All characters are owned by George Macdonald except whatever OC's that I manage to come up with, purely fan made and inspired after reading all the great PatG fanfics
One week later
Irenie gazed around in distaste as large streamers were thrown over the room and pinned up, her bustling skirts swishing around her as she made her way down the corridors of the stone castle.
All that week guests had been piling into the tiny castle and the servants had been so overwhelmed by that many nobles staying in the same place they had almost run out of rooms.
Her father had wasted no time in sending out the word, calling to all suitors, a painful reminder of his dismissal of the only man Irenie actually loved.
Meanwhile the king had barely reached the celebration on time at all.
It had been about a week since her father had left on his journey and he had barely returned the day of her birthday, which only soured Irenie's foul mood.
Now few knew that Irenie was even upset, she had such a fine way of mastering her emotions but Lootie, who had been with her since the queen's death, could tell.
Because she was still quite angry with her father, Irenie would only confide to Lootie as she was the only one who knew her sadness well enough to advise her.
Even if Lootie didn't like what she saw between Irenie and Curdie.
As fate would have it, the King had arrived just at noon on the day of Irenie's birthday but she had not gone down to see him.
Her father had just returned from his journey to a nearby capital on important business but he didn't bother telling her he was leaving in he first place.
"He doesn't bother telling me anything anymore," Irenie fumed as she marched down the long stone hallway, her formal dress for the nearing party getting all bunched up and creasing at the edges.
"Oh Princess, I'm sure he didn't mean it, your father's just a very important man." Lootie fussed as she tried to keep pace with the agitated Irenie.
Irenie humphed again, her arms crossing tightly over her chest.
She was even furious with Curdie. She might expect her father to be late but she was still upset that Curdie had to go to the fall mines this early.
Then again, how did she know he had to go? He could have easily gone away just to avoid her.
Her maid slowed the princess down by grabbing onto her hand and holding her in place while placing a magnificent white rose into her hair.
Even Irenie's grandmother had been no help to soften the fiery temper building up inside her. Recently she had seen even less of her grandmother in the days approaching her birthday but this was also due to the fact that Irenie had barely been left alone since the day her father left.
Around every other corner there was her father's royal guard, a man the king, her father, had clearly sent to watch over his precious 'mixed-up' princess to make sure she didn't go running off with the miner boy.
Irenie had nothing against Sedaris in particular, he had been her father's top knight and best friend since she could remember but she didn't enjoy being watched like she was a toddler.
"Are you feeling able?" Lootie asked sweetly enough but Irenie just swivelled to her left and glared at the grand wooden doors which she would arrive through in a great spectacle, letting all the gents look upon her.
Irenie was actually quite pretty, as she had been often told by almost everyone at court. Her mother was, so naturally she would be. However, Irenie also reasoned that her sizeable inheritance and dowery were great enough to cause them to over exaggerate a bit.
If it wasn't her money, then it was her beauty and if not all that, then it was her title, that called to all the prospective suitors her father would have invited here.
Irenie rippled with disgust and frowned even deeper, Lootie still bustling about her, tucking in her ribbons, the tiny curls pooling about her neck in a pretty hairstyle.
Finally when the announcement was given and Irenie was to make her entrance down into the crowded great hall bellow.
Sighing irritably one last time before she was forced through the mahogany doors by Lootie, Irenie lifted up her skirts and stamped through as the doors were pulled back by the attendants.
A roar of clapping thundered through the small hall where nearly one hundred guests were packed against one another.
Irenie could hardly distinguish any of the faces except for those surrounded in a flurry of ribbons and colour that belonged to her group of so-called-friends.
She had to avoid the eyes of Odette and a few of her other friends merely because of the conversation the had the last time they had all been together.
It was doubtless that the fight between her and her father had reached their gossiping mouths. 'They were all probably having a great laugh about it now,' Irenie thought bitterly, taking her eyes off the group of girls before patting down her dress and smoothing out the creases she had made in the fabric.
She gently planted each foot on the descending steps of the staircase, her eyes fluttering over the enormous crowed that had gathered before her.
Most of them gentleman and most of them were unaccompanied. As she had feared.
She spotted her father who was wearing a small grin on his lips, possibly happy with the stock of men he had been able to find for her. He must have been certain to find her at least one man to her liking.
But if Irenie had anything in plan it was that she was going to turn each and everyone of them down if they so much as tried to ask her for a dance.
Then her father would see how truly upset she was with him and how this plot simply wouldn't work in his favour.
But before that, she had to pretend with the whole charade as a part of her duties as future monarch.
The next part, the introductions, took an hour. All the suitors who had come for her hand lined up dutifully, getting their servants to pass their names and titles for the royal announcers to call out as they pranced up the steps and took large gaudy bows to impress her.
That's exactly what one middle aged Earl did as Irenie offered her hand for the sixtieth time and allowed his slimy lips to press against her fingers.
It took all of her self control to smile politely and restrain herself from wiping the back of her hand on the rolls of her dress.
"And my prize white stallion this year, bread in my very stables. A gift for the most beautiful princess in all the lands." The Earl blustered as a few servants brought yet another horse around, pulling it into the room before then backing it up into the hall and likely off to the stable again.
'Oh wonderful,' Irenie would have liked to say, 'another goddamn horse, I'm so glad I let you defile my hand for that.'
However instead she said: "Thank you very much Earl Ringuard, he is quite a handsome gift."
And he beamed brightly before descending the stairs and Irenie tucked her hand ever so slightly against her dress and wiped at the back of it.
Irenie rolled her eyes heavily, a sneer just under the surface of her face.
The king glanced at her and she forced the most fake smile to ever touch the princess' face that left the king pursing his lips in distaste before waving his hand and the announcers calling the next several names. Each guest brought another gift for the princess, wines, fresh spices, silk shawls and jewels of all the colours in the world.
They went back and forth like that, all the eligible bachelors, from poor princes to rich dukes, from toddlers to old men, Irenie curtsied, allowed them to kiss her hand and then watch as her father waved them off.
A handful were around her age but she was so disgusted by this feeble attempt to win her favour that she could barely reign in her fury.
A couple of them were quite handsome, they even smiled. But some, she could see, treated their servants very poorly.
Did they think that battering the workmen would impress her?
Thankfully those men were few and far between.
Some of the men who came to the royal gathering were probably quite nice.
But none of them were Curdie.
Irenie sighed at the very thought of his name but regained her composure and shook her head as the line was nearing to the straggling few left. She received her third horse since the slimy Earl and graciously waved the nobleman aside as he was the very last guest she had to welcome to her birthday party.
But, as if it were a sign she had been tol hasty in her relief, a knock came at the door, so imposing and loud that the whole gathering craned their heads to the main front doors.
A servant scuttled forward, pulling nervously at his jacket and shirt as he avoided the eyes and slipped a card into the announcers hands, who proceeded to read it while the servant retreated back to the main entrance.
Irenie stared credulously at the announcer as he looked wide-eyed at the card for several minutes while everyone watched him with fixed eyes, heavy breathing rising up from the crowed.
Irenie took a moment to look at the servant. She hated to think it of anyone, but the servants were absolutely hideous with a long pointed nose and strange beady eyes. Irenie tried to think well of them. She never liked judging someone by their outward appearance..
The King caught the announcers attention and beckoned him to come forward as the he stumbled up the steps in a nervous mess.
For the first time during the whole party Irenie was laughing to herself at the whole fuss as the the room was suspended in perpetual silence.
Irenie looked skeptically over her shoulder to the king who was listening to the announcer and inevitably waved him off.
"Yes-yes- well let him enter then-" Irenie heard her father whisper as the announcer glanced from the guests to the door to Irenie, clearly not enjoying the lack of protocol.
That got a bit of a giggle from her as the announcer cleared his throat and then spoke in a loud booming voice that caused everyone to jump: "Frederick Magurse of- Mountain?" The royal announcer squinted as he tried to read the card an inch away from his eyes.
'Irenie silently snorted to herself, 'what an unfortunate title.'
"This is sure to be hilarious," Irenie laughed, a mischievous smile playing on her lips as she looked back to her father who didn't look at all happy by the late arrival.
That didn't bode well for the late comer. When it came to birthdays for his daughter, the King explicitly stated that no one was to be late.
She could hear Sedaris chuckle softly behind her which was a rarity, as the guard usually didn't make any expression of emotion in her presence.
The double doors were pried open by two servants on either side while all of the outraged suitors directed their cruel eyes at the invader who had 'ruined' the princess' birthday.
A gasp filled the room and people bowed away, noble ladies and gentlemen alike, their eyes fixed upon the man.
The two ugly servants who belonged to this man blocked the crowed on either side of them and pushed back the already squished group so the man could make his graceful entrance.
Dangerous honey-brown eyes found Irenie immediately, her voice, despite her initial scepticism, catching in her throat.
The ladies at court swooned back, ogling his face just as Irenie did, though she would furiously deny it. If some of Irenie's suitors weren't glaring at the young man before he entered then they were certainly giving him daggers after they saw his face.
'Frederick Magurse' was nearly the most handsome man Irenie had ever seen in her life, rivalling Curdie… but there was something horrible about him, about the way his eyes burned right through her.
His short brown hair waved gently over his face and his chin was narrow but pleasing and his figure was slim but muscular.
He could have passed for a god the way he looked.
He wore a golden coloured suit, and black boots that cut off at his knees and a black vest that covered most of his chest besides a dark stone hanging around his neck.
He looked handsome and had a charming air about him but there was something about him that Irenie found strange. She shook the feeling away as Frederick approached.
As he marched up the stairs like a born prince, he kept a calm face on until he ascended the last step and a small smirk crossed his lips, his eyes never straying from Irenie's. This close to her she could see his eyes weren't honey-brown as much as they were yellow with dark flecks in them. She had never seen anything like it.
He was a good half a head taller than the princess but stared down at her with a burning bright fire in his eyes that Irenie had never seen in any eyes of the men at court.
It was frightening.
They were only a foot apart, but Irenie was the first to speak, stepping back, "you are welcome to my birthday celebration Frederick-"
The court gasped. Irenie was never the first person to speak. As princess it was her duty to watch as the men presented themselves and he was suppose to be the first one to speak.
This didn't bother the young man at all.
"Madcurse- it's an old family name," he interrupted quickly, his grin widening gently, "but please excuse me for the interruption, Princess'th." The young man whispered as he backed up from Irenie, the slightest lisp on his tongue.
Irenie's eyes widened slightly and stared in shock at the man for several minutes while he was bowing. He was… almost familiar… despite the fact Irenie couldn't recall ever seeing his face before.
"You are forgiven," Irenie whispered under her breath though she was sure that most of the castle could hear her and she curtsied to proceed the ceremony.
She didn't even realize she had a hot blush on her face until she had touched her cheek lightly.
"Have you a gift for the princess?"
Irenie turned to see a very serious Sedaris stepping forward to her side, laying an intense gaze on Frederick as the young man looked up at the tall imposing guard before flashing another charming -if not daring- grin at the royal soldier.
"Of course." His eyes making constant contact with Irenie's, much to the guards displeasure, as he lifted the chain from around his neck, the large rock attached at the base.
Irenie stared at it and struggled to smile when she saw it was but a stone, a perfectly spherical stone, but a stone nonetheless.
"Is that it-" Sedaris asked brazenly. The older guard rolled his eyes which even made Irenie laugh.
This birthday party was much more entertaining than she thought it would be.
"Yes," he answered, Frederick didn't flinch once, even when he saw the condescension coming from the guard and the snickering that could be heard across the hall.
Placing the stone in his hand, the prince drew a blade swiftly from his side, causing Irenie to flinch back and for Sedaris to place an arm protectively in front of her. However, the knife cut into the stone causing it to crumble around the front and reveal a brilliant assortment of rubies at the centre.
"For you- princess," he bowed and winked at Irenie as Sedaris pulled his arm back and allowed Irenie to reach for the trinket.
Mesmerized, she touched the gems at the centre of the stone.
"Well- thank you- and thank you for arriving in time Frederick Madcurse." Irenie curtseyed and gave her hand forward.
Frederick smiled and waited while she stood there, hand out in front of her waiting for him to kiss it.
He hesitated, his charming smile faltering as he looked from her hand to her face but slowly reached out for it and slowly bent his face down. However, when Irenie thought he would kiss it, he placed his forehead to the top instead and stood up right away, smiling slightly.
The gathering gasped again. They were all likely miffed by this man's lack of formality but Irenie had been won over in part. She had spent the day getting her hand kissed by nearly eighty strangers but this Frederick hadn't even pressed his lips to her hand.
She actually found herself liking the newest arrival. However, she hadn't forgotten about Curdie and if anything the handsome stranger had made her decision to ignore all suitors more firm.
"Not what he seems, eh?" Sedaris snorted in contempt as he watched the young man descend the stairs and not quite slip into the crowed. Frederick stood in front of them, almost refusing to be overlooked.
Irenie smiled and mused to herself silently. She hadn't seen much of the man at court but she had enjoyed the brief laugh.
Perhaps it wouldn't be the miserable day she had planned it would be.
But there was something a bit narcissistic about him and Irenie made the wise choice to avoid the man for the moment.
'Any suitor was a bad suitor.' Irenie smiled to herself. With her new found courage she grabbed onto Sedaris' arm and he escorted her to the king's chair.
...
Little did Irenie realize how right she was or how much of a down turn the night would take.
...
Alright, Irenie's having a pretty bad day which is why she's so upset, she would never let it show on her face but she really is having a tough time with losing Curdie and having a fight with her father and losing all her friends so it's all just piling up around her. 'Frederick's' classy entrance was inspired by All Men Are Pigs by the Studio Killers, great song and really hilarious I suggest you guys look it up if you can. Lyrics:
"Because I'm not typical, and Simone... you are just cynical!
I am better than you think, let me buy you a drink
Cha-mon!, I'm not so typical at all"
All men are pigs
All men are pigs
All men are pigs, I've seen their tricks,
They know the licks, that get the chicks
All men are pigs
"I am better than you think, let me buy you a drink
Cha-mon!, I'm not so typical at all"
All men are pigs
All men but me