The Lady and the Prince

As the Progress pulled out from the palace, Elizabeth could see that everyone had been right in calling it a parade.

Two guard scouts led, calling, “Give way!” to clear the streets. A guard captain and lieutenant followed with half their troop, all in full dress uniforms. Then came a herald calling out, “Prince Henry! Lady Elizabeth! Their Progress!”

Their large red royal coach followed, pulled by six matched horses. Behind this carriage came a second smaller black carriage for Winkershime, Sylvie, Hal, and the herald when he wasn’t performing his duties. Two sergeants rode beside the carriages, one on each side.

Behind the carriages were a train of wagons—were there four of them? Elizabeth wasn’t sure from her seat, but there were outriders alongside as well, and Falcon and her riding horse followed the first wagon. Extra horses followed other wagons as well. Bringing up the rear was the remainder of the guard troop. With all the guards on each side of the line of conveyances, she thought there must be fifty in all. But again, she couldn’t be sure from her vantage point.

As the procession rolled slowly through Londinum, people lined up along the way to cheer as they went past. Lady Elizabeth and Prince Nick waved to the crowds.

Elizabeth said to Nick, “I didn’t know we were this popular.”

“The extra drivers in the wagons behind us are tossing sweets and pennies to the crowd. Londiners love a good Progress. They don’t really care who’s in the coach, but the herald is telling them, so yeah, now they like us a lot. Besides, we’re young and gorgeous.” Nick grinned at her while continuing to wave.

Elizabeth laughed a little; he had a point. They were both dressed up to extremes. The prince had on his uniform and a coronet, and all the glittering gems, metal, and bright ribbons did make him something of a peacock. She wasn’t far behind, with strings of bright inexpensive jewels twisted through her hair and more shiny bits sewn on her gown. She was sure if Gramp had been in the crowd, he wouldn’t have recognized her. Winkershime and Sylvie had outdone themselves getting their charges ready for this.

The trip across the city took the entire morning. They didn’t go straight through, but wound around the main streets and along residential lanes with very large houses. There, the servants stood in groups and cheered, while the wealthy sat in chairs and applauded politely. But all the children, rich and poor, scrambled for the candy.

By lunchtime, they had cleared the city proper and stopped at a large inn on the outskirts. It was ready for them, and they were the only customers. Nick and Elizabeth were seated at the best table, but their servants and the officers were seated inside too, along with some people Elizabeth didn’t know. Nick pointed out the lead driver, the lead horseman, their pigeon man, and a group of sergeants who ate quickly and were replaced by a second group. The soldiers and ordinary workers were served plainer fare outside.

The service was excellent, the food good if unexceptional, and they were soon on their way again. Once they were past the crowds, the herald joined the others in the black carriage, and the scouts went forward to do their usual job.

The ladies had been right about the bounciness of the carriage. In the city on excellent roads it had been comfortable, but now that they were on less well-tended roads and the Progress speeded up a bit, the coach did tend to bounce and roll a little more. Any stitching attempted with that much movement would turn out a mess.

“Well, that was exciting. Will we have to do that again, or are we done waving?” Elizabeth asked.

“I think we’re done for today, but we’ll be going through a lot of the larger cities if they’re not too far out of the way, so there will be more waving. But we won’t have to dress like this again until we get back to Londinum. We’ll be tossing goodies in all the major towns, but the candy isn’t going to last very long.” Nick pulled out a small bag and offered it to her. “Would you like some?”

Elizabeth took the bag and selected a piece, but Nick didn’t take the bag back; he had his own. “The best part of doing this is that nobody is going to tell me I can’t have as much candy as I want.”

“I hope you don’t just eat candy all day every day. By the time we get back, you’ll be huge and fat and the coach will be riding at a slant.”

Nick sighed dramatically, took three pieces of candy out of his bag, and put the bag in a pocket in the door. “I can’t escape it, can I.”

“I’m your fiancée, not your…boss.” Elizabeth had almost said “mother,” but thought that might be hurtful. “You’re an adult. You have your own good sense to tell you what to eat.”

Nick waggled his head and said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. We’re not going to get any exercise sitting in this carriage either, but on days we’re not going through cities and big towns we’ll be able to ride.”

“And we can practice with our swords at stops.” Elizabeth’s was in the overhead bin above her, Nick’s was above the seat opposite them. Nick just shrugged and said, “Maybe, but we only have our honed weapons with us, no practice swords, so maybe that’s not a good idea.” And you’d probably beat me from what I hear, which would be humiliating, to say the least.

“I suppose you’re right, but maybe the guards have some practice swords we could use.”

Nick changed the subject. “We’ll be at a manor house tonight. The lord is only a baronet, but he’s wealthy and his family has done the Crown a few favors over the years.”

“Have I met him or his family?”

“No, being the lowest inheritable rank in the peerage, he doesn’t generally get invited to the palace doings. I don’t know him either, but I’m sure he’ll be going all-out to impress us.”

“So I should pretend to be impressed regardless of our accommodations?”

“Elizabeth, you’re a nice person. Just be yourself.”

She smiled and took his hand. They heard voices calling from outside, and one of the sergeants rode up even with the carriage windows and said, “Commerce messenger, Your Highness.”

The entire procession stopped, and a dusty man handed Nick a heavy leather bag. The Progress started up again as the prince opened it and removed sheaves of paper. Elizabeth went back to watching the scenery since it was obvious he would be occupied for some time.

After an hour or so, Nick opened a small sliding door up near where the coachmen were sitting and told them to stop. The entire line halted again, and he sat down again and got out a small case that held ink, pens, blotters, and a lap desk. The prince signed several pages, put most of the paper back in the heavy bag, and called out the window for the Commerce messenger.

Nick put a few papers in his own paper case and the case in his valise. He had everything stowed away by the time the messenger arrived to pick up the bag. The Progress started again.

Elizabeth asked, “Is that going to happen every day?”

“For a while, but eventually we’ll be too far away for the messenger to reach us in one day. But the post stations they use have extra horses for them, so they can go much farther in one day than we can.”

“Poor Nick, you just can’t escape work, can you?”

“No, but I don’t mind. It gives me something to do. You brought along something too, didn’t you?”

“I have some books and some stitching, but I’d rather talk.”

“Okay, what do you want to talk about?”

“You, for starters. Tell me about your childhood and don’t leave anything out.”

“Fine, but only if we trade stories, one for one. And remember you asked for it, so don’t complain if my stories are boring.”

Elizabeth laughed, and they did spend several hours trading tales of their families and their childhoods. In late afternoon the procession turned off the main road onto a smaller side road. The ride got very bumpy for a while, but then the road improved dramatically and they turned up a long drive to a very large house.

The baronet and his family bowed and curtsied deeply to them as Elizabeth and Nick mounted the steps. Elizabeth now recognized that they were overdoing it, treating them as if they were a king and a queen. She and Nick gave them the appropriate minor courtesies in return.

After an effusive greeting speech by the baronet, they were shown to their rooms. Sylvie and Winkershime arrived moments later, followed by guards carrying one trunk for each of them.

Elizabeth asked Sylvie, “Just one trunk? Are you sure we won’t need the others?”

Sylvie replied, “My lady, I know how to pack. You’ll never need more than two trunks at any stop, and usually only one. Now let me help you out of those gewgaws and get you into something nice for dinner.”

Sylvie unwound the string of gems from Elizabeth’s hair and got her out of the glittery dress. Soon Elizabeth was in a relatively modest gown with her hair just pinned up.

“There, m’lady, you’re just right for the simple country folk.”

Elizabeth had to take her word for it since her room only had a small mirror, not the full length one she was used to in the palace. But she trusted Sylvie’s style sense more than her own. She felt she had been very lucky to get Sylvie for her maid.

When she was ready, Sylvie opened her door, and a guard outside knocked on Nick’s door across the hall. Nick came out dressed in just one of his usual suits, followed by Winkershime. He whispered something to his valet and then offered his arm to Elizabeth to proceed downstairs to join the baronet.

“What was that about?” Elizabeth asked.

“I asked Winkershime to talk to the guard captain and get the guards off of our doors. It looks like we think the baronet is going to try to murder us in our sleep or something. Just guarding the outside of the house is enough.” And I can’t go spy in the middle of the night with a guard outside my door, or have private conversations with Winkershime.

“But you said you don’t know the baronet, and we certainly don’t know all the servants.”

“There’s a deadbolt on my door, and I have my sword. Isn’t there a bolt on yours? I know your sword was taken out of the carriage. It should be in your room.”

Elizabeth hadn’t noticed the bolt, but they hadn’t gone too far, so they went back and looked. There was a bolt on her door as well, and she confirmed that her sword was in her room.

As they headed back down the hall, Elizabeth said, “That was very perceptive of you to notice the bolt. I hadn’t even thought about safety, assuming the guards would take care of everything. But I like knowing where I stand, and I think you’re right about having a guard right outside the door. I feel secure enough without one, and I’m sure the guard would be able to overhear everything I said in my own room.”

Nick just nodded, and they joined their hosts in a receiving room for drinks. He wondered if he could train Elizabeth a little bit in spying without her noticing.

The baronet was already drinking and pressed a very excellent, light-flavored wine on them both. Nick and Elizabeth just sipped theirs, and Nick got the baronet talking about his business interests. Soon dinner was announced.

Dinner was eight courses and well-prepared, but Elizabeth could tell the family wasn’t used to eating like that because some of them overate the early courses and hadn’t room to do much more than pick at the later ones. Everyone seemed a little nervous around Nick, but he soon put them at ease, getting the sons to talk about their favorite pastimes, mostly hunting. Elizabeth found that boring, but the baronet’s wife and daughter were interested in court fashions, so she discussed with them what was considered good taste in Londinum.

After dinner the men went off to the game room, and the ladies went to the receiving room and nibbled sweets and continued to discuss fashion and then talked about their men. Elizabeth realized the ladies were trying to get her to tell them inside information about Nick, but she just said a few very complimentary things about him and changed the subject.

Bedtime came soon after, and Nick escorted her back to their rooms. Elizabeth discovered another benefit of not having guards in the hall when he kissed her good night.

Winkershime had secured Nick’s valise from the carriage as Nick exited it and had read the spy reports that had been inserted into the middle of the Commerce documents. He and Nick discussed them a little, but there wasn’t much new, just continuing troop buildups in Franck and an unsubstantiated report of an attack on an Anglian ship by what might have been a Franckish one.

Nick sat with a book in front of him and practiced his shields while he waited for the household to quiet down. Winkershime stayed in the room with him, fussing over the prince’s clothes for the next day. Since this would be Nick’s first real attempt at spying, they had agreed the valet should be at hand instead of off in the servants’ quarters.

When the house had been silent for some time, Nick got up and double-checked to make sure he had his lock picks and then headed for the baronet’s study, carrying a small lantern with three sides blacked and a sliding door on the fourth.

He had no trouble finding the study; he had noted rooms during the evening and was fairly sure it had to be one of two closed doors. It was the first one he tried, and the door was unlocked. In fact, the baronet’s desk was unlocked as well, which was a little disappointing. Nick had looked forward to putting his hard-won expertise to use.

He closed the office door behind him and unblocked one side of the lantern to go through the baronet’s desk. Nick spent an hour reading letters and files, but found very little that their host hadn’t already openly told him. He did his best to leave everything as he had found it, but the baronet wasn’t an overly neat man, and Nick doubted he would notice if his papers weren’t exactly as he had left them.

Back in his room, Nick put out his lantern and flopped down in a chair.

“It was easy, nothing was even locked.”

“What did you learn, Your Highness?”

“Not much more than I did at dinner. His bank balances are higher than I suspected, and he occasionally purchases gold that doesn’t go anywhere, so I suppose he has it secreted somewhere in the house.”

“His tax records?”

“Look reasonably honest. I only saw a couple of numbers that were changed on production estimates, so he may be fudging there a little. But who doesn’t?”

“I saw no uniformed guards here, Your Highness. Does he have forces to contribute to an Anglian army?”

“He’s got about twenty foresters that could turn into a guard force at a moment’s notice. They are all archers and have been trained with staffs. His peasants drill with arms one day a month, and according to his records, he has weapons for them all.”

“Well done. Get some sleep, Your Highness. We do it again tomorrow.”

They did do it again the next day. But since there was only one small town to go through, Nick and Elizabeth dressed in their riding clothes and just traveled in the carriage until they were through the town. Then their saddled horses were brought up, and they rode for the rest of the morning.

Lunch was baskets of food provided by the baronet. Since it was a nice day, the Progress pulled to the side of the road near a stream, and everyone dismounted from horses, wagons, and carriages and sat down to eat. A blanket was spread under a tree near the stream for Elizabeth and Nick, and they enjoyed fresh bread and jam, some leftovers from the previous night, slices of ham, and a bottle of the light-flavored wine.

The prince would have liked to take a nap right there, but the guard captain came over and asked pointedly if it was time to pack up and be on their way. Nick and Elizabeth looked at each other and sighed a little, sorry to leave such a pleasant spot so quickly, but agreed.

They rode in the carriage the rest of the afternoon, and the Commerce messenger caught them late in the day. Nick sent back the papers he had kept out the previous day buried in his signed reports and extracted the most recent spy reports and put them in his paper case to be read later when he and Winkershime were alone. He wondered how Elizabeth would react if she knew he was a spy. Would she be appalled, or would she want to be one too?

They stayed overnight in an inn, and the next night as well. Then they visited a baron for a day. Nick was dragged out to review the baron’s fields and conscript training. Elizabeth got some stitching done with the ladies of the house, chatting about inconsequential things. Nick’s spy foray revealed little except that the baron punished wrongdoers rather harshly. But as a lord, that was his right, and the royal family couldn’t interfere unless the accused was also a noble.

After several more nights in inns, they reached the estate of Hubert, Duke of Sothalia. His home was a large fortified castle with uniformed armed guards on the walls and at the main gate. The Progress was met at the entrance by the duke’s seneschal, who exchanged polite words with the guard captain and passed them in.

As their carriage rolled inside the walls, Nick said to Elizabeth, “You met Duke Hubert at the ball and his daughter, Lady Elena. His wife died a few years ago, so she acts as his hostess. He’s got four or five other children, but they’re young. I don’t know their names. We’ll be here three days, so I expect we’ll get to know them before we leave.”

“This place looks like it’s ready for an invasion,” Elizabeth said, noting the very thick outer wall.

“All the lords along the east coast have defensible homes, mostly because at one time or another there have been invasion attempts.”

Elizabeth just nodded. She had read Anglian history and knew that Franck, Ibarra, and Norland had all made forays or outright invasions at one time or another, although not recently. The stone construction she was seeing had undoubtedly been there a long time.

There was a town inside the outer walls, and the Progress moved slowly through narrow streets up to the castle. There, the duke and his daughter awaited them on a landing at the top of a flight of narrow stairs. The duke was a tall, middle-aged man with thinning hair, a slight paunch and a hangdog face, while his dark-haired daughter was short, very thin, and only fifteen or sixteen years old.

Their greeting was correct, but warmed by big smiles that made Elizabeth feel welcome and Nick a little suspicious. Maybe it was from all the spy reports he had been reading, but he hadn’t expected anyone to be very pleased to support the hundred or so people of the Progress without planning on getting something in return.

When they reached their rooms, Elizabeth found that Nick’s valise had been delivered to her bedroom by mistake, and her sword wasn’t there. Likely it had gone erroneously to Nick’s room. She picked up the valise to take it to him, but hesitated. It wouldn’t hurt to take one little peek, would it? He would never know, and she might not get the chance again.

Elizabeth opened Nick’s valise and started sorting through the contents. There were a lot of papers and a couple of books about commerce and taxes and a small book.

She stood staring down at the book in her hand. It was the one she had found in the library, the one Nick said was illegal and would have destroyed surreptitiously. Yet here it was, he was carrying it around with him in his personal effects.

There was a knock on the outer door to the sitting room, and Elizabeth heard the voice of Nick’s valet speaking to Sylvie, who was admitting him. Elizabeth’s first impulse was to put the book back in the valise and pretend she hadn’t seen it, but she had seen it, and the fact that he still had it made her scalp prickle. She had to ask him why, even though it would reveal her own snooping.

Her bedroom door was open, and Winkershime knocked on the frame politely. Elizabeth turned with the book in her hands, the open valise behind her. He had her sword, but stood transfixed for a moment by the sight before him.

Winkershime tossed the sword on the bed and moved swiftly to Lady Elizabeth, first to secure the valise that held the prince’s paper case with secret reports, and second to take the little book from Elizabeth. But when he reached for it, she clutched it to herself.

“Lady Elizabeth, that belongs to the prince. Please give it to me.”

Sylvie was seeing to two of her trunks being brought in from the hall, so for the moment they were alone. “I’m not sure that’s true. I’m the one who found it in the library. Why is Nick carrying this book around with him?”

“I’m sure that’s none of my business, Your Ladyship,” Winkershime said pointedly, implying clearly it wasn’t hers either.

“I’m going to marry Nick. It may not be your business, but it is mine.” Elizabeth started to sweep around him to go to Nick, but to her astonishment, the servant stepped in front of her.

“Lady Elizabeth, there are some things, even between husband and wife, that should be private. You must learn to trust Prince Nicholas.”

Elizabeth hesitated, but blind trust was not her forte. “You’re out of your place, Mr. Winkershime. Please stand aside.”

She could see cold calculation in the valet’s eyes, and she was suddenly sure Winkershime was more than he seemed. “Lady Elizabeth, you do know the punishment for witchcraft?” he asked very quietly. Elizabeth nodded, and he continued, “Then please put that book out of sight until you are alone with the prince.”

Elizabeth put her hand with the book into the dagger access slit in her skirt, and Winkershime stepped aside, but followed her closely as she passed Sylvie and the men with the trunks. He managed to get ahead of her in the hall and opened Nick’s sitting room door for her, closing it behind him.

Nick was coming out of his bedroom, saying, “Winkershime, where’s my…” He smiled when he saw her and walked over to her. “Elizabeth, we had your sword. Have you seen my—oh!” he said as he spotted his valise in his valet’s hand.

Winkershime said, “Your Highness, we need to be more careful with this,” and headed toward Nick’s bedroom, giving him a look and a slight nod in Elizabeth’s direction as he passed. Nick looked back at Elizabeth in confusion. What was going on?

The valet closed the bedroom door behind himself. Elizabeth pulled the small book of magic from her skirt and held it out. “Why do you still have this?”

“Where did you get that? You went in my valise, didn’t you,” Nick said accusingly as he took it from her and slipped it into his pocket.

“I admit I snooped. I shouldn’t have, but I’m glad I did. You told me that it was illegal even to have that book, yet you’re carrying it around with you. Why?”

Nick squirmed a little. “Well, it’s interesting. I never had the chance to read a book like that before.” Which was true enough, although far short of the whole story.

Elizabeth moved close to her betrothed and looked into his eyes. Slowly, she shook her head. “You’re holding something back. I’m going to be your wife, Nick. Please, I don’t want secrets between us.”

The prince looked back at her helplessly. What could he say that would satisfy her? Finally, he went to the outer door, threw the bolt, and came back. “Okay, I…I can do a little magic. If you tell anybody, I’m dead. My life is in your hands.”

Elizabeth said, “I would never jeopardize your life.” She reached out and hugged him close to her. “Your secret is safe, I promise. I’ll never tell a soul. Does Winkerhime know?” Not that I necessarily believe you can do magic, but it’s obvious you believe it.

Nick hugged her and then moved his head back so they could see each other’s faces. “He knows about the book. I’m sure he suspects the magic, but he doesn’t really know about it. He’s never seen me do any, and I’ve never admitted it to him.”

“So I’m the only one that knows?”

“Anne knows. We were raised together, and she saw me do things when we were young and I wasn’t so careful. She thinks I killed Albert and crippled Richard with it by accident.”

Elizabeth searched his face, and she found whatever she was looking for. “You didn’t do that. I know you didn’t.” With or without magic.

“No, I didn’t, but how can you be so sure?”

“I know you. You’re organized and intelligent and careful, and your magic would be organized, intelligent, and careful too. You could never hurt someone, anyone, by accident, especially not your brother and your cousin.”

Nick wasn’t quite so sure he was that incapable of accidentally hurting someone, but he was glad she thought of him that way. There was a small sound behind , and Winkershime was in the bedroom doorway with a loud “Ahem.” When they had separated and fully turned toward him, he added, “Your room is put to rights, Your Highness, and your dinner clothes are laid out. Is everything all right out here?”

Nick responded, “Everything is just perfect.” He wondered what the valet/spy would have done if he had said no instead.

Elizabeth went back to her own rooms to see how Sylvie was doing with unpacking her trunks and change for dinner as well. When she had left, Winkershime said, “Your Highness, we need to be more careful with your valise. I was under the impression that you had taken it with you when I didn’t find it in the carriage. Do you know who brought it up?”

“No, I thought you would take care of it. But since it was out of our hands, at least for a little while, someone else could have gone through it besides Elizabeth.”

“Odds are it was just one of the footmen and that nothing was compromised, but I’ll find out to be sure. Perhaps in the future you should have it in hand when you exit the carriage, and I will take it from you.”

“We’ve been leaving it in the carriage when we eat at an inn. That’s probably not smart either.”

“The second coachman, Parker, has been watching it while I eat, Your Highness. Just so you know, he is one of ours, although quite junior, but completely trustworthy. But he has to stay with the coach, so he wouldn’t have been the one to remove your valise.”

“Anybody else in the Progress I should know about?”

“The guard lieutenant is not on our team, but he is the son of an old friend, and I would trust him in a pinch as well, Your Highness.”

“What about the guard captain?”

“A good man by reputation, but I don’t really know him, Your Highness. Will Your Highness dress now?”

“Yes, My Highness is starving, so I will dress and hope dinner is announced soon.”

Winkershime muttered, “Ran out of candy, did you?” Nick smiled, but officially ignored him.

Dinner was elegant, but not extravagant. Besides Nick, Elizabeth, Hubert, and Elena, the heir to the dukedom attended as well. Lord Robert was perhaps nine or ten years old. He sat very stiffly, said nothing except in answer to a direct question, and kept glancing over to see what his father was doing and copied him. Elizabeth felt a little sorry for him, but realized the boy was in for a lifetime of being a lord and behaving correctly, so this was a good learning opportunity for him.

Lord Robert excused himself after dinner; it was probably past his bedtime. Duke Hubert proposed a game of cartes, and the adults played for low stakes until quite late. The game wasn’t complicated, and Elizabeth picked it up quickly, ending up winning a little. Nick knew the game, but ended up losing a little, so between them they came close to breaking even. It made for a congenial ending to the game.

Nick decided to defer spying. The castle was large and patrolled by the duke’s guards at night, so he thought he would have a better chance of success if he got to know the building and the guards’ routines better. He went to bed, pleased to be in a comfortable, quiet room and not have to do any chores. Not having to hide his magic from his wife for the rest of his life was a huge relief too. Except for the matter of the valise, the day had ended quite pleasantly.

Elizabeth found she had trouble sleeping. The game had been fun, and she thought she might buy some cartes for herself and teach her family. But her mind kept going back to Nick and his admission that he could do magic. She didn’t know what that would mean in the long run; perhaps nothing. Perhaps it was just a delusion, or perhaps it was a personal talent like being able to draw well and would have no real effect on their lives. But she couldn’t quite convince herself of that.