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there’s no way around the fact that she simply must marry William. It’s right there in her Pages. If she’d just let herself fall in love with him, everything would work itself out. He must be humoring her with all that friendship and respect nonsense, don’t you think? It’s so nouveau, the idea that she might live independently once they’re married, but surely he can’t mean to follow through with such poppycock.
    That must be why she hated The Cake and the Damned so much. Of course she’s angry because she has to follow protocol instead of her whims. No one was around to tell her no when she was young, and no one has had the heart to since she survived the poisoned apple.
    I suppose what I’m trying to say is, it isn’t as if any of the rest of us got to choose who completed our Pages. Someday Henry will want to be my friend as well as my husband. Despite what everyone seems to think, I already know love requires work.
    Bianca, on the other hand, chases love away. She and William are already good friends. Love is the logical next step, isn’t it? Instead of welcoming it, she’s living out some petulant rebellion, misdirected anger at her abuse by that madwoman Valborg. (Grimm forbid we say anything about her father’s role in the whole mess.)
    Perhaps the bigger problem is that Bianca is up to her elbows in indebtedness. First, she’s beholden to William for his genuine—albeit clumsy—assistance. It would have been so much more romantic if he’d woken her up with a kiss rather than by dislodging the apple she was choking on when he dropped her coffin. But we all know it almost never happens exactly the way it’s supposed to.
    If that debt weren’t enough, she’s busy petitioning the Fairy Council to rescind the ban on that Huntsman who set her free all those years ago. Bianca claims she was his first and last mark; she insists that he couldn’t say no to Queen Valborg, but that he made the right decision in the end.
    Then there are the dwarves. They’ve been good friends to Bianca, and she feels she owes them for her safekeeping. She probably doesn’t listen to them, either. They’ve surely encouraged her to give love a chance. Except for the one with the terrible allergies, they’re all coupled up these days—two pairs within the group, one with Goldi, and, since you left, another with Muffet.
    My point is that Bianca most likely resents having so many people to please in her life. And all that resentment is just misplaced passion, isn’t it?
    She says she doesn’t want to get married, but what could she possibly know about marriage itself? Her father was constantly back and forth between Grimmland and who knows where. Short trips, long trips, trips when he was with Bianca’s mother, trips when he was with Valborg. Her stepmother was not exactly a paradigm of love and communication, either, except with that damned mirror. (If Bianca would only try to read the romance novels I give her, perhaps she’d have a bit more hope.)
    Our futures are inevitable, Zell. And yet Bianca is so belligerent about the life she will one day lead. I’ve tried explaining to her that I could have sulked when I woke up, but instead I tried to accept what happened gracefully.
    Bianca has her theories on whether the new Pages Figgy gave me were binding, but in truth, it doesn’t matter anymore. They’re complete now, and I’m living my life accordingly. Henry and I might not have been what the other expected when the celebrating was all finished, but I’m still trying to make it work, and Bianca should make an effort, too.
    I don’t mean to sound as if I don’t appreciate what Fred did to save me—I wouldn’t be writing you this letter had he not tried to destroy my original Pages. It was the ultimate Romantic Gesture, and he paid the price with his exile.
    I wish you all could have known Fred. If you had, you’d know that True Love is real. The first time we ever spoke, I was filled with elation, an