Beta thanks to Miss Molly Etc!

Deep in the forest, high in the hills above the village, a holy woman lived in a cave on the edge of a glen. Gothel was constant in her devotion to God, and God had granted her the miracle of life: men and women from the village came to her to be blessed to bring forth children, and children were brought to her to be blessed that they might grow. Even the beasts Gothel prayed over benefited from her intercession, cows giving sweeter milk and hens laying larger eggs. Her garden in the high mountain glen grew more bountiful than any garden tended in the village below.

One day, a man and a woman came up from the village to ask Gothel's blessing upon them that they might have a child. They came while she was deep in her prayers, and waited by the garden until she was finished. Now the man and woman were very poor, and had only a tiny garden of their own, and they had nothing to spare even to bring a gift to Gothel on their visit. They had no fear, for they knew Gothel was a holy woman who helped all who came to her, but as they waited beside the garden they grew hungry.

The woman spied the lamb's lettuce called rapunzel growing in the garden, the most beautiful rapunzel she had ever seen, and she was overcome with hunger for it. She struggled to be patient, but the pangs made her weep, and finally she told her husband she feared she would die, there in the forest high above the village, if she could not have a taste of the rapunzel from the holy woman's garden. Her husband could not bear to see her pain, so he stole into the garden himself and plucked the tender leaves, and brought them to his wife to eat.

She felt better at once, and they waited in the sunshine beside the beautiful garden until the holy woman emerged.

Gothel asked them why they had come, and they told her of their longing for a child. She blessed them, as she did all who asked, but when her prayer was done she had more to say.

"You have committed three sins today in this holy place: Covetousness, Theft, and Deceit. And so you shall suffer three punishments. As you coveted the rapunzel in my garden, so shall all who look upon your child covet her beauty. As you stole the rapunzel to fill your belly, so shall I take your child to be my acolyte here. And as you kept silent when you might have confessed your sins, so shall I keep silent to your child. She shall never know her parents, nor anything of the world beyond this forest."

The man and woman wept and begged forgiveness, but Gothel had spoken and would not speak again.

The following spring, a child was born to the man and woman, but it was not the daughter the holy woman had foretold. The child was a beautiful boy, with raven-black hair and round rosy cheeks and eyes as green as rapunzel, and his parents named him Gerard when he was christened, for they believed that the holy woman would not take a son from them, only a daughter.

In the summer they took their chickens and cow to Gothel to be blessed, and the holy woman spied the baby in his mother's arms.

"You have brought me my child," she said, and reached for the babe.

"No!" cried his mother, clutching him to herself. "You spoke of a beautiful daughter, and I brought forth a son."

"Son or daughter, it matters not," the holy woman said, touching the child's plump cheek and spying the wide green eyes surrounded by lashes dark as night. "This is my Rapunzel, repaid to me. Boy or girl, she belongs now to God."

Again the man and woman wept and begged Gothel's forgiveness, but she had spoken and would not speak again. The man and woman went back to the village without their son Gerard, and deep in the forest, high in the hills, Gothel rocked the girl called Rapunzel to sleep in the darkness.

Rapunzel grew quickly into a beautiful and pious child, and all who saw her remarked upon Gothel's faithful young acolyte, who served her so well in the depths of the forest.

Only one man and woman from the village never came to beseech the holy woman, nor to gaze upon the child, for they feared the one nearly as much as they longed for the other, and they dared not deliver themselves into such temptation. After some years had passed, they had another child, a boy they called Michael, but they never took him to Gothel to ask her blessing upon him. Michael grew up small and slight, clumsy and nearsighted and often foolish, but his mother and father loved him dearly, and would not trade him for all the strapping sons in the world, for he was their own.

The blacksmith's son, Ray, came to be Michael's closest friend and fiercest protector among the village boys, for he was as quick and strong as Michael was slow and small, and as merry as Michael was solemn. Ray had even been known--once or twice--to make Michael laugh.

Sometimes Ray led Michael into the forest to play, even into the hills above the village. Though Michael had been told never to follow the highest path to the holy woman's dwelling, he went with Ray wherever Ray would go. Ray would often sing as he and Michael played in the forest, and one day as they climbed higher and higher through the trees, a sweet high voice sang back to them. Each followed the other's voice until Rapunzel came face to face with the two boys from the village, one singing, one silent.

Though she was still a child, Rapunzel was already strikingly beautiful. Her black hair fell shining down her back, and her skin was fair, sheltered from the sun by the trees of the forest. Her eyes were wide and as green as the sweetest lamb's lettuce, and she was always smiling, just a little. When she smiled wider it was with all her heart, and no one who saw her could help but smile as well.

Just now she looked curious, her head tilting to one side as she studied the boys before her. She had seen nearly everyone in the village when they visited Gothel and asked for her blessings. She had seen the curly-haired son of the blacksmith, though he had been quiet and shy in the presence of the holy woman. But Rapunzel had never seen his friend, the small boy who squinted at her now, his own head tilted just the same as hers.

Michael was quiet and solemn and a little nearsighted, and this often made people think he was simple. Even his parents, who knew him best, often spoke freely of things they imagined he did not understand. Michael understood a great deal more than anyone thought.

So it was that just as Ray recovered from the surprise of seeing the holy woman's beautiful acolyte and cried, "It's Rapunzel!" Michael said in his quieter voice, "You're Gerard."

Rapunzel and Ray both stared at Michael. He rarely spoke to strangers, so it would have been a shocking occurrence even if he had something quite ordinary.

"I am Rapunzel," Rapunzel stated after a moment.

Michael shrugged. "You're Gerard. My parents had a son and named him Gerard, before the holy woman who lives high in the forest took him away to be Rapunzel. You're my brother, Gerard."

"I am Rapunzel," Rapunzel said in a smaller voice, and then, "I must go."

She turned and fled silently through the forest, back to the holy woman who had raised her from a babe, and the boys did not follow. Michael looked smaller when Rapunzel had gone, more solemn than ever, and Ray took his hand to lead him back down to the village. Michael's eyes seemed to be watering, and it did not look as if he could see anything at all.

Rapunzel, for her part, spent hours and hours thinking of what they had said as she did her chores and tended to the garden. It did not occur to her to doubt Michael, for his words made sense of some things even as they muddled others. Rapunzel had not been raised all these years by Gothel, witnessing so many blessings of women and men and babies and livestock, and not come to have an idea of the difference between male and female, nor of how offspring were produced. Still, she had never much thought of those facts applying to herself or the holy woman. Those were matters for the people of the village, while she and Gothel devoted themselves to God.

Rapunzel soon concluded that that was the solution to the mystery. She had been taught about many things that had more than one nature--of God in man and man in God, of life in death and death in life--and so it seemed she had two natures herself, for she was both Gerard, who had been born in the village, and Rapunzel, who had been raised by the holy woman deep in the forest.

She was very pleased to have understood this lesson, but when she shared it with Gothel, as she often shared the things she had observed in the course of a day, the holy woman did not seem pleased at all. She questioned Rapunzel about how she had learned this, for Rapunzel was forbidden to go down into the village just as Michael was forbidden to come up to the holy woman's dwelling place.

Rapunzel told her the truth, quite innocently, for she was not forbidden to walk in the forest, nor to sing, nor to speak to people from the village. Gothel still did not seem pleased, but she only set more chores for Rapunzel to do the next day, and watched her more closely.

The holy woman kept Rapunzel very busy, so Rapunzel did not often have time to walk and sing in the forest, but when she did, many times she met Ray and Michael playing there. On the first of these meetings, she held out her hands to Michael and said, "I am your Gerard, and I am also Rapunzel."

Michael seemed to find this satisfactory, and thereafter he and Ray always called him Gerard, and seemed to see nothing odd in the fact that Michael's brother had long hair in a shining stream down his back, and wore a long gown and sturdy slippers instead of a tunic and hose and boots.

So things went for years, with the three boys playing in the forest and the girl Rapunzel faithfully serving the holy woman. Rapunzel continued to grow in beauty, and Gothel's watch over her grew sharper and sharper. One summer, when the boys had begun to be tall youths--Ray quite a lot taller than Michael--and Rapunzel had begun to be a maiden rather than a child, the holy woman kept Rapunzel quite close to her indeed. Rapunzel did not see Ray or Michael at all, until one day when Gothel was at her prayers and Rapunzel was tending the garden, and she saw Ray come up the path alone.

She was instantly filled with fear, for Ray was seldom separated from Michael, and indeed Ray's face was creased with worry. He came quickly to her and knelt beside Rapunzel in the garden, and told her that Michael was sick. All summer his weak eyes had been growing dimmer. Michael was still forbidden to come to the holy woman, so he could not be blessed and perhaps cured; he wanted only to see his brother once more before his sight was gone entirely.

Rapunzel did not think of disobeying Gothel. He thought only of his brother, and Gerard followed Ray at once into the woods. Michael waited for them there, sitting at the base of a tree. He looked up when they approached, though he did not see them until Gerard knelt before him and looked closely into his eyes.

Even then, Michael had to squint, and raised his hand to touch Gerard's face, to know whether it was his brother. Gerard wept then, and kissed each of Michael's cheeks, and hugged him close. He had been obedient to the holy woman, but a very poor brother, and yet Michael did not seem upset with him at all. He only kissed Gerard's cheeks--smooth as a maiden's--and told him not to carry on so.

But when Gerard sat back on his heels to apologize, Michael blinked and rubbed his eyes--and then he looked at Gerard, and then up at Ray, and then all around him at the forest. Rapunzel's tears had fallen into his eyes, and Michael could see. Michael caught her to him and kissed her cheeks, and Ray did the same, kissing Rapunzel's cheeks, and then Ray clasped Michael close and kissed him squarely on the mouth.

Both boys sprang apart, and Rapunzel stood awkwardly watching them, all three of them blushing and avoiding each other's eyes, until she recalled that she had run away from her chores. She rushed away again, leaving Ray and Michael staring at each other under the trees, but when she returned to the glen and its garden, the holy woman was waiting for her.

"You are no longer a child, Rapunzel," she said. "You must be kept from temptation."

Gothel took Rapunzel by the hand and led her even higher into the hills, higher than Rapunzel had ever ventured, either alone or while playing with Ray and Michael. Gradually he trees grew sparser, and at last they reached a clearing. In the center of the clearing stood a pillar of stone with steps curling all around it to the top, such as Rapunzel had heard of when the holy woman told her the story of St. Simon Stylite.

Gothel told her to climb, and Rapunzel obeyed. When Rapunzel was at the top of the column, the holy woman laid her hands upon the stones and ordered them to climb. At her word, the very stones were filled with life and obeyed, climbing up after Rapunzel until no stairway remained, and the top of the tower was enclosed but for a narrow window which looked out upon the heart of the forest, away from the village.

"Now you shall be safe from temptation," Gothel said. "You shall remain in this tower all your days, and devote yourself only to God, and if you do this faithfully I shall be well pleased with you."

Rapunzel was a little sad that she would play no more in the forest, but she had seen Michael and Ray one last time, and had seen Michael's sight restored by a wondrous miracle of God's mercy. And after all, she loved the holy woman and loved God--and now, as Gothel had said, she would be no more tempted to disobedience. Rapunzel settled down on the floor of her little tower and went to sleep.

When she woke, Rapunzel felt as if she had been covered in a silken blanket, and had a silken pillow placed beneath her cheek. She opened her eyes to discover that it was her own hair, grown much longer while she slept, that streamed over her like a cloak and piled up beneath her head. Rapunzel sat up slowly under the weight of her hair, and in the sunlight from her narrow window she combed the silken strands with her fingers and braided them into shining black ropes that twined around her feet and cascaded across the floor of the little tower room.

Soon she heard Gothel down below calling out to her.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

Rapunzel realized that the holy woman knew of the miracle that had come upon her in the night, and saw now its purpose. She went to the window and cast down her hair, and it fell all the way to the ground so that Gothel could climb up by it into the tower. The holy woman's weight pulled hard on her hair, and she was not sure whether it felt more as if it would be torn out or as if her neck would break, but she supposed she would grow accustomed to it; she would be obedient in all things, that Gothel and God might be pleased with her.

Gothel said morning prayers with Rapunzel, and they broke their fast together. The holy woman spoke a little of how Rapunzel should remember to devote herself to God, using her time alone in prayer, and left her a little food for the day. Then Rapunzel let down her hair again, and Gothel climbed down from the tower and went back to her dwelling place in the forest.

Rapunzel remained in the tower.

After many days, Gothel brought her some parchment and charcoal, which one of the people from the village had brought as a gift. Rapunzel had always loved to draw and to paint when she had the supplies, and now, alone with her prayers, Rapunzel sketched the saints whose stories she knew: St. Simon Stylite upon his tower, and the Blessed Virgin, and a hundred others. Their faces looked like the holy woman's, or like those of people from the village, even Ray and Michael. They never had Rapunzel's own face, for Rapunzel had no mirror, and did not really know what she looked like, except that she had been told that her eyes were as green as her name.

As time went on, Gothel brought Rapunzel more supplies: paints and brushes and smooth boards or screens to paint on. Rapunzel's abilities grew greater, till the saints she painted were almost as beautiful as herself, and all the time she thought only of pleasing God and the holy woman who had raised her.

Now, far away on the other side of the deep forest there was a castle which belonged to a great and noble lord. This noble lord had many sons, and the youngest and smallest was also the bravest and the most stubborn. He was a knight, and his name was Frank.

Frank had a squire named Robert, who was strong and able and loved Frank well. Frank was just as devoted to Robert, even though the squire was of common birth and had few courtly manners. Frank and Robert suited each other perfectly, even though strangers often mistook them, thinking tall, fair Robert was the knight and Frank his young squire.

One summer while they were still young men, Frank and Robert undertook an adventure into the heart of the forest, riding out of sight of the castle to find what they would find--for they had both heard many tales of the forest and the strange things to be found within it. They journeyed far, and discovered many delightful things, and just as many dangerous ones. They discovered also that they did not ever tire of one another's company--though Frank sometimes wished that Robert would join him in singing as they rode, and Robert very often wished that Frank would be still for any length of time at all.

They were very deep into the forest, high in the hills, and the time was approaching midsummer, when they heard a sweet voice singing at dusk. This was the first voice but their own that they had heard since they entered the forest, and they followed it until they came to the edge of a clearing and saw a high tower standing at its center. The voice came from a window at the top of the tower, but there was no door at the bottom, nor any stairs to climb. There was only a tower of solid stone, and a great hedge of thorns encircling it. They knew then that the tower must be a thing of magic or miracles, and the voice which sang so sweetly must belong to an angel or enchantress.

Frank and Robert made camp where they could hear the voice until it fell silent, and then they lay together with their faces turned toward the place where the sound had been, all through the darkness of the night.

In the morning they heard another voice, for an old woman came to the foot of the tower and cried out "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

As Frank and Robert watched, a maiden came to the window and poured down her hair in shining black braids which fell all the way to the ground, resting lightly over the thorns. The old woman used the maiden's hair to climb up, and old and young, the women disappeared inside the tower. She emerged a short time later and went away, but Frank and Robert stayed hidden within sight of the tower.

"We will go at dusk," Frank announced. "We shall call out as the old woman did, and you will climb the maiden's hair while I guard against attack. You must find out how the old woman has imprisoned the maiden, and rescue her from that tower."

Robert laughed, which another knight might have taken ill in a squire. Frank only smiled and awaited Robert's answer. "We do not know that she is imprisoned at all; perhaps she took a holy vow, or perhaps her father has hidden her in this forest to keep her safe from some enemy, and the old woman is her servant. Perhaps she is mad or wicked, and we would do well to leave her where she is."

"She cannot be wicked, nor mad. You heard her sing," Frank said, and Robert had to concede the point.

"Still, if I should try to climb her hair I will tear it out by the roots, and will not have a courtly word to say to her if I do reach her."

Robert stopped just short of telling Frank what to do, but his meaning was perfectly plain.

"I shall climb, because I'm smaller," Frank sighed, as though it broke his heart to do such a thing. "And you shall guard my back and miss all the fun, as you always do."

"Someone has to mind the horses," Robert said mildly, and that was that.

As the sun was setting, Frank said, "Do you suppose I will pull her hair? I must weigh more than that old woman."

The old woman had been rather stout, to Robert's eye, and Frank was quite small, but Robert had learned one or two lessons in the time he'd been Frank's squire. "Perhaps you should leave your sword with me."

Frank took it off immediately, and his sword belt as well. He would have left his boots, too, but Robert told him that he did not think meeting the maiden half-dressed would make the proper impression. Besides, there were the thorns Frank would have to climb over.

Robert walked with Frank to the base of the tower, right up to the edge of the thorns. Frank called out, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

The maiden came to the window and poured down the shining black braids of her hair, and the tower was not so tall that Frank and Robert could not see how beautiful she was.

She was also frowning.

Frank felt suddenly shy. He said, "May I come up, fair lady?"

Rapunzel had always been an obedient child, and she had grown up into an obedient maiden. She lived in the tower as she had been told to do, and she made images of the saints and glorified God and listened to the holy woman's lectures each day. But Rapunzel was also Gerard, and Gerard missed playing in the forest with Michael and Ray. Gerard was a little mischievous, and a little bored. And after all, Rapunzel had never been forbidden to receive visitors in the tower; she had only been told to stay there. To refuse the humble hospitality she could offer to strangers who had obviously traveled a long way would be unkind, a sin in itself.

Rapunzel smiled, and flipped the tails of her hair a little closer to where the men stood. "Climb, good sirs, you are welcome."

Still Frank hesitated, and then he turned and whispered to Robert, who nodded and then knelt. As Rapunzel watched, Frank climbed up onto Robert's shoulders. First Robert stood, and then Frank did, standing upon his shoulders. Less than a man's height now separated Rapunzel from Frank, and her heart beat a little faster as she looked into his eyes. For some reason, she thought of the last time she had seen Michael and Ray, that exciting day in the forest.

Frank reached out his hand, beckoning, and Rapunzel bent over the sill of her little window and reached down toward him.

Their hands did not quite meet, fingers straining with a gap of several inches between them. Frank looked down and said, "Robert?"

Robert said something which sounded very much like, "Don't wiggle," and then, as Rapunzel watched, he worked his hands under Frank's feet and pushed him slowly higher, his head bent as his arms strained.

Rapunzel caught both of Frank's hands in a firm grip, and called down, "I have him."

Robert looked up, and when Rapunzel met his eyes her heart beat faster yet. He nodded, pushing Frank a little higher into Rapunzel's grip, and Rapunzel straightened up, taking Frank's weight from Robert and swinging him quickly into the tower.

As soon as Frank was safely inside, Rapunzel turned back to the window and looked down to where Robert still stood. "You can climb up," she said. "I'm stronger than I look."

Robert only bowed, and called up, "Someone must keep watch, fair lady. I thank you, but I will keep my feet upon the ground."

Rapunzel reached down and tugged on one of her braids, so that the tail end jumped, brushing across Robert's arm. Robert caught it, and pressed the silken hair to his cheek, looking up at Rapunzel as he did. She waited until he released it, then watched as he turned his back, settling himself to stand guard at the foot of her tower just beyond the fearsome hedge of thorns. Rapunzel drew her hair up and turned around to face her visitor.

Frank had stood behind Rapunzel, watching her entreat Robert. Despite the danger to her hair he had hoped that she would succeed, for he had scarcely been separated from Robert for an hour since they had set out on their journey. He felt strangely alone when Rapunzel turned to face him again, the darkness of her hair pooling around her feet. She stood taller than Frank did, and Frank thought of her strength--she had pulled him quite easily from Bob's grip, and swung him up into the tower. She was quite different from every maiden Frank had ever met at his father's court, but still Frank knew his manners.

He bowed to the beautiful lady whose voice had drawn him here, and said, "I am Frank, a knight from the land east of this great forest. My father is a great lord there. Robert, who stands below, is my squire, and we have come deep into the forest in search of adventure."

When he straightened up she was smiling, and said, "And you have found me. I am Rapunzel, raised by the holy woman Gothel who lives in these woods, and devoted to God at the top of this tower."

She was not begging him for rescue from her strange prison, but that was not the only odd thing about Rapunzel. She was beautiful, yes, but there was something more unusual about her the more Frank looked at her and listened to her speak.

"I am also Gerard," she added, sounding shy, but not as if she thought she was saying something strange, only as though she were unaccustomed to speaking to gentlemen. "Brother to Michael, born in the village below these hills."

For a rare moment, Frank was rendered quite speechless, but Gerard turned blithely away, saying, "I spend most of my time painting..."

Frank followed where Rapunzel led, being careful not to step on her hair, and stood beside her as she frowned at a half-finished painting. The suffering saint's face was beautifully detailed, but the arrows piercing his chest were only the faintest lines.

"Saint Sebastian," Frank said, for he did at least know his saints.

Rapunzel nodded, and reached out a delicate finger to touch Sebastian's face. "He's also my brother, Michael. I have been trying and trying--Sebastian survived the arrows, you know. Another saint took him away and nursed him back to health. He's always shown pierced with arrows, but the arrows couldn't kill him."

Frank nodded, and saw in Gerard's face the sort of fierce feeling he had always felt for his own brothers, even though he was too young and small to shield them from hurt--that had always been their place, to protect him. And it must be hard to be a brother, and also a maiden, shut away in a tower, unable to know what happened to Michael, let alone help him as a brother should.

"I just hate to paint the arrows," Rapunzel sighed, and suddenly she was all maiden again, wrinkling her nose and giving a delicate shudder. "I hate the thought of them--even the thought of the thorns, down below. Robert will be careful of them, won't he?"

Rapunzel crossed worriedly back to the window, and again Frank followed. They crowded up to the window together, peering down at Robert, but he stood a few strides away from the thorns, looking away from the tower. He had Frank's sword belt slung over his shoulder, and he looked prepared to face any threat that might approach.

He was not really very far away at all; he and Frank had heard Rapunzel singing from a league's distance, and Robert was nearly close enough to reach out and touch. Frank was tempted to try for a moment, and then thought of what Robert would say when he tumbled out of the tower onto Robert's head.

"We heard you singing," Frank said instead, keeping hold of the window ledge. "That is why we came. I had been longing for someone to sing with, and I think Robert grows tired of the sound of my voice alone."

Robert moved a little at that, shifting his weight and not quite shaking his head, and Frank's heart felt warm; for all Robert often told him to be quiet, Robert had never truly tired of him, nor did he like to hear Frank say that he had.

"Oh!" Rapunzel said. "You sing as well? It is very lonely singing by myself, though sometimes it seems as if the birds and the trees sing back."

Rapunzel had clearly been a very long time alone, Frank thought. He and Robert had arrived not a moment too soon.

So Frank and Rapunzel sang together, pretty courtly songs and hymns, and then Gerard laughed rustily and sang a very bawdy tune he'd learned from Ray. Frank didn't think he knew what half the words he was singing meant, but he sang another back, and he and Gerard traded songs for half the night. At first they leaned out the window, and then they sank to sit on the floor side by side. When their voices were tired they leaned their heads together and whispered to one another, and before the night was through they slept, and even their breathing was in harmony.

Robert's voice woke them, calling out softly. "It is nearly day! Frank, we must go."

Rapunzel smiled shyly at Frank upon waking, and then Gerard gave him a grin full of boyish mischief, for they had stayed up late together doing something they ought not, and Frank smiled back, first shyly and then openly.

"I must go," he repeated. "But I will return, if you will allow it."

"Go and come back," Rapunzel said. "You and Robert both."

"We will," Frank promised, and then he took Rapunzel's hands that she might lower him down to Robert again. Before she lowered him through the window he leaned closer and pressed a kiss to each of her cheeks.

"That for Rapunzel," he whispered. "And that for Gerard."

Both cheeks flamed just as bright, and both sides of that beautiful mouth smiled the same.

Robert stood below--perilously close to the thorn hedge--and Gerard watched carefully as he lowered Frank to Robert's hands. Robert said in a low voice, "I have him," and Gerard squeezed a goodbye into Frank's hands before he let go. Frank went down to earth in a scrambling fall, and took Robert most of the way with him. Gerard pressed his hands to his mouth to keep from laughing out loud at them, but Frank and Robert did laugh, just as the dawn light began to creep over the trees, and then they fled together to the cover of the trees, and Rapunzel settled herself to await Gothel's morning visit.

Under the trees, Frank tried to describe his visit to Robert.

"She is not precisely a maiden," he said hesitantly, for he did not like the thought that Robert might not understand Rapunzel and Gerard.

Robert gave Frank a dark look.

"No!" He protested. "I didn't!"

"You got awfully quiet," Robert said, not looking at Frank.

Frank sighed. "We slept, I promise you. It's only--the maiden Rapunzel is also a boy named Gerard."

Now Robert did look at Frank, and Frank was not at all sure what Robert was thinking. Finally he said, "And the maiden Rapunzel and the boy Gerard between them are quite a challenge."

Frank felt his face flame as brightly as Gerard's (and Rapunzel's) had when he kissed it, but he said nothing. Robert knew him better than anyone did.

"We're going back tonight?" Robert asked, sounding a little weary. He had stood awake all the night, keeping watch over them, and woke them in time, and gave them those last moments together before Frank had to leave.

Frank only nodded.

"Then you'll need to rest," Robert said, and he led Frank to where they had laid their blankets. Robert and Frank lay down together, and did not stir all the long day, until dusk was falling and it was time to return to Rapunzel's tower.

Rapunzel had spent all that day thinking of Frank and Robert's visit: Frank's kisses when he departed, and the way they had sung and spoken and sat together all through the night while Robert stood guard below. She remembered the way Robert had touched her hair, the way Frank had looked at the painting of Michael as Sebastian and seemed to understand.

Mostly she had thought of Frank's kisses, remembering the last day she had spent in the woods with Michael and Ray. Though Frank had kissed her cheeks--hers and his, Rapunzel's and Gerard's both--it had not been at all the same as when Michael and Ray had pressed kisses there. It had felt much more like the sight of Ray kissing Michael's lips, the same thrill at something that was both shocking and exactly right.

She had stayed quiet through Gothel's morning visit, and she had thought that Gothel rather approved of her being so still. She was tired, having stayed up half the night with Frank, and felt quite emptied of words. Normally she packed a whole day's thoughts into the brief time Gothel kept her company, but now she wanted to save them for Frank.

Frank would listen to the things Gerard had to say, too. Frank had given him a kiss, as well as her, and had seemed to like both the same. Gothel had only ever cherished Rapunzel, and Michael and Ray had played peaceably with Gerard, but Frank had had a kiss for each at once. It was a strange thing, and Gerard spent much of the day thinking of it, and hoping Frank and Robert would come again. He wondered if Robert would come up this time; perhaps Robert would trust his strength now that he knew he was Gerard as well as Rapunzel.

Perhaps he would not look up at him as he had, knowing he was not only Rapunzel but Gerard. The day stretched long, and Rapunzel had never longed for the setting of the sun so deeply.

Frank was on his feet as soon as the sun began to sink, and Robert followed him willingly, tidying up their camp for the night. They walked together to the edge of the trees, and just before they came in sight of Rapunzel's tower, Robert caught Frank's arm.

Frank turned to Robert and waited; it was obvious Robert had something to say, and he would not hurry his dearest companion, not even to get back to Gerard and Rapunzel.

Robert took Frank's hands in his and turned them palm up. Without meeting Frank's eyes, he raised them to his mouth, and kissed first one palm and then the other, folding Frank's fingers over them when he had done, as if to hold the touch in.

"That for Rapunzel," he said softly. "And that for Gerard. If you will carry them for me, my lord."

Robert hardly ever called Frank so; only when they were in front of others who might judge him impertinent if he did not, or when he feared he might overstep.

Frank kept his fingers curled, that he would not lose what Robert had entrusted to him, and pressed the knuckles of each hand to Robert's bearded cheeks. "I would carry them to the end of the earth for you, Robert. I will carry them tonight."

He sealed his promise with the touch of his lips to Robert's, and Robert seemed satisfied when Frank stepped back. They went onward to Rapunzel's tower with nearly the same ease they had had the day before, and found Rapunzel awaiting them, her hair already cast down before Frank could call out to her and ask.

Robert boosted Frank onto his shoulders, and he watched as Rapunzel leaned smiling down from the window, strong hands outstretched to take Frank's weight. He saw the moment when Frank's hands pressed to Rapunzel's and Gerard's, the moment when the kisses held there might pass from skin to skin, though it would not be known till Frank explained. Even without knowing, Rapunzel smiled down at him, just as lovely though Robert could see now that her beauty was also a boy's beauty, and the strength that took Frank up safely from him was a young man's strength.

"Will you not come up?" Gerard asked. "I can bear your weight, I promise you, and there is room for three to sit if they do not mind being close."

But Robert only bowed and said, "Someone must keep watch, and I cannot sing. I thank you, but I will keep my feet upon the ground."

As she had the night before, Rapunzel made one braid fly up to touch his hand, and Robert caught it and pressed it to his cheek, letting his lips brush the silk of it in passing. Then he turned away and stared toward the darkness of the trees to listen, and keep watch.

When Rapunzel had given up on persuading Robert to join them, Frank dropped to one knee in the courtly style, and said, "I am bid to bring you greetings from Robert, the noblest squire in all the land." He took Gerard and Rapunzel's hands, and pressed a kiss to each hand, repeating Robert's words. "That for Rapunzel, and that for Gerard."

Rapunzel smiled down with great joy, and Gerard's strong hands squeezed tight on Frank's. "And have you no greeting of your own for me?"

Frank got to his feet and hesitated a moment, his hands still clasped in Gerard's, and said, "Only this one."

He pressed a soft kiss to Gerard's mouth, to Rapunzel's, and he could not have said whether it was a maiden's surprise or a boy's eagerness that parted the soft lips beneath his, but he knew well enough to step back after a moment. Even after a long night spent together, it would be easy to presume too much on a greeting.

Gerard's cheeks were flushed bright, but though he dropped one of Frank's hands, he kept a tight hold on the other one, leading him over to the painting of St. Sebastian to show him the day's progress. The arrows had been bravely sketched and the background drawn more elaborately, including the distant figure of the saint who would come and save Sebastian from his torment. After a short time, Frank led Rapunzel back to the window, to lean in the opening and sing for Robert to hear.

They traded songs and shared them until they could not carry another note, and then as they had the night before they leaned together on the floor, whispering until they passed together into sleep. When Robert called out to them that dawn was approaching, they woke with hands clasped, and stood to say their farewells.

"I would have you carry a greeting to Robert for me," Rapunzel said shyly, and when Frank nodded, she pressed a careful kiss to his lips, which Frank took from her as though it were a precious and fragile thing.

"I will deliver it to him without delay," Frank murmured, when Rapunzel had released him.

"Good," Gerard said, with a bolder smile. "Then this one you may keep for yourself."

When Frank and Robert returned to their camp under the trees that morning, Frank delivered Rapunzel's kiss to Robert, and in the dawn light Robert flushed almost as prettily as Rapunzel had done. Frank could not help smiling at the sight, for if he could not persuade Robert to join them in the tower, and if Rapunzel would not ask to be rescued, then he would like nothing better than to be messenger between them.

Frank gave another kiss to Robert, before the feeling of the last had died from his lips, nor the pink flush faded from Robert's cheeks. Frank whispered, "This one is from me," into Robert's mouth, and Robert accepted it as gracefully as he had Gerard's. He did not make Frank stop except to lie down, for it had been a long night, and they both needed their rest.

After that, their days and nights fell into a pattern. Each dawn saw Frank and Robert slipping away from Rapunzel's tower and into the trees to spend the day together, resting from the night awake, and sometimes venturing further into the forest to hunt or explore. Rapunzel passed the long warm days painting, dreaming of the nights past and nights to come, and Gerard was all at once more occupied and more restless than he had been in all the time he'd spent in the tower.

At every dusk, they played out the same scene, Robert passing Frank into Rapunzel's hands, each night seeing new kisses caught from palm to palm. Each night Gerard entreated Robert to join them, and each night Robert refused as politely as he knew how, staying on the ground to keep watch. Robert listened while they sang and while they talked, and he listened when they fell quiet. Even the smallest sounds were loud in the stillness of the forest, and Robert came to know them all through many night watches.

One night Frank asked Gerard if he wouldn't like to come down from the tower--he and Robert could bring rope, they could be well away by dawn--and be free to go where he pleased, to be free as Frank and Robert were, and with them both day and night.

Frank spent all his days and all his nights feeling a part of himself torn in two. When he was with Robert he longed for Gerard, and when he was with Rapunzel he longed for Robert. He wished sometimes that the moment he spent caught between them could last forever and not just an instant's pause at dusk and dawn.

Rapunzel shook her head, caught between frowning and laughing. "How could I? This is where I belong. Gothel has bid me stay here, to serve God, and I must obey her."

Frank scowled, for he had never liked to be told he must do anything, and he did not like to hear Rapunzel subjected to anyone's demands, either. "But why must you? She is not your mother or father."

Rapunzel had never had a mother or father, not really--she knew she had parents, but they belonged to Michael, and their son had been Gerard, and they had lost him a long time ago, or he had lost them.

"She is a good and holy woman," Rapunzel said slowly. She had never questioned why she must obey Gothel; she just did. "She raised me and protected me. I love her."

"Love," Frank scoffed. "You call that love? She seals you up in a tower and to stay is love? That isn't love at all. Love--love--" Frank thought that love was the thing inside him that hurt all the time, except for a moment's rest at dawn and dusk, the thing that was forever pulled in two directions and never content, but he was a man, if a young one, and he did not like to admit to things that hurt him.

"Love is what keeps Robert standing watch outside," Frank said instead. "When he could take my sword and my horse and be a dozen leagues away and acclaimed as a knight by dawn. It is only love that keeps him here, keeping guard over me."

Frank dared to look at Rapunzel, who was watching him with a frown of concentration; he had seen Gerard stare that way at a picture when it was half-done, trying to see the way to complete the lines, to bring it all together.

"Keeping watch over us," Frank said softly, correcting himself.

Rapunzel studied him a moment longer, and then said softly, "And what is it that makes you come back here every morning?"

Frank sighed, and leaned into the sturdy comfort of Gerard's shoulder, for he could not meet his eyes and answer straight. "What is it that makes you reach out your hands to me when I do?"

"Oh," Gerard said, soft and low, but he said nothing about leaving the tower, and Frank did not ask again. Rapunzel and Robert seemed happy enough, and perhaps it was only that he was greedy, a rich man's son and spoiled. He would bear the hurt, and keep quiet about it.

The summer wore on, the nights growing cooler and longer, and one cloudless night the wind turned bitterly cold as the moon rose. Frank and Gerard were lying on the floor, curled close together, too tired even to speak. They were near sleep, and yet when the wind's whistle turned sharp and the draft rushed over them, they both sat up at once, looking as one toward the window. They could not see Robert from where they sat, but they both were thinking of him, standing watch alone in the cold. Frank's hand ran restlessly over the braided mass of Rapunzel's hair.

"I would tell him to come up," Frank said. "Only he is my squire, and it is an ugly thing to order him to do something he does not wish. He cannot tell me no if I insist."

Gerard thought of how Frank had said that it could not be love if Gothel forced Rapunzel to stay. He looked miserable now, helpless, and Rapunzel shook her head and stood, gathering her hair up into her arms. She poured it down from the window, and Robert turned at the rustling sound of its descent. Even from where she stood Rapunzel could see him shivering in the weak moonlight.

"It's cold," she announced. "And Frank can only keep me warm on one side. If you won't come up I shall freeze, and then it will do no good to keep watch."

Frank pressed up against her side, peering down, but he said nothing to entice or dissuade Robert.

Robert stood staring up at them both for a moment, and then he reached out and picked up the end of Rapunzel's hair, twining the silky lock through his fingers. His touch was clumsy, his fingers nearly numb, but Rapunzel did not protest, nor repeat herself. She simply waited.

Finally Robert nodded, and Frank gave a whooping cheer, loud enough to startle the birds from their trees for half a league around. Rapunzel and Robert both glared at him, but Frank only took careful hold of Rapunzel's hair, so that he would bear more of Robert's weight than she did, and Robert began to climb.

Gerard reached down his hands to Robert when he was close enough, and Robert took them with a shy, happy smile. Gerard caught his breath as they touched each other, skin to skin, for the first time, and then he hauled Robert through the window so swiftly that all three of them went down into a heap on the floor, Frank beneath them both and laughing harder than either of them.

After a few moments of confusion, they got themselves untangled enough to kneel facing each other, all three, and Robert reached again for Gerard's hands.

"Rapunzel," he said softly, and kissed the palm of one hand.

"Gerard," he said, and kissed the other.

It was not at all like the kisses Frank had given in Robert's place; those kisses had lacked the rough-soft brush of Robert's beard against Gerard's fingers, and the light of Robert's eyes, blue as the sky.

"Robert," Rapunzel said, and turned her hands to hold his as she leaned in to place her own kiss upon his lips, without Frank to intercede for them.

A moment later, as one, they looked to see what Frank was doing; he had lain down again and was watching them both, smiling a smile of perfect contentment. "No, please, play on," he said, waving one hand. "It's clear I'm not needed at all."

Robert and Gerard shared a long glance--they had learned to say a great deal with only their eyes--and then they fell upon Frank together, and proved him a liar.

It was a long time later that they finally settled down to sleep, Rapunzel tucked warmly between Frank and Robert, and all three of their heads pillowed together on the silken mass of her hair. Her eyes had closed, but she was not yet asleep, when she felt Robert's arm stretch across her, and knew his hand had settled on Frank. A moment later she felt Frank do the same, reaching out for Robert, and so caught between them, Rapunzel smiled and slept.

Frank and Gerard had both become accustomed to waking at the time when Robert would call out to them, and so it was that they opened their eyes upon each other before dawn, while Robert was still sleeping, his face tucked into the warm skin of Rapunzel's shoulder.

"It is our turn to wake him, now," Frank whispered, with a look of mischief about him.

Rapunzel shook her head and tried to look stern, which did not seem to dent Frank's determination, and then she turned her back upon him to face Robert, half waking him in the process. He blinked at her, confused, and she pressed her lips to his and whispered, "It is nearly dawn, you must wake."

Robert looked at Rapunzel for a moment, and then past her, at Frank, and then said in a sleep-soft voice, "Not a dream?"

"Yes, a dream," Frank said, pressing tightly against Rapunzel's back. "But you are awake."

Frank leaned over Gerard's shoulder to press his own kiss to Robert's mouth, and Gerard was nearly too close to watch, but watch he did. Goodbyes between three took a good deal longer than goodbyes for two, even when a third waited below, and the sun was above the trees by the time Robert began to climb back down the shining black rope of Rapunzel's hair. Rapunzel could clearly see the thorns looming below, and she could not help telling him, more than once, to be careful of them.

Robert flashed her a bright smile when he had climbed halfway down, pushed off and jumped. He tumbled down well clear of the thorns, lay on the ground for a moment while neither Rapunzel nor Frank drew breath, and then jumped up, brushing himself off and reaching for Frank. Gerard lowered him into Robert's hands, and when he settled himself to wait for Gothel, he felt more alone in the tower than ever. Even his paintings were no company now.

But each night brought Frank and Robert's return, and Robert never hesitated more than the length of a breath before he followed Frank up. Rapunzel had never slept so warm, and now that Robert was not kept awake standing guard all night, he and Frank were able to resume a little of their old adventuring in the day time, exploring here and there in the forest around Rapunzel's tower. They brought back flowers and stories for Rapunzel each night, and tried to describe the sights they had seen so that Gerard might paint them.

One fine day when Frank and Robert had departed safely before daybreak, off to follow some particularly interesting stream to its source, Rapunzel sat painting until Gothel called out for her.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

Rapunzel obeyed, but even as she crossed to the window she was looking back at her painting, smiling at the faces sketched there. Gothel climbed up without preamble, without taking Rapunzel's hand or Rapunzel reaching out for her. She said nothing as they prayed and broke their fast together, and Rapunzel's gaze went often to her new painting, so that finally Gothel went to study it closer. Rapunzel followed her, saying, "It is St. George, fighting the dragon--"

But Gothel was staring, aghast. The saint Rapunzel had drawn had Frank's face, a face Gothel had never seen before, and she knew at once that Rapunzel had seen this stranger, seen him recently and closely, in order to paint him. "Who is this?" she demanded.

Rapunzel said, hesitantly, "It is St. George," for it was, as surely as she was Rapunzel. It was also Frank, and he was also Gerard, and the saint's painted squire was also Robert, but Gothel had never asked what else.

"It is a sin!" The holy woman seemed at once anguished and furious. "I know what you have done! Sinner! Betrayer! You are no more my Rapunzel!"

Rapunzel wanted to say it is love, it is love that brings them to me, love that carries them inside, but the holy woman did not give her a chance to speak. Gothel seized a knife and cut off all of Rapunzel's hair in one swift stroke, and Rapunzel was too bewildered to resist; then she pushed Rapunzel to the window and cast her out.

"You are my Rapunzel no more!" the holy woman cried. "Begone with you, you foul creature!"

Rapunzel had fallen into the thorns she had always feared, and they stabbed and scratched at her, like the arrows that pierced St. Sebastian and the claws and teeth of the dragon that threatened St. George. But Rapunzel was no saint, and she screamed and struggled in terror beyond pain until her gown and skin were both tattered. When she finally broke free she was in a frenzy, and fled blindly into the forest.

She ran a long time, as though dragons and archers pursued her, and finally fell to the ground in a clearing she did not recognize, huddling in the shelter of a tree. Rapunzel was bleeding from a hundred small wounds, scarcely covered by the rags of her gown, and for the first time she could recall, her hair was no more than short strands, brushing uselessly at her face. Gothel's words echoed in her head. You are my Rapunzel no more!

Gerard wept then, terrified and alone, and when night came he was still alone, cold and hurt and naked, a foul creature and a sinner, defaced, defiled, disowned. Rapunzel no more.

Robert and Frank followed the course of their chosen stream just until noon, and then they turned back, to be sure of returning to Rapunzel at dusk. When they did, however, she was not leaning in the window. They looked curiously at one another, for Rapunzel had never yet failed to be waiting for them. Finally Frank cried out, as he had done once, long before.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!"

Rapunzel's hair instantly poured down, as though she had only been waiting for him to call, but still they could not see Rapunzel's face through the window.

"I do not like this," Robert said, very softly, but Frank climbed up onto Robert's shoulders and took hold of Rapunzel's hair. Something was wrong, and he had to know what it was.

He pulled himself up over the window sill, appreciating Gerard's strength anew--he always pulled Frank and even Robert over quite easily--and then stopped short. Gerard was nowhere to be seen; only Gothel was there, amid the wreckage of Gerard's latest painting, the one he had refused to let Robert or Frank see before it was finished.

"You!" the woman cried. "Fiend! Seducer! Rapunzel is gone, and you shall never see her again!"

Frank jumped onto the window sill, meaning to climb down and make his escape, but the old woman spat upon him, upon his staring wide eyes, and her curse took hold. Frank was struck blind, and lost his balance in the shock of it, tumbling down from the window.

Robert was still standing below; he heard the woman cry out, and rushed closer, watching for Frank. When he saw Frank begin to fall, he dove forward, heedless of danger, and when Frank tumbled down into his arms, Robert's outstretched hands were smashed cruelly against the thorns. Still marked with Rapunzel's blood, they tore at Robert's flesh as well. Robert managed to drag Frank away, and led him to the cover of the trees.

Robert and Frank passed a miserable night, huddled silently together in their blankets. Neither one could speak for the pain he was in, filled with shock and grief. It was only in the morning that each properly understood what had befallen the other, and even then they could hardly bear to speak of Rapunzel. They went to the river so that Robert could wash his hands, and Frank bound the wounds, clumsily, by feel; he had never been much of a nurse even when he had been able to see what he was doing. Robert bathed Frank's eyes with the clear cold water, but it did no good. Even in the glare of noon Frank could see nothing.

Their adventure had ended in disaster, and Robert led Frank back to their camp, already performing the grim calculus: winter was coming, and neither he nor Frank could safely ride. If Robert's hands healed without festering, if he was not crippled, he might eventually be able to hunt and ride again, but meantime he was helpless, and so was Frank, and they were alone.

"She said nothing of Gerard," Frank said abruptly. "And she did not say Rapunzel was dead, only that I would not see her. I cannot see anything, it means nothing."

Robert closed his eyes, that he might see as little as Frank, as if not seeing would make the ache in his chest less, as if he would have only his own grief to bear and not Frank's as well. "She said Rapunzel was gone."

"She did not say where, and she did not say she was dead, and she said nothing of Gerard at all. We must discover what has happened to him."

Robert could not argue with what Frank decreed, and had no heart to. They would not likely escape the forest in any case. He would gladly spend the rest of his days searching for Rapunzel, searching for Gerard, if it meant he need never tell Frank that their beloved was not anywhere to be found. "We will, then. But for now we must rest."

They lay down together in their blankets, and though they had done so together on countless nights before, they both felt that something was missing between them now. They clung to each other as tightly as they might, but the empty place was not filled, and their sleep was restless.

Gerard did not sleep at all, but lay staring into the darkness, huddled at the foot of a tree, roots and the hard ground making a torturous bed under his battered body. Blood leaked from his skin as tears still leaked from his eyes, waiting for death to come. He did not know whether some fearsome beast would finish him, or whether he would quietly succumb to his wounds, but he could feel death breathing cold over his skin, feel it coming closer. He could not live long as only half himself, torn apart and abandoned. It did not occur to Gerard to pray, for he was certain that even God must have abandoned him now, for Gothel was so very close to God, and she had cast Rapunzel out, and cared nothing for Gerard.

When a hand touched his shoulder he was not surprised at all, and only lifted his head to look his end in the face.

Michael looked down at him, frowning in recognition.

"Gerard," he said, and Gerard felt his throat go tight and his heart begin beating again. He was alive, and must keep living, for his brother had found him, found him and seen him this way, ruined and helpless.

Gerard had vanished without a trace years before, and now he huddled in the forest, bleeding and dressed in rags, his hair cut short as if he'd had fever. There were a thousand questions Michael might have asked, and Gerard could not have borne to answer any--but Michael said only, "We've missed you," and offered his hand for Gerard to pull himself up.

He led Gerard away down no path Gerard could make out, and Gerard could not help noticing how surefooted Michael was, confident and silent. They came to a clearing, in which stood a ramshackle building, more shed than cottage. To Gerard, who had lived most of his life in a cave and then in Gothel's stone tower, it looked magnificent; to Michael, it looked like home.

"Ray," Michael called out. He did not speak very loudly, but Gerard could tell it was meant to be a shout; some things had not changed at all.

Ray appeared, taller and curlier-haired than ever. He seemed more surprised to see Gerard than Michael had, but he asked no more questions, only brought Gerard inside, helped him bind his wounds and found clothes for him to wear--trousers and a shirt, which did not fit quite right, being borrowed, and did not feel at all right, being as foreign to Gerard as the cottage was. Still, Gerard accepted their hospitality with all the gratitude he could find it in him to feel, and they were kind and quiet.

It was not until he had been there for some time that Gerard realized that they asked him no questions because they did not wish to be asked any themselves. Ray was the blacksmith's son and should have been his apprentice, or smith in his own right, by now. Michael should have been heir to all the little his parents had. Instead they were living deep in the forest, alone with a straggling garden and no beasts but the ones Michael hunted. They were both thin and weary-looking, the clothes they wore no less ragged than the old ones they gave to Gerard.

But Michael and Ray looked at each other sometimes in the way that Gerard had seen Frank and Robert look at each other--in the way that Frank and Robert had looked at Gerard, at Rapunzel, when she had been whole and beautiful and beloved. He could not bear to think of it too much, for he felt as if he were missing more of himself than he still possessed--he had lost Frank and Robert, lost Rapunzel, lost Gothel and God and everything that mattered. He slept alone on the dirt floor, close to the hearth, though Michael and Ray had offered to share the warmth and comfort of the ramshackle cottage's lone bed.

Gerard could not bear to be so close to anyone when Frank and Robert were so far away, perhaps lost to him forever, and besides that every touch hurt, for the thorn-gouges did not heal, but stayed red and raw, oozing blood. He bound the wounds with the scraps of Rapunzel's gown and kept what distance he could from Michael and Ray, sheltering in a small cottage with the grip of winter tightening outside.

As soon as the worst of the cold and snow had passed, Gerard began to go out alone into the surrounding forest, walking as he had done with Michael and Ray when they were boys, or simply finding places to hide away from them for a few hours. When the snow began to melt, Gerard began to spend his time in the clearing where Michael and Ray had planted the last season's poor garden. He felt a sudden longing for Gothel's garden, which he had spent hours and hours tending before Rapunzel was sent to her tower. Gerard adopted the patch of ground with a will, nurturing the earth and seeds and small, tender plants with all his attention.

He sang softly to the plants, as he had sung to the plants in Gothel's garden to make them grow, but he could think of no joyful songs, nor force happy words from his throat. He sang only the most mournful tunes, and watered the garden with his tears and with the blood that still leaked from his multitude of wounds, pouring all his grief into the ground. As the spring waxed, green things grew up under Gerard's care, beautiful and bountiful, and though he was still more hurt than whole, Gerard began to remember that all living things grow anew with each new season, himself no less than a promising turnip sprout.

Spring came to all parts of the forest in their turn, and as winter loosened its grip Robert was surprised to find that he and Frank had survived. They had turned the horses loose and sheltered in caves, foraging under the snow for green plants and scavenging after wolves and mountain cats. Their horses, being faithful beasts, never went far. On many cold nights Frank and Robert slept against the animals' sides, which grew bonier with every passing day, but were always warm.

Frank's sight did not return, nor did Robert's hands even begin to heal. Somehow they neither froze nor starved, and Robert learned to be sharp-eyed and direct Frank's hands, while Frank learned to listen for danger and warn Robert of directions they should not go. They clung to each other for warmth and never spoke of how cold they were with only two, or how cold they feared Gerard might be, somewhere in the wintry forest all alone.

Each day they wandered, searching for any sign of where Gerard might be. Frank listened. Robert looked at the ground, watching their path and looking for bones, unburied, unhallowed. But they found nothing throughout the winter, and their searches left them colder, wearier, and more disheartened every day.

Spring began to brighten, and Robert began to wonder whether they had not better begin the long walk back to the land of Frank's father, for it was only through some miracle that they had kept alive in this state so long. Still, Robert could not bring himself to suggest it to Frank. Sometimes, at night, he allowed himself to imagine that Frank might be right, that the next day's searching might bring them to Gerard after all.

It was on a warm day late in the spring that Frank and Robert were walking together when Frank's hand tightened suddenly in its accustomed resting place on Robert's shoulder. Robert went still immediately, even holding his breath, for he knew that Frank had heard something, or believed he had. After a moment Frank raised his arm, pointing to the direction of the sound, still inaudible to Robert's less-practiced ears. Robert began to pick a path in that direction, splashing through a creek and down a hillside with Frank following trustingly in his footsteps. When they had reached a small valley, Robert stopped to let Frank listen again, but he found that he heard the sound as well--a low, sad song in a rusty voice Robert recognized.

Frank had to cling hard to Robert's shirt, then, nearly running, but Robert still picked a level path and there was ground under Frank's feet at every stride. The sound was only growing stronger now, and Frank felt tears streaming from his blinded eyes, for he knew it with a perfect, painful, joyous certainty: it was Rapunzel's voice. She was here, somewhere near, and the wandering of the winter was at last repaid. Gerard's voice had grown quite clear when it suddenly stopped, and Robert's hand pressed clumsily against Frank's chest, bringing him to a halt as well.

Robert called out, "Gerard," in a firm voice, not questioning, and Frank found himself trembling, awaiting the answer. Robert's arm pressed against Frank's shoulder as Robert leaned back against him, as though seeking reassurance from Frank's nearness. Frank cursed his blindness more than he ever had, for he had no idea what was happening before him, and he dared not ask.

Gerard stood in the midst of the garden patch, pale as snow and staring, for there stood Robert and Frank, ragged as scarecrows, Robert's hands bandaged and Frank's eyes unseeing. They were beautiful as all the angels and saints to Gerard, and he could not believe they had come for him. He stood in silence, in agony, for they were so near now and his skin, for all its hurt, longed for their touches; but he was no beauty now, and only half himself without Rapunzel.

"Rapunzel," Frank cried out, and his hands reached past Robert, beckoning toward Gerard. Frank could not see what had become of him--and Robert, who could, was watching Gerard without any look of disgust or disdain. He looked only as if he were again keeping his feet on the ground, again keeping watch, as though Rapunzel had not yet demanded his company and so he would not impose himself.

Gerard gathered his courage and stepped forward, crossing through the garden patch and across the clearing to where Frank and Robert stood. Robert stepped aside to let Gerard reach Frank, and Gerard closed his hands around Frank's, and both of them shuddered at the longed-for touch.

"Frank," Gerard said softly, and Gerard's eyes were already streaming with tears, half blind himself. "Frank, oh, what has happened to you?"

Frank hesitated to answer, and Robert made no sound, but Gerard pressed a soft kiss to Frank's mouth, and then to each of his cheeks--and before anyone could speak Frank's eyes flew open. He laughed in delight, looking from Gerard to Robert, for Rapunzel's tears had fallen into his eyes, and his sight was restored. Frank reached instantly for Robert, to share a kiss with him as well, and Robert smiled and returned it, even though his hands still hung useless at his sides.

Gerard had seen this, and gently lifted up Robert's hands in his, pulling the wrappings away to see the wounds that would not heal. As Frank and Robert watched, Gerard pressed a careful kiss to each of Robert's hands, as Robert had so often given a kiss to each palm, one for Rapunzel, one for Gerard. And again Rapunzel's tears fell with the kiss, and again they worked their miracle, for the skin knit together and the wounds disappeared as if they had never been. Robert cried out with joy and reached for Rapunzel to clasp her close and kiss her.

But Gerard sobbed in pain at the touch, full of love and joy as it was, and much though Gerard had desired it. Then Robert and Frank pushed back the sleeves of the Gerard's shirt, and saw the livid wounds bound with rags. Frank and Robert looked at one another across Gerard's body, and then each of them bent his head, one dark, one fair, and each pressed a kiss to pale skin and bright blood--and where their kisses touched, the wounds were healed.

Gerard gasped at their kisses and their healing, for there was no pain, but instead the beautiful feeling of being knit back together where she had come unraveled. Not only did the wounds close, but Frank and Robert's lips and fingers seemed to press Rapunzel back into Gerard and Gerard back into Rapunzel. They spoke over every kiss, "For Rapunzel," and "For Gerard," as though to recompense every kiss they had missed in all the long days that had passed while they were apart. Every touch and every healed hurt was a miracle, and every miracle a sign that God's grace flowed through their love, through all three of them to each other, and though the saint had cast Rapunzel out, yet God's love still encompassed her, and had returned Frank and Robert to her, and her to Gerard.

Frank and Robert did not cease their kisses or their words until at last Rapunzel lay uncovered between them, perfectly restored but for the ragged shortness of her hair. Rapunzel looked from one of them to the other, from Frank's eyes as brown as the fertile earth to Robert's eyes as blue as the warm spring sky, and knew that nothing as green as rapunzel could grow but between them both. Together at last, all three of them were whole.

Later, Gerard led all three back to the dwelling he had shared all winter with Michael and Ray, and introduced his beloveds to his brothers--for so Gerard and Ray had begun to regard themselves, as surely as if Ray were joined to Michael in marriage. Michael and Robert went hunting, finding a kinship in their shared silence.

Ray and Frank helped Gerard gather the first fruits of the garden, the three of them singing all the while, all the happy and silly and bawdy songs they could remember. They had not been in the garden long when Frank and Robert's horses came into the clearing, having followed their masters' trail, and Rapunzel fed them garden greens and scratched their ears, praying over the faithful beasts as she had seen Gothel do--and though Rapunzel was no saint, it seemed that both animals carried their heads and tails a little higher, and soon were chasing one another about the clearing like spring foals.

When all five returned to the cottage with their spoils, they made a fine feast, and they were merry together and ate their fill. By the time they wished each other good night, Michael and Ray were calling Gerard Rapunzel as often as Frank and Robert called Rapunzel Gerard.

The next day Frank and Robert and Gerard set out for the land of Frank's father, Gerard riding sometimes behind Frank and sometimes behind Robert. Michael and Ray had promised that they would follow when the weather turned cold--for Frank's father would surely have places for a smith and a sharp-eyed hunter, and Frank assured them that they would be honored as his friends besides.

Frank and Robert were welcomed home as the beloved sons of the castle, and all of Frank's brothers told stories of how they had searched for their youngest brother and his beloved squire through the winter, all without success. Frank's eldest brother, the heir to the castle, was still away, performing heroic deeds to win the hand of a beautiful princess he had met on his journey. Frank's second brother had run afoul of a witch, and spent much of the winter in the form of a small green lizard before he finally escaped, and had now made a full recovery (except for the peculiar color of his hair). Frank's third brother had ridden deep into the woods and met an old woman there, who blessed his horse and hound, but told him that his brother was dead and would never be seen again; this last part of his story he had never told anyone until Frank was safely home, for he had not believed that it could be true, and so it was not.

Gerard was welcomed as well, beautiful and exotic from the land on the far side of the deep forest, and clearly a dear companion to Frank and Robert. The three dwelled together in Frank's rooms, which had many broad windows and a fine light for painting, as well as a good view of the yard where Robert and Frank practiced their swordplay. They slept every night in one broad bed, larger itself than the top of Rapunzel's tower, for they liked to be warm.

Gerard wore lovely court robes more often than trousers, and half of all of Frank's and Robert's kisses were still for Rapunzel. Gerard began to paint again, sometimes saints, but as often he painted people as themselves, Frank as Frank and Robert as Robert, and his renown as an artist soon spread, until he was loved throughout the land for his own sake as well as that of the lord's youngest son. The priest who led the castle's church asked Gerard to paint a screen for the altar, and when he came into the church to see where it would stand, he found it strange to see a place devoted entirely to God which was so full of beauty and joy, for Gothel's devotion had always been full of pain and sacrifice. For the first time in a long time Rapunzel thought of the holy woman who had raised her, and wondered if she was alone now in her cave, and whether the winter had been a hard and lonely one without an acolyte. Rapunzel wondered whether Gothel would take another child from the village to serve her, and whether the next one would disappoint her as bitterly as Rapunzel had.

Then Rapunzel shook off her thoughts, and went out into the courtyard to watch Robert and Frank at their swordplay, for they always showed off to best advantage when they knew their beloved was watching. Soon Gerard was laughing at the way Frank and Robert taunted each other, admiring the dancing way they moved across the stones, and refusing yet again to be taught to hold a sword. He did not think about the forest again, nor the cave on the edge of a glen, high in the hills above the village, for it was far away and long ago.

The first snow after Gerard and Frank and Robert came to the castle dusted the whole world with white and brought them Michael and Ray two days after. The pair soon settled in, and were much admired. None in the castle thought it strange that two countrymen living in a foreign place desired always to be close to one another, and their cottage was in the forest outside the castle's walls, where even their nearest neighbors did not trouble them much, though Robert often went out with Michael to hunt, and Gerard and Frank often visited the smithy and sang with Ray, when he was not making his anvil sing instead.

Gerard's hair never grew an inch after it was cut, but Frank bought him combs and ribbons of every color to adorn it, and each year for the midsummer's festival Robert made her a leafy crown from the kitchen garden--not of flowers, but of the most beautiful lamb's lettuce, called rapunzel.

And so they all lived for many years, and were content.

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