So that very same day Sweetbriar said to Windflower: "Emerald is so
jealous of you that she says you would not even give me the ring which
you wear on your finger, if I ask it of you."
Windflower was distressed when she heard this, and she told Sweetbriar
of her mother's warning, and Sweetbriar said that she had much better
not give him the ring, since he needed no ring to tell him that she
loved him.
But when he next saw Emerald she mocked him, and said: "What did I tell
you? She doesn't even love you enough to give you a ring!" And every day
Emerald taunted him like this, and she said: "I've no doubt she finds
excellent excuses, but she will never give you the ring!"
At last one day Sweetbriar could bear it no longer, and he said to
Windflower: "What does it matter if you give your heart away to me? Your
heart belongs to me already, so there can be no harm in giving me the
ring. Give it to me, for I can no longer bear Emerald's taunts."
So Windflower gave him the ring. Now the ring, as I said, was faery; as
long as she kept it her heart was her own and had the power to bind her
husband's heart, but as soon as she gave the ring away, she gave away
her heart and with it all its power; so that, although her heart still
belonged to Sweetbriar, Sweetbriar's love no more belonged to her--and
he soon forgot all about Windflower.
As soon as the Queen and Emerald saw this, they drove Windflower and her
child from the palace, and left them in a wood to perish, and they said
they had been devoured by wild beasts, and Sweetbriar was wedded to
Emerald.
But Windflower and Sundew did not perish. A woodcutter showed them the
way out of the wood, and they wandered for several years from city to
city begging their bread. One day, when they were both very hungry, and
Windflower had just earned a crust of bread, an old woman came up to her
and asked for alms.
"I have got no money," said Windflower, "but take this; you need it more
than we do." And she gave her the crust of bread.
"You are a good child," said the old woman; "keep your bread and ask for
a gift and I will give it you."
"The only gift I crave is what nobody can give," said Windflower. "It is
my husband's love, which has been taken from me." And she told the old
woman her story.
And the old woman said: "There is only one way of winning back your
husband's love. You must earn the ring which you gave him, and he must
give it you back and your heart with it in return for his life." So
saying the old woman disappeared.
Windflower at once set out for the King's city, and when she got there
she found every one in woe and trouble because Prince Sweetbriar was
lying mortally sick and nobody could cure him. The King had offered half
his kingdom to any one who should cure the Prince, but nobody had even
tried.
Windflower, who was in rags and quite unrecognisable, crept into the
kitchen and begged a little bread for herself and her little daughter
Sundew. She was allowed to warm herself at the fire, and she heard that
the Prince had been wounded by a poisoned arrow, and that if some one
would suck the poison from his wound he would recover; but nobody would
do this, for they knew that they would die themselves, and what was the
use of half a kingdom to a dead man?
So Windflower went to the King, and offered to cure the Prince on the
condition that he should give her as a gift anything she should ask for.
The King agreed, and Windflower went to the Prince and sucked the poison
from his arm. Sweetbriar at once began to get well, and he asked
Windflower what she craved as a reward.
"The ring upon your finger," said Windflower.
Sweetbriar gave her the ring, and immediately her heart came back to
her, and with it Sweetbriar's love, and he remembered everything and
recognised Windflower, and with a great cry he took her in his arms.
And Windflower's heart overflowed with joy. She slipped the ring on her
little daughter's finger, then she looked at her husband and smiled, and
fell asleep in his arms. She never woke up again, because the poison she
had sucked from Sweetbriar's wound was deadly.
And Sweetbriar drove Emerald and her mother from the house, and although
his heart was broken, he said no word and he shed no tear, for he knew
that it had all come about through his own fault, and that Windflower
was very happy and glad to be asleep, because she was so tired.
But his little daughter Sundew laughed, and played with him every day,
and she mended his broken heart for him very well, although it was never
quite the same as it had been before. And she grew up to be as beautiful
and as good as Windflower, and she never gave away her mother's
ring.