"It's so good to be well again!" Rapunzel exclaimed, snapping a sheet in the window before folding it. The early summer breeze blew in through the window, tossing her bangs back into the rest of her hair. Her mother behind her laughed softly.
"Dear, you and the children were sick for less then a week. Normally scarlet fever takes far longer to get over then that!" Rapunzel half turned, letting her eyebrows arch in slight surprise as her mother went on. "I had it when I was a child, and my brother - your Uncle Tyrone - nearly died of it."
"Oh." Rapunzel replied, not really sure how to reply to that. Sure, she had been out of the tower for 15 years but she still had much to learn!
"Well, at least Eugene got out after locking himself up here all week to take care of you babies." He mother continued, frowning at one of the sheets as she picked it up. Erin was wetting the bed again.
"Yes! And do you know where he went?" She asked.
"Should I?" The queen asked, shaking her head with a smile. Rapunzel turned around with her hands on her hips.
"He went to the orphanage! You would think that after spending all week around us he would at least like to get some air!" She exclaimed, an admiring smile on her face the whole time.
"Well I expect the orphans have missed him, poor things. It's wonderful the joy he brings to them." The queen smiled gently, thinking of her son-in-law. To think that they would have hanged him without a trial fifteen years ago. "He brought none of the children?"
"No, they're out playing." Rapunzel explained, looking out the window to watch her children gamboling in the yard with the squires. The castle had been so quiet that week, exempt for the moaning of the children - and of herself, Rapunzel admitted - and Eugene's calming voice at all hours of the day and through the night. He had looked a little haggard that morning when he kissed her goodbye for the day, but Rapunzel hadn't had the heart to stop him from going. "They couldn't do much today, anyway. Eugene told me that the children were sick there and they needed help."
"Oh? He seems to be the authority on all such things." The queen smiled. Eugene did after all seem to have quite a hand with sickness, particularly in children.
"I don't know about that, but he told me that there was a breakout of fever when he was young. He was a mainstay then, too."
"He would have been one of the older children, I assume." the queen observed, laying the pillowcase down and lifting up another. This was all the Fitzherbert's bedding, which the princess insisted on doing herself because 'she could handle it'. "As long as I remember the year right, he would have been about ten. I remember hoping that wherever you were you were safe from it. That was such a horrible year..." she sighed, pondering and remembering. The very worst part if being a monarch was not being able to help your people; food and charity went only so far. Regrettably it could not take sickness away. "Well, his must have been a mild case." She said with a smile, pulling herself back out of the past.
"Hmmm? Oh, no, mamma. Eugene's never had the fever." Rapunzel said carelessly, laying another sheet on the pile. The queen stopped what she was doing immediately and turned to her daughter, who didn't notice the silence at first and then looked up to see her mother's face blanched white, looking very concerned at that pillowcase. Rapunzel felt her heart freeze up a little, seeing that look. "Mamma, what is it?"
"Nothing, Rapunzel. Probably nothing." She shook her head and didn't look up.
"It's not nothing." Rapunzel insisted, feeling her face get hot. Why couldn't there be some way for people to tell her everything she ever needed to know instead of discovering things late like she always did? It was like when he almost lost his leg hunting because of some fool diplomat whose life he saved. "It's Eugene ..." She gasped. Suddenly she could hardly find her tongue and everything sank into a familiar cold dark. "Y...you're worried."
"It's just that if he's never had the fever then ... Rapunzel, it was only yourself and the children that had it, and so mildly that I'm inclined to think that it is still because of that flower, and maybe because of that no one else here was infected. But if Eugene is at the orphanage ...there is no protection for him there... perhaps he had it once when he was very small, Rapunzel."
"If he did do you think he would still be in danger?"
"No, no children that I knew that had it have been taken ill by it again." Rapunzel wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but she couldn't. She somehow doubted that he had ever been ill with it, just lucky when he was a child - or perhaps not so.
"I'm going to send a man for him." Rapunzel said suddenly. Her face had become as white as the sheets she was folding and she raced to the door just as the feet of a horse sounded on the street. Rapunzel glanced out the window. He was far away but unmistakable and Rapunzel let out half the breath she was holding. Eugene was back. She raced down the stairs, past confused butlers, maids and courtiers to the stables, down narrow servant's staircases, through the empty kitchen and opened it wide with a relieved smile. But as Eugene road to the door the smile fell from her face. There was something wrong; Eugene never road all the way to the door. His head was bent down and he was leaning forward in the saddle. Rapunzel gasped, stepping over the threshold, her face had still pale.
"Eugene?" she whispered. He raised his head slightly, like he was just waking up, and his eyes barely met hers.
"They sent me home...I...I'm just tired." he gasped, his voice was ragged and barely audible, and his eyes closed wearily.
Rapunzel took another step forward, her hand out and touching the horse.
"It's alright." She told him, nodding her head gently. Half of her wanted to believe him, but she had seen him before when he'd had no sleep in five days. That had been two years ago, and she did not remember him being like this. Her heart was in her throat as she looked at him - she couldn't say anymore. Before she could step closer he groaned softly and toppled to ground. "Eugene!" she screamed, not able to move fast enough to catch him before he hit the pavement with a dull thud. She fell down beside him with a sob, pulling him onto her lap, calling for help in between calling his name at him. His face was flushed, burning hot to the touch.