The King waited for the door to close. The mantle of authority he had taken on for dealing with the prisoner dropped away as he dragged one of the white brocade seats knee to knee with his new daughter. Eugene was impressed with how quickly and easily the King switched demeanors.
King Leonard took her small hand in his, it felt warm as he covered it with his other hand.
He looked at wonder at his daughter. "How did you do that? He's a hardened criminal, suspected to have killed at least one person over an insult. We bring him here in chains, he knows is facing the death penalty, yet all his concern on a girl he just met two days ago. He gave up his freedom to rescue a man he didn't even like, just to give you a chance, not an assurance but only a chance, to be rescued. He didn't know who you were then and didn't even recognize you now. He didn't even know your name and he mounted an assault on the prison to rescue the one person who knew where you were, on the word of a horse."
The Queen was gazing on Rapunzel with a look of awe, Eugene's mouth was hanging open and Pascal was giving everyone a smug look from Rapuzel's shoulder, meaning "See, I told you she was a Princess."
Rapunzel was stunned. She looked to her real mother and then to Eugene "I-I don't know, I just told them what I was trying to do, to live the dream that was in my heart for all these years. In return they spilled out their dreams to me. Please, there must be some way to help him and the others."
"I hope we can too, if these are the criminals in our kingdom…" The King shook his head with a rueful smile. He looked over to his faithful seneschal, "Mortimer, you do understand the problem we are facing here?"
Th seneschal moved from beside the door, into the light of the candelabras which reflected off of his balding head. "Yes, sire. Your daughter has returned in the company of a known criminal, who was rescued by a band of criminals and you need to find a way to release them to make your daughter happy, without destroying the justice system of your kingdom."
"Very good, we also need to spend as much time together as possible, so I want you to rouse the wise who are in still in the city and get them solving this for us. I fear I am not able to make the best decisions right now. I feel that there is a good solution here somewhere but I just can't remember what it is for some reason." He smiled at his daughter. She smiled shyly back, she really didn't think that coming home would make such a big mess of things. She had thought that meeting her parents would be loving, joyful and all happily-ever-after, not precipitating a crisis for a justice system.
"Yes, sire, I understand sire. You can count on us." He turned and the guards opened the doors smoothly as he left.
The King leaned toward his daughter, "We have heard this man's story and the story of some criminals, and even a horse's story. Now we finally get to your story. I know you must be exhausted, you looked so very tired but we've been waiting so long. We'll just listen and it can be short, we'll tease out details tomorrow."