and his family lived. It had had rows of narrow
arched windows above two gateways. The gateways had thick oak gates to keep out
the wolves that roamed wild across the land. From the top of the highest tower
they could see for miles and miles across the kingdom. The king loved his daughters and kept them locked away
in the highest room…’
    ‘Four storeys high.’
    ‘… where they’d be safe from the wolf.’
    ‘Are there really wolves,
Grandpa?’
    ‘Not wild in this country,
Charlotte, but in other places they still roam free. The woodcutter walked
for many days before he reached the castle.  The king granted him an
audience, and the woodcutter knelt before him and swept off his large green
hat.
     ‘Your majesty, he
said. I beg you, rid the kingdom of the wolf, Wselfwulf. The king offered a
reward to anyone who could slay the wolf. One day a prince rode up to the
castle on a huge chestnut horse and demanded to see the king. He drew his sword
and laid it at the king’s feet. I will kill the wolf if you grant me the hand
of one of your daughters in marriage. The king thought about this. The prince
was rich and handsome and brave. He’d be a worthy husband when his oldest
daughter was of marriageable age, and it would mean the kingdom would be free
of Wselfwulf forever. I agree, said the king. But you must bring me a token of
his death.
    ‘The prince searched for
Wselfwulf for many days and eventually found him.  The wolf stood as tall
as the prince and bared huge fangs at him. What do you want, man-thing? The
prince was very afraid. I’ve come to
kill you so you don’t eat the princesses and the other daughters of the kingdom .’
    ‘It’s a wonder these two
ever dare go to sleep, Walt.’ Jane placed a cup of tea on the small table
beside Charlotte’s bed.
    ‘It’s only a story, Granny.’
    He paused to sip the tea.
The girls sat patiently while he swallowed. Their eyes saw wolves and kings and
castles, where he saw betrayal and the frozen dead. He put down the cup.
    ‘What is to be your
reward? Wselfwulf asked, fixing his pale cold eyes on the prince. The hand of a
princess in marriage, answered the prince. The wolf backed into his cave,
revealing a huge treasury of gold and silver paid in ransom over the years for
the safety of the daughters of the realm. I will give you a tooth to take back
to the king as proof you have killed me and, if you bring me the princess, you
can take all the treasure you can carry in return. The prince took the tooth
back to the king, and the prince and princess were betrothed amid huge
celebration because Wselfwulf was dead.’
    ‘But weasel-wolf wasn’t
dead.’
    ‘Wselfwulf. No, sweetheart,
he wasn’t.’
    ‘What happened?’
    ‘The wolf didn’t eat the
princess?’
    ‘No. The prince had fallen
in love with the princess and couldn’t bear to lose her, so he begged the wolf
to let her live.
    ‘Bring me the
woodcutter’s daughters, to avenge my father, and you may take your treasure and
your princess, said the wolf. So the prince went in search of the woodcutter.
That night, when the woodcutter and his wife were asleep, he crept into the
house, carried off both the woodcutter’s daughters and gave them to the wolf in
return for the princess and gold.’
    ‘We-self-wolf ate them.’
    ‘Yes, Lucy, he ate them and
then, satisfied that the debt had been paid, he curled up on the spot where his
father had died for a long, long sleep. You see, the woodcutter tried everything
he knew to protect his