Marlene sat with Lily and Lady McGonagall in the Royal gardens, enjoying a few hours peace. It had been exhausting these weeks of running the country, and they still had no word on what was going on in Semprapuria. It was becoming more and more difficult to push away the thoughts of despair the longer they waited for word from James and Sirius. Marlene sighed as she set her embroidery aside and looked out over the gardens. The battle with her fears of being left not only an orphan but a widow with no living family was one she was slowly losing. It appeared she was also failing to hide it.
"I think we could do with a jovial story," Lady McGonagall set down her notes and smiled at the Queen and Princess.
"Do you have one in mind?" Lily asked as she set her book aside with a smile.
Lady McGonagall chuckled, "Has His Majesty or His Grace told either you of how King Fleamont bested the two of them?"
"In combat?" Marlene timed her head in confusion.
"In cleverness," Lady McGonagall chuckled and Lily laughed.
"Do tell," Lily rested back in her chair and laced her fingers over her abdomen.
Lady McGonagall rested her head against the soft upholstery of her chair and smiled. "His Majesty decided shortly after His Grace came to live at the castle that he wanted to know what went on in the Privy Council, to which his father had yet to add him."
"Oh dear," Marlene chuckled.
"Indeed," Lady McGonagall nodded. "They spent a solid week secretly drilling a hole in one of the doors to his Majesty's office. It wasn't a very large hole, but it allowed the pair of them to crouch and listen to what was being said. However, King Fleamont was wise to their plan. So the day they finished the hole, he trifled with them."
Lily laughed hard, "I can definitely see him joining in!"
"I as well!" Marlene laughed thinking of her Uncle Monty.
Lady McGonagall looked nostalgic for a moment before continuing. "He began the council by explaining a dragon had been found in one of the outer duchies and after much consideration, he had decided to send the Prince to best the beast."
"Did he really not catch on at that point?" Marlene laughed. "He knows that dragons aren't real. He used to tease me as children that all my fairy games were silly and made up."
Lady McGonagall laughed, "I'm not sure, but the King didn't stop there, so perhaps that is why he fell for his father's ploy. Next King Fleamont stated to us that he wanted betrothal contracts started for the Prince, and that his Majesty's first choice for daughter-in-law was the daughter of a lower Baron, Olympe Maxime."
Lily fell into an absolute fit of giggles and Marlene turned confused to Lady McGonagall. "Is the girl perhaps bald or an equivalent to Lord Lockhart?"
"No, the dear is quite beautiful, but she is fifteen years or so older than King James. And the family is born tall. Olympe is a solid foot taller than him to this day."
Marlene joined Lily in her fit of giggles.
"It gets better my dears," Lady McGonagall laughed and leaned forward.
"After naming off a dozen other Ladies to approach, each less desirable to a boy of fifteen than the next, his Majesty finished of our meeting by planning a tournament where every Knight in the kingdom would come and attempt to best the Prince. It was not to be a normal tournament, the Prince was to stand there and the Knights were to line up and each would have a turn in hand-to-hand combat. I asked if the Prince would be given a moment's rest between each Knight, and His Majesty looked at me and loudly declared that a Knight such as Prince James would have no need for breaks."
Marlene and Lily laughed harder. Marlene couldn't help but picture the looks on the young faces of her cousin and her husband. Sirius would have probably laughed at James's misfortunes mercilessly. That was the nature of their friendship it seemed.
"His Majesty adjourned the Council then, and had the door to his office replaced. But if you've noticed, the doors to the King's office are a good bit heavier than the other doors in the castle. King Fleamont, upon discovering his son's intentions, had commissioned doors with a steel plate inside of them. So when James and Sirius went to redrill the whole, they were met with no success."
Lily wiped a tear from her eye. "How long did he make James squirm?"
"Oh he never told him," Lady McGonagall chuckled. "I assume James figured it out at some point, but his father never admitted to the farce, and James never admitted to trying to spy on the Privy Council."
The three women laughed for a good moment before a messenger arrived.
"A message for the great Ladies who care for Phoenixordo in the stead of our great King James VII!"
The man bowed deeply.
"We will hear His Majesty's words," Lily sat at the edge of her seat.
"It is with great happiness I report that Semprapuria is again a Duchy in our kingdom with it's rightful heir at it's head. The army will return with joy and haste to the capital."
He bowed again before Lily dismissed him. Then Marlene was crying from relief and Lily was crying and it felt like a load of bricks had been removed from their shoulders as the news that the war was not just over but victorious, that their husbands were coming home, sunk deeply into their hearts.
"Since there is happy news abounding," Lily smiled at the two women who had helped her run the kingdom these many weeks, "I'd like to add my own." She looked at Marlene and smiled shyly, "I'm afraid you will not be our heiress much longer."
Marlene's eyes lit as she looked down at Lily's abdomen, and she jumped up from her seat to kneel by the Queen's chair and embrace her friend.