So,
Is it spring where you are yet? I need March to pick a season and stick with it. Now THIS has been an eternal winter.
Hope you're warm and well. :)
ssg.x.
CHAPTER 3
THE SINS OF ONE
Obsessing over Hans' letter had made it more and more difficult to concentrate on what turned out to be a particularly gruelling day social-wise. And, unfortunately, that afternoon there just weren't enough Annas to pick up Elsa's slack.
Certain wings of the palace had been opened for tours on Sundays for some time now. Usually Elsa was more than happy to do the whole meet and greet thing, especially when Anna was around to take some of the pressure off her. Anna was so much better with people than she was, and she was a natural with children, probably because in so many ways she was still a child herself. She'd organize floor games and singing circles, leaving the adults to Elsa. She tried her best to remain engaged, but couldn't stop herself from wondering what each subject's personal struggles were during the eternal winter. She imagined their children shivering and starving under thin blankets, husbands unable to work, wives trying to pull a decent meal together with whatever scraps were left in their cupboards.
Okay, maybe the grim pictures she painted were a little over-the-top, but she knew she had royally messed up (no pun intended), and meeting people during these tours could often still be a painful reminder of that.
Hans crept into her thoughts. She'd been thinking so much about that letter of his that it couldn't be helped. For all his treachery, Hans had made sure the people of Arendelle were well taken care of during the winter. Yes, it was all part of his slimy plan to win the people's affection, but a small part of her had to grudgingly admit that she was glad he had put real effort into keeping the citizens from freezing to death, even if nothing else about him was real. He'd pulled the wool over their eyes, but the wool had kept them warm. That's what mattered.
Elsa decided to turn in early that night. Gerda, as was her way, fussed and fretted that she might be coming down with something. To make Gerda happy, Elsa drank the extra cup of tea she had insisted she have. She brought extra blankets to her private chambers in case she felt cold, which Elsa couldn't help but find funny. Elsa didn't realize quite how tired she was until her head hit the pillow. Before leaving the room, Gerda touched her forehead to check for a fever one last time. Elsa, eyes still closed, smiled.
"Thank you, Gerda," she said softly.
"You're most welcome, Your Highness." she replied kindly, her hand brushing her cheek lightly, affectionately.
The door was still ajar when Kai approached Gerda in the hallway.
"How is the queen? I was told she retired early. Is she alright?"
"I'm wondering that myself. I felt silly for thinking it, but can she catch cold? Can she come down with a fever? I'm trying to remember if she's ever been ill. No matter. I'm going to insist to her that she let us call in a doctor to have a look at her. Queen or no queen, I won't take 'no' for an answer."
Elsa brought a fist to her mouth to stifle a giggle.
Poor Gerda. Always so worried.
"To be safe, we should keep an eye on her," Kai agreed. "During the open house today there was talk of a rather devastating outbreak of influenza across the Southern Isles. So many merchants and dignitaries have been in and out of the city over the past couple of weeks. Who knows what they might have brought with them."
Elsa's eyes opened. She bit her lip. God, no. The last thing Arendelle needed after everything it had been through recently was an influenza outbreak.
"Now here's something for you - rumour has it that snake Prince Hans isn't long for this world. He's been sequestered in a chamber in the palace for weeks now," Kai whispered.
"I hate to say it, but it's the least he deserves," Gerda replied. "God may strike me down for saying so, but that's just how I feel. When I think of how close we came to losing her Highness and the Princess…"
Gerda pulled the chamber door closed, plunging Elsa into darkness. She stared wide-eyed at the canopy above her bed, still gnawing at her bottom lip.
Hans is dying?
But that doesn't make sense, she thought. The letter mentioned nothing about an illness. She ran through it again in her head, having read it so many times that it was almost committed entirely to memory now.
Okay, this is silly. It's nothing more than a rumour. If he was dying, the last thing he'd be doing is writing a letter to me of all people.
And if it wasn't a rumour, if he was dying, so what? Like Gerda said – it was the least the man deserved.
Elsa closed her eyes again and lay quietly for a few minutes, but sleep remained just out of her reach. She pulled her pillow over her head and pressed either side of it against her ears, but it didn't do a thing to silence the voices.
One voice was louder than all the others.
Don't be the monster they fear you are.
She wanted to forget he ever existed, but, much to her chagrin, Hans' words had stayed with her long after he and any threats he posed to the throne were gone. There was no doubt in her mind that he was merely playing a part when he'd said what he said. Every word out of his mouth had been a lie, after all. But how could he have predicted that those particular words would resonate so strongly with her? How could he read her so perfectly in those frenzied moments? Did he draw from personal experience, or was he just that good at improvising?
Hans was a murderous brute, but she didn't want him to die. She didn't want anyone to die. She decided she needed to find out how much of this "talk" Kai spoke of was fact and how much of it was fiction. The royal family of the Southern Isles didn't love its subjects any less than Elsa loved hers. If there was an outbreak, and there was something she could do to help them, she needed to step forward and do it.
She couldn't let many suffer for the sins of one.
Not again.
