"Come, Rapunzel. I'll leave one of the guards is here to sit with Eugene. He's sleeping right now anyway." Rapunzel's mother insisted, trying to drag her daughter off to a meeting.
"But mama, I don't want to leave him!" Rapunzel yawned with tears springing out of the corners of her eyes. She was just so tired.
"I know, Rapunzel. But you also have to get out of this room for a few moments in a day. You haven't seen your children, you won't let them visit-"
"They can't!" The princess almost shouted. "Mama, I don't want them to see him like this."
"I understand, darling. But you need to get some air yourself, alright?"
"Air? In a stuffy conference room? Mama, am I really needed?"
"The windows will be open. There are several...ummm, well important men, quote end quote."
"So they find themselves important."
"Exactly." her mother smiled before dropping a depressed sigh. "But their business must be discussed. I will be perfectly honest, Rapunzel. I have fallen asleep in these meetings and none of the countries have been any the worse for it, so if you can not keep your eyes open, don't worry yourself about it."
"Alright. Thank you, mama. So it is not an important meeting?"
"Well, to tell the truth, they were hoping to meet with Eugene, and I'm a little distressed that they cannot for that reason among others. He is the best delegate that we have ever had!"
"How is it I've never been told about that?" Rapunzel asked, hurt that Eugene hadn't mentioned that to her. Why was she hurt about something trivial like that? Eugene was supposedly dying!
"Well, he doesn't know it either." The queen replied. "We wouldn't want him to go around smoldering everyone to get his way, would we?" She wasn't facing Rapunzel, but the princess could tell by the voice inflection that her mother was smiling; and probably envisioning the same thing as she was at the moment.
"Well, it would make the meetings more interesting." Rapunzel smirked.
"I will not argue that point." The queen answered, turning to her daughter with a bright smile. She put her hands on the doors and opened them, seemingly without ceremony, but Rapunzel could not see herself as she and the queen glided into the room. The delegates stood. Rapunzel recognized some of them: a greasy little man with a ridiculous black forest covering his face; Thomas, a pale, straight nosed dignitary with a thin mustache and a very pointed beard; and a thick, old, crass "gentleman" from the far islands - she had seen them before. The others she did not know. These were the dignitaries. Her father smiled formally when they entered.
"So, everyone is here. Let us begin."
It had been hours. Rapunzel was absolutely certain of that, and she still had no idea what was going on. She wondered how long it had taken these men to learn such fiddle-fadle for discussing simple business. It may have helped if she had been able to pay attention, but when she wasn't dozing off the only thing that could hold her attention was her husband.
"'Does the princess have anything to say?" Thomas drawled, leaning back in his chair like he was about to put his feet on the table. Rapunzel startled. She have anything to say? About what?
"I'm sorry, but no." Rapunzel answered, assuming that it was a safe enough reply.
"And why not?" Black beard inquired, rising up in his chair so he would look a little taller.
"Forgive me, but I really don't know much about politics." She answered.
"Ah! Then where is your husband? Lying about somewhere avoiding this meeting? If we are to bandy words-"
"That's enough!" King Nicholas roared in a quiet thunder. But the damage was done. First Rapunzel's face had gone from confused to expressionless and then her chest started heaving as she tried to keep her emotions under control. It was not fitting for a royal to explode during diplomacy. That was one thing that Rapunzel remembered. Her hand had gone to her stomach to feel for some comfort - why?! She knew there was no child waiting there! Why had she done that to herself? A sob finally burst out of her throat and she hid her face in her arms. The room was silent for a few moments, save for the weeping of the princess.
"You will understand," Rapunzel heard her father say slowly through clenched teeth, "That at this moment my daughter's husband is seriously ill, gentlemen. So I will hear no more complaints of his absence."
"Some of us have heard, your majesty. I am very sorry. He is a good man." An anonymous voice spoke up in understanding.
"I heard that he was delirious, so no prospects of asking him for an opinion." Someone else said carelessly. Rapunzel sobbed louder suddenly and heard someone hiss,
"She's not deaf, you know!"
"This is too much!" Isabell cried, rising from her chair. "Here you are, supposed gentlemen, shamelessly tearing my daughter's heart to pieces!"
"Madam, we are not here to discuss your daughter's heart!"
"Sir, you will address the queen in a fitting manner." Growled the king.
"You know of how ill Eugene is, sirs." The queen continued in a soft voice. It was almost like she was trying to avoid being heard by her daughter. "That has taken such a toll on the princess. But please. If you can understand this, they just lost a child as well. She has so much taxing her heart right now, can you not leave her alone?" As suddenly as that the room exploded, conversations, remarks, everything thrown everywhere. "What is that matter to us?" Here, "Here, no! Let us back to our discussions!" There, "Poor lass!"
"We'll, what are we to do? There have been so many alliances cast to the wind for various reasons! Your princess would have married our prince, majesties, had she not been taken. Now instead she is married to a man found to be the sole survivor of a kingdom that was destroyed by its own people in his absence!"
"The absence was no fault of his. He was a child! And what is he to you? Your country has possession of those lands and he has never challenged your possession of them!"
"What has that to do with anything? What are we here to discuss?" Another bellowed.
"Well, certainly not the feelings of Corona's princessa." Someone else muttered. Rapunzel felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see her mother.
"Come along. Lets get you out of here before they start aiming things at you worse. Out of sight, out of mind. Then perhaps they will settle down to business." She whispered in her daughter's ear. Rapunzel nodded and tried to get up without being noticed. Isabell was guiding her to the door - of course the room had only one door - trying to shield her from the conversation, but a voice rose high above everyone's.
"Well perhaps if she is so distraught as that, she should have another child!" The thick diplomat shouted as if we're carousing in an ale house. Everyone else suddenly fell to silence and Rapunzel froze where she was. Her mother could not budge her. Rapunzel's father cleared his throat, his face betraying that there was a rage ready to break free.
"There is nothing she would like more, sir, but Eugene is still very ill..." Her father intervened, trying to salvage the situation. He saw Rapunzel and he saw the rage building in her eyes as well. Isabell clenched her jaw tightly, and Deligate Thomas shrugged.
"But he is still living, if barely. With five living children, your majesties, I am sure she knows the way of things. It would be simple enough, no? For her to-" he was stopped in an abrupt though not entirely untimely manner as Rapunzel's hand struck twice firmly across his face. The diplomat sat there, shocked; his jaw hanging slack to his ruffled waistcoat.
"You horrible, horrible wretch!" Rapunzel scolded. "Do you know nothing of the way of things? Do you know what a horrible thing you are suggesting of me? That I use my own husband?"
"Princess, I merely thought -"
"Of the materiel. Is that all that you and your fellow countrymen consider?" Rapunzel shouted, trembling with rage and indignation. Her cheeks were redder than Eugene's had ever been. "You! You call yourselves gentlemen!" She continued, looking up around the table to every face. "All of you! What is so gentle in your manner? You curse like any other man on the street whom you would call coarse. You think that my husband is beneath you because he walks among real people, beause he helps real people. Because he wasn't raised with silk sheets and rose water. No doubt you think the same of me - and I am nothing if not dull compared to him. You pretend to govern countries when you cannot govern yourselves!" Everyone was silent, staring at the suddenly outspoken princess, not knowing what to reply.
"Rapunzel." Her mother whispered.
"Yes, mama. I'm finished with these...gentlemen." She gasped. Isabell was silent when they stepped out of the doors. "I'm sorry about that, mama." Rapunzel whispered.
"Sorry?" Her mother asked. "You have nothing to be sorry for what so ever! To think, they requested that you be present. Well, I dare say they won't ask for that any time soon!"
"Good." The princess replied, still not raising her voice. "They wouldn't be seeing me anyway. I want to go back to Eugene."
"Yes, dear. Go on. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that."
"Well, mama, now I see better where the world is dark and cruel. Those who find themselves above everyone else? I pray my children will never be like that." Rapunzel let herself into the antechamber of her suite with her mother close. She touched the handles to her bedroom door. She could hear Eugene moaning and raving. Tears flooded her eyes. Who or what was he fighting now? The queen hung back as she Rapunzel opened the door.
"Mom!" He moaned, twisting slightly. The princess knew he wasn't calling for her. He was reliving that night some thirty-odd years ago when his family was slaughtered around him. Eugene was fighting that battle again, warning his mother as something came crashing toward her, something he couldn't stop. Rapunzel raced to his side, dismissing the guard with a wave of her hand. "No." He gasped, his hands working weakly at his sides. "No." Tears crept from his closed eyes. Some things he had told Rapunzel from that night, had told her mother and father - which is how they realized who he really was. Other horrors that his young mind had buried beyond his memory came out in the darkness, in these fevered nightmares. She grabbed his hand and leaned toward his face, kissing his sweaty forehead while she brushed his face with her other hand.
"It's alright Eugene, I'm here." Rapunzel whispered tenderly. "I'm here, love."