And then before the stunned eyes of the entire court and her royal father, she bent and kissed Jack the Fool, right on his long, curved nose.
What a strange thing happened then! For Jack began to grow, his legs and arms lengthened and thickened, and his nose and chin receded into their normal proportions. When it was all over, Jack was himself again, tall and strong, and since he wore the wonderful suit of night and wind and carried the sharpest blade in all the world, well, you can imagine, he was a very fine sight indeed.
But poor Princess Surcease did not like this handsome stranger who stood so tall before her. She wept and cried, “Oh, where is my Jack? Oh, where is my sweet fool?”
Jack knelt before the princess and took her little hands between his big ones. He leaned his head close to hers and whispered so only she could hear, “I am your sweet fool, my beautiful princess. I am the man who danced and sang to make you laugh. I love you, and I would gladly take on that twisted, horrible form again, if only to see you smile.”
And at these words, the princess did smile and she kissed him. For although Jack’s form had changed so much she no longer recognized him, his voice had not. It was the voice of Jack the Fool, the man she loved.
The man she’d chosen to marry.