“You’re the Stillyskin man.”
It took him three trips to the castle, but he finally found the little girl out in the garden, pulling her dragon toy in a cart that was also filled with flowers.
“You can call me David.” Snow had wanted to see the child for herself, to make sure that she was really alright, but she was heavy with their own child and he was not going to let Rumpelstiltskin near her, not after what had almost happened to Ella.
“That’s not what papa calls you.” She was so happy, this little girl, and it was strage to him that she could be so content.
“You can give me a ride in my wagon. Here.” She held out the rope lead to him. In the sun it glittered; Charming took it in hand and realized that there was gold treads running through it.
“Do you like living here, Synnove?” he asked as he watched her get into the wagon. He figured he only had minutes before the master of the castle showed up.
“I never lived nowhere else. This is my home.”
“Is your papa kind to you?” There were stories of his temper, when the Dark One didn’t get his way. No one dared to break a deal with him, knowing what might happen.
“My papa is the bestest papa. He tells me stories and plays games, and sometimes he makes Drake move all by himself. And sometimes we go on ‘ventures, like to Grabah or to visit Mr. Jeffy.” She nodded sagely, her head tilted to one side. He could see just a hint of the her papa in her; he wondered what her mother had been like.
“Does he ever scare you?” he asked. He needed to put Snow’s mind at rest.
“You’re silly. Papa makes the scary things go away. Do you need him to make your scary things go away? I can ask him, ‘cause your my friend and I don’t want you to have scary things.”
“I don’t have any scary things,” he lied. His head full of new information to process and the strange idea of Rumpelstiltskin now even stranger, Charming stopped asking questions and pulled the child around the garden.
