A/N: This story is set in Fairy Tale Land and is a companion piece to my novel Yours, Mine, and Rumplestiltskin's. It details the hat incident referred to by Bae, Rennie, and Finn.
1
Home Sweet Home
Baelfire Gold, recently made lieutenant of the mercenary company the Card Captors, which was based at the Gold Castle on the hill above the village of Valley Way, headed down the short path to the cottage where he lived with his wife and two-year-old daughter. In a few more months they would be four, as Serenity was expecting again, he mused as he strode down the path with the easy light steps of a born swordsman. Bae was a tall muscular young man, lean and fit from the hours he spent sparring with the men under his command, teaching them the finer points of sword fighting. He had thick curly dark hair, which he kept trimmed short, so no enemy could grab it in battle, thickly lashed dark brown eyes and a handsome face with a mobile mouth that was usually smiling or joking around with his recruits, though one and all of them would obey him if necessary. Bae had the reputation of the best swordsman in the company, save for their captain. He was sometimes referred to as the Gold swordsman, both a play on his surname and a nod to his famous father, Rumplestiltskin, the Gold sorcerer, who lived in the castle on the hill.
Today it had been storming, and the skies were still deep gray and threatening to let loose again with a torrential downpour. The ground was muddy, so Bae carefully picked his way through the puddles, his boots squelching in the muck, his navy all-weather waterproof cloak, spelled by Rumple, pulled close about him, the hood obscuring his dark hair. His elven sword, Azariel, jingled slightly by his side as he walked. Bae was wearing the typical uniform of a Card Captor lieutenant, soft gray trousers tucked into black boots, a cream colored shirt and a sky blue tunic over it with the Card Captor logo of a deuce in chains on the left breast and two chevrons on the shoulders to indicate officer's rank. The Card Captors had gotten their name long before Bae joined them because they had driven the evil Queen of Heart's card army back into Wonderland and stopped an invasion of the kingdoms of Fairy Tale Land.
He reached his cottage, which was set back from the castle proper on some twenty-five acres of land, in about five minutes. The front yard had an apple tree in it and large hedges of pink and purple roses surrounded the covered veranda, speed grown by his nature witch sister, Jasmine. Hyacinths and impatiens bloomed in neat rows about the west side of the cottage, which was also where his wife, Serenity, had a small herb and vegetable garden. Behind the cottage was a small barn and the pasture where he turned out Flicker, his stallion, and they also had a goat, Sunny, and a handful of chickens.
The cottage was small but roomy, built of sturdy blocks of gold flecked stone, the stone had been taken from parts of the Gold Castle which had been ruined in the long ago battle with the Evil Queen's forces. The roof was formed of heavy mats of thatched straw intermixed with tiny colorful flowers, which helped keep bugs and other pests out of it. On the windows facing the castle, Rennie had planted a profusion of petunias and geraniums in boxes, but today the shutters were drawn tight because of the weather, though normally they were flung open to let the fresh air and sunshine in. Smoke rose in lazy tendrils from the stone chimney on the east side.
Bae came up the porch steps and paused to scrape his feet on the mat and use the bootjack there to remove his boots before he stepped into the house and walked on Rennie's freshly scrubbed wooden floors.
He threw open the blue door with its round window at the top of it and called cheerily, "Hey, Rennie, Davina, I'm home!"
Stepping inside, he carefully shut the door and unclasped his cloak, which was slightly wet, hanging it on the peg for that purpose to the right of the door, next to his wife's smaller green one and Davina's tiny rose colored one. He also unbuckled his sword belt and hung it on the opposite side on the hooks made for it. There was a short entry way before you got to the main room, which was a combination of a kitchen and den, with a huge fireplace and a cupboard, table, and chairs situated near the east side, as well as a stove and a wall oven. A braided rug lay before the hearth and a brown and white collie puppy napped upon it, waking when he heard Bae's familiar footsteps and racing across the floor to fling himself upon the master of the house, panting and wagging his tail.
"Hello, Gabe," Bae greeted the puppy, kneeling and ruffling the puppy's ears. "Have you been a good boy today? No more chewing Rennie's slippers, eh?"
Gabriel whined happily deep in his throat and licked Bae's hands, then barked and ran around in circles before returning to the half-eaten bone lying on the rug in front of the crackling fire.
A cradle of logs was stacked beside the hearth and two comfy chairs were set before it, one had a box next to it with his wife's mending and a basket filled with quilt scraps. The other had a small box filled with scraps of wood and leather beside it. A small table was between them and had a half-filled cup of tea on it. Behind it was a long low brown leather sofa with some pillows tossed on it and a few of Davina's stuffed animals.
A ladder on the western side of the room led to a loft above, where they stored supplies and also had a pallet in case a relative or friend stopped by for the night and needed a bed.
Inbetween the den and the kitchen area was a passageway leading to the bedrooms, small bathroom and a cold room. The passageway led out to a back door that opened onto a large yard. From the outside, the cottage appeared smaller than the space alloted on the inside, since it had been built using a space warp spell designed by Rumplestiltskin. Above the curved entryway was a wooden sign with carved grapes and vines on it that read A Merry Heart Makes A Happy Home, it had been a housewarming gift from his stepmother, Belle. Inside, the cottage was lit by several oil lamps and some recessed mageglobes above the hearth which could be turned off and on by clapping one's hands. Even though Bae and Rennie didn't have magic's Gift, several members in their huge family did and they were happy to provide them with magical amenities for the price of one of Rennie's home cooked meals. A wooden toy box was placed off to one side of the entryway, and a few dolls and some blocks spilled onto the floor beside it.
Bae sniffed the air appreciatively just as his wife of five years came through the entryway into the main room with Davina close behind her. Bae caught Rennie up in a hug and said, "Something sure smells good in here, sweetheart. What are you cooking?"
"Ham and bean stew with a side of fresh bread," she laughed and kissed him, her blue eyes glowing. She was twenty-two to his twenty-three, with dark hair that tumbled down her back in waves and a face that rivaled that of her mother for its beauty. She wore a pretty calico dress and a white apron over it, as she had been grinding up herbs in her stillroom. "There's some bread and cheese, and honey and butter on the table, along with a jug of cider," she waved a hand at the table. "I know you're usually starving when you come home."
"Uh huh. Sparring normally works up an appetite," he said, "and I'm always hungry for your cooking, Ren."
A tiny girl with dark curly hair like her father's suddenly ran and grabbed him about the knees, crying, "Papa! Papa, kiss me next!"
He swept his little girl up in his arms, kissing her cheek and asking, "How's my best girl today? Have you been good for Mama?"
"Umm . . ." Davina suddenly glanced away, a guilty look in her cornflower blue eyes.
"Someone's been very naughty today," Rennie said, sighing.
Bae raised an eyebrow, and then said, in a mildly stern tone, "What have you done now, Miss Davina Belle Gold?"
His child looked at her frilly pink muslin frock and ruffled stockings, her lower lip trembling pathetically at her father's disapproving tone. "Umm . . . I touched Mama's scissors. An' . . . an' I broked a jar with gillyflowers in it." She started sniffling even before he had a chance to scold her, reminding him of himself at that age.
"I was in the bathroom for about a minute or so, washing my hands because I'd been cutting up onions," Rennie informed him. "I was going to make some tonics in my stillroom and left her playing with Gaby on the rug. When I came out, she was gone and Gaby was dragging my yarn across the floor. By the time I got him squared away, I heard a crash and I came into my stillroom to see this little imp standing with my scissors in one hand and a broken jar of gillyflowers at her feet."
Bae shook his head. "I'm very disappointed in you, young lady. You know better than to touch what doesn't belong to you, dearie," he said, unconsciously aping his father as he scolded his daughter.
"But I just wanted to hold it," the little scamp whimpered, huge tears gathering in her eyes. "M'sorry, Papa. Mama put me in the corner forever."
"It was four minutes," his wife snorted.
"To her that's forever," Bae said, half-amused. Then he said quietly, "It looks like we need to have another talk about keeping those sticky fingers to yourself, hmm?"
"Yes, Papa," Davina said unhappily.
He set her down, saying, "Go wait for me on the couch while I get something to eat."
Davina obeyed, going over to the couch and climbing on it. She hugged her green blankie to her and sulked quietly, her lower lip sticking out adorably as she waited.
Bae moved into the kitchen and cut himself some bread and cheese, spreading one piece with butter and honey and pouring himself a glass of cider as well. He sat down at the table and ate, listening as Rennie talked about the rest of her day, which had been uneventful until Davina's little mishap. "I'm lucky she didn't cut herself on the glass," his wife said, "even though Mama and Clary are right up in the castle if I needed to bring her to get medical help. As soon as I saw what had happened, I picked her up and scolded her and put her in time out, then I cleaned up everything with a broom. Gods, what a mess! Gillyflowers are the devil to get off of a floor."
"Kind of like honey," he remarked, referring to a time when Davina had dropped a jar of honey on the floor when he was watching her and the sticky stuff had taken him an hour to scrub off. "I'll talk with her, Ren, and see if I can't make an impression on her to quit touching things."
"I know it's normal at her age, to be curious and into everything, but some days she tries my patience to the limit, Bae. Sometimes I wonder how Mama ever did it, raising ten of us on her own and then eighteen after she married Papa," his wife sighed, she was actually the daughter of her mother Belle's first marriage to Gaston, a knight, and Bae was the son of his father's first marriage to Milah, a pirate queen. The two had met long before their parents, both single with lots of children, had begun courting and married each other.
"I do too. But we'll manage, Ren. It's like Papa always says, it's a phase and she'll grow out of it," Bae said calmly, eating another piece of cheese.
"It's a good thing you've got your papa's temperament and not Milah's," his wife remarked.
"Gods forbid I should ever be like that harpy," Bae said disparagingly. He had no fondness for his birth mother, who had abandoned his father, baby sister, and himself when he was three to go off adventuring with her pirate lover Hook across the seven seas. She had later returned with Hook and kidnapped three of his sisters, but it had come to naught and they had been rescued and been made to pay for their crimes by Rumple and Belle. She and her pirate husband were now doing hard time in the salt mines of Attica, for allying themselves with the Evil Queen and attempting to loot, pillage, and destroy Rumplestiltskin and his family, sending an army to invade the Gold Castle in an attempt to avenge themselves upon him. That effort too had failed, thanks to the help of their friends, neighbors, and the Card Captors, though it had been a hard fought battle and had cost them dearly before it was over.
It had been the first major engagement Bae had ever fought in. He had been eighteen at the time and only betrothed to Rennie, but he had proved himself an able soldier, along with his brother-in-law, James "Charming" Shepherd, who was now married to Bae's adopted sister, Snow White. They were now the parents of Emma, Bae and Rennie's goddaughter.
Currently, Snow and Charming were trying to win back their kingdom from the usurper Regina, the Evil Queen. That would be the next big engagement Bae would take part in, though that time was not yet, as they were not finished consolidating all their forces for an attack on the Enchanted Forest. So Bae had time yet to spend with his small family, and impart some rather hard-earned wisdom to his scamp of a child.
While Rennie was hanging the wash on the line inside by the stove, since the weather was bad, Bae went and sat next to his daughter. Davina inevitably climbed in his lap, because even when he scolded her she liked to be near him. "Are you mad, Papa?" she asked in her childish lisp, she was missing a front tooth.
"No, scamp. Just a little disappointed that you keep forgetting what we told you about touching things," he said.
"My mem'ry's no good," she answered honestly.
His mouth quirked up and he said, "Maybe I'd better help your memory by telling you a little story, Davina."
"What kind of 'tory, Papa?"
Bae cleared his throat. "This story is about Papa when he was a little boy, about the same age as your Uncle Phillip is now, around twelve," he told her. "It's about a time when I touched something I shouldn't have, Davina, just like you touched Mama's scissors and her jar of gillyflowers."
Davina's eyes grew wide as she processed this information. She stared up at her father and said, "You mean, you was bad too once, Papa?"
"Uh . . . yes, I was," Bae admitted, flushing slightly.
"Did Granpa 'mack you an' put you in time out too?" she queried artlessly.
"Uh . . . well, you'll see," her father replied, his lips twitching again. Dearest gods, but his baby girl was too smart! "Are you ready to hear my story?"
"Yes! Yes!" Davina shrilled, bouncing up and down on him.
"Okay. Put on your listening ears, Davina mine," he instructed. Then he began, in the way all such tales do, "Once upon a time, back when the Gold Castle was known as the Dark Castle, I lived there with your grandpa, Uncle Finn, and Aunt Ivy, since your other aunts and uncles hadn't been adopted yet and come there. One day when I was twelve, my papa took me aside and told me I was in charge of Uncle Finn and Aunt Ivy while he went down to the village to help Big Hans cure his bull Brahama, who was under a mange curse from a hedge witch who'd tried to cheat him the day before in a card game . . ."