~ Rapunzel Goes Home (extended edition)
~ Chapter 052
~ The Apple Basket
Eugene finds Rapunzel, not long before dinner, in the palace garden, leaning on a tree.
"What are you doing here, Goldie?"
"Listening to the wind in the leaves. Each tree sounds so different. I never really heard the wind in the trees before. There was a loose tile on the tower above my bedroom, which whistled in the wind. I bothered me for years. Once when Mother was gone, I went and climbed onto the roof and fixed it, but then ...I missed the whistle."
Rapunzel looked up at him, her big green eyes looking so sad and wistful, remembering the whistle of the wind on the tower, it broke Eugene's heart for some reason. He put his arm around her and held her close.
"You are my new dream."
"And you are mine."
They shared their alternative to 'I love you.'
"I miss the tower. It was nothing more then my prison, but I miss it so much. I knew where everything was. I knew what to do. I knew what came next. Now I know nothing. I feel so scared and lost. And I lost the apple basket, I have no idea where it could be, I don't even know where I could have left it, the palace is so big. I keep expecting Mother to yell at me and punish me for losing it." Holding tight onto Eugene.
"She's dead, mother is dead! She can't punish you anymore!" Eugene took Rapunzel by the shoulders and looked into her eyes as he said those words forcefully.
He hated having to call the kidnapper 'mother' but there wasn't another name for her.
As an orphan he knew how powerful that word could be, he hadn't used that word since his own mother had died while cooking dinner. He knew the queen was having a rough time with it too. It was amazing how expressive those big green eyes could be. The kidnapper was dead, but the effect of her still loomed large in Rapunzel's and her real family's life.
"I know, I keep telling myself that, but I keep feeling it. I wish I had the basket back, it was something from the tower, and something mine. Nothing really feels mine here. All I have is my dress and that little banner you gave me on my birthday."
"Your Highness, …Mr. Fitzherbert. It's time for dinner," said Margaret the maid. Eugene wanted to sigh, the staff had no real idea what to do with him or even what to call him. Dinner was nice, it would just be family and himself, which made it easier for Rapunzel. Lunches tended to be large state affairs with lots of people to meet and not much time to eat.
As they walked to the family dining room Eugene remembered something. Margaret had been the maid that was in the Testing Chamber. It had only been a few days ago, though it felt like a lifetime, maybe she knew where the basket was?
Keeping his arm around Rapunzel he was able to catch Margaret's attention over Rapunzel's head and she seemed to get the idea to wait for him, but there was a question on her face.
The king and queen were just coming too, so Eugene handed his true love off to her parents as he hung back with Margaret.
"Margaret, when we first came here you were in the Testing Chamber. We had a basket with apples in it and now Rapunzel is worried about having lost it. Do you know where it is?" Eugene asked quietly.
Margaret's eyes started to scan back and forth as she tried to remember. She had Testing Chamber duty this month, but since the Return of the Lost Princess hadn't been back there. Her real job was to attend and protect the princess.
"I'm not sure, but it should still be there. Why?"
"Rapunzel is worried about getting punished for having lost it. She won't be, but I think Rapunzel is getting homesick for the tower. We came with the just the clothes on our backs and that basket. Even just that one thing might help her feel better." Eugene looked pensive.
"Of course. I'll go look."
"Thank you. I think it would mean a lot to her." Eugene turned into the dining room.
Margaret waited for the door to finish closing and then took off running down the corridor, she liked to run, especially if it would help the princess. The Testing Chamber was way over in the public part of the palace, near the plaza. The family dining room was part of the private wing of the palace by the gardens.
She had been remiss not going back and cleaning up but now it seemed like that might have been a good thing, hopefully no one had gone in to clean it. It was one of the few spaces dedicated to the Lock Guard and Maids for protection and cleaning, so it should be undisturbed.
It had been so exciting that this one was the true Lost Princess, and she had been there for it. It had felt so wonderful seeing the royal family together again. Not that she was old enough to remember them being together.
Catching herself on the door, she stopped, checked her three knives on her hips and the small of her back, to make sure they hadn't come loose. She slowly opened it and looked in. Everything looked like it had been when they left to go meet the king and queen. A slight layer of dust had fallen, but she didn't see a basket right away.
She moved into the room, carefully looking around. The seneschal's desk was askew, the chairs still pushed out. She looked back by the door where her husband Mark had stood watch, but no basket there either.
Margaret wanted to find the basket. That something so simple could help make her princess happier would be a wonderful thing. But where was it? She didn't know what it looked like, but there wouldn't be any other baskets in here.
She saw the scissors on the floor, she remembered the seneschal dropping them as he realized that this was truly the Lost Princess Returned, just before he crashed to his knees. After all these years of false princesses she had come home on Margaret's first day as a Lock Maid attending the Testing Chamber.
She had remembered just standing there with her mouth open, which had not been an appropriate response. Someone could have hurt the princess.
Five years of training. The duties of a maid were easy enough to learn, the cooking and sewing weren't hard either. Though she now knew how to start from a sheep and a tree and could make a fancy dress from scratch, using her knives, her needles and her wits. She could cook just about anything and make it good and delicious, she gone so far as to always keep a small box of salt on her person at all times, she didn't carry a lot of extra but just some of the hard to make things. She could even put one of her knives in a kidnapper's left eye at 10 meters, every time. She was supposed to be ready for anything.
But the rest had been much harder: escape and evasion, close quarters combat with knives and without, knife throwing, tracking, among other skills. She could and would protect the princess even at cost of her own life, the princess would never be lost to them again, but only after she got the princess, king and queen away.
The Lock Guard would give their lives so the Lock Maids would have the time to get the royals away.
She accepted that when she had married Mark. He was willing to die so the princess and she might live. And she would die next, if it would keep the royals safe. So they enjoyed each other as much as they could right now, just in case.
Margaret bent for the scissors and saw something almost hidden between the chairs: a basket!
Putting the scissors on the desk she picked up the basket. It was a rounded reed and grass basket with a light brown muslin liner. Looking inside; it was filled with apples!
She had found it!
The apple basket her princess thought she had lost. That should help make her princess feel better. She wanted to dance with happiness, but she was on duty, it would have to wait until they got home. Maybe some knife throwing games with Mark, she smirked.
Margaret had gotten quite a bit of status because she had been the one in the room when the princess proved who she was. After learning the princess had been alone in a tower with the kidnapper for 18 years, Captain Taygon had assigned Mark and herself as the princess' primary protection. They were the closest thing to a familiar face they could give her, and she was going to do her best for her princess.
She had doubled her practice time with her knives. She'd be the best protection she could for the princess. Mark had been pushing himself in daily training too.
She stopped by Captain Taygon's office to tell him about the basket, which he made a note of.
"Good work. We're trying to find the tower. There are two pairs looking right now, but the forest is pretty dense near the Snuggly Duckling. They are still looking," said the Captain of the Lock Guard.
"You can talk to Eugene. He was the one who told me she was worried about the basket."
Captain Taygon considered this. The king had told him Eugene could be trusted, and after hearing the test the king put him through, considered it possible, but maybe the test had been too obvious. Though he had changed the guard assignments around Eugene as the king had asked.
Asking to find the basket put an interesting twist on the matter. The basket held no value whatsoever, except it was important to the princess. Maybe Eugene Fitzherbert was a different man from Flynn Rider, and in more then name.
It looks like Eugene has won someone else over. He still had his doubts, people have changed their lives completely but those were the exception, not the rule. It was just too early to be sure. It would take months, maybe years, to be sure. So he had to keep faith in his doubts but not let them control him. Eugene deserved a chance, just one.
The Captain of the Royal Bodyguard was revising the Plan yet again. It wasn't a surprise that they hadn't anticipated this, who locks a child away in a tower their whole life. Well, there were a very few cases, they had found. Children locked away or otherwise raised alone.
Frankly, the biggest surprise was that the princess was so normal.
All the others were feral or insane from loneliness. He knew the court librarian liked his quiet duty. Maybe the princess was like him. He'd have to talk to the court librarian about how he lived his life. He scribbled a note to himself.
He looked at the wall map. He also wondered about King Stefan's daughter, they were in the next kingdom over. She had been cursed by a witch and sent into hiding with 3 fairies. That kingdom was very large with plenty of crown land to hide in, hopefully she would be okay. She would be Returning in about 6 months. Maybe he'd better tell them of what they've learned with Princess Rapunzel, what kind of name is that for a princess? But only a few days of data is not enough yet. Things are not normal right now with the celebration and greetings and everything, they'd learn more as things calm down. He couldn't worry about every princess in the world, though sometimes it felt like he tried to.
"Thank you, Margaret, I'll take that into consideration." Said the Lock Captain looking back at Margaret.
With a nod, Margaret continued to the princess' chambers. She didn't think it necessary to interrupt dinner over a basket of apples; they were still good, she checked, as she left them on the table next to the princess' bed.
Later, as the Royal family and Eugene were bring the princess to her room for bedtime, she saw the basket and with shaking hands and tear-filled eyes, picked it up and hugged it.
It was one of only three things Rapunzel could really call hers in the palace, everything else was so new and different.
Then, squealing, launched herself at Eugene and said, "Thank you, how did you find it?"
"Actually, I didn't. I asked Margaret if she could and it looks like she did. Thank you, Margaret." Eugene gave all the credit to the one who did the work.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," said Princess Rapunzel giving Margaret a hug. The king and queen looked surprised; slightly confused, but happy too.
~ End of Chapter 052
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Author's Note: Rapunzel left everything familiar behind and is beginning to feel it keenly. Everything is strange, all she has is her dress, the banner, Eugene and Pascal, and that basket.
I'm also showing how the her bodyguard feel about her. This is not something she needs to see but we can.
I put a little shout out to LOTR in there, did you see it?
