Chapter 29: Plans


coughcough tries pathetically to dance, fails, but hopes that her 2, two, TWO, new reviewers will get the point.

Akwyn-ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Who resisted the urge to put a space! I did!...even though my english teacher(fool though he is), gets angry at me when I don't put a space in and my computer has underlined it in squiggly red...but for you, dear reviewer, I'll not put a space (can't guarantee that I'll remember 100 of the time, though).

Yes, it is quite gross about Sophia and the Earl...thanks for the complement.

Yes...the ENCOURAGING...I'm sooooooo subtle, no?

Thanks...I'd no idea about the whole count-earl thing...my sources tell me otherwise, but I'll go with the flow (I'm not going to change it now, but I'll bow to your knowledge, k?).

Yes...the accents...but now the pathetic lack of...forgive me...thank you for reminding me about Natalie...and I've just the use for her...

smiles guiltily...ya...about the POVs...oooooooooooo, that's just embarassing. I desparately needed major restraint there...yayayaya...squeezing lemon juice on a cut...thanks for that...(joking, it's not that bad, but ya, I knew that the POVs were getting out of hand...others had mentioned it).

Thanks for the complements on the pairings...but again, I know...too much.

Dreamingdaemon-hey, I'm liking you! Thanks so much, and please, continue!

My Dearest Lizzy-Words cannot express how happy I was to find a full-fledged letter in my inbox, with the subject as a review! I was pleased beyond compare...especially as I hadn't expected anyone to still be reading after over, what...a month...two months?

Well...the whole lost interest thing, school played a huge part in that...I'm getting more interested, but I've lost a chunk of interest in it...I apologise... and I WILL finish it (even if it takes me a year!).

Can't give anything away about Hinda and Hershel...thanks for the comments and your opinions on Abby and Marcus.

Again, the updating...I'll do what I can.

Lol! Yesyesyes! I am a PotO fan as well... begins to sing random Phantom tunes Ah...Gerald Butler...see my little area for details.


Natalie began folding her mistress's nightgown as the Queen bathed behind a screen. There had been a slight wave of tension from the time that the King had arrested Marcus and stripped him of his titles. Natalie listened to Moraine quietly splash in the tub and pursed her lips. 'The King will destroy his count'y if he does not stop this madness! But what can we hope for? That his wife will inte'vene on the Gypsies o' the fo'mer count's behalf and he will lift the edicts on them? No, not likely.' The queen's voice, formerly so cheerful, had a heavy note to it since the loss of the precious vial.

" Natalie, I'm finished here."

" Coming, you' Majesty." Natalie helped the Queen dry off and left her with her clothes for the morning.

The Queen left to play her role in the meeting of the Royal Council, and Natalie stayed behind. When she had said that should would not be coming with her as usual, the Queen had paused at the door.

" Why not?" Natalie curtsied,

" If it please you, Majesty, I've some tidying up to do. Marisa will go in my place." The Queen nodded, but her face became shadowed as she turned away, one of her other ladies-in-waiting trailing after her.

Natalie waited for a long five minutes before retreating to the back of the room, where she sat on one of the chairs and extracted a small fold of paper from her sleeve, where she'd inserted it when a stable-boy had slipped it to her in the servant's quarters earlier that morning.

She quickly opened it, noting the thin, graceful writing that addressed it to her.

Natalie,

With any luck, this note will precede our arrival.

My mistress, Abigail of Mattensworth has finally come to her senses! She comes (with her friend, the Countess Sophia and myself) to plead for the former count DeBracey's life. Perhaps she will succeed, but without your help, she surely won't. I ask you, please aid our cause, get us an audience with their Majesties, but not in front of the court or council. Men are easily persuaded by the presence of their peers.

With many thanks,

Keosha

Natalie stared at the piece of paper in her hand. Her mind was numbed...' Well at least someone's doing something about it!' The maidservant got up and began cleaning, her clever mind at work. 'I'll get that noblewoman an audience if I have to beg fo' it!'


The Queen felt herself nodding off. She subtly reached inside a tiny pocket on her dress and pulled out a small vial. She opened it, sniffed it and closed it again. The vial contained distilled Wakeroot juice, whose scent was powerful enough to wake anything! But the Queen needed to stay awake in the council meetings, dull as they were. Even after years of sitting through them, there was still the occasion when her eyelids began to droop.

The King reached over and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. He glanced at her, and she could almost read his thoughts, 'Don't worry, this evening is the former count's trial...we'll see justice for the loss of the vial.' The Queen smiled, though somewhat stiffly.

Truth be hold, she did not want the count to suffer, to die. The order upon the Gypsies was uncalled for, but she had done nothing to stop it. So her husband, in the mad fury that had overtaken him, had ordered the horrible edict against them.

Moraine looked over the large room, to the large table where the fourteen councillors sat. One man was still reading out the reports of the harvest while the rest were supposed to be listening. A small smile threatened to betray her as she spotted a lord with his head propped in one hand, sleeping.

Just then, a page transferred a document to the King to sign. He dipped a quill into the pot of ink waiting, and placed the nib on the document to sign. The Queen noticed the intent stares of the councillors suddenly directed at the King. Several leaned forward and looks of almost evil anticipation crossed their faces. The Queen watched all of this with growing alarm.

Her husband began to sign, and the Queen watched as evil smiles flitted across the councillor's faces.

" Stop!" she cried. The King looked up in surprise and the councillors turned their intense gazes on his wife.

" Stop, don't sign, your Majesty. Please read over the document." She noted the councillors start with dismay. 'Ah...so they were plotting something!'

The King looked puzzled, but did as his wife requested.

" I, King James the IV of Arulanthu do hereby give over all my monarchal rights to my fourteen councillors, who are listed below..." The royal couple scanned the list of fourteen names that followed... the Lord Clement of DeBourge, Duke of Marling's Point, Fredrick of Carlot Moor, and nine other councillors' names...with an addition, " The Earl of Mattensworth."

The King's eyes narrowed. With a roar of fury he stood, upsetting the inkpot and writing desk in front of him.

" Guards! Soldiers! Seize these mongrels, these insolent, scheming dogs!" A troop of royal guards marched in and stood behind each of the councillor's chairs. The King stood, towering over the rest of the room from his dias. " You devious cowards! Your lives will pay the forfeit for your treachery!" He waved his hand, " Take them to the dungeons and lock them up!"

" Wait!" The Queen had spotted something. " The Count John DeBracey is not listed here." The King looked to the list of names.

" Release the count! The only decent man among you scumbags!" The King beckoned to the Captain of the Royal Guards and said, " Take a few men and apprehend the Earl of Mattenworth. His noble rights on his own lands to not extend to treasonous acts. Get the scribe to draw up a Writ of Arrest." He turned to his wife, " I have, of late, taken to signing documents without bothering to read, them. My greif over the lost vial has led me abandon my kingly responsibilities. It will not happen again." The king's eyes were shadowed but firm with purpose.

" Go. Do what preparations you must," The Queen pushed him towards the door which led to his study. He smiled tightly and hugged her close, kissed her on the cheek and left.

When the Queen returned to her chambers, Natalie was waiting for her. She led the Moraine to a chair, where the Queen laid back and sighed, closing her eyes. Natalie poured cool water from a silver pitcher and soaked a cloth, which she used to damped her mistress's forehead.

" You heard what has happened?" Natalie dabbed her friend again before answering.

" No, Majesty, what is it?"

" Thirteen of the King's Council have nearly succeeded in throwing him off the throne. Thirteen and one other. They took advantage of his grief, in which he had taken to not reading the documents which he was to sign...the one that he almost signed would've given those fourteen men more power than the King." Natalie's eyes had grown wide and she gasped at intervals. Sympathetically, she rubbed the Queen's shoulders. " First the vial, then the gypsies and the count, now this...what is happening to us?"

" I don't know, Majesty, I just don't know." She paused. " Pe'haps, Majesty, do you think the King ov'acted with the count?" Moraine sighed heavily.

" You know, Natalie, I was thinking that only a few hours ago. What a shame that his life should be put to an end because of my foolhardiness. It wasn't even those gypsies who had anything to do with the vial. Consequently, his helping them had nothing to do with the vial either. But his Majesty was and is so angry...he would not have listened to reason."

Natalie poured her a cup of tea and one for herself before sitting down on a footstool beside her mistress, monarch and friend.

" Could I ask a favou', Moraine?" The Queen looked up,

" Of course, Natalie." The maidservant took a deep breath.

" I have mentioned my cousin, Keosha to you before..."


Bram watched as a black carriage whipped through the streets of Lennick's Marketplace. His sharp greeny-brown eyes blinked and he got up in a flash.

Natalie had asked for his aid. He was to watch for the carriage and when it arrived, to take Keosha and the other two noblewomen through the secret corridors of the palace to the Queen's chambers, where they would wait for an audience with the King and Queen.

He crouched on the railings of a bridge and as the carriage went under, he jumped, landing like a cat on the rain-slicked black roof.


" What was that?" Inside the carriage, Sophia glanced anxiously up to the roof. Keosha yawned.

" Nothing...your imagination, Sophie. We're in the Marketplace...less than an hour's half left to go." Abby nodded, though neither of the other two women were sure she knew what she was agreeing to.


Outside, Bram quietly clubbed the driver and shoved him to the side of the driver's seat. The man made a sharp turn, and directed the carriage another direction...

When the carriage finally came to a stop, the women inside were grateful. The journey had been long and uncomfortable, and Abby's pensive state had not lightened the mood.

Sophia reached for the carriage door, when suddenly it opened on it's own. Brams's ruby-studded grin greeted them.

Sophia jumped back in surprise and fear, but the other two leaned forward in recognition.

" You!" Keosha glared at him... " I never did have the chance to warn you away from Nat. I knew you were up to no good! Where's the driver?" Bram's smile grew and without a word, he handed a small fold of paper to the tempestuous maid.

Keosha took it suspiciously, but unfolded it and read it to herself. She then showed the other two before reading aloud,

" Keosha, trust Bram. He'll help you get to where I need you. Love, Nat." She read it over a few times before sniffing. " I suppose we can trust him." Abby nodded, but eyed him warily nonetheless.

The three women followed him out of the carriage and down a muddy road. Finally, they entered a house, where he led them into the basement. He lit a lantern and kicked a braided rug.

" Ah do 'ope none of ye be afeared of crawlies." Said Bram as he lifted a door in the floor. The descended the ladder, and through several tunnels they walked, following the trustworthy stranger.

After nearly an hour of endless passageways, they climbed a ladder and found themselves in yet another passageway, only this had stone walls.

" Oh!" breathed Abby. " We're in the castle!" Bram nodded. After another few minutes of navigation through the passageways, Bram stopped in front of a wooden door. He sat down on the cold stone and motioned for them to do the same.

" We be in a passageway leadin' to the Queen's chambers. When Nat gives the cue, ye three'll go through the door way. That could be for a while yet, so relax yerselves...I'll tell ye when to go. Keep silent...if ye don't, we'll be given away."

And there they waited. For what seemed like hours, Abby was left with her own thoughts as company. 'Oh Marcus! How could I have abandoned you? You'll die today, and I'll have done nothing to stop it!' The young woman's thoughts ran along these lines for hours. Her sorrow grew with the hours and nothing but her love for Marcus kept her from weeping bitter tears.


After the evening meal, the King and his Queen left the Dining Hall. They chose to spend some companionable time together, in the Queen's waiting room. Once there, she dismissed all of her ladies-in-waiting save Natalie, who stayed to serve refreshments to the royal couple.

The King read over several reports and the Queen read a novel, while glancing from time to time at the tapestry on the wall.

Behind the door, Bram and the three women could hear vague noises, and their anxiety increased. 'Oh, goddess, let their majesties be merciful!' Abby prayed silently.

Suddenly, the King flung down the sheaf of papers in his hand and rubbed his eyes.

" I am a horrible King...and a worse husband." The Queen looked up, startled. She got up and knelt by her husband's chair and leaned her cheek in his lap.

" No. You have ruled wisely and well...over my heart and this kingdom." James smoothed his wife's hair from her forehead.

" What sort of wise King makes rash orders, orders which could end a man's life? The former Count DeBracey should be doing whatever it is young Counts do, getting drunk, dancing all night, hunting deer, courting some girl." He groaned. " Instead, he languishes in prison, without the comfort of visits from his father. His father! Count John DeBracey, who I now find is the only one of my councillors who can be trusted." The Queen rose and kissed him gently on the lips.

" James, everyone makes mistakes."

" No, monarchs ought not to do so." Moraine opened her mouth to protest, but he placed a finger on her lips, stopping her. " No. Moraine, I was not meant for kingship. If I should abdicate, everyone assumes that Arulanthu will be thrown into civil war." Moraine stared at him.

" 'Everyone assumes'? James, you know it to be true." A tiny smile tugged at the King's lips and he shook his head slowly.

" I know no such thing. Should I abdicate in favour of my cousin, Lawrence, there would not be civil war." The King leaned back in his chair and the Queen rose. She moved her chair beside his as he continued, " Lawrence would abdicate in favour of his nephew, Jalorid, the Earl of Kelderstone. He is a worthy young man...the sort any people would accept as their king. No-one can argue Lawrence's right to the throne, and thus his nephew's, whose father was my own uncle. Yes. This could work."


Natalie listened from behind a maid's screen. 'Lovely...a wonde'ful plan, Majesty, but why'd you have to tell Mo'aine about it now!' she sighed quietly, thinking of her cousin, Bram, Abby and Sophia in the passageway...waiting.
If you're reading, please review...just a quick "hey, i'm reading this story." would be wonderous. Thanks so much.

Posted on June 2nd and 3rd 2005