Chapter 6

"Oh, Eugene." Rapunzel sighed, shifting on the bed, setting aside her embroidery so she could run her hands through his sweaty hair. It had been ten days now, the bruise on his shoulder was mostly gone. Didn't his body know it had more important things to work on? He was sleeping, that was good. If he slept his body could fight and repair itself - emphasis on the fighting. The physician had already come in - a time every day that she dreaded. His face was always so stoic, it never gave her the slightest glimmer of hope. Estelle sighed and shifted in her sleep. Rapunzel had snuck her up for a nap. If Eugene woke up he could see her a bit more than the allotted ten minutes. Ten minutes! It was preposterous - as if they were visiting him in jail! Rapunzel tweaked it to include ten minutes for each child, so they got almost an hour. The younger three would sit and play as they were asked to. Eugene and Leora would bring their books; mostly to make it look good, but on occasion they would read aloud. The Tales of Flynnigan Rider were very often heard, but Rapunzel preferred the tales of Eugene Fitzherbert. Flynnigan Rider was amusing, but he was a rather selfish adventurer; one who rarely gave anything for anyone. He was almost exactly what Eugene had been when she first met him - with the exception that she would never know what the soul of the character was like beneath his charade. She let out another quiet, frustrated sigh and picked up the embroidery. She still had no skill, not like Leora had, but she didn't really care that much. She had never realized just how much time she had filled for herself in that tower. How she wished she could have some of that extra time now! Estelle wanted a dress like her mama's birthday dress - it was a shock to Rapunzel that she could still fit herself into her old dress - and Rapunzel wanted to do it all herself. It was taking her a long time. She had started it before Christmas of last year, and she was still only about halfway done.

"Mama?" Rapunzel nearly jumped off the bed at the sudden interruption. After a moment of catching her breath she looked up to see her second boy.

"Nicky. What do you need, sweety?" She asked, still sounding like she was catching her breath.

"Grandma said you would be up here." He answered, fitting his right fist into the flat of his left hand and not really looking at her.

"You knew I was up here. Now quiet, your father's sleeping. Why do you need me?"

"I...uh, I just kinda wanted to come up." He muttered. Rapunzel let out an angry breath and closed her eyes.

"Have the maids been talking again?"

"N..no, mama." He stammered.

"Well, what then?"

"Mama. Uh, mama... Mama, is dad going to be alright?" Rapunzel's jaw dropped open and she didn't say anything, so he just kept on going. "Is it true what the maids say when they're talking?" He blurted out, wringing his lanky hands like he didn't know what else to do with them. Rapunzel set her embroidery down firmly and pulled the nine-year old gently toward her.

"What are they saying, Styx?" Styx. That nickname was courtesy of Eugene as well - why that spelling, though, she didn't understand. Sticks, yes, he was thin as a pole. Rapunzel just kind of figured Eugene liked that spelling better and was ignoring the fact that it was the name of the river in the Greek underworld.

"Haven't Eugene and Leora already told you?" The boy said lowly but clearly.

"No, they only tell me that there is talk. They never say what of."

"They say that dad's going to die." He whispered, his eyes averted from Rapunzel again, this time looking at Eugene.

"What?!" Rapunzel gasped. No one had dared talk like that around her, but around her children?! "Who told them that?" She demanded.

"I don't know, mama. They don't say. They just call Matthew and Estelle poor things and shake their heads and they tell Flynn and Leora and me that we have to be brave because dad's going to die." Rapunzel fell back and gasped, wrapping her arms around his thin shoulders and pulling him close. When she touched him his whole facade broke down and he started crying, wrapping his arms around his mama. She shushed him, pulling his head deep into her shoulder so he would be quieter and rocking him back and forth. She didn't want him to see the tears spilling out of her eyes. "Flynn told me not to tell you, mama." He sobbed. "He told you not to tell because it would hurt you. I don't want to hurt you mama. I didn't hurt you, did I?" He sobbed again. Rapunzel shook her head and stroked his, wrapping her arms tighter around him. "No. No, of course you didn't!" she gasped. She knew what Eugene was trying to do - but son, he is still a child! You can't leave such a heavy burden on a child! "No one says anything, mama. Grandma and grandpa don't talk about him at dinner or breakfast, and dad just smiles and lays back when we come up here. Is he too sick to sit up, mama?"

"For now, Nicky, yes. It's alright, though. He's sick just like we were, remember?"

"Yes, mama, I remember. But none of us was sick this long!"

"I know, sweety. It's - it's not anyone's fault, though."

"Maids say it was the orphans-"

"Don't you ever repeat that again!" Rapunzel gasped, cutting him off. "If they ever blame your father's illness on those poor children again you tell me. And you tell me who they are because they're getting a tongue lashing from me! I am tired of this! All of it!"

"Rapunzel." Eugene whispered. She jumped again and let go of her son.

"Oh! Eugene, I'm so sorry! I woke you up!"

"Dad!"

"Hey, Styx." He smiled. "Taking care of your brother?"

"Yeah."

"Eugene-" Rapunzel moaned

"It's alright babe." He whispered. Everything was a whisper now. Rapunzl felt her heart go to her feet. Everything the maids were saying...had the doctor been telling everyone his suppositions except for her? No. No, she wouldn't believe it. She couldn't believe it. They had lived through too much together to give up hope. She leaned up on the bed and smoothed his sweaty hair back from his forehead.

"Can I get you something?"

"I'm a little hungry." He admitted. He hated this...being waited on by Rapunzel. Doing it for her was one thing, but watching her go about through the day taking no time for herself was killing him - only figuratively. Rapunzel sighed almost happily. That was good, right, if Eugene was hungry?

"Nicholas, you stay here with your father. I'll be right back." She kissed Eugene's forehead and set her embriodery on the night stand. It wouldn't do to have it too wrinkled. Speaking of wrinkled, she looked down at her skirt and tried to smooth it out, but after a few failed attemptes she gave it up for lost and stepped out the door.

"Well, what trouble have you been up to, Nicholas?" Eugene asked. Nicholas stared ahead - that was normal for him, his mind was always in about twenty places a once - and his hands kept tapping together aimlessly. He shrugged.

"Nothing."

"Phft. You expect me to believe that? You mean you haven't been putting toads in Leora's bed or anything?"

"Oh, dad, you know that she isn't afraid of toads!"

"Yeah, I know it." Eugene cracked a weak smile. "But if I hear you've been pulling moths on her again I'm gonna smack you, understand?" He continued, completely serious. Nicholas colored and his head dipped down so his dad couldn't see him. "You better get 'em out." He threatened.

"Dad, they don't hurt anyone!"

"Yeah, well, everyone has something that they're unreasonably afraid of, and to use it to pick on her is cruel."

"Dad-"

"You know, last time she came to me crying, and she wouldn't even tell me that it was you who had planted a whole load of dead moths in her room. That was on her birthday. In the winter. I was ready to kill you, kid. So no more, do you understand?"

"Yeah, alright dad." He muttered.

"Well, what messes have you taught Matthew to get into?"

"Nothing..."

"Oh. Oh, no. I know that look! What have you been up to?"

"Uuhhhh..."

"Did you take Eugene with you? Or at least Max?"

"Um, yeah, we - we road Max." Nicholas muttered evasively.

"What have you been doing? Nicholas?"

"We were following one of mama's lanterns."

"Lanterns? No. Oh no!" Eugene covered his face with his hands. He told her it would never happen. He promised her that he would never forget her birthday! Now, of all times! Had she been wearing her dress? He didn't even remember if she had been wearing her lavendar dress! Had he been sleeping? "Why didn't someone remind me?" Eugene moaned, his hands still over his face.

"Well, Mite was running in here anyway, so I followed her and you and mama were both sleeping, so I chased her back out."

"But the whole rest of the day?" he asked. Nicholas shrugged.

"I dont know. I guess we didnt think about it - well, I didnt know it was until I saw the party in the town, and everytime someone was in here, you or mama were sleeping."

"But what about the lanterns? If Mite ran in here-"

"Grandma said to leave you two alone to sleep." He explained. "We each got our own lanterns. Bishop was there and he prayed for a really long time. Then Mite tried to set her hair on fire."

"I bet she did." Eugene smiled, sliding his hands off of his face. He would make it up to Rapunzel as soon as he could. "Well?"

"What?"

"Did you find out where they go?" Eugene whispered. He should stop talking or he would be sleeping by the time Rapunzel came back. Nicholas looked confused for a second before he remembered what had led to the conversation.

"They trailed up to a cliff with lots of hanging vines all over it." He shrugged. "Max kept on trying to eat the moss. Then we turned back."

"Hmm." Eugene mused. They had almost found the tower. There weren't lantern littering the forest sixteen years before, though, when he had come to her rescue and died instead. Maybe it was the wind. Either way, he was glad that they hadn't found the tower. Rapunzel didn't need a kid with broken bones to look after too. He smiled knowingly at the nine year old. "Why do I think that is the safest thing you've done lately?"

Rapunzel didn't mind going down to the old cook; she rather liked the woman. She was always kind to the children and she never scolded either her or Eugene like other servants felt free to do. Rapunzel did not like to play rank, but there was a time for everyone to hold their place! She could hear quiet talking as she walked. It sounded like her father and another man, and when she drew nearer she understood what they were saying.

"I have the ebony wood, your majesty. It is far more expensive than most, however."

"The cost is of no matter."

"Yes, sire. But you are sure that black is fitting? Perhaps the princess-"

"No. No, at this time we are not going to disturb her with the arrangements."

"Not to pry, you majesty, but is he to be buried within the family crypt? The shape is-"

"What are you speaking of ?!" Rapunzel demanded breathlessly, rounding the corner. The king and carpenter looked up guiltily and said nothing. Rapunzel's hands clenched and unclenched at her sides as she approached them, her eyes were burning with pain and anger.

"What are you doing, father?" She gasped as a tear rolled down her face. No. This couldn't be happening! Her father? Her own father? How could he do this?

"Rapunzel, sweet, I..." He trailed off. He was ashamed to admit what he was doing. She knew that he was ashamed. The carpenter, who had opened his mouth at first to ask a question, seemed to suddenly understand since he closed it quickly and fell back into the shadows.

"You're planning Eugene's funeral!" She gasped the last word with disdain and distaste. No! No, it couldn't be! Not her father too!

"Rapunzel, I'm afraid that - Rapunzel his chances are very slim, and - don't. Don't look at me like that. It's best to be prepared -"

"Eugene is NOT going to die, papa. Not now! Not for a long time!" She cried, the second half of her sentences broken up with sobs. Why was it so easy to cry lately? Her father moved forward to comfort her, but she backed away, shaking her head. "You can't do this! I'm getting him something from the kitchen right now." She sniffed, hiccuping like she'd been crying for a long time. "You can send that man away, papa. Please. Please!" She begged with her hands pleadingly clasped. It seemed to her to be waiting and asking for his death to build him a coffin so soon. Oh God, don't let him die! "Please, at least until...until the doctor tells me..." She trailed off her last words. She didn't want to hear those words about Eugene from anyone, especially not that little man who had told her (though kindly and gently) that her baby was dead the first time she had miscarried. She hated him - well, not really him. It was his utter lack of hope that despised. She had seen this lack of hope in his eyes the first day Eugene had been ill. She knew that if Eugene worsened, that soon he would tell her the same thing Gothel had told her; that Eugene was going to die and that she could do nothing about it.

"Alright, dearest." The king whispered and held his daughter since this time she did not back away. Eugene was her light and her hope...perhaps far too much. "No more until then." He didn't say what was on his mind, things that would sound horrible and callous. He wouldn't tell her that royal funerals were ponderous things to plan, that they took great time and detail. He couldn't voice that Eugene was so well loved by the people of their kingdom and others surrounding them that his funeral would pack the small island of Corona quite to bursting. And he would not tell the carpenter to stop his work. To his mind; Eugene, the man who had brought his daughter home safe, deserved more than he could ever repay. His funeral would be both the grandest and the most tragic that Corona would ever know - if only he hadn't had to live to see the day of his son-in-law's funeral. As he gazed down at his daughter he knew that part of her would be lost -irreperably- when her husband died. Why so soon? Rapunzel just nodded. She couldn't speak anymore. It was all just too much. She slipped out of her father's grasp and walked silently down the hall to the stairs. The king sighed, covering his face with his hands, shaking his head. His poor little girl!

"Sire?" The carpenter asked quietly. He was as concerned as anyone else, but he did have a job to do.

"Yes, the family crypt." The king answered in a low voice. "Dr. Fredrick has already told me quite conclusively his thoughts. Continue with your work, but no more in the palace unless I call you."

"Yes, your majesty." He bowed. biting his lip, he asked a bold question of the king. "Sire, the princess. Will - will she be alright?"

"I hope so." The king breathed.