The Lady and the Prince

Hal was happy to finally be in a big castle again. He hadn’t had much of anything to do since leaving Londinum except look at the scenery. While that was pleasant enough, he disliked sitting most of the day and felt a little like he wasn’t earning his bread.

But at Sothalia, he could help Mr. Winkershime and Miss Conway fetch and carry for the prince and Lady Elizabeth. He was happy to scamper down to the kitchen and bring back a cup of tea or to tell them to heat bathwater. His first duty was to the prince, of course, but he had plenty of time to help take care of Lady Elizabeth too.

When he wasn’t dashing through the halls with messages or carefully carrying a tea tray, he waited patiently outside whatever room the prince was in, just in case. When Mr. Winkershime left the prince at night, he was dismissed to his own little cubbyhole, and in the morning he tried to be ready and waiting to follow the valet to the prince and wait in the hall until he was needed.

Sylvie Conway was pleased that Sothalia followed the traditional pattern for a royal visit. In the absence of the royal personage expressing a preference for a particular activity, a three-day visit generally followed a formula. The first day was to relax and recover from the trip, so the schedule was light and not taxing. A morning stroll in the gardens, a visit to some point of interest on the estate, and a small social gathering were usually all that was required.

The second day would be physical activities such as riding, hunting, or excursions to far points for some purpose. The third day would be the grand ball in the evening, with light activities during the day such as conferences, meetings, or shopping. Sylvie was hoping for shopping; there was a lovely big town not far at all.

Ralph Winkershime was pleased at the schedule as well. His only worry was that this would be his prince’s first real challenge at spying. Sothalia was well-guarded and security-conscious, and it was not going to be easy moving about unnoticed at night. Still, Prince Nicholas had performed admirably so far, so he had hopes if not complete confidence that everything would go well.

Nick himself was less worried. Yes, there were guards, but he could take a day or two and poke his nose in wherever he liked and find out all about the guards and their schedule. In fact, he was looking forward to a little challenge and to finally using his lock picks.

Elizabeth was mostly glad not to be riding in the coach for a few days. She was already tired of it, even with being able to ride a horse instead occasionally. And there was a long, long way to go. Well, at least she might get a little stitching done during the next few days and she was determined to get Nick off alone somewhere long enough to have him demonstrate whatever he thought was magic.

The morning stroll in the gardens was pleasant enough, although Duke Hubert was as surprised as Nick had been when Elizabeth asked to see the kitchen gardens as well. She was a little disappointed though when she found no plants she wasn’t already familiar with from the palace.

Afterward the duke led them to another area where his three youngest children were playing and introduced them, and then to the arms practice area where young Lord Robert gave them a demonstration of his skill with a sword. He really was advanced for his age, and the duke was rightly proud of him.

After that, Nick and Elizabeth were given some free time to refresh themselves if they found the morning’s activities an exertion, which they didn’t. Elizabeth visited the duke’s library, which was small but dust-free. Nick took the opportunity to wander around on the pretext that he was interested in the architecture since he had never been in a castle so old, which was true.

Lunch was very light, just soup and finger foods since there would be more food at the afternoon social. The social was a small gathering, only a dozen people besides the duke, his daughter, and their high-ranking house guests.

Elizabeth felt right at home in the group. They reminded her of her friends back home—unsophisticated, wealthy, a bit in awe of having an actual prince in their midst. She could tell Nick was a little uncomfortable with them, but she was proud of the way he tried to be gracious and friendly to them all.

There were five couples and two single men. The two men put her off a bit. They seemed rough and out of place. Although they were well-dressed and obviously on their best behavior, it was also clear they had no clue what proper behavior was at such an event. After dutifully meeting them, Elizabeth avoided them thereafter, trying to be tactful about it.

Nick, on the other hand, engaged them in a long conversation until the two men began to be a bit too familiar with him, one of them touching him on the arm as they talked. That was a very serious breach of etiquette; one did not touch a royal without permission. Nick excused himself frostily and joined her in chatting with one of the couples.

Afterward Elizabeth asked Nick, “Who were those two men? They didn’t really seem to belong.”

“Some business associates of Hubert’s. From what they said, I think they pressured him into inviting them so they could meet me. They just wanted to talk about import/export tariffs, nothing else.”

“I wonder how he became associated with men like that.”

“I don’t know. Hubert has extensive shipping interests, so I suppose through those.”

“Nick, could we go somewhere private?”

Nick gave her a somewhat lascivious grin, but she quickly corrected his mistaken notion. “No, not for that—or, at least, not only for that. I want to see you do magic. You said you could, but I still find it hard to believe.”

Nick thought for a moment. “The dungeons are mostly abandoned. Just a few cells near the entranceway are ever used. We could take a lantern and go explore.”

“Actually, that sounds like fun. Let me change into an everyday dress. I’m sure it will be quite dirty.”

In a few minutes they were on their way down a long flight of stairs to the dungeons. At the bottom was a small guardroom. The guards didn’t care if they wandered around; there were no prisoners at the moment anyway. They provided a lantern, and Nick and Elizabeth set off down the main corridor.

The stone cells on either side had iron-bound doors with small barred peepholes. Most of the cells were completely empty, although a couple had rusty manacles dangling from heavy rings set into a wall. At the end of the hall, there was a T-intersection. To the left was one large cell with grates set into the floor, able to hold twenty to thirty prisoners. To the right was another flight of stairs down.

The stairs were damp and increasingly slippery, and they went down carefully with Elizabeth holding Nick’s arm. Below there was a large room with thick stone pillars at regular intervals. It was damp too and smelled musty.

There was a chair with straps, a heavy table with manacles and winches, and another smaller table with rusty metal implements—at least, Elizabeth hoped it was just rust. A large iron pot hung from a tripod, but there was nothing in it but ashes. Apparently Hubert’s ancestors had engaged in torture.

“Well, except for possibly a ghost or two, we seem to be alone. Show me some of your magic,” Elizabeth prompted.

Nick set the lantern on one of the tables. He held out his hand and produced a small light floating above it.

Elizabeth walked over, not sure what she was seeing. Was it some sort of trick? She reached out her hand, but she felt warmth coming from the little glowing ball and dropped her hand to her side. Yesterday, Nick doing magic had just been words, easy to disbelieve. A little glowing ball of light wasn’t very scary or entirely convincing; she had seen stage performers do more impressive things than that.

“Is it really magic? Can you do anything else?”

Nick looked around. There was a lot of iron around him, but the chair was mostly wood and leather. He reached out from ten feet away and pulled it scraping across the floor to him. Elizabeth backed away, her eyes widening.

“It’s true,” she breathed. “There really is magic, and you…you are a witch.”

“Kind of. But I’m still me. I wouldn’t use my magic any way I wouldn’t use a sword or any other tool. Just because I can do some things in another way doesn’t make me evil or a monster.” Nick’s voice was strained, and she could hear how much he wanted her to believe him.

“Of course it doesn’t.” Elizabeth felt she had to prove how she felt right then, or alienate him. She went to him and embraced him. “You are my dear prince, and we’re going to be married and live happily ever after, just like in the children’s stories.”

Nick hugged her back in relief. Showing her what he could do was different from just telling her. He thought she might have been frightened of him after seeing his demonstration. He would save tossing fire or lightning until she was more used to the idea.

“I love you, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth’s breath caught. That was the first time he had said that to her. “I love you too, Nick,” she replied. They kissed amid the torture implements, but not for long. It was damp and chilly where they were.

Nick asked, “Do you want to look around some more?”

“Let’s just see how big this room is, and if we don’t find anything else, we’ll go back.”

They briefly toured the room with the lantern, but only found some slime and mold at the far end. “What do you think this room was for originally? It’s big enough for a ballroom, but they generally don’t put ballrooms underground with big stone pillars in them,” Elizabeth asked.

“Probably storage if it was drier way back when they built this place. When it got damp, this lower level was abandoned and the upper converted into prison cells.”

Elizabeth agreed that was a likely explanation, and they went back to the guardroom and returned the lantern and then went to their rooms to spruce up before dinner.

Dinner was informal, and all the duke’s children joined them. After dinner, Hubert asked if they wanted to play cartes again, but Nick and Elizabeth declined, saying they needed a good night’s sleep before the hunt scheduled for the following morning.

Nick stayed up and waited until everything was quiet. He wanted to spend some time just checking on the guards’ movements at night without trying to actually get to Hubert’s papers. He had two more nights after this one, no need to hurry.

The public rooms all had a candle burning within a glass, so it wasn’t too hard to see the furniture in the dim light. Nick wandered around, moving as silently as he could, listening for the slightest noise.

He needn’t have worried very much. The guards came through every half hour or so, but made no attempt to be quiet. They tromped heavily and clinked and clanked as they moved, and Nick could hear them well before they entered the room he was in. They carried lanterns, but they didn’t search the rooms; they just glanced around as they walked through. Twice he stayed in a room and hid and had them pass within a few feet of him none the wiser.

He considered just going to the duke’s study and getting it over with, but he had spent quite a bit of time sneaking around, and it was already late. He really did need to get some sleep, so he ghosted back to his rooms and reported to Winkershime who was waiting for him.

Winkershime was pleased at his progress. “You will investigate the duke tomorrow night then, Your Highness?”

Nick nodded. “The night of the ball there will be a lot of people here late, so tomorrow would be best. Anything new in the dispatches?”

“Nothing that we haven’t seen before, Your Highness. However Franck’s troop preparations seem to be nearing completion, so I thought to move one or two of our people to watch the sorcerers most likely to be involved in any attack.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Nick sat down, kicked off his shoes, and stretched. “I could use a snack before bed though.”

Winkershime produced some fruit and cheese. He knew his prince’s ability to eat. Afterward, they both slept soundly.

In the morning Duke Hubert had a hunt patterned after those at the palace. He and his eldest children, several of his knights and their families, and two of the couples from the social participated along with Nick and Elizabeth. The course that had been set with a scent lure proved to be a pleasant ride, not too difficult, and Elizabeth enjoyed it.

Nick would have preferred a bit more of a challenge, but he understood that Hubert didn’t want anyone injured during their visit, especially not the prince or his fiancée, and was erring on the side of caution. And the easy course allowed Elena and Robert to join in, a good move politically; Hubert hoped his children would be personal friends with a Warwick prince. Nick and Hubert led throughout the course, taking the low jumps easily and still leading when the end of the hunt was reached back near the castle.

It was a fine day, and lunch was laid out on tables on the lawn. Grooms were waiting to care for their horses, and everyone took a few moments to clean up, straighten their hair and clothes, and reappear, ready to eat.

Afterward there was a choice of a walking hunt with bows for birds or a falconry hunt. Nick chose falconry since he had only heard of that method of taking game and never seen it. Elizabeth passed, choosing instead to stay in the castle with several of the ladies and accomplish some stitching and compare patterns and types of stitches.

Nick was impressed by the falconers’ ability to control their birds, but thought he would rather participate more directly in taking his game, not just watch an animal do it for him. But it was an interesting afternoon, and he returned to the castle happy to have learned something new.

Dinner was again informal. The duke’s younger children were less well-behaved, having adjusted to Nick and Elizabeth’s presence. Nick seemed to fall in with them a little, laughing at their antics and telling them stories of mischief he used to get into not that long ago. Duke Hubert just seemed amused by it all, but Lady Elena did her best to maintain some level of order and manners. Elizabeth did what she could as well, using a stern look to stop the youngest boy from throwing a carrot at Robert, who was obviously torn between trying to act like an adult and joining in with his siblings.

When the meal was finally done, Elizabeth took Nick’s arm and made sure he escorted her outside for a walk in the fading light.

“Really, you were not helping back there,” she chided.

“Aw, they’re just children. That’s how children behave when some adult isn’t glaring at them.”

“They’re the duke’s children, and they need to learn manners and proper behavior.”

“Yes, but they didn’t need to learn it all at once tonight. Besides, I want them to like me. I’m probably going to have to deal with them for the next fifty years or so, and I’d rather be friends than enemies.”

“I see. I suppose as a visiting prince you can do that, but when we have children of our own we’ll need to be their parents, not their partners in crime.”

Nick stopped and turned toward her. “I know the point of us marrying is to have children, but I don’t know if I’m ready to be a father so soon.”

“I’ve thought about that a bit. We’re both young, we could wait a year or two. But the king and everyone else in your family will be anxious until I get pregnant.”

“I hadn’t really thought about waiting. I know there are ways…you know, things we could do…or not do…” Nick stopped, blushing. He had no idea how to talk about what Richard had told him about preventing pregnancy, mostly so Nick would know what not to do since producing another generation of Warwicks was critical.

Elizabeth took pity on him. Sometimes Nick seemed so young. “We have time before we get married. We can think about it for a while and then decide.”

Personally she wanted to have a child right away, but she had doubts about Nick’s ability to be there for a baby. He was likely to go hunting or off to a meeting instead of spending time getting to know his son or daughter. He seemed to barely have time for her, and she hated the thought of her child growing up being raised by her and a nurse, without Nick’s participation. But that was how Nick had been raised, wasn’t it, so he had no pattern to follow to learn how to be a father, except whatever Richard had been able to do.

Nick just nodded and said, “You’re right, we have a little time. Maybe by the time we actually get married, I’ll be more ready.”

“Yes, that’s possible,” was all Elizabeth said, and they resumed their walk. But the air was cooling as the sun dipped below the trees, and they soon went inside to the warmth of lit fires.

Nick waited until the house was quiet and everyone was in bed for the night before he began his foray into Duke Hubert’s affairs. He easily avoided the guards, but had to pick the lock on the duke’s study which was right next door to Hubert’s bedroom. It took him an anxious minute, and the click of the lock sounded loud to his ears. But all remained quiet.

Nick hadn’t brought a lantern. He had told Winkershime he didn’t want to take the chance of making a noise with it so close to where the duke was sleeping, and would just use whatever light was available in the room. If nothing else, he could pick up a candle along the way and light it when he got into the study. Actually, he just used his smallest pinprick magical light to find and unlock the duke’s desk, making the light a little larger to read by.

This time he made sure to memorize where everything was before he moved anything. He spent over an hour looking at Hubert’s ledgers, his correspondence, and an interesting little black book that was laid unobtrusively along the side of a drawer in the back. But it was well-used, and Nick soon realized what the records in it represented.

He put everything back carefully, relocked the desk, and went to the outer door. He extinguished his light and listened intently, but the hallway was quiet. Nick slipped out and relocked the door. He finished just as he heard the guards approaching in the distance and moved quickly down the hall away from them.

He was glad he had scouted the area the night before. The prince was going the wrong way to get back to his room, but he took the servants’ stairs down to the ground floor and worked his way back through the public rooms, coming back up to the residential area well behind the oblivious guards.

Winkershime was waiting for him and was obviously glad to see him back without being discovered. “What did you find, Your Highness?” he asked as soon as Nick was safely back in his suite.

Nick decided to enjoy this moment when he knew something that his valet didn’t. He flopped down, took his shoes off, and asked, “Do you have any more of that fruit and cheese? Spying really works up my appetite.”

Winkershime gave him a slightly exasperated look, but in a servile voice said, “Yes, Your Highness, right away, Your Highness.” He took his time preparing a tray, deliberately slicing fruit and cheese, making Nick wait.

When the valet felt he’d made his point, he presented the tray and asked, “Would you like your slippers, Your Highness?”

Nick wiggled his toes and said, “No thanks.” He took a few bites, but then said casually, “I found something very interesting in the duke’s study: a little black book with dates, numbers, and lists of merchandise.”

“I’m sure the duke engages in all sorts of trade, Your Highness.”

“All sorts is right. Every, oh, twenty-eight days or so, the duke buys relatively small amounts of foreign goods very cheaply for three or four days running, and he doesn’t pay taxes on it or report any of it as imported.”

“And what do you think that means, Your Highness, other than that the duke is cheating a little on the Crown’s taxes?”

“I think I have to report that the duke has a well-established smuggling operation going on, bringing in goods regularly during the dark of the moon from Franck and probably northern Ibarra. The only peculiar thing is that I have to report it to myself as Head of Commerce.” Nick chuckled and glanced up from his rapidly disappearing snack to see Winkershime’s reaction.

His valet looked a little amused. “And what will the Head of Commerce do about it, Your Highness?”

“I think I’ll just send in a written report for now and recommend no action until we’ve got the situation with Franck resolved. We may need the full support of every Anglian duke and earl very soon. Later we can summon Hubert to the capital and levy a whopping big fine on him to make up for the lost taxes.”

“Is he reselling any of the goods, Your Highness?”

“Oh yeah, he’s making a huge profit on some of it. If it was just a few cases of wine for his own use, I would probably let it go, except for telling the navy to tighten up its coastal patrols.”

“Very good, Your Highness. Have you finished with that?” Nick was picking up the last crumbs of cheese and didn’t agree he was done until he’d gotten every last one.

The duke held a local celebration the next day. There were open contests in archery, foot racing, horse racing, and feats of strength. He had hired musicians, jugglers, and acrobats to entertain the crowd. Food was provided free to all who came, although the duke made a small profit on the ale and beer he sold. The castle servants had a half day free, and most of the townspeople and peasants had the whole day free.

Duke Hubert and Prince Nicholas presented the prizes together. Lady Elizabeth and Lady Elena judged pies, cakes, and breads and handed out the prizes to the winners before the crowd consumed the entries.

Fortunately, the contests and judging were done by midafternoon, and Nick and Elizabeth were able to retire from the festivities to rest for a little before getting ready for the ball. As evening fell, coaches began arriving from near and far.

Elizabeth enjoyed the ball immensely. She was the most fashionably dressed woman there and had her choice of partners for every dance. Since she was the prince’s fiancée, he had to give his permission for anyone else to dance with her, and they worked out a system. If someone presented himself and she wanted to dance with him, she just looked at Nick and he assented. If she winked, he said, “Sorry, gentlemen, this one is mine,” and whirled her out on the floor himself.

When she was partnered with someone else, Nick would ask one of the other young ladies to dance with him. Most of them flirted with him outrageously. He was only polite in return, but Elizabeth could see he was enjoying the attention and flattery; well so was she for that matter.

She and Nick demonstrated the new Telesian dances, and they were the only couple on the floor. They finished each to loud applause and cries of acclaim. For the most part, their dancing skill exceeded that of all the other couples present, and Elizabeth silently thanked Lady Hornswaggle and her patient lessons.

She and Nick took a break and went out into the gardens to cool down, but they were never alone. People came up and introduced themselves, wanting to talk to the prince and his lady about everything from Elizabeth’s gown to new laws they thought the prince should put into effect immediately. Nick diplomatically explained that only the king and Council could create new laws, although their idea was very good, even when the proposed law was ridiculous.

They danced the last few dances together, both a little tired of being polite and gracious to a wide variety of strangers. By the time it was over they were too fatigued to do anything besides go back to their suites and go to bed. Nick was very glad he had gotten his spying done the previous night; he was already dragging his feet with weariness.

The morning saw them on their way, the Progress pulling out early and accompanied by an honor guard from Duke Hubert. They headed north and by the end of the second day parted from the duke’s troops as they passed into Landsford.

Landsford was agriculturally rich land. While Sothalia tended to be rocky, Landsford soil was deep and black, and they were soon traveling between fields of a variety of crops, mostly grains. The second day in it started to rain and alternated drizzling, pouring, and misting for the next three days.

Both Nick and Elizabeth were bored having to ride in the coach day after day. For variety, they had Hal ride with them for a half a day and encouraged him to chatter on about his life and his impressions of the trip so far. Hal was astounded that the ways of doing things were different in every place they stayed and proud that the other pages at Duke Hubert’s castle had deferred to him like he outranked them, even though they were all just pages.

Nick took the opening to explain that, yes, people all over Anglia were different and had different ways of doing things, and that was fine. People outside of Anglia were even more different, and if he ever traveled outside of Anglia, he would soon see that the differences between Anglians were very small in comparison.

Elizabeth reminded Hal that he represented the royal family and Prince Nicholas in particular to the other servants. He should be dignified with them but not stuck-up, friendly but not overly familiar. Hal was quiet for some time after that, thinking about her words.

Hal eventually said he thought he might have acted a little stuck-up with the other pages; he hadn’t known the proper way to respond to them. But he would try to do better next time, and perhaps Mr. Winkershime and Miss Conway could advise him in the future if he wasn’t doing it right. Both Nick and Elizabeth assured him that they knew he was just learning, and of course the maid and valet could guide him.

Sylvie rode with them for a half day too, at first a little reserved in front of the prince but then becoming more comfortable and chatting with Elizabeth about clothes and what Sylvie had planned for her to wear for the five-day visit to Earl Bruce. Nick gave them an indulgent smile and then just spent the time staring out the window at the rain.

Elizabeth wanted to have Winkershime ride with them as well. Nick told her it would be a waste of time, but she was determined. So for a half a day, the valet sat stiffly across from them saying nothing except to answer direct questions with the fewest words possible plus the appropriate honorific.

After the days of rain ended, they were able to ride occasionally, which relieved their boredom somewhat. In the sunshine the land was very pretty with rolling hills and forested areas. They passed through small farming communities and one town that was almost large enough to qualify as a city and then turned east toward the coast.

The coastal road was a bit rough, and they passed through and stayed at a number of fishing villages. The fish they were served were always fresh and tasty, but both of them soon got tired of it being included in every meal, even though it wasn’t always the main course.

Five days up the coast, they finally reached Landsford Castle, another huge old edifice situated on a hill overlooking a large river emptying into the sea. But where Hubert’s castle had been stout and solid, the earl’s home was tall as well as wide and sported dozens of towers of various heights. Elizabeth decided it was very pretty.

“Nick, after we’re married, will we have our own castle to live in?”

“What? Well, no, we’ll live in the palace, just in one of the large apartments. Do you want to live in a castle?”

“I suppose not. It would be far too big for just us and a few servants. But it might be nice to have our own residence of some sort. Is that possible?”

“I guess, although my duties would require me to be at the palace every day, so it couldn’t be too far away. Would you really want that? You’d have to take over running the household, at least direct the top-level servants.”

“I think I might. I suppose I should think about it some more, it was just an idea that popped into my head when I saw that beautiful castle ahead. Would you mind too much if I did?”

“No, I wouldn’t mind if that’s what you really want. I want you to be happy.”

She took his hand, and the Progress swept through the open gate in the outer wall with them holding hands.