Guysssssss Christmas is almost here! :D
I hope you've all been good, darlings, and that Santa brings you everything you wished for. But for now, here's my gift to you... not one, but TWO chapters for our lovely Hal and his fair Lady ;)
So enjoy, lovelies, and don't forget to toss me a little review~ :D
Merry Christmas!
P.S. I do not own any of the Hollow Crown characters. I only own Odette and any other OC you might encounter along the way :)
Renewal
"Rest, my fair Odette... rest, for tomorrow we must away to London."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Come sit with me, my Lady..."
Glancing to Hal's stretched out arm Odette did briefly find her eyes wandering about his bared body, covered in white linen only around the hips and thighs. Why in God's green earth had she let him convince her to join him and Poins at the bath house?
"It would seem, my Lord, the fair Lady is entranced..." Poins stated as he sat next to Hal.
"Keep silent, you wench-chasing rascal..." she retorted. "I will go change into my clothes and wait you two outside."
Before she could walk away Hal leaned forward to grasp her arm and tugged on it in such a way that she lost balance and fell onto his lap.
"I pray you, sit with me..." he chuckled. "It has not been more than five days since Shrewsbury, yet you have treated me with as much cold as to last me for five years."
"O sit still you giddy goose..." she retorted.
Trying to move away when the thin, sleazy tunic she was wearing began sticking to her skin, she found herself entrapped by his arms whilst he looked her over.
"My fair Lady, you do tempt me to sin... and sin has never been this beautiful."
Crossing her arms over her breasts which the cloth did now outline she scowled at the Prince, a thing which made him laugh.
"Here, lean upon me... and use my body as your shield."
"You would be my shield after thrusting me in fire with your own hands?"
Chuckling at her jest, Hal now sighed contently although a painful grimace fleetingly crossed his face.
"Does it hurt still, my Lord?" she asked, foregoing all joke in favor of concern.
"It hurts less when you are near..." he replied, whilst her slender fingers delicately traced the skin around his shoulder wound.
Looking to him to see his serious expression, Odette finally smiled and leaned to peck his lips before settling against his chest, her head resting on his healthy shoulder.
"Before God, I am exceeding weary..." he now said, his hand stroking her clothed back.
"Has it come to that?" Poins asked. "I had thought weariness does not attach to one of so high blood."
"Come faith, it does me..." the Prince replied humorously. "Though it discolors the complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Does it not show vilely in me to desire small beer?"
"Why, a Prince should not be so loosely studied as to remember so weak a composition."
"Belike then my appetite was not princely got, for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature small beer. But indeed these humble considerations make me out of love with my greatness."
Sighing lightly he then turned his head to the side to regard Poins with a serious gaze although Odette knew him to speak in jest.
"What a disgrace is it to me to remember your name... or to know your face tomorrow?"
"How ill it follows, after you have labored so hard, you should talk so idly."
Huffing amusedly at Poins' witty reply, the woman rolled her eyes at their antics.
"Do you see? Even my fair Lady regards you as a jester..." Hal pointed out.
"Tell me, then, how many good young Princes would do so, their fathers being so sick as yours at this time is?"
For once even Odette could not tell if Poins' statement had been in jest or not and Hal himself seemed to have taken it in seriousness.
"Shall I tell you one thing, Poins?"
"Yes, faith let it be an excellent good thing."
"It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than yours."
Chuckling Poins shook his head.
"Go to. I stand the push of your one thing that you will tell."
"Marry I tell you, it is not meet that I should be sad, now my father is sick. Albeit I could tell you, as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend... I could be sad and sad indeed too."
"Very hardly upon such a subject..." Poins retorted, apparently understanding that Hal was indeed being serious.
"I tell you my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is so sick. And keeping such vile company as you are has in reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow."
"The reason?"
"What would you think of me if I should weep?"
"I would think you a most princely hypocrite."
"It would be every man's thought and you are a blessed fellow to think as every man thinks. Every man would think me a hypocrite indeed. And what excites your most worshipful thought to think so?"
"Why, because you have been so lewd and so much engraffed to Falstaff..."
"And to you..." Hal retorted on a most serious tone.
"By this light I am well spoke on; I can hear it with my own ears."
The tension which seemed to rise between them nearly had Odette speak to pacify the two young males, when Poins glanced to the nearby door.
"By the mass, here comes Bardolph."
"And the boy that I gave Falstaff." Hal stated whilst setting his hands onto Odette's hip and intertwining his fingers.
The reason for the old man's arrival was soon revealed as he handed the Prince a letter from Falstaff. Upon reading it, Hal chuckled and placed a rain of kisses upon Odette's cheek at the sight of her frown.
"O fear not, my fair Odette... for I am sworn to you." he smiled. "I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as my dog, for look you how he writes."
Handing the letter to Poins he waited until the young man got to the part where Falstaff stated in the letter than Poins had spread the word about Hal marrying his sister.
"My Lord, I'll steep this letter in sack and make him eat it." Poins stated angrily.
"Must I marry your sister?" the Prince asked.
"God send the wench no worse fortune, but I never said so."
Holding his gaze sternly for a few moments Hal did chuckle again whilst retrieving the letter.
"Well, thus we play the fools with the time and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us. Is your master here in London?"
"Yes, my Lord." Bardolph replied.
"Where sups he?"
"At the old place, my Lord, in Eastcheap."
"Sup any women with him?"
Pressing a finger to Odette's lips when she scowled at him, to keep her from demanding an explanation, the Prince then turned his gaze back to the old man.
"None, my Lord..." the young boy replied instead. "But old Mistress Quickly and Mistress Doll Tearsheet."
"Shall we steal upon them, Ned, at supper?"
"I am your shadow, my Lord, I'll follow you." Poins replied.
Offering a knowing glance to Odette, the Prince then reached for his purse and paid off both the boy and Bardolph to keep quiet about his presence in London. Once they were gone, he finally allowed Odette to stand and moved to his feet, taking her hand and starting toward the chamber where they had left their clothes.
"Might we see Falstaff bestow himself tonight in his true colors and not ourselves be seen?"
oOoOo
It was dark outside when the trio arrived at the tavern and found quite the madness going on inside, although – as Odette had learned by then – it was commonplace in that rundown wench house. Sneaking inside secretly, they met Bardolph who left them with one of the servant boys. Following him once the madness had settled, the trio now snuck into the attic of the tavern house; the balks had spaces in between enough to hide them whilst letting them see below into the room where Falstaff was now sitting on a chair with Doll the wench onto his lap.
"Sirrah, what humor's the Prince of?" she suddenly asked.
"A good, shallow young fellow. He'd have made a good pantler, he'd have chipped bread well." Falstaff replied with a light shrug.
"They say Poins has a good wit."
"He a good wit? Hang him, baboon... his wit is thick as Tewksbury mustard."
"Why does the Prince and his Lady love him so, then?" Doll asked once more, with a giggle.
"Because... their legs are all three of a bigness... he plays at quoits well and... eats conger and fennel and rides the wild-mare with the boys. And swears with a good grace and wears his boots very smooth and breeds no bate with telling of discreet stories. And such other gambol faculties he has that show a weak mind and an able body. For which the Prince and his Lady admit him, for the two themselves are such others."
By the time the old man's statements had been done, Hal had been forced to wrap an arm around Odette, his other hand clapped over her mouth to keep her from going into the room and killing Falstaff.
"Would not this nave have his ears cut off?" he whispered angrily to Poins.
"Let's beat him before his whore..." the other male replied, smiling at the sight of Odette fervently nodding in agreement with him.
When Falstaff groaned beneath them and they saw Doll dragging him to bed, Odette widened her eyes in horror as the wench laid over the elderly male.
"Look..." Hal whispered. "Whether the withered elder has not his poll clawed like a parrot."
"Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?" Poins replied sarcastically.
Hal had been about to offer a retort to that, when Odette finally grasped his wrist and pulled his hand from her mouth.
"I am not lying here in the dust, watching Falstaff bedding that wench." she whispered angrily.
"No need to, my fair Lady..." Poins smiled. "The old fool's much too old... his staff has lost all vigor."
When he motioned for her to glance downward, she noticed that the wench had given up on trying to arouse him, instead lying at his side which did draw a relieved breath from Odette.
"Did that entice you, my Lady?" Hal now whispered in her ear.
Lightly smacking his hand as he trailed it along her side toward her hip, the girl scowled at him.
"It made me want to spill my guts... you would find... that enticing? Had it been you, I likely would have."
Her jesting answer did now bring a knowing grin to the young Prince's face, before he kissed her cheek.
"Then shall we pay him a visit? He clearly has no more business tonight." he whispered looking from her to Poins.
When Falstaff opened the door and yelled down the corridor for one of the servants to bring him some wine, Hal and his companions stood up and jumped onto the rotten wood which gave way to their weight letting them fall onto their feet into the room.
"Anon, anon, sir." Hal replied as the servant would have.
"Anon, anon, sir." Poins imitated him.
"A bastard son of the King's?" Falstaff retorted trying to sound merrily. "And are not you Poins, his brother? And his lovely, fair Lady Odette?"
Wrapping his arms around the girl to hold her back when she aimed to rush at Falstaff and draw her sword, Hal now stared the old man down.
"Why, you globe of sinful continents, what a life you lead."
Soon the commotion attracted Mistress Quickly into the room, the woman staring at the trio in shock.
"O!" she exclaimed in astonishment before bowing to Hal. "The Lord preserve your good grace. By my troth, welcome to London."
Nodding to her, as he was too busy holding Odette back, the Prince merely tightened his lips to not let loose his anger upon the poor woman.
"Now, the Lord bless that sweet face of yours." she smiled.
"You whoreson mad compound of majesty..." Falstaff muttered whilst grabbing Doll's arm and dragging her to the edge of the bed as though he was intending to offer her to Hal. "By this light flesh and corrupt blood, you are welcome."
"My Lord, he will drive you out of your revenge and turn all to merriment unless you take not the heat." Poins stated.
Looking from the young male back to Falstaff, Hal did finally release Odette and stepped forward.
"You whoreson candle-mine you, how vilely did you speak of me even now before this honest, virtuous, civil gentlewoman."
"God's blessing of your good heart, and so she is, by my troth." Mistress Quickly stated in agreement.
"Confess the willful abuse and then I know how to handle you." Hal said again to Falstaff.
"No abuse, Hal... on my honor, no abuse." the fat male replied.
"No? Not to dispraise me and call me pantler and bread-chipper and I know not what? Not to call my fair Lady the same?"
"No abuse, Hal..."
"No abuse?" Poins retorted angrily.
"No abuse, Ned... I dispraised them before the wicked, that the wicked might not fall in love with them. In which doing, I've done the part of a careful friend and a true subject and your father is to give me thanks for it."
"You gross mountain of fat!"
With that spiteful retort, Odette once more tried to lunge onto him only to have both Hal and Poins grab her to hold her back whilst Falstaff stared in shock at such a furious reaction.
"I hope you burn in Hell!" she shouted. "You certainly have enough grease to fill at least one devil's cauldron!"
Nodding to Poins to release her arm, Hal now set her into his embrace to soothe her anger, whilst glancing once more to Falstaff with a stern expression. The tension of the moment and the fat man's incoherent blabbing were only interrupted when Peto came running into the room.
"Peto, how now, what news?" Hal asked.
"The King, your father, is at Westminster. And there are twenty weak and wearied posts come from the north. And as I came along, I met and overtook a dozen captains, bare-headed, sweating, knocking at the taverns, asking for Sir John Falstaff."
Sighing, the Prince trailed a hand over his face even whilst keeping his other arm around his lover for fear that she might still attack Falstaff.
"By Heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame. So idly to profane the precious time when tempest of commotion like the south, borne with black vapor does begin to melt and drop upon our poor unarmed heads. Falstaff... good night."
With those words he left the room, taking Odette with him, whilst Poins and Peto followed suite.
oOoOo
"Look, child... the first snowdrop of the year."
Following Elain's finger, the young woman did sight the delicate flower growing from a patch of grass which had sprouted beneath the shredded white blanket still covering parts of the castle gardens.
"Is it spring already?"
"It is, child... March I believe it is."
"Has it already been three months since Shrewsbury? In truth I do not know when time has passed."
Watching with concern as the joy fled from Odette's face, Elain then wrapped her arms around her young mistress.
"Be not so sorrowful, my child... your father now rejoices with your mother, and watches over you from Heaven along with Lady Jocelyn."
"So fleeting is our life... that death would take him when I had just regained him. He said he did not know if he should live to see the sunset; and so in prophesized his own eternal slumber."
"Be not sorrowful..." Elain pleaded again.
"I should be grateful, beloved Elain... you speak the truth." she smiled lightly. "I should be grateful, and give praise to God, that my Hal is safe... that neither he nor I paid due upon that field."
It was upon those words that a servant came running from the castle.
"My Lady!" he called out, short of breath. "My Lady, the Lord of Westmoreland has sent for you... he asks that you come most quickly to the King's chambers."
Standing, Odette nodded to the young male before rushing toward the nearest entrance and down the corridors. Upon arriving at Henry's bedchamber she was met with the sight of the two youngest Princes' tearful expressions as they rushed to meet her outside the door.
"Fair sister, our royal father has fallen ill again." Humphrey said.
"He did fall in the council hall just now..." Thomas agreed.
Reaching forward she embraced them both, whilst they did set their arms about her waist.
"Hush... hush, and do not fret. Your father will be well..."
"Less noise, less noise..." Westmoreland pleaded in a whisper as he came out into the hallway. "My Lady, do come and see the King, I pray you."
Nodding she placed a kiss upon the twins' foreheads and rushed into the room to kneel at Henry's bedside.
"My fair daughter..." the King smiled wearily.
Offering a warm smile in return, Odette reached out to grasp his hand and kiss it.
"Do rest, father... and let the tender stroke of sleep fall heavy on your eyes. Do cast aside all worldly worries and give yourself to slumber." she said softly.
"Set me my crown, on my pillow here..." he asked.
With Westmoreland setting the golden circle upon the bedding, Henry now withdrew his hand from Odette's grasp and gently caressed the jeweled circlet whilst his eyes finally grew heavy with sleep.
"Who saw the Duke of Clarence?" Hal's voice suddenly rang out from the outer hallway.
Recalling that Hal was due to arrive that night from Monmouth – where he had spent the better part of that past month – Odette now looked to Thomas and motioned him to the door, the young Prince nodding and rushing outside to meet his brother.
"I am here, brother... full of heaviness."
"How now? Rain within doors and none abroad? How does the King?"
"Exceeding ill."
"Not so much noise, my Lords..." the Earl of Warwick whispered, stepping in the doorway. "Sweet Prince, speak low. The King, your father, is disposed to sleep... your Lady watches by him. Will it please your grace to go along with us?"
"No. I will sit with her and watch here, by the King." Hal replied.
Whilst the Lords and his brothers turned to leave the bedchambers, the heir approached the bed to find Odette kneeled on the cold stone floor. Leaning down to place a loving kiss to her forehead, he then again straightened to look upon his father.
"Why does the crown lie there upon his pillow, being so troublesome a bedfellow?" he whispered.
Kneeling next to Odette he briefly squeezed her hand when she sought out his, a painful shade darkening his features.
"O, majesty... when you do pinch your bearer you do sit like a rich armor worn in the heat of day that scalds with safety."
Silently watching his father for a few moments afterwards, he then leaned forward and gingerly grasped the King's arm.
"My gracious Lord..." he called out, his voice soon breaking into a whisper. "My father..."
When he received no response, Odette felt her heart cringing in gruesome foreboding and instinctively she grasped onto the Prince's arm.
"By his gates of breath there lies a downy feather which stirs not."
Tearing her gaze away from Henry's face and setting her eyes upon Hal when he suddenly straightened his posture as though a stunning recognition had all but suddenly dawned upon him, she felt tears stinging her eyes at the sound of his voice.
"This sleep is sound indeed... this is a sleep that from this golden rigol has divorced so many English Kings." the Prince now said, standing and leaning to kiss his father's brow. "Your due from me is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood. Which nature, love and filial tenderness shall, o dear father, pay you plenteously."
Again squeezing Odette's hand when she set it upon his own, he briefly clenched his jaw to hold in his tears.
"My due from you is this imperial crown..." he now said whilst gently removing the golden circle from his father's grasp. "Which God shall guard and put the world's whole strength into one giant arm, it shall not force this lineal honor from me."
Whilst Hal stood and now left the room with the crown, Odette finally gave in to her tears. For after William's death, and before still, the King had truly loved her as a father... and she had loved him as a daughter. Covering her mouth to stifle the sobs which now struggled to escape her lips, she stood and rushed into the hallway to bear the grievous news to the Lords and Princes gathered there.
"My fair sister, what has happened?" Humphrey asked, rushing to her side.
"I pray you, sister! Say not that father is no more..." Thomas pleaded.
Before she could speak, however, Henry's voice resounded in the hallway.
"Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence! Clarence!"
Widening her eyes, Odette rushed back into the room and stared in shock to see the King rise from his bed whilst the two Earls rushed past her to help him up.
"What would Your Majesty?" Westmoreland asked.
"Why did you leave me here alone?"
"We left the Prince, my brother, here my liege..." Thomas replied. "And the Lady, my sister, as well."
"The Prince of Wales?" Henry asked. "He's not here..."
"He undertook to sit and watch by you, with fair Odette."
"Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow?"
Rushing out of bed he stopped before Odette who was still rooted to the spot near the entrance, the Earls and Princes following.
"Where is he?" he shouted in her face.
When she failed to reply in her shock, he gave in to his anger and shoved her aside, rushing into the throne room; to her fortune Warwick had been standing near and caught her before she hit the floor. Following him, Odette herself widened her eyes at the sight of Hal sitting upon the throne, the crown on his head, despite his tear stained face.
"I never thought to hear you speak again!" he said upon seeing his father, both fear and joy now mixing in his voice.
"Your wish was father, Harry, to that thought." the King replied. "I stay too long by you, I weary you. What, do you so hunger for my empty chair, that you would need invest you with my honors before your hour be right? O foolish youth! You seek the honors that will overwhelm you! Could you not forebear me half an hour? Then go, dig my grave yourself... bid the merry bells ring to your ear, that you are crowned, not that I am dead. Pluck down my offices, break my decrees, for now the time has come to mock at form. Harry the Fifth is crowned... up vanity! Down royal state! All you sage counselors, hence! And to the English court assemble now from every region apes of idleness. Now neighbor confines purge you of your scum. Have you a ruffian that would swear, drink, dance, revel the night, murder and commit the oldest sins the newest kind of ways? Be happy, he will trouble you no more. England shall give him office, honor, might. For the Fifth Harry from curbed license pluck the muzzle of restraint and the wild dog shall flesh his tooth on every innocent!"
Upon shouting that phrase he climbed the steps to the throne, grabbing Hal by his tunic and shoving him to the floor after taking the crown from his head.
"O my poor kingdom sick with civil blows..." he lamented whilst Hal motioned the Earls and his brothers to stay back. "When that my care could not withhold your riots, what will you do when riot is your care? O you will become a wilderness again, peopled with wolves, your old inhabitants."
It was right when Hal had finally decided to gather his courage and speak, that Odette rushed past him with tears upon her face.
"My liege I do beseech you to not despise your son!" she pleaded, despair flowing in her melodious voice. "For I am witness that your breath was shallow... lighter than a feather... that we both feared God had summoned you to rest within His halls! I beg you, father, speak not so vilely of your son and heir... I vow upon my soul that he no longer is the rowdy scoundrel you have known!"
Sensing the swaying hesitation in his father, after Odette's words, Hal now gently grasped her shoulder and stepped forward to speak.
"O pardon me, my liege..." he said softly.
"Wherefore did you take away the crown?" Henry asked, finally turning to face them whilst he burst into tears.
"God witness with me, when I found no course of breath within Your Majesty, how cold it struck my heart. I spoke unto this crown as having sense, and thus upbraided it."
Grasping the crown with one hand whilst his father held the other side, he set the other hand upon the King's shoulder.
"The care on you depending has fed upon the body of my father. Therefore, you best of gold, are worst of gold. Other less fine in carat is more precious... but you, most fine, most honored, most renowned, did eat your bearer up. Thus, my most royal liege, accusing it, I put it on my head to try with it, as with an enemy that had before my face murdered my father."
The sight of tears upon Hal's cheeks did now subdue the King, who glanced from him to Odette and back to Hal.
"O, my son... my daughter..." he muttered amidst tears.
Briefly grasping Odette's hand, he looked from the crown to his son again whilst sitting on the steps beneath the throne.
"God put it in your mind to take it hence, that you might win the more your father's love, pleading so wisely in excuse of it. Come here, Harry, sit you down by my side."
With the Prince seating himself next to his father, Odette moved to step away only to have the King bid her otherwise.
"No, daughter, stay..."
Agreeing silently, the young woman then turned to face them and wordless listen to the King's words.
"Harry, hear, I think the very last counsel that ever I shall breathe. God knows, my son, by what by-paths and indirect crooked ways I met this crown. For all my reign has been but as a scene acting that argument... but now my death changes the mood. For what in me was purchased falls upon you in a more fairer sort. Yet, though you stand more sure than I could do, you are not firm enough since griefs are green. And all my friends, which you must make your friends, have but their stings and teeth newly taken out, by whose fell workings I was first advanced and by whose power I well might lodge a fear to be again displaced."
It was at those words that John rushed into the throne room, having just arrived back at the castle. Halting him with their group, the Earls now watched on as the King spoke to his heir and the Prince's Lady.
"Therefore, my Harry, be it your course to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels. That actions, hence born out, may waste the memory of the former times."
As he stated that, Odette now watched to see John approaching them, returning his smile when he offered her such.
"Health, peace and happiness to my royal father."
Helping him to his feet, Hal then stood back whilst Henry went to embrace John.
"You bring me happiness and peace, son John." he smiled.
Turning once again to Hal he gasped, short of breath, and grasped his eldest son's hand.
"More would I... but my lungs are wasted so... that strength of speech is utterly denied me. How I came by this crown, o God forgive... and grant it may, with you, in true peace live."
Setting the crown upon Hal's head, the King once more gasped and collapsed into his son's arms with his final breath.