Mistress Yaga wasted no time. She marched straight to the girl's bed. The Prince and the Princess looked hopefully at her. Wendell had passed on the information about Empath healing to the teary eyed parents.
"You are the parents?" Mistress Yaga asked.
"Yes. I am the Princess Laetitia of the 2nd Kingdom and this," she said nodding towards her husband, "is my husband the Prince Adrien,". The princess was able to steady her voice while giving the introduction. It was royal upbringing.
Mistress Yaga curtsied.
"Your Majesties I am here to help your daughter. I can see that there is much to be done here," she told the royals. Then she turned to where she could see everyone.
"I must be alone with the child," she said. Nobody moved. They all looked shocked.
"Absolutely not! I will not leave my daughter alone," Prince Adrien roared.
"My Lord," Mistress Yaga soothed, "There are too many emotions in this room. Too many thoughts. I need to focus on the Duchess' feelings as much as possible,".
It made a certain sense to Wendell. Still he wasn't sure if Prince Adrien and Princess Laetitia would see that. After a few moments of silence the princess nodded.
"Yes. We will leave you. We would never do anything to hinder your attempts," she said. Thomas opened the door to let everyone out. As Anthony was giving the "after you" sign to Rose Mistress Yaga amended her statement.
"Rose will stay with me," she said.
Rose immediately stepped back towards her teacher. Wendell wasn't looking and bumped into her. He instinctively held out his arms to catch her.
"Er, I'm very sorry," he mumbled. He couldn't bring himself to raise him voice any higher. He was too embarrassed. He was quite sure that when steadying her, his hand grazed her chest.
"No I, thank you… Your Majesty," the poor girl managed to reply.
"Great," Wendell thought miserably, "She felt my hand!"
He left the room with everyone else. They all milled about in the hallway. Princess Laetitia and Prince Adrien had their eyes glued to the bedroom door. It looked like they were trying to see through the wood. Thomas had faded into the background, ready to come to hand whenever needed. Anthony was fidgeting. He looked like he didn't really know what to do. It was a very awkward situation to be in the sick bay of a child who he didn't even know. Wendell was just trying to maintain an aura of dignity in this uncomfortable situation. He didn't think that allowing his guests to see him a state of panic would be good for his kingdom.
Well nobody could accuse him of not trying. He was doing everything possible to diffuse the situation. He called in his private doctor, had almost every other doctor in the kingdom coming in for second, third, fourth, fifth, etc opinions, and had even brought in some psychic medicine woman.
"Your Majesties, perhaps you should retire to your chambers for some rest. I will have food sent up," Wendell said. It wouldn't do to have the Prince and Princess waste away in his hallway. Once the guests were taken care of, Wendell and Anthony returned to his study.
"What a day," Wendell said wearily.
"Come on Prince, that little girl is gonna be just fine. I mean that Mistress Yaga looks like she could cure anything," Anthony said when he saw the look on Wendell's face, "I bet she and Rose have healed hundreds of kids,".
"Yes they certainly did look capable," Wendell admitted. Thinking of Rose made him blush, again. Anthony caught sight of the pink shadow across his face.
"Well when I look at Rose 'capable' certainly isn't the first word that comes to mind," he said with a chuckle.
"Of course you probably didn't notice how pretty she is. I know how you royal types are, never look at any woman unless she's got a title," he joked. He knew that Wendell had been a snob all of his life, but he was getting better.
"Hey! I noticed how pretty she is! Er that is, I mean I can notice women… er people without her being an aristocrat," he stumbled. The pink shadow turned red. At that point it was obvious to Wendell that Anthony was teasing him.
"Really Anthony I have more important things to do than to think about women and let you tease me," he said.
"Ok ok," Anthony said while he was yawning, " Hey will you look at the time Prince? With all the unpleasantness going on, I didn't even realize that it was past seven. Better get some food in here,".
"Anthony is there ever a situation in which you are too upset to eat?" Wendell asked with an amused grin on his face. With everything going on, food was the last thing on his mind.
"Are you kidding? Sometimes I eat when I'm upset," he laughed.
"Anthony you go ahead and eat, I still have some paperwork to do here," he said. He really did have a stack of papers requiring his attention. There were prison releases, treasury reports, and a million other things.
"Come on Prince. The riding hood royals aren't the only ones that need to take care of themselves. If it wasn't for my reminding you, you'd probably waste away," Anthony reproached. Sometimes he could be a downright nag. Wendell wouldn't budge. In truth he really wanted to be alone.
"Okay, but I'm having some food brought up for you," Anthony warned. Wendell chucked quietly as Anthony walked out of the study. Then he sighed and sat down at his desk. He rifled through the papers next to him and took up his quill.
"Let's see. Ah some prison releases," he mumbled. These were papers sent to him by wardens from prisons all over the kingdom. The prisoners in question were all wolves. His proclamation had been made, but none of these wolves could leave a prison without the proper forms. Of course there were some tricky bits of his decree. More than a few of those wolves were in fact hard criminals. They were not being persecuted just for being wolves, at least not this time around. This particular prisoner was convicted of 'eating' a farmer's daughter.
"Why is eating in quotes?" he thought. Then he read the rest of the report. The farmer's daughter had given birth to a thick haired baby boy nine months later, named after the wolf.
"Oh I see. Well certainly seduction doesn't deserve a life sentence," he thought. He wrote up a pardon and signed and sealed it. He did this with a few more prison reports, then moved on to treasury matters. However he did not get very far. The numbers just weren't interesting enough to hold his attention. His head was someplace else. It was busy recalling the features of Rose's face. When he heard himself sigh, he snapped out of his daydream.
He commanded himself to go back to work and picked up the closest paper. Too bad for him it was a treasury report. Right before he fell asleep he heard a knock. It was the meal Anthony threatened to send up. Wendell motioned for the servant to place it on a side table and leave. He tried for a few more minutes to get through the treasury report, but gave it up to eat.
He felt himself relax as soon as he lifted the lid on the platter. It was a beautiful dinner. The green beans were vibrant and crisp. The lamb was roasted with rosemary potatoes and served with caramelized garlic. But the dessert was the best. A rich custard with chocolate and berries. There wasn't a scrap left. By the time he was finished, he could hardly keep his eyes open. Thankfully his study was equipped with a big plush couch. Without really thinking about it, he laid down and fell asleep.