This is another fairy tale retelling, and an unusual one, I think. Rumplestiltskin. I don't think very many people have tried to tackle this from a romantic POV before, but I've given it a shot. It's a 6,800 word short. The price is 99 cents.
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Description:
Dairymaid Kay's life is trial after another, mostly caused by her father's drinking. When he drunkenly brags of her ability to spin straw into gold (she can't even spin wool) he attracts the attention of the cruel king. She has two options. Spin the straw into gold...or off with her head. Fortunately she has some help...but is the price to save her life too high? This is an adult fairy tale and contains sexual situations. Short. 6,800 words.
Excerpt:
He stopped spinning. Bits of straw fell to the floor. “That’s right. You don’t get something for nothing. Now, what can you offer me?”
Kay looked down helplessly. She wore a plain brown
wool dress, darned stockings and dusty boots. She didn’t have so much as a coin
or ring on her. “I have nothing. You can have some of the gold,” she said, “Or…the
king couldn’t possibly have been serious about making me queen.”
“I don’t see why not. You would look quite regal in a
tiara, and the man could do worse.”
Me? Regal? Kay was attractive, but pretty enough to be
queen? She chased away the thought, as quickly as it came. Beheading was so
permanent, so…dead. Yet marrying the king would be vile. Still, where there was
life there was hope, and sooner or later someone would be brave enough to
assassinate him. Dead she couldn’t help her family. Living and married to the
king, she would never have to worry about them again. Sacrifice. It was all she knew. “When I am queen. I can get you
anything you want.”
“I don’t take credit,” he told her. “There is a price
to be paid for any service. But there are so many things of greater worth than
shiny bits of metal and rock.”
“What do you want?” she cried out in frustration. “I’m
just a milkmaid. If there’s anything I have, it’s yours, but I have nothing.”
He gave her a sly look from under his eyelashes.
“There is something you can give me.”
“What is it?” she asked.
“A kiss.”
She hesitated. It was an odd request. “Just a kiss?”
“Are you afraid?”
“I’m more afraid of losing my head.”
“Come to me.” Something in his voice seemed to pull
her towards him. She didn’t like it. What if he put a spell on her and turned
her into a frog? Its just a kiss, she told herself. A kiss to save
your life.
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