In The East

Chapter I-3

Now he understood what she meant, he really understood it. While the first moments had been painful and irritating for both of them and he had even been tempted to send him back with an excuse, now he understood fully.

He had been held back more by the spite of disappointment than by affection and now he had to thank that contemptuous arrogance that had driven him to go on without worrying too much about the evident physical and moral discomfort of the child, who found it hard to keep up with him during the long fast rides, who complained and fidgeted in his sleep and could not stand their rough heavy food without being sick.

He had scolded him furiously, when his inexperience had made some prey escape, he had humiliated him with sarcastic remarks about his almost feminine delicacy, and he had even raised his whip on him. And he had not rebelled, but he had never given up, he had cried sometimes, it is true, but never in his presence. His gaze, he remembered suddenly with a jolt of boundless joy, had always remained firm and full of dignity.

No, his son did not have the makings of a vile courtier: he was indeed a prince.

What a shame not to have realized it before!

Full of dreams and a poet, he vulgarly teased him that day and he had defended his right, and his freedom to be true to himself.

When, at the end of the hunting week, they had returned to the castle, the king had praised him in front of his mother with words that no one had ever heard coming from him, and that had made the queen smile with sweetness.

He had declared that he would stay longer than usual at the castle that year because the hunt had been excellent, and he intended to hunt again in the coming weeks. He also wanted to reopen and rearrange the library (why had the queen smiled mysteriously when she heard those words?) as well as to take care of many other needed improvements, which for years had been postponed and could not be avoided any longer.

He had not said that above all he wanted to be with his son and spend long enjoyable weeks with him. But many had guessed it and soon everyone understood it.

Meanwhile, there was the issue of the park.

The king used to get up early in the morning and go out for a walk in the castle gardens with his dogs sometimes, more often alone, or go on horseback along the banks of the river, on the solitary country paths, and did not want anyone to follow him, despite the protests of his advisers.

" I always have many people around me " he said, puffing impatiently when someone came back on the subject " especially when I'm in the city, that I don't want anyone here, I mean nobody, to follow me. I need a couple of hours of solitude to deal with everything else.”

In reality, he had given orders that not even a gardener or any of the other servants should be at the time in the park. Obviously, no one dared to disobey him and, after so many years, everyone was familiar with his odd behavior, so even those who found themselves having to be at work at that hour in the stables or in the garden, would be careful not to be seen. It was not easy to be forgiven by the king and escape his punishments.

Was the prince also aware of his father's wish?

Most likely yes, but he was sure the orders of the sovereign did not apply to the queen and to him. On the other hand, the castle belonged more to him than to others, because for many months a year it was his undisputed kingdom, where he dominated and ran about as he pleased, of which he knew every corner and every blade of grass. No one thought to limit his movements inside the property, and, except for the library and the apartment of the king, all other doors were open to him.

He had even visited the basements and the two towers that guarded the two opposite sides of the castle's facade.

The prince therefore considered himself free to contradict his father's orders and to continue his old habit of going down to the garden at dawn to feed the squirrels and the fallow deer, which populated the grove of silvered cypresses and holm oaks at the edge of the park. Since many years, the fence that divided it from the woods behind it had fallen in that spot and the timid little animals had begun to come at daybreak to drink at the fountain which was perennially filled with water and to eat what the little prince regularly found for them: apples and walnuts, stolen from the pantry, and oats and hay, which was given to him by one of the workers in the stable.

He knew that they were afraid of human presence and he stood quietly and motionless behind the trees watching them while they drank and ate gracefully, never completely calm, always alert, their muzzle and ears quivering, their big liquid eyes ready to catch the slightest change in shadows and lights.

Perhaps they had felt his presence, but they must have realized that he loved them and fed them and tolerated him without difficulty, also because he was almost impossible to notice.

When they returned to the woods where they came from, the prince stretched his legs running towards the pools in the park, making the doves that had come to quench their thirst fly away, watching for a while the large red and black fishes that moved slowly under the rays of the sun that was beginning to illuminate the clear leaping waters, creating a thousand rainbows from the jets gushing from strange animal heads or groups of pretty sea nymphs.

And so he continued his rounds through the garden, from one edge to the other, tripping on the gravel paths and skipping the low box hedges with great desperation of the gardener who often had to remedy the damage he caused, and spying, with his nose close to the bars of the top gate that led to the road t to the city, the movements of the peasants who passed by with carts and animals to go to work or to the markets.

Then Antonia or some old servant would come to call him because it was time to go back to lock himself in the castle to attend his morning lessons.

It was the freest moment of his day and his mother, who was aware of it, had never stopped him from going out any time and in any season. The prince knew when the first roses were born or the leaves turned red, when the crocus and the violets in the ditches sprouted or when the ice formed its shining mirrors on the water of the fountains and adorned the mouths of lions and dragons spitting water with pointed icicles.

He watched the rain drumming on the bushes and rooftops of the stables or the sun rising slowly from the east, announcing another splendid and warm day.

So, one morning, the king happened to catch a glimpse of a small shadow lurking in the grove and then, immediately afterwards, hopping and whistling away along the path that led to the end of the garden, towards the orchard.

He was dumbfounded, unable to understand who that might be, and annoyed at having been so clearly disobeyed. He decided to wait for him next to the staircase that led to the terrace on the first floor. He would have had to go through there anyway. Whether he was a young servant of the castle or a stable boy, he would have been clearly visible from that position.

He was most likely a young boy who had just been hired or the son of some old servant, and, for this reason, he certainly wasn't aware of his orders. He could not even imagine that anyone could deliberately challenge them, but he had to bring this to the butler to stop it from happening. He took note of it as he waited a little impatiently for the mysterious character to pass by.

After waiting fifteen minutes, he definitely began to get nervous and started striding back and forth on the broad pinkish stones of the courtyard, which formed precise and pleasing geometric patterns converging towards the low stairway that led to the rich garden. Italian. He still remembered when his father had restored that building to spend the long hunting season and when he had taken the queen there for the first time and she had been captivated by that harmonious, simple and elegant structure and had willingly consented to spend her days there, rather than at the city palace.

Ah, finally! The shadow emerged from behind the tropical flower greenhouses. The king frowned, preparing to abruptly stop the boy and teach him a lesson.

But as he got close, he was petrified by astonishment and indignation: it was his son disobeying him without the possibility of mistake!

But the prince's little face was smiling and happy, not at all intimidated, perfectly innocent.

" Good morning, father. Today will be a wonderful day " he said with a cheerful smile " I was in the orchard and saw the apples are already ripe, red, and yellow as ever.”

" Yes, that is true. But leave the fruit alone: are you not aware of my orders?”

" What orders, father?”

" I don't want to meet anyone when I go out in the park in the morning. Nobody, is it clear?”

Why was he making such a big deal? The king felt a little ridiculous; thinking about it, he was being as capricious as a child and this made him even more angry.

" Yes, I know them, but I thought ... " the prince lowered his head mortified.

" What? That you could disobey as you please, that you are above others, even more important than you, who obey without questioning my decision?”

His father stared at him sternly, he addressed him with a changed cutting voice, and he felt ever smaller and more distressed. The sun that had just warmed his heart was disappearing behind heavy black clouds.

" How come you are not answering? Come on tell me what you think. " and he shook him, grabbing the small arm left inert in his hands.

"I thought your orders did not apply to me or my mother," the child whispered.

" Your mother is exempt, but do you really think you are dispensed from obedience? It's unbelievable: a little brat who thinks he's superior to anyone!”

" No, Father, I don't believe it.”

" Thank God. What now?”

" I'm used to getting out of the castle at this time, my mother always allows me and I thought you weren't against it and besides… ." here it stuttered and couldn't continue; although he tried to control the tremor of his voice, he understood that he was too agitated to do it and was afraid his father would realize that.

" Go on " the king urged him, with a nervous tone that certainly did not help him calm down.

" Nothing, father.”

" No, it's not true that it's all and I want to know what "besides" means. Tell me, or I won't let you go.”

The prince then raised his eyes to his father's face, and he could not read any fear as he sought. Was his son so contemptuous that he didn't fear him even a little bit?

But in his eyes, there was not even a shadow of fear.

" I'm tired of playing riddles with a child. Come on, hurry up.”

" I was hoping you wouldn't mind meeting me. I am not just anybody, that is ... " he corrected himself afraid to be misunderstood " that is, I wanted to say, not for you. Will you let me go now, please?”