The King

Chapter 3: Surprises

About a month ago, Prince Victor left the palace again. About a month ago, Prince Luke’s and Princess Stella’s engagement was announced to the public. There was an engagement party, both royal families were there and other important families, including mine. My father being that King’s most trusted advisor and my mother the Queen’s personal seamstress and best friend, of course we had to be there. For the first time, since I decided to be a guard, I was attending a ball in a gown rather than in uniform.

The gown my mother made was a dark blue color, at the bottom, fading into a lighter blue as it worked its way up. She had made it seem as if the stars were simmering when I walked, down one side of the skirt. It had a modest V-neck and my favorite part, long flowing sleeves. A fitted cuff around my wrist but then it spilled down to the floor, down the back of my hands. She really did a great job. 

That night, when my parents and I entered the ballroom, followed by my brothers’ family, the room fell silent. Aside from the Queen, my mother had made the women of her family the most extravagant of the evening. 

As we made our way to our table, Prince Luke made his way over to us, asking my father if he could have the first dance of the evening with me. Never one to say no to his future King, I was off to dance a waltz with Luke. 

“You look lovely, you mother really outdid herself tonight,'' Luke said as the first song started. And then “I didn’t know you really had the ability to look like a girl, but look at you now,'' he ruined the complaint with a grin.

A smile spread across my face, “Thank you, Luke, I didn’t think you could like anything else than a frog in human clothing but you look great too,'' I shot back. 

We danced and for that small amount of time, we were just a couple friends dancing, feeling free to relax with each other. Then the song ended and Prince Luke escorted me back to my table, off the dance with his future wife. 

As the ball went on, I roamed that perimeter of the floor, being ever the solder I am. At some point during the night, Prince Victor came over and walk the floor with me. All he said was, “May I join you?”

“May I have the honor of the last dance with you tonight, Lady Caroline?”, he said, surprising me by using my formal title, and the request, if I am being honest. I hadn’t been called that since the day I was assigned to Prince Luke’s watch.

“Uhm, okay,'' I said taking the arm he had extended toward me. He had the gentlest touch, the smallest pressure where our hands met. 

The music started slow, a single note, but at the start of the one note, the world melted away. We moved together, not a second out of sync, our eyes were looked on each other, never looking away from each other. 

His hand in my back has gentle but firm, and with every turn I felt his eyes following me, watching, even when I went back into his arms.

Since that night, I had been thinking of the way Prince Victor had looked at me, the way he held me, the hurt that hit his eyes, when the music ended and we parted ways.

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Life went on as usual. Prince Victor was off again, helping train new recruits of the nation’s military. Prince Luke attending meeting after meeting, with me trailing at a short distance behind. 

The only change was that Princess Stella had been moved from s guest room to a permanent room in the palace. Per Prince Luke’s request, my time was divided between him and Princess Stella. Her schedule not being quite as crazy and boring as Prince Luke’s, she spent most of her time in the garden, or walking the grounds of the palace. Always pointing out small imperfections in the wall surrounding the palace or where another guard could be placed. 

Not that she did it in a snobbish tone, but rather with a genuine need to protect those in the palace, from the lowest maid to the King himself. As I spent more time with her, I could see that the King and Queen had done a great job choosing their son’s bride-to-be. 

“Caroline, I seem to get this,'' she complained on evening.

“How can I help, You Highness?”

Her sudden sharp exhale caught me off guard, “First off, right now I need a friendly help, not a guard, so don’t call me ‘Your Highness’” she says in a mocking voice.

The frustration plain on her face, I took off my sword and rolled my shoulders, preparing to do something I had never done before. Break protocol.

“Alright”, I said, “How can I help Stella?”

She squealed the loudest sound ever at the sound of her name. she grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the seat next to her.

“Okay, okay. I can’t seem to remember what crossing the knife and fork means or pointing them to the bottom right of the plate, she said in one breath.

A small smile spreads on my face, mostly because that was the same problem that had stumped me when I was learning this stuff. “First thing, you aren’t going to learn it by reading about it, you have to put it to practice.” It’s my turn to pull her, all the way to the kitchens.

For the next few days we drilled on all the proper ways my people go about our daily lives. From using the right eating utensil to the right type of wardrobe used during each occasion, always keeping in mind her heritage and how the King would want her to stand out.

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And so, life went on, my time split between Prince Luke and Princess Stella. Prince Victor only making appearances when he was summoned by the King. 

“I need your help with something”, Luke says the second we get out of earshot from the rest if his father’s council. He has said this to me before, but this time it is different, more urgent.

“Of course, Your Highness”

He takes a breath as if trying to convince himself this is a good idea, “I need you to follow Princess Stella”.

The confusion must have plain on my face because he tries to clarify, “I mean, outside of the act of duty. At night, tonight, actually. Every second of the month she sneaks out of the palace, and need to know where”.

“Luke, know I say this as a friend, why? Are you going to be the type of husband that distrust even her that lays in his bed?” I can see that the question makes him feel uncomfortable, and more than that, I can see that he is going to try to hide it behind anger, “You know what, not my place to ask, when does she usually leave and where?”

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“Of all the times he could have asked me to follow her, it had to be during the winter time. Most of spring and all f summer went by but he waited for it to be winter”, the thought crosses my mind, not for the first time that evening. Prince Luke told me that Princess Stella would be at the wall surrounding the palace ground, ten minutes after curfew, by the security exit, and as promised, not a minute off schedule.

She is wearing jeans and a t-shirt, the hood of her jacket covering her face. She went straight to a patch in the wall that she had rebuilt, on the argument that it was too old to last any longer. Now I can see why she was so interested in the palace grounds security, smart girl.

She pulls a loose brick for the wall and produces and key, then inserts the key into the brick next to it, a small door opens, taking her to the outside of the wall. 

Lucky for me, I’m in a tree just inside the wall, not a far leap to make. Keeping track of her is not easy but I manage it. Princess Stella really thought this through. On her way, she goes through alleys and shops that are still open, she cuts through run down neighborhoods, finally to end up at a catholic church. After knocking on the door a child opens it, most interesting. 

She lounges at him, scooping him up, into her arms, pouring kisses over him. She carries the child inside, closing the door behind her. 

This church is like most, and like most there is a window above the tall doors but unlike most, there is a latch there, I slip in unnoticed. 

There isn’t much to see from where I stand, on a beam crossing the ceiling of the roof, but her playing with a little boy, who look, maybe four to six years old. Then, as her throws him up in the air, the little boy yells “Mommy”, giggling on his way down.

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As I make my way back to the palace, I think back, trying to think of anything that could have, even hint of her being a mother. Nothing. 

She takes the same way in, by midnight she is in her bedroom getting ready for bed, though when she finally sits on her bed, though I am outside, I can see a steady stream of tears running down her face.

The next morning, I’m at Prince Luke study, before he is. 

“Why did you have me follow her?”, I demand.

“Yes, good morning to you too, Coraline. I slept well, you?”

“Cut the crap, answer the question,” I say, narrowing my eyes at him.

“I asked him too”, answers a voice behind him. Princess Stella steps out from behind him.

“What, why?” 

“I think that, maybe you should sit down before I answer that question.”

Between the both of them, they explain how, when she was fourteen, she got pregnant. The father was a boy of sixteen, but he was killed before the baby was born. 

Her mother, knowing that Stella’s father would want to get rid of the baby, helped make a plan for giving birth and then keeping her child. When Stella was two months in, her mother and her left the palace for two years. In that time, Stella gave birth and a secure home for the boy was arranged. When she was eighteen, Stella was told that she was to marry the Crown Prince of the Atlantic Continents, that, however, would end any chance of mother and child living together.

Not too long after that, when she was on her way to visit her son, she overheard a conversation her father was having with one of the members of his council. They were planning on having part of the honey moon in the palace of the U.A.C., their they would end the alliance with the Atlantics, by ending Luke’s life. 

As time went on, she saw that she was running out of time, her mother told her she must confide in Luke. Around that same time, Luke had first asked me to marry him. 

“I need to keep my child safe, plea- “

“Okay”, is all I say.

Luke’s face is a picture of confusion. “What do you mean, ‘okay’? we haven’t even told you the plan yet”. 

I let out a sign, “I know that. But I do know that it will involve my marriage to you and keeping them,” I nod my head toward Stella, “alive. That help two of my friends, keeping both alive. Now what is the plan?”