Chapter 6: Serving Leftovers
"Your Majesty?"
The King and the Captain looked up and saw Nigel reappearing, with company. "I just wanted to inform that Your noble cousin, the Duke of South Corona, has arrived, along with Prince Lars of Southern Ilses, and Princess Annabelle and Prince Daniel." He bowed respectfully as the Duke stepped forward.
"Yes, thank you, Nigel. I know I have arrived." Prince Lars said low, looking slightly bored with the formal presentation as he kept his yes half closed up to the sky.
The King lightened up at the sight of them, and rose to greet them. "Cousin! That was a pleasant surprise. But you're here..."
"Early, I know." he said as he took the King's hand with a light nod. "I was actually not planning to stay right away. I was only escorting my family for the visit. We could not wait to bring you the wonderful news."
As a respond, Princess Annabelle approached and kneeled to the King with a smile and half closed eyes. "Uncle, it's so good to see you!"
"Dear niece, I am glad to see you're doing well. I am sorry you were sick during my daughter's coronation. Rapunzel was most disappointed not to meet you."
"And I've missed the chance again I see? Nigel told us she's away." she said lightly, although she didn't seem too sorry about it.
Slightly annoyed that Nigel had given away information, the King gave him a short look, but didn't make a scene, and said instead. "Nigel, inform the Queen of our guests and make sure bedrooms are prepared."
"Consider it done, Your Majesty!" Nigel bowed deep and was about to take a leave, but was stopped by the Duke speaking.
"I won't be staying long, Nigel, so you may wait with mine, till I am 'actually' supposed to arrive. As a compassion, I'll warn you a week ahead!" He said in a slightly humoristic tone that made Nigel choke a chuckle.
"Most kind, Sir. I bid you a good journey if I do not see you. And... My warmest congratulations." Nigel made a deep bow towards Annabelle, who only smiled proudly back. And by that, the slender canceller disappeared.
"Congratulations?" King Fredric puzzled, but he did not get time to ask as the Captain cleared his throat.
"I will return to my duties, Sire." he said and bowed.
"Very well, Captain." the King nodded and watched as the Captain follow Nigel out before turning his attention towards his guests.
Inside the castle again, Nigel let out a heavy sight of relief. "Thank heavens they did not arrive before we got the prisoner out!"
"Oh, don't mention it!" the Captain said and leaned his head on his hand a moment at the mentioning of Varian. He still had the insults of the teen fresh in mind. "The Duke is known for being rather conservative when it comes to... order."
"I am certain he wouldn't hesitate to have young Varian hanged without a trial."
"At least he wouldn't bother bringing him out of the dungeons. I wonder if that is why he is here! I believe he must have heard about him."
"Oh no, that's not at all why they came at all." Nigel suddenly lightened up and smiled when he spoke. "His grace told me on the way. They came to tell that..."
#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#
"Your daughter is getting married?" the King said out loud and widened his eyes. "But that is splendid news, indeed!" He smiled and grabbed his niece's hands and gave her a warm smile. "Congratulations my dear. I couldn't be more happy for you. Who is the lucky one?"
"Your Majesty?" Prince Lars approached and bowed. "May I present my... illegitimate brother Jonas." He held out a hand as a sign for his young brother to present him, and he stepped forward with friendly eyes and a smile as he bowed respectfully.
"Well, that I must say." Fredric said and reached out for Jonas' hand. "Congratulations to you as well. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"The pleasure is all mine, Your Majesty!" Jonas said smiling as he took the King's hand and bowed slightly one more time while doing so.
"Uncle Jonas is funny!" Daniel said.
"Oh he is? Well, I look forward to hear all about him." Fredric said as he led them up to the pavilion. "Shall we take a..." He stopped himself as he recalled too late that the table was still a mess from Varian's food war. There were ham slices and carrots and butter spilt on the table where he had been sitting. Fredric hoped that he wasn't blushing and hurried to think of an explanation. He couldn't explain to them that they'd just had a traitor for lunch.
"Ew!" Princess Annabelle said and wrinkled her nose.
The Duke stopped and watched the table, his expression stiff except from a raised eyebrow. "We missed a party, I see!" His voice were sarcastic.
"Have you been playing with food?" Daniel said as he picked up the turkey slice that Varian had tossed at them. He looked like he amused himself with the thought, but his father hurried over to him and took his hand, forcing him to let go of it. "Hey!"
"Eh... We had a little accident with a... wild cat that had managed to slip through. Fredric coughed and swallowed hard. "Yes, a... black haired little cat."
"And the poor thing wasn't able to resist the temptation?" Jonas laughed and started to carefully clean up the spilt food on a plate. "I can't say I blame him."
"It's not here, I hope?" the Duke suddenly became a little on guard. "You do know I am terribly allergic!"
"It has been taken away, I can assure you." Fredric noticed the cheese cake were still untouched and cleared his throat. "But we still have some cake. May I offer some?"
"I want some!" Daniel cried out happily. His father though, straitened the grip on his hand and he twitched in response, but after a look from him, Daniel looked more modest up at the King. "I mean, yes please."
It wasn't wholeheartedly, but the King was relieved to move on and smiled widely to the rascal. "Of course you may have some cake, Daniel. You deserve that after such a long journey." While they spoke, some servants came with a couple of more chairs and plates and took away the plate Jonas had gathered the scraps. They did their best to clean the table before they went off. "Please take a seat! Come, sit by my side, son. You're certainly old enough for that now."
Poor Prince Lars didn't seem very comfortable with this setting, but while the King showed Daniel at his left side, he nevertheless put himself on his son's other side to keep an eye on him. Jonas pulled out a seat for Princess Annabelle beside her father, who had taken place where the Queen had been sitting to the King's right, but he didn't sit down himself at first. "Allow me, Your Majesty." he said as he took the triangle shaped knife to cut the cake.
Fredric was surprised, but nodded smiling. "By all means, if you insist!"
"Ladies first." he said as he cut up the first piece to Annabelle, who smiled warmly back at him. Then he gave one to Daniel, who's face broke up into a huge smile as it was put down in front of him. "Alright, dig in now!" he said in a teasing tone to the boy.
"Thanks, uncle Jonas!" the boy said as he immediately grabbed his fork and attacked the defenseless piece of cake.
Normally, Fredric would have found the boy's lack of manners disturbing, but compared to Varian's performance earlier, the young Prince was a relief to have by his side. He too noticed the slight likeness toward Varian, but she just shook it off. Instead he turned his attention to the so called brother of Prince Lars. "Jonas, was it? "What title do they address you with, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Mostly..."the young red haired said as he finally managed to sit down, giving a half smile as he looked away. "In the way? Or the spare... I have at least a dozen of those."
"Oh?" the King puzzled.
"To tell the truth..." he gave a rather modest look. "I happen not to be included equally in the circle of... eh..."
"Sprawling dandies, was it not?" Lars said smiling, making Jonas chuckle.
"You're not gonna let me forget that one so easily, are you?"
"A Westergaard never forgets an insult, to quote my father." Lars said formally, but then laughed with him, before drawing his breath to gather himself. "Jonas is not a member of the... royal family, with any title that comes with the legal born ones."
"So I get away with the most boring duties." he chuckled.
"I would actually say that you're lucky then." Fredric said with a laugh before turning back to Lars again. "Which brings me to, how all your other brothers are doing? I fear I never manage to keep count of how many you are. I remember only allot of red haired men in you and my cousin's wedding, and I fear I lost count of them all." he said with a short laugh. "My fault of course."
"I don't blame Your Majesty for that. Few people manage. Even father's servants mistake us from time to time. That's why we have embroidered our names on our garments." He pulled out his handkerchief and held it up to he could see the name of Lars in one of the corner in blue thread before he put it away. "I still have in memory how they managed to mix up the twin's undergarments, that one time they had managed to sew it wrong." He chuckled.
"Do you remember that stable guy who never managed to get Rudi and Runo from eachother, and took Franz, who is many years elder than both, for being Rudi?" Jonas hid his laughter behind a gloved hand. "Oh the look on Rudi's face when his older brother was mistaken for him..."
"That poor stable man never became himself again." Lars laughed a little himself before he became serious. "I... I actually went to visit my family regarding my father's birthday. It was about two months before your daughter's coronation. I am dreadfully sorry I never made it either, I was actually planning to reach it in time, but..." He stopped smiling. "During my stay, we... suffered a dreadful tragedy, and I found myself unable to leave at once."
"Oh dear?" Fredric asked. "What happened? Your father wasn't sick, was he?"
"My father has the health of a northern cold blood horse despite his age." It was one of my brothers... actually. He looked down. "My... my youngest brother got... caught in a fire in the stables." He sighed heavily. "It happened quickly, but it was a great sorrow. My mother was inconsolable."
"Oh, I am so dreadfully sorry!" Fredric said. "Believe me, I feel with you."
"Yes." he took a deep breath, obviously affected by this. "But that's when I became aware that Jonas here wasn't... treated the way he should." he said, giving his brother a warm, friendly look. "So I felt a need to make that up and... brought him along with me. And now..." he gave a chuckle. "Well, I hadn't expected him and Annabelle to... But I think this is just what he needed."
"I believe that's what we call destiny." Jonas said. "I never thought I would be this happy, but I am."
Annabelle had her eyes locked at him. "Just wait till we're married. Then we'll get you a proper title."
"The only title I'll ever need, is your husband!" he said, digging his eyes into hers.
#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#
During their conversation, Daniel had finished off his cake, and he was to call out for a new piece, he knew that uncle Jonas would rush to give him one if he asked, when something caught his attention in the half open door to the Castle where they had come from a moment ago. As the conversation around the table turned towards a matter that was of awfully little interest to him, and as a boy who's curiosity were always on alert, he looked around to see if anyone noticed him there.
His father was actually paying attention to the King and uncle Jonas. The King too were paying attention to him. Uncle Jonas and cousin Annabelle seemed only interested in eachother, and just watching them made him loose his desire for another cake. And Uncle Walponce were for the moment consuming cake while the others talked. It looked like he was not at all the center of attention right now.
As they seemed to have forgotten about him, even his father, he carefully snuck under the table and appeared from under the table cloth, keeping his head low as he heard them keep talking. As he peeked up and noticed his father looking at Uncle Walponce as he suddenly begun speaking, Daniel saw his chance and ran on the grass to lower the sound of his leaping feet as he stormed towards the door.