Taking the Reins 7
Summary: Snow and James introduce their daughter to the people of The Enchanted Forest. Emma tries to determine how happy Regina is.
Johanna tipped her head to the guards at the ballroom door and patted Emma's shoulder. "You have a lovely time, dearling. It's your night to be celebrated."
"But I -"
"Go on," Johanna insisted with a push between Emma's shoulders.
The guards each opened one door outward, or rather inward to reveal the ballroom beyond. Emma stared out at the sea of people. She entered after taking a deep breath only to have another man rush in front of her, raising a ridiculously long trumpet to his face. He ignored a bright purple feather that fell from his hat across his nose.
Already surprised, Emma jumped again at the blast of sound that drew everyone's attention. Pressing her hand to her chest to still her racing heart, she listened as she was announced:
"Lords, ladies, invited guests of Her Majesty Queen Snow White and Prince Charming, Her Royal Highness, the Crown Princess Emma!"
Emma inhaled and then strode forward as the crier's echoes died away. Despite the packed room beyond and all eyes on her, she still felt her ears ringing from the introduction. She shook her head, lifted her skirts, and hurried forward. The hem of her dress tangled dangerously with the heel of her shoe and she felt the fabric tugged from her hands. Heart racing, she righted herself before she actually could faceplant.
"Emma." Hearing Snow's voice Emma snapped her head up toward the dais to see her parents standing.
"I'm okay," she mumbled.
"Good."
It was only then that Emma realized Snow had a hand on her father's forearm, restraining him as discreetly as possible from rushing to Emma's side. A few steps to her left, amidst a crowd of citizens, she spotted a familiar face and smiled tightly to him and the beautifully, painfully familiar woman beside him. Regina looked so gorgeous in the simple gray and green muslin gown it hurt Emma's heart.
Recovering her footing, Emma lifted her head, pulled her shoulders back, and completed the short distance. She glanced over her shoulder, catching the brown eyes once again briefly, seeing shy surprise in them. Reluctantly tearing away, Emma dipped her head and bent forward over her extended foot toward her parents, in a perfect curtsey.
Snow reached for her as her head came up once more. Emma reached forward with her own hands enclosed in satin gloves past the elbows. Snow embraced her, kissing first one cheek and then the other before stepping aside. David then wrapped Emma in his arms, cupping behind her head with his big hand and holding her snugly. in her ear he whispered, "do not worry. You are so beautiful," before stepping back as well.
Snow gave a quirky little twist of her fingers, so Emma took the cue and turned around to face those assembled as raucous applause reverberated off the stone walls.
As the noise fell away, Snow stepped forward, cupping Emma's upper arm in her white satin gloved hands, sending a shiver down Emma's spine.
"It is a most wonderful day on our personal journey as a family," Snow began. "Our daughter, the beautiful Emma, for whom all the kingdom's swans took wing upon her birth, is now a woman grown. It is a glorious day for the future prosperity and peace of our eternal kingdom that we now recognize her to be of marriageable age."
Emma noticed a clutch of young men jostling to stand before her, each eagerly hoping to catch her eye. Her suitors, she presumed. She scanned away from them to see the serious faces of thicker, older men just behind. Obviously the powerful fathers, any one of whom would appreciate Emma choosing his son to unite with White.
"An alliance shall be ventured tonight, upon our sweet Emma's word. Until then, please, be merry, dance, drink, mingle, and celebrate with us."
Emma's fingers flexed in her father's palm as Snow looked significantly at her. Stalling mostly, Emma turned to David. "Um. Dad?" she asked quietly. "Would you…?" She trailed off, then glanced at the expansive room.
Her father beamed at her and tucked his hand lightly along her waist, leading her out on the main floor. The nobles took steps back to give them room.
Snow lifted her hand and the orchestra started playing once more. David held Emma's hands and she followed him to the tune's beat, waltzing around the room.
She studied faces staring at her as they circled. She recognized the Blue Fairy, tiny and fluttering over Snow's shoulder, even Grumpy and Sneezy, who had Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder, Even Granny and Red were here, but Emma found no sign of Regina or Daniel.
Damn, she thought, she must have scared the brunette away. She had to fix this. David noticed the change in her steps.
"You seem a little tense," he said.
"I discovered some bigger problems," Emma answered.
"Anything I can help with?" He turned her in a wide swath that took them to the edge of the ballroom, near the balcony arches.
Emma's whirling gaze found Regina standing aside and holding Daniel's arm, talking to him in hushed tones. She couldn't see Regina's face clearly, with the woman's back to her, but Daniel's expression was easily read. His mouth drew down in a frown, followed by his brows, and then he cupped Regina's face.
Making a split-second decision, Emma told her father, "Yeah, go dance with Mom. I see my next partner." She spun away from David who strode to take Snow's hand and escort her off the dais. Emma heard the music shift as her parents took the dance floor, just as she arrived in front of Daniel and Regina.
Daniel bowed. Regina turned and her eyes widened in alarm upon seeing Emma. Quickly recalling her manners, however, Regina dropped her head and executed a curtsey before the princess.
"Princess Emma," Daniel address her for both of them, as was the custom.
Emma suddenly realized she could not do what she truly wanted to do. The scandal would be insurmountable if she pulled Regina away from Daniel while all eyes were upon them. She had to think of something else. "Master of Horses," she addressed him formally. "Would you do me the honor of a dance?"
Regina's face paled. Daniel even looked taken aback. "Princess?" they said together.
She smiled at the matching gasps, pleased that in this it seemed Regina and her Daniel were of the same mind. Oh what the hell, it was all unorthodox anyway. "Both of you."
She took Regina's left hand and Daniel's right, drawing them both out from the shadows with her. There were more gasps, but the musicians did not cease in their playing. Emma turned, her movements insistently guiding the three of them in a dancing circle. Daniel picked up the style with a smile and reached behind Regina's back to hold his wife's hip. Emma's arm crossed Regina's back along his own, and Regina was tucked up against Emma's shoulder on the other side.
"Hi," Emma said, whispering in Regina's ear. She looked away from Regina's surprise and up at Daniel. "Seeing you makes me happy."
"The princess is too kind," Regina said, still sounding disconcerted.
"But I want to get to know you," Emma replied. "Will you join me tomorrow for a picnic in the woods?"
"The princess surely has others she would rather-"
"Nope," Emma interrupted cheekily, watching as the emotions roiled in Regina's features. The brunette was clearly caught between fear and anger, and didn't know how she could tell off the royal heiress without repercussions. It was underhanded of Emma to put her on the spot like that, and she knew it.
When neither Regina nor Daniel responded, Emma kissed a cheek on each of them. "There, now you have to come. Noon tomorrow, I'll meet you at the stables."
"Princess-"
"No, I'll see you tomorrow." Emma slipped away from Daniel and Regina, guiding the latter into her husband's arms with a smile. Daniel stopped dancing as Regina lowered her face to his shoulder.
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Two hours later having danced with several of the less offensive looking suitors, Emma sat in a chair near the edge of the floor near an archway catching the breeze from outside and resting her feet. A young boy walked up to her. Upon close inspection she realized he was not a boy, but a puppet, the wood grain almost porcelain smooth, but definitely the unmistakable paleness of oak. "Aug-" she stopped herself before fully using the Storybrooke curse name. "Pinocchio?" she adjusted quickly, "what's on your mind?"
"I… Could I have the next dance, Princess?"
"I'm a little tired at the moment."
"I might not be able to tell a lie," he said, "but I can tell when someone else is lying."
Bemused, Emma leaned forward on her seat and studied the redheaded wooden boy with the green hat and child's coveralls, still marveling that this was little August in this world. "Is that so?"
"Yes, Princess."
"And you think I'm lying when I say I've been dancing for two hours and I don't want to dance again."
"No, when you said you were tired. You're not. You're distracted."
"Distracted? By what?"
"I'm not sure yet, but your eyes don't stop roaming the dance floor."
Emma nodded; she was keeping an eye out to make sure that Regina and Daniel didn't leave, or at least that her unusual invitation hadn't upset Regina unduly. The horsemaster seemed to have brightened his wife's spirits a little, but there was still an unexplainable melancholy when Regina looked at others dancing around them. Once the royal family had started dancing others joined in, from nobles to commoners, and many youngsters not old enough to be courting, but enjoying the atmosphere, were dancing rosie-style, in little rings of joined hands around the room.
Puzzling over Regina's likely life path since the changed events in the stables. Emma realized it had to have been at least 25 years. Regina had obviously married Daniel. The brunette should be ecstatic, freed of her mother's and Rumpelstiltskin's influences, and having raised children with her true love.
Emma glanced back down at Pinocchio trying to decide what to say, when the sound of children's laughter rang out above the music. There was a series of thunks and the music stopped abruptly.
Emma's gaze shot toward the location of the disturbance. The crowd of dancers and children were parting. Regina and Daniel clutched one another in the midst of it, and a small child lay crumpled on the floor, having clearly fallen back after bumping into the hip Regina clutched with one hand. Regina's eyes went wide, staring down at the little dark-haired girl, then welled with tears. The woman stuffed her fist in her mouth and Daniel couldn't keep up as the brunette rushed from the castle in a flurry of fabric.
"What happened?"
Emma listened as whispered hummed in the air following Regina's departure. A noblewoman lifted the little girl and dusted off her dress before nudging her to "move along." Someone nearby whispered, "Poor woman," and Emma knew they were whispering about Regina.
"That's the childless woman," Pinocchio said.
"The what?"
"The horsemaster's wife is barren," he explained. "You said you knew them."
"It slipped my mind." Barren, Emma thought, oh god, that's awful.
"You're lying again," Pinocchio said.
"Go away," Emma groused, turning her back and striding toward her parents with the intention of calling an early end to her evening. Pinocchio stared after her but did not follow.
Emma staggered away from the moment; thunderstruck by the realization. Regina would never have children. Tears pulled at her face. This won't do, Emma thought. The change to the timeline was supposed to give Regina her happy ending. She had Daniel, yes, but the sadness Emma saw in those brown eyes was not going to go away because Regina's happy ending needed being a mother to a child. A mother to Henry.
Stumbling into a chair, Emma gripped it, staring at the wainscoting almost dumbly. "We can't stay. I have to get us home," she mumbled, eyes darting around.
She found Snow and David sitting with The Blue Fairy hovering between them. The three were having some sort of conversation. However, silence fell the moment Emma stepped near.
"Emma?" Snow asked, quickly tangling her fingers in her lap. "What is it, dear?"
"I'm gonna turn in." Snow's brow furrowed. Emma shook her head. "Just tired."
"Oh. very well."
David asked, "Would you like me to escort you to your chambers?"
"No, thank you.. I have a busy day tomorrow. A picnic."
"Are you certain you should?" David asked. From the look in his eyes, Emma knew he was remembering his belief that she was after the horsemaster and planning to separate the husband and wife.
"It's just lunch."
"All right," he replied, but his tone was cautious.
Emma bent to kiss Snow's cheek, accepting a kiss on her own cheek in return. "Good night."
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It was nearly noon when Emma headed for the stables. She had dressed functionally in leather breeches with a thick green buttonless vest and a wide leather belt over a flowing white cotton top. It was autumn here. Winter would be coming on soon. She had Johanna's help braiding her hair and circled the golden mass of it around the top of her head. A picnic basket of items gathered from the kitchen swung from her right arm.
When she entered the stables she found Gordon, the assistant stablemaster, the only one about, mucking a stall. "Where is Horsemaster Daniel?" she asked.
"The Prince arrived early this morn informing the Master he was needed to inspect the horseflesh of a visiting Sultan who wished to gift our stables on the occasion of your betrothal, Your Highness."
Emma sighed, but then brightened. "Would you tell me which direction lies the man's homestead? I shall bring these foodstuffs to his wife."
Gordon pointed to the road leading south of the castle grounds. "The homestead is just outside town in the Southern Forest."
"Thanks. Could you saddle up something?"
"Your mare can be readied, Your Highness."
"Then do so. Thank you."
Within a quarter hour, Emma was aboard Buttercup (to which she had rolled her eyes) being handed up her picnic basket. "Tell my father thank you when you see him, Gordon."
"I… Well, yes, Your Highness."
She waved and geed the horse quickly to a canter, eyes on the road, and mind on her destination.
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