Chapter Eight: The Persistent Suitor

Warsaw, Poland

December 3, 1812

"I am not taking any more of that!" Hans hissed adamantly as he shook his head and kept his lips closed as if he was afraid Anna would ram the pill down his throat.

Anna couldn't blame him. She had half a mind to grab him by the chin and force his medicine down. He was being stubborn and Anna was nearly at the end of her rope. She discovered last night that he had stopped taking his medications for over a week. Apparently, he had managed to sweet talk the nurse on duty that usually administered his regular medications into not taking it. It was no wonder he was no longer purging whenever she visited him.

Hans slowly became part of Anna's routine in the hospital. She checked him in the morning, helped him with his hygiene and stayed with him while he ate his breakfast. After her shift, she always dropped by for a few minutes to ensure he was not running a fever and he was comfortable before he fell asleep. It began simply as her way of checking at the state of his health but as days went by and he grew stronger, she kept staying longer just for conversation.

They avoided topics about their past. The sincere apology she suspected he was going to give her that morning she woke up next to him was never uttered. Instead, they mutually kept up a stream of lively chatter on seemingly mundane things. She now knew his best friend's name is Sitron (his horse) and his favorite food are sandwiches (at least she got that right) made out of rugbrod and pickled herring with multiple layers of cheese. She usually related to him about her day or he would share tales about his experiences in the French military. He spoke of his previous exploits at sea, his brushes with the British navy and his daily tasks of charting courses and working around weather patterns. She told him of her friends in the hospital, her training on bed making, wound dressing and stitching. Once, they even traded tips on making splints for broken bones and patching minor wounds. He had his fair share of treating wounds in the field of battle and he played the medic on the occasion when the surgeons were too busy dealing with the more serious injuries.

Today was the first time they clashed openly and Anna had half a mind to hit him hard for being so pigheaded over a simple thing.

"You need the mercury to get well!" Anna insisted. "The doctor ordered..."

"I don't care what the doctor ordered! That pill is poison, I'm sure of it. I've had six roommates since I arrived here. All of them have taken that mercury and none of them have gotten any better. In fact all of them are dead after days of diarrhea, vomiting and hallucinating they're still in a war zone."

Anna winced at that last one. She also assisted with the other pneumonia patients that slept in the same room as Hans after Commandant Cloutier passed away. She witnessed how each poor soul already suffering through their weakened bodies descend into a sort of madness with a frightening delirious fever. Some cried out randomly in fear while referring to figures in the room that were not there. Others would throw angry fits. One almost maimed a nurse that tried to help had Hans not shouted orders military style for the soldier to stand down. The doctor said that was normal for men with illness. Hans had gone through a similar, albeit tamer phase for three days before calming down.

"Well you're still here, you've gotten better," Anna argued.

"Because I haven't been taking it! I'm not even sure the science of purging out the bad humors or whatever it is that causes pneumonia is sound. If it does help, I think I've purged enough of the bad."

"We can't know that," Anna said.

"I'll take my chances on food, water and your excellent company."

Anna was about to put up another argument but shut her mouth instead as what he said sank in. "My excellent company?"

"Better than mercury and has the benefit of being entertaining," he said with a flirtatious grin that was sure to melt any young naive girl who didn't know how treacherous his smiles were.

Oh hell, I already know how treacherous he is and the grin is still working! She thought as she fought to keep herself from smiling back at the flattery.

"You're not sweet-talking me into not taking your meds," she said.

"No, but you can listen to reason," he said seriously. "I'm feeling better, Anna, I swear. If I'm really going to die, just let me. I don't want to spend my last days as a raving lunatic and that mercury will surely do that to me if I keep taking it."

Anna sighed. She didn't want to watch him descend into madness either and she can see sense in what he said. She suspected from all the deaths she had witnessed that the medicines did have that effect.

"So what do we do now?" she grumbled.

"Tell me about your favorite chocolate candy," he said casually, the grin still plastered on his face and something about that expression made her think twice.

He's playing it safe. He doesn't want to talk about things that are uncomfortable to him so he distracts me with other things. Maybe I should just let him. At least we could be civil to each other this way. But maybe it's time we went beyond that. If he's going to die, I need to know some things for my own peace of mind.

"How about you tell me something instead," she asked tentatively.

"Fire away," he replied as he lay back down, his arms pillowed on his head casually.

"Why did you come to Arendelle?"

His expression looked worried for a split second that if she hadn't been watching him closely she would have missed it for he carefully schooled his features to its usual nonchalance. "I thought it was pretty obvious. My family wants to strengthen diplomatic relations from a country that had long been an ally. Attending the coronation of a new monarch is standard royal protocol for re-establishing relations. I happened to be the one available at the time among my brothers for that courtesy call."

"A courtesy call where you try to kill the new queen?" Anna muttered before she can stop herself. She immediately regretted it. I'm supposed to be civil to him and I bring that up so harshly he might just clam up again.

Hans however, didn't appear bothered by her outburst. He sat up to be at eye level with her. "I wasn't really planning to kill Elsa when I first arrived. The plan was to marry her."

Then kill her? She itched to ask but she refrained from saying it out loud.

"I can see it in your face you're wondering if I planned to kill her after I marry her," he said.

Anna gulped audibly. Am I that obvious? Well no point in trying to hide it now. "Were you?" she asked.

"Well I didn't. Why would I need to? As her husband, I would have a secure place of power by her side. She could give me children who will inherit the throne. I would have treated her well and I would have made the best out of a marriage of convenience. I imagined we could have liked each other eventually. I certainly was inclined to. She's definitely easy on the eyes, a rare beauty no man in his right mind would say no to."

"And yet you did and went after me instead," Anna said sarcastically. She had no delusions of being more attractive than her sister. From early childhood, Anna was aware people often considered Elsa the prettier, more charming, and more intelligent sister. She was favored by everyone from their governess, to their tutors, and even by their Papa. He used to call Elsa his precious tulip. Anna never received a floral pet name but she bet if Papa had come up with one she would have been named a whitlow grass. It didn't lessen her love for her sister. It was the way things were and she accepted that long ago. However, Hans did strike a nerve with her when he revealed that Elsa was preferable. The same feeling of hurt was resurfacing now as she recalled that the only reason why Hans proposed to her was because she was easy. "Just tell me one thing," she said bitterly. "Why didn't you just pursue Elsa? Why didn't you just court her properly if you wanted her so badly?"

"Who says I didn't?" he replied.

Anna was confused. "Well you said so that night in the library."

He shook his head. "I said no such thing. I said nobody was getting anywhere with her. How do you think I know that? I was speaking from experience."

Anna was even more confused. "What? Are you telling me you courted her before?"

"Yes, I did, in the most honorable ways possible."

"How could you possibly have had a chance to court her?" Anna doubtfully interjected. "She never came out until the day of her coronation."

"Exactly my point, but that didn't mean I didn't try. For three years, from the time your parents died, I wrote to her. It started with a condolence letter and a formal request to pay my respects. I followed it with appointments to visit her to establish our country's relations, and letters of introduction from the Southern Isles ambassador to Arendelle. I tried every single diplomatic channel I could access just for a chance to meet her. All of them were politely turned down by your minister, Kai. When the formal route didn't work, I wrote to her personally of my intention for a formal suit. The move was directly rebuffed again. Kai's reply said Princess Elsa will receive no suitors until she was crowned. I didn't care, I still wrote her sheets and sheets of letters but most of them just returned to me unopened. I wasn't the only one who got turned down. A few of my brothers have also tried. I've also heard several royal courtiers across the region have pressed their own suits including Knudsvig's father on behalf of his son. Everyone got the same polite but dismissive replies. Are you even aware of Elsa's reputation during the three years she was a queen-in-waiting?"

Anna shook her head.

"The Queen of Isolation—that was what the social circles of European royalty called her. No one seems to have seen her since she was eight years old. People speculated that she had a physical deformity and was kept hidden away on purpose. Others believed she was already dead and that her regent Kai, was not confirming it because he wanted power for himself. I wasn't satisfied with just rumors so I went to Arendelle myself."

"You've been to Arendelle before?" Anna asked.

"Your sister's coronation was my third visit there. I first came when I was sixteen while I was serving in the Southern Isles navy. We briefly docked into the Arendelle port as a stopover on the way to Sweden. I spent most of the time there just admiring the fjord and the mountains. I had a chance to talk to people at the port and they told me the gates have been closed for years and that no one has seen both you and Elsa. Most of the people I spoke to thought you were sent off to some boarding school abroad so no one really thought it was odd you never made a public appearance."

"Elsa told me Papa made up that rumor among the Arendellians when we were younger. That's why no one asked why we didn't appear at public gatherings," Anna explained.

"I suppose it was an effective strategy," Hans continued. "But it wasn't exactly going to remain so once your parents had passed on. A queen-to-be, even if she's underage, needs to be seen by her people or they begin to wonder. I wanted to know too, so I came to Arendelle a second time a year after your parents died. Again, I tried to gain an audience personally. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who did. There were three other royal suitors that came knocking into Arendelle's castle with me. Kai received us warmly, but in the end he sent us away with excuses that Elsa was not seeing anyone until she was of age."

"So you gave up after that?"

Hans scoffed. "No, I wasn't even close to giving up. All the others suitors have given up on Elsa by then, even my brothers. They were all content to find some other royal brides in other kingdoms. But I didn't. I stayed in Arendelle for three weeks and I kept writing her which got me nowhere as usual. I changed tactics. I bribed the local florist to send her flowers. I did the same with the baker to send her sweets. I even tried bribing the stable hands to let me in but apparently they were just too loyal to their service and alerted Kai about me. You know that minister of yours is a tough nut to crack."

Anna couldn't help but smile at the memory of Kai. The man was such a sweet father-figure but he can go head to head with the best diplomats in the world and win.

"So when none of my efforts got through the door, I wrote her a poem and sent it via a white dove directly to her window—or at least, what I figured might be her window. The information is a little scant on that one."

Anna's heart pounded at his mention of a white dove. She remembered she once found a dead white dove in a small puddle below Elsa's window. There was a note attached to the leg of the poor creature but it had gotten partially wet that when Anna opened it, she could only discern some of the words. Both the addressee's and sender's names were rendered unreadable with water stains along with the last two lines of the body of the text of what was clearly a poem. She had asked the entire castle staff but no one seemed to have any idea where it came from or to whom it was intended for. The words of the poem were so beautifully written that Anna was mesmerized with them that she committed them to memory. It came back to her now:

"As I watch the changing colors of the borealis

I dare to seek the wonder of an unseen goddess

This precious gem may have been hidden away

But in my dreams she haunts and begs me to stay

"What power does she possess that draws me near?

A pull so strong, her unknown nature I do not fear

My heart she has captured frozen and solidly hooked

And she has done it without even a smile or a look

"Come down from your mountain and let me gaze at you

Bring sun to my winter, reawaken me anew"

Hans stared at her in surprise as she recited the words from memory. His expression told her plainly that he was the author and he confirmed it by uttering the last two unreadable lines she had been pondering on for years:

"For I am near death with a cold that won't let me be

Only through your presence can I be set free"

"It was you! You wrote that poem for Elsa?" Anna declared.

"Did she read it?" he asked hopefully.

Anna considered the situation where she found the dove and realized the truth of what happened. She shook her head. "I don't think she ever did. I found the poem still tied to the leg of a dead dove near Elsa's window. I think she must have accidentally frozen it— and no! Uh-uh!" She shook her head as it was clear from Han's pout what he was imagining. "I don't think Elsa froze that poor dove deliberately just to spite you. She never would have harmed an innocent creature like that. She just didn't have any good control of her powers and they go awry most of the time. That dove was just an unfortunate victim. She was probably wasn't even aware of the note."

Hans heaved a sigh. "It was just as well. She probably would have thought it was juvenile at best and rather crude. She probably would have laughed at it."

Crude? Juvenile? It was one of the most romantic poems I've ever read and it had me imagining for years what it would be like to have someone secretly fall in love with me even though he has never seen me! It's the one poem that had me wanting to find "the one" when the gates finally opened. I had always imagined that poem was meant for me sent by my anonymous waiting prince charming. Of all people why did Hans have to write that? And he didn't do it out of love but just a way to get at my sister!

"You liked it, didn't you?" a sly grin formed on Han's lips.

Anna didn't like his expression one bit and was instantly determined not to give him the satisfaction. "No, don't! Especially now that I know those were just meaningless words to get Elsa's attention."

"Of course, my mistake," Hans said offhandedly. "I mean you hate it so much you had it memorized even after what? Nine years? I couldn't even remember most of what I wrote then but apparently you do. Every word of it." He waggled his eyebrows knowingly at her.

Anna glared at him but chose to say nothing.

"Okay, the point is, if Elsa had given me just a tiny bit of a chance, I probably would have pursued her. I got nothing for my efforts on those three weeks in Arendelle and I was summoned back to my duties to the Southern Isles navy so I had to leave. And before you say anything, I did try one last time on her coronation. I was in Arendelle for three days even before coronation day. I befriended a lot of the guards and I met with the same flower shop workers I bribed two years before who were delivering flowers to the castle on the day of the coronation. They let me in through a side gate early in the morning of that day. I was wandering through the hallways of the castle wondering how to go about introducing myself, when Elsa appeared before me."

"Wait? You've met Elsa before even the gates opened?" This was something new that not even Elsa mentioned to her.

"I couldn't exactly call it a meeting. It was more of a run in. I mean literally, there was running involved—from her side, not mine. When she saw me, she stared for like a half a minute as if she saw a ghost. I tried to introduce myself properly. I mean I was carrying flowers and everything, but she just moved back and demanded from me quite rudely what I was doing there as the gates don't open for another hour. I tried to apologize and explain that I was just there to meet her but I don't think she even listened. She just turned around, ran towards the nearest room and quite literally slammed the door on my face."

"She was just scared she might freeze you. I'm sure she didn't mean to be rude," Anna defended.

"How was I supposed to know that?" Hans asked sarcastically. "I figured, she thought I was just some servant delivering flowers who's not worth her time." He paused to heave a sigh. "Anyway, after that, I decided to give her up as a hopeless case. I got out of the castle the way I came before she deemed it fit to send guards to haul me out and possibly charge me with trespassing. I mean by then, I decided that's something she would most likely do. My brothers would do that in a second to anyone beneath them. How would she be any different? I was just riding around the village on Sitron, nursing my failed ego..."

"When you bumped into me and saw your other chance," Anna finished for him.

Hans didn't reply and an uncomfortable silence stretched between them until Anna decided to break it.

"Look, I don't think there's any point anymore to rehashing the past between us. But I just want to know, why Arendelle? You said it yourself, all of Elsa's suitors and even your own brothers gave up. Why didn't you? You could found some other bride with a kingdom easier to court without you needing to resort to deception and murder."

Hans refused to meet her gaze. "Maybe I just like Arendelle."

"And why is that? Granted, to me it's my home. I'd fight to keep it. But to you, it's just another kingdom." Hans noticeably winced and Anna felt that she was hitting at some vital point here. "Hans, why Arendelle?"

Hans bit his lip as it quivered and Anna knew the answer had some significance and she just had to know what it was.

"Hans?"

"Leave me alone!" he said with sudden burst of anger that Anna was startled.

"Hans?" she asked with some trepidation. She tried to meet his eyes but he refused to even look at her.

"I'm done talking about this Anna. Just go away!"

"Hans?"

He faced her and his menacing expression made her shrink away. "What part of 'go away' do you not understand? Leave! I don't want you here!"

"Fine! I'll go! Don't expect me to be back!" she shouted back at him before she marched out of the room.

I try to be nice, but he's the one who's angry, the ungrateful bastard! Maybe he deserves to be left alone like he wanted. Well, if that's what he wants, that's what he'll get. See if I care!

It was already late and her shift ended hours ago. She went straight home to her dormitory and decided there was nothing to do but just sleep it off. However, as she lay in her bed, she found that sleep did not come for her mind refused to think of nothing else but Hans and his sudden change in behavior.

She recalled the words of his poem and it struck her as odd that he had managed to compose so many references to Elsa's affinity to ice even without knowing her secret.

"For I am near death with a cold that won't let me be

"Only through your presence can I be set free"

She whispered the lines over and over again, as if somehow the newly revealed words could give her answers to the mystery of Hans.

So many of Elsa's suitors had given up after years of being rejected but he didn't despite all the stumbling blocks Kai and Elsa put in his way. It's like he's obsessed with her. I mean he did say Elsa was preferable because she was the heir but what if it's more than that?

A chill crept up her spine as an odd theory came to her.

What if Hans really was in love with my sister?

Author's Note: Mercury is one of those medicines in the 19th century that actually does more harm than good but doctors relied on them then as there wasn't much solid knowledge on how pharmaceuticals work on human physiology. Infection was not understood in full at that time and the prevalent belief was that body should maintain a balance of humors or bodily fluids. People believed that getting an illness like pneumonia could be cured by getting rid of the excess bad humors, thus purging was common treatment which led to some major dehydration and death. So in this story, Hans actually survives due to his own skepticism of the prevalent treatment and by sheer stubbornness.

One of the things that I thought about when I saw Frozen was how King Agdar managed his own people's curiosity on Elsa and Anna's isolation. I suppose not seeing members of the royal family by the common people on a regular basis was not that unusual in the 19th century, but I think the complete lack of a public appearance for thirteen years would have sent some tongues wagging, especially since we know from Olaf's Frozen Adventure that the royal family did appear publicly at least once a year to ring the Yule bell. I figured King Agdar managed it quite simply by releasing a statement that both princesses were in a finishing school abroad.

Another thing that bothered me about Frozen was that it made it look like Hans just gave up on Elsa and went for Anna pretty quickly just on the basis that no one had seen the older princess. I mean marrying the spare then murdering the heir seems like a more complicated way to get a crown. It would have been easier to at least try his luck first with Elsa, wouldn't it? She might be a little cold and standoffish at first sight, but it's been less than half a day since Hans saw her. Wouldn't he have at least tried to get to speak to her for a few days? In this story, I made it that Hans actually did try for three years with no positive results so he had to change tactics.

I want to thank everyone who has been following this story and for the occasional wonderful reviews that always make my day.