Chapter 9

From the Tales of Flynnagan Rider

On Death and Love

My father's funeral seemed to last all day, although it was only an hour and a half. It was the get together afterward that I hardly remembered. My mother even took that opportunity to inform everyone that I was to take over the business and marry my cousin. My mother made an effort to bring her to the front where everyone said how beautiful and intelligent she was and what a prize I was getting. They told me how successful I would be by taking over Father's business. It went on until I couldn't take much more and excused myself and left.

Delia followed me outside. I wasn't hard to find, I was sitting by the stables next to my favorite horse, Maximus, a beautiful white horse, recently acquired from the Corona Castle. It seemed that he was bent on retiring after the new Prince; Eugene Fitzherbert took over as Captain of the Guard. Max had done a great job of wiping out crime and corruption in the city and was content to let his friend take over. The horse was intelligent and listened to everything I said and acted as if he understood.

Delia stood there cackling away as usual and I did my usual best to ignore her except for one thing that she happened to mention.

It was that my beautiful Danielle was getting married within a week's time.

XXXXX

Rapunzel opened up her laptop and plugged in. She went immediately to Google Chrome and searched for Flynnagan Rider and Greta Gothel. She found that Flynn Rider was real, that he was born in 1756. He married, had children and did indeed take over his father's business. He watched his three children grow and marry and, became Flynn Rider again in his late 40's and resumed his adventures, only this time with his wife.

Greta was mentioned as having worked there for a number of years., but that was all.

She smiled as she printed out the necessary information. It didn't really go into detail who he married or his wife's name, but she'd find that out eventually. Right now she found what she wanted.

She was about to type in Greta Gothel when a knock came on her bedroom door.

"Rapunzel? Rapunzel, dear, it's time. We have to go to the wake. The funeral's tomorrow and I did promise Mrs. Fitzherbert that we'd go even if it was for a little while."

"Coming, Mother," Rapunzel said. She looked at her computer and sighed, and then closed the cover. She'd look it up later.

XXXXX

Eugene and his mother were greeting everyone who walked in Baron's Funeral Parlor. It was a large gathering, everyone was there. The Kings had just arrived along with their daughter, Donna. She had just arrived from Charon where she had made a name for herself as a model. Her mother had pulled strings for her to get the job. It had been difficult for her to get jobs, as her manager, Eric Carver explained. She was difficult to work with and wouldn't follow the photographer's instructions. She only did what she wanted to do, which wasn't much. No one would work with her and it was just as well. She had money, she reasoned and she wouldn't need a job. Soon, she would marry the gorgeous Eugene Fitzherbert who would take care of her forever.

Rapunzel and Greta entered and Olivia greeted them. She directed them to some folding chairs. Eugene watched her every move.

But so were the Kings, especially Donna. As Greta fell into talking with Olivia, Eugene started making his way toward Rapunzel, but Donna got in the way.

"Oh, Eugene, my love," she whispered, threading her arm into his. "All this uncertainty will end in a week's time, that is, once we're married."

Eugene unthreaded her arm and pushed her away. "Not now, Donna. We can pick this up later on."

Donna sighed and looked over at Rapunzel who was talking with Bishop Thomas. "She's engaged you know."

"I know all about it, Donna." Eugene said angrily, "but now isn't the time or the place for this."

He gave her a last look as he walked over to Rapunzel. But before he could get there, she had been surrounded by a bunch of screaming women begging for her autograph. She looked up to find Eugene staring at her, but it didn't matter anymore. Eric had sent her a text to let her know that he would be arriving at Corona Airport tomorrow at noon, and he was looking forward to seeing her again.

Only she wasn't so sure if she was looking forward to it.

XXXXX

The wake was over and Greta was tired, but she was too excited to sleep. She couldn't help thinking that she was finally going to get her wish of becoming more involved with the company. It's all she dreamed of. Promotion was the only thing on her mind right now. Mrs. Fitzherbert told her that she wanted to tell her something very important after the funeral tomorrow. Maybe they finally realized her worth? She had been working with them for 18 years and she had already gone from an administrative assistant to a buyer of sorts. Maybe Olivia had finally realized that she was ready and capable of being a full time buyer.

She had been considering leaving, running away from it all before that, but where would she go? And she didn't really want to disappear. It actually seemed that no one had caught onto her little scheme yet, she was very sure no one would. She had taken great pains to make everything as inconspicuous as she could.

And it had worked. The investigation had gone nowhere the first time, thanks to her and her tricks and she was sure it would meet a dead end again.

The necklace worked like the charm it was. Not only did it make her young, but it got people to obey her every command as well. She could never figure out why her aunt had warned her never to put it on.

Greta played with her lovely flower necklace. She could hardly wait until tomorrow.