INVITATIONS AND APPLE TREES
AN ORIGIONAL HISTORICAL FANFIC FEATURING MARIE STUART AND FRANCOIS DE VALOIS
DISCLAIMER: This work is mine, along with the plot. These characters are historical and in the public domain, the imagining of their personalities are mine, it has NO affiliation with any TV SHOW past or present. No part of this work may be copied, redistributed or reworked without permission of the author. NO money is being made from posting this work here…
Author's Note: This is a rough, unedited part of a chapter from my upcoming novel the WILD ROSE AND THE GILDED LILY. This scene takes place BEFORE, FIRST CHRISTMAS IN FRANCE
Dedicated as always to the long suffering Frary Fandom.
Chatteau Le Fontainebeau June 1548
Henry De Valois never fancied himself a sentimental man, but there was something in the scene that greeted him that warm, bright summer morning that stirred his heart. He had just finished a long and exhausting meeting with his advisors when he escaped into his private study for a goblet of wine and a brief moment of peace in a day sure to be filled with more meetings and more squabbling, greedy, grasping nobles than there where hours in a day.
He'd gone to stand by one of the windows, pulling the drapes of light blue velvet aside to gaze upon the garden when the sigh which had been caught in his chest, disappeared and the smallest of smiles crept to his lips as he saw the two royal children in the garden below.
Seeing his son laugh and run like a normal boy his age was a balm to the king's weary soul, giving him hope that the son he loved more than life itself may yet live to see adulthood and perhaps even, God willing, ascend the throne of France one day.
Marie and Francois were now running towards the giant apple tree, the same tree the king himself loved to climb as a boy, situated near the window and Henry opened the window, so that he could hear their laughter and chatter.
"Oh look Francois, the first apples of spring!" Marie's excited voice travelled up to the king. "They're the sweetest did you know?"
"Of course," Francois replied. "The first and the last are always the sweetest...but how will you reach the apple, Marie? It's way up at the top of the tree."
"You know I can climb trees."
"True," the Dauphin conceded with a grin. "You are the only Queen I've ever seen climb a tree...but you won't be climbing anything dressed like that..."
The girl looked down at her dress as if it was to blame for all the evils in the world and sighed."Remind me again why I have to go to this stupid birthday party for a girl that doesn't like me?"
"Because mother said..."
"No, she didn't," Marie interrupted a little testily. "You and your sister were invited to this party, not me. I can understand French a little now you know, even if I can't speak it so well yet."
"The written invitation was clear," the Dauphin replied nonchalantly.
"Yes it was," Marie said sounding just a little amused, "written in gold ink, no less: "I hereby invite the Dauphin and his sister, the Princess Elizabeth Valois..."
Margurite De Chaunesy did not like her much, and even less so since Marie pointed out to the older girl, in the presence of Queen Catherine, that the Stuarts could trace back their royal linage for over four hundred years.
Janet Fleming later explained to Marie in private that her comment, however innocently meant, grievously offended the Queen of France, for although her family, the Medici, were indeed very wealthy, Queen Catherine was not born royal.
Marie had since very much regretted the comment and apologized to the woman she genuinely respected, but the Queen seemed set in her dislike and so Marie had resolved to say very little in the Queen of France's company and to answer only to direct questions. Her daily two hour embroidery sessions with Catherine now often passed without Marie saying more than two words together...
"I'm not lying," Francois maintained adamantly, bringing her attention back to their conversation. "My name was on the invitation, was it not?"
"Yes, but..."
"And doesn't our nannies always say: 'Those two are joined at the hip'?" Francois said, making Marie giggle as he imitated his nanny.
"They do," Marie admitted, laughter still dancing in her voice, "though I have no idea what that means and my governess will not tell me." Marie complained as a small frown settled beneath her brows. "Every time I ask Mistress Janet what 'joined at the hip' means she turns so red in the face and walks away."
"Really?" Francois asked surprise coloring his voice as his gaze flickered briefly to Marie before moving upwards once more to regard the first apple of the season, shinny and red, perched on the highest limb of the huge tree. "Perhaps your Nanny does not know what it means," the Dauphin reasoned. "But mine does."
"Oh really?" Marie said, clear skeptisism coloring her voice and her features. "Care to enlighten me, then?" she asked as she stood watching her friend hand on hips.
"It means we belong to each other." Francois said matter of factly.
"Truly?"
"Truly. It means where one of us goes the other follows..." Francois explained, "so if I'm invited to a party so are you, even if you are not mentioned by name and if you are invited to a party so am I even if the invitation does not contain my name."
Marie thought for a while before conceding. "Well it must be true then, but it still doesn't mean Margurite de Chaunecy wants me at her party anymore than I want to be there..."
"Oh cheer up," Francois cajoled, "there will be cake."
"I guess it will be worth it to go, if only to see you dance with Margurite!"
The Dauphin rolled his eyes. "Margurite can't dance..."
"That's not what I hear," Marie said. "Lizzie said that Margurite have been practising every day this month just so that...Francois what are you doing?!"
"Getting you an apple, of course."
"Are you mad? Our Governess' will be very mad if you get your clothes dirty and your mother will have my severed head on a pike if anything happens to you!"
Still watching from his window, King Henry's first instinct was to rush down to the gardens and stop the boy, but something about seeing his boy climb that tree kept him rooted to his spot at the window.
"Francois get down," Marie pleaded. "Since when do you climb trees anyway?" Marie asked, voicing the king's silent question as well.
"Since I started practicing on the afternoons you are with Lizzy." He threw back at her.
Marie watched speechless, almost afraid to breathe as Francois swung himself up onto the limb of the tree, directly below his prize. Deftly he plucked the glossy red fruit and threw it down to Marie, who easily caught it, but only held the fruit cupped in her hands close to her heart, seemingly unwilling to take a bite until her friend was safely back on solid ground.
He did reach the ground safely and seemingly none the worse for wear, if ever so slightly out of breath. "Don't tell me that after all my trouble you're not going to eat it?" He says as he stands before her, a huge grin on his face.
When she only stands there staring at him he plucks the fruit from her limp fingers and takes a bite. "Hmmm, this is sweet," he mused.
"Hey, that's my apple!" Marie complained as she finally recovered from her surprise.
Francois merely shrugged and took another tiny bite of the apple before tossing it to Marie with an easy grin.
Turning the apple round in her hands she bit into the half that was still glossy and red. "You're right," Marie mused as she chewed the sweet, juicy apple, "it is sweet." Then she remembered how she got the apple. "You scared me half to death, Francois!" She scolded.
"You got your apple didn't you?" Francois reasoned.
"You could've been hurt!
"But I wasn't," Francois said firmly, "what's more I intend to talk to father about starting to ride and taking fencing lessons..."
Marie's eyes grew wide as saucers. "Do you feel well enough?"
"I feel fine," he said smiling at her, "and as you rightly pointed out earlier I am, God willing, the future king of France. I have to start learning how to be a king sometime."
Marie beamed at the young Dauphin."I think you will make a great king some day!"
"I will do my best to honour my grandfather and my father's legacy and take care of my people," Francois said solemnly, then seeming to remember something he brought his one hand out from behind his back to reveal a twig filled with apple blossoms. "I picked this for you too," he said, holding it out to Marie who took it with a shy smile.
"Thank you, your, Grace." Marie said admiring the delicate pink blossoms.
"I thought you might wear it in your hair for the party," the Dauphin remarked, suddenly seeming equaly shy. "It goes with your dress..."
"That it does," Marie agreed with a small smile. "Well I guess we should get back inside and get ready for this party I was not invited to..."
Francois took Marie's hand and interlaced their fingers in a gesture so simple and natural that Henry, still watching at the window, found himself wondering how many times the boy had done it before. As the two children broke into a run towards the opposite side of the chatteau where the royal nursery was situated, the last Henry heard of their conversation was Francois scolding Marie for her continued reluctance to accept his explanation for why she was indeed invited to Margurite De Chaunecy's party. "Marie," Francois said in a slightly exasperated tone, "I've just explained to you exactly why you were invited..."
As the children's voices faded in the distance, Henry turned away from the window with a small smile on his face. It has been almost three months now since Marie Queen od Scots came to French Court and the child was a fresh breeze, Diane and Lizzy adored her and the rest of the court with them, while Francois, well the Dauphin has definitely taken a liking to little queen, and judging from what he'd just witnessed, she was very good for the boy...
The King's smile widened as he recalled Francois telling Marie of his desire to learn to ride and fence...
It was the two activities his wife and her physicians had expressly forbidden the Dauphin to take part in, and in this he had given Catherine her way, particularly because up until a few months ago Francois had been thought too weak and fragile to spend more than a few hours a day out of bed.
But Marie Stuart's arrival had wrought an almost miraculous change in the boy, he was up and about most of the day now, with the young queen more often than not following in the boy's wake. Henry had heard from courtiers whose word could be trusted that, although Marie of Scots played with and was popular amongst most of the aristocratic children at court, she often seemed to gravitate to the Dauphin.
Catherine, of course had advised him to 'take these reports with a grain of salt', but King Henry knew well that his wife was one of the few at court who openly disliked Marie. Now Henry had witnessed for himself the bond between the two children and a very close bond it was considering they knew each other only two short months...
The King placed his now empty goblet on the gilded table and taking his peacock feathered quill from its ink pot, scribbled a quick note to his secretary, before calling his page and giving the letter to the boy to deliver. If the Dauphin was finally ready to begin training for the role he was born to, then Henry was determined to do everything in his power to assist the boy. First he had to find his boy a horse, the finest thoroughbred in France and then he had to find the right fencing instructor and Latin tutor...
Strangely for the first time since Francois was six months old, Henry felt like he had a son, a heir... Perhaps for the first time in decades it felt like France and the House of Valois had a real future.
The Gilded Lily of France was growing stronger...