The Runaway Royals - Part Eight
"Henry, please tell me where we are going." Danielle begged. "I need to know if we are close. It's getting late and I'm getting worried about travelling down a strange road in the dark."
"All you need to know my love is that we will not be without a place to stay the night.
You forget I've done this a lot. I have a mental list of every inn and farm in the country. Fear not fair maiden, no harm shall come to thee." Danielle giggled a little. She was not accustomed to giddy behaviour like this, but Henry made her mind go blank. When he was around it's all she could do not to become a gibbering idiot, a little giggling was a small price to pay for his love.
"Where are we going to stay though? Somewhere secluded I hope." Henry gave her a sly smile in response to her suggestive comment.
"I though the point of stopping to rest was to conserve our energy not to use more up."
"Not even when the activity is so pleasurable?" she added coyly. Henry's mind began to wander to thinking about things that were not going to speed him up. He shook his head to stop himself, otherwise he would be tempted just to stop and make love to Danielle right there and then. Not a very advantageous course of action.
"Please Danielle, do not make me think about that or we shall never reach our destination."
"I don't understand why you will not tell me where we are going. You are just being stubborn." She stuck her tongue out at him provocatively.
"I won't tell you milady because it is a surprise. If you knew I would be robbed of the look on your face when you realise where we are." Such statements only made Danielle more eager to find out where they were going and Henry knew it. He loved to see that brief flicker of excitement cross her face. It illuminated her perfect features and made him realise exactly what a treasure he had.
"I will get it out of you. You can't keep anything from me for long. Remember I have very good methods of getting things out of you and you know you can't resist."
"And you call me stubborn," he said. "You remind me very much of my sisters. They would never give up either."
"They were even worse than you!" Danielle said with utter incredulity. "I should think that you were the King of headstrong obstinance."
"Not compared to them. Especially Eleanor. She was amazingly determined. There were few in the kingdom who could match up to her.""You were very close to your sisters weren't you?" He nodded. When they had left it had been painful for him. Apart from Hélène they had been his best friends. "And my brother Francis," he added. Danielle looked up at him. She had been aware that once there had been another Prince at the Palace but his name was never spoken, his picture adorned no walls and Henry always acted as if he had been brought up surrounded solely by females. The only male presence's to be sensed at Hautefort were Henry and the King. It was as if Prince Francis had never existed.
Danielle felt awkward about this line of conversation. She wanted to know more about the elusive spirit of the late Crown Prince Francis, but she did not want to push Henry into giving her a part of his heart that he wasn't ready to reveal to her. She knew that it was too early in their marriage for her to claim everything about him. They needed time to learn about each other. One day they would know all of each other's secrets, but not now. She may have been naive, but she understood that much. However Henry felt a need to begin letting his wife know more about him. He wanted them to share everything. She was the only one who could help him in his guilt and pain and therefore she needed to know more about him. "Francis was much older than I. He was 10 when I was born. My three sisters were all born between us."
"So was it difficult between you? With him being so much older."
"At first everyone was terrified that he would be jealous of me and my mother put my nannies under strict instructions not to let him alone with me. But it didn't last long. I suppose you know that I was kidnapped when I was a baby, by a gang of local thieves who planned to hold me to ransom and when they had the money they would murder me."
Danielle gasped. She had experienced hatred and brutality but never such evil. The thought that she may never have met her beloved Henry was a terrifying one. She would have been robbed of her soul mate long before they had the chance to come together. Henry could see that he had shocked her.
"I was found long before they could do any damage to me. Francis had been out with the guard looking for me. He was incensed that anybody had dared to challenge the Valois. He came across the thieves den and took me home. After that he was everything a big brother should be. My mother never had to worry about Francis and I again. By the time I was five he was taking me hunting on the back of his stallion. He was rarely at the palace, preferring to spend his time away from father in Paris. But when he was here, he would be with me as much as possible. I loved Francis because I knew what his future held in store for him, but he never let that get him down. He protected me from the formality of the palace, while carrying the burden of the crown on his shoulders." Danielle spotted a tear in his eye. It was obviously a very painful subject for him. She felt privileged that he should want to share this with her.
"Eleanor married Sigismund when I was ten. She had originally been meant for Prince Niccolo of Naples, but she had met Sigismund when she was a young girl and had fallen in love with him. They are one of the only Royal couples in Europe to have married for love. She disobeyed father and Sigismund disobeyed his grandfather, the King of Poland. They are now very happy. Ruling their Kingdom in peace. Margaret married a year later. I was fourteen when Madeleine went to Scotland, leaving just Francis and I. He took Princess Yelena of Bavaria for his wife when I was fifteen. He was moderately happy. They weren't in love, but she was pleasant enough. But his happiness was not to last. He succumbed to an illness months after his marriage. Yelena returned to her own country and plans were made to officially proclaim me Dauphin. Suddenly the thing I had feared most, the pressure of the crown was on my shoulders, and the only person who could guide me through it was gone. Father found other outlets for me to cope, provided me with other people. Francis was forgotten. Father felt that he had lost a part of himself. Francis had meant everything to him when he was born. By the time I came along he was bored with children. When he lost Francis I was no consolation. the memory of his son was to painful so he banished it. Nobody mentions him anymore. Father would not put up with it. Henry was now openly crying. This was something he had repressed for many years. Not even Hélène had ever heard half of this. Danielle stopped her horse and pulled her husband towards her in a warm embrace. When he cried she felt like the world had no more order to it. He was her everything. His pain was her pain. She desperately wanted to comfort him.
As Henry looked down at her back he noticed that there was still straw in her hair. A remnant of their earlier interlude. It was an amusing sight. Princess Danielle, Duchess d'Orleans, wife to the Crown Prince Henry and future queen of France covered in straw from rolling in a haystack. He began to pick out the hay.
"What are you doing?" she squeaked grabbing his hand, giggling a little. "I am not accustomed to having gentlemen trying to arrange my hair for me," she said with mock snobbery.
"Milady, if you could see what I see then you would not mind so." He dangled a piece of the straw in front of her face.
"Oh," she said quietly, a little embarrassed. Had they come across anyone, her conduct would have been quite noticeable. "What would Hélène say if she could see me now?" She said, smiling.
"She would say 'Am I the only one who understands the principle of perfection?'" Henry laughed. Hélène's preoccupation with perfection had been the subject of much teasing on his part. Especially when he had seen her in the morning, her hair untidy and yesterday's clothes thrown on in a creased mess. He sat back to look at Danielle and took her hand. "Danielle my love, there is something I must tell you." There would never be a better time to reveal his shameful past. She had to learn one day what he was really like, it should be before she had gained too much trust in him.
"What is it my love?" She was concerned because of the sorrowful look on his face.
"I cannot conceal this from you a moment longer. It is a secret that I had wished to hold onto, but I fear I cannot." Just as he was about to tell her everything, he heard hooves behind him. He turned to see a group of travellers coming towards them. He rolled his eyes. "This is all I need," he muttered under his breath. "Excuse me good Sir, milady," the leader said doffing his cap. We seem to have got lost. Can you direct us to the nearest village?" "There is nothing but farms and a castle for the next fifty miles and the nearest of those is several miles away. I fear you will not reach a village by nightfall."
"Good, no-one will be able to come and help you then will they?" For a moment Henry was puzzled, but he soon began to understand when the group of men descended on them. They were being robbed.
"Danielle run!" He shouted as he drew his sword. But before she could dig her heals in a thief had grabbed the bridle and was trying to drag her down to the floor. She kicked him and he fell to the floor, pulling the ring from her hand as he went down, but she still couldn't escape, more had come to his aid.
For Henry, having to watch his Danielle being pulled about by scoundrels such as these was sickening, but he could not help her, he was being held down by several men. One was kicking him and the others were removing anything of worth. He could hear her frightened screams, but was powerless. Then he saw what he least wanted to see. The horse reared so that even Danielle could not hold on and she fell to the ground with a sickening thud. It was then the thieves decided to run. What had started so quickly was over just as fast.
Henry was able to find his feet and make his way over to his wife. She was unconscious and bleeding from a wound in her head, Seeing her like that gave him a sudden surge of strength. He had to help her. He could not watch her die. He gently lifted her and began to carry her in the direction of the nearest farm. Whatever happened he could not let her die. He whispered this to her over and over again. By now it had begun to rain and he realised that he hadn't much time. Now was the time to prove his love to God, he just had to pray that God was listening to him.