Chapter 15: The Problem with Ruddiger
The King looked at the Captain, and then at Ruddiger, then at the Captain again. "Something tells me it's not gonna be that simple." Fredric said, still not convinced of the Captain's plan.
"Maybe so, but I..."
"Your Majesty!"
They both turned around to see Nigel, panting as he had just stopped running. "Oh, the animal?" the royal advisor said as he spotted Ruddiger on the King's arm. "Does this mean you've..."
"Caught him?" the King shook his head. "No. But the Captain ia planning to use our little friend here as a bait to catch him." Ruddiger looked at each of them in turn, as he most likely realized they spoke about him. "He will most likely not leave without him, and we suspect he'll come back for him. What about the Queen?"
"Her Majesty has been informed, and the Duke has left the Castle. And I believe I see the cause." he gave Ruddiger a glare that caused the critter to lower his ears and curl himself up to a ball on the King's arm.
"Yes, our friend here seemed to have trigged my cousin's sensitive nose." Fredric said and gave him a pat, making him raise his ears again as he looked up to find the King smiling to him before he turned to the two others. "Which was quite fortunate indeed if it meant he left before he should. But we have no time to lose."
"Her Majesty will handle the guests, and right now, I'm about to inform the rest of the staff. The guards will have more than enough to think of right now."
"I would be most reviled if I could leave that task to you, Nigel." the Captain said gratefully.
"Then I take the liberty of excusing myself!" Nigel made a bow and made his way past them. "Like Your Majesty said, we have no time to lose!"
"Do so." the King said and watched the slender advisor run off.
The King and the Captain turned to eachother. "So how do we do this?" the King asked.
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Nigel did not stop one second and panted his way through the corridor.
As he swirled around the next corner, he failed to stop as he stumbled over a smaller being, who gave a loud cry when he fell over her. Both of them had to take a moment to gather themselves. When Nigel looked up, he was nevertheless relieved.
"Karen! Oh, thank goodness I found you in one piece. "
"That depends!" she said angry and scowled at him as she got up and held up her skirt, which had gotten a rift by her hip. "Look what you did to my dress!"
"Never mind that." he said as he rose, supported by the wall. "Have you met your grandmother?"
"Yes!" she said, insulted that she didn't get an apology from him, and brushed dust off herself rather than looking at him.
"Oh gracious me! You must hide immediately! Go to your room and lock the door!"
"What?" She turned to look at him, confusion on her young face. "What do you mean?"
"But you said you had spoken with your grandmother?"
"Yes, I have, and now..."
"But then you must understand the reason why you must hide!" Nigel urged desperately and grabbed the little girl by her shoulders and tried to lead her with him, but Karen just shook herself out of his grip.
"Hide from what, Nigel? I haven't got the time now. Don't you know we have important guests to tend to?"
"Your grandmother and aunt can do that. You're too little for..."
This was just it for her. Karen's day had been too much for her already, and she was done with people telling her things she was tired of hearing. She swirled back to face him, frowning as she as she cried out loud right in his face. "Listen up, I am through with people telling me I am too small or too young and that I can't handle anything the other's can! Now you stay out of my way and let me finish what I was supposed to do!" She had become all warm from firing up like this, and when she was to turn away, she ended up stomping as she was walking away with tied fists down her sides.
But Nigel wasn't going to give up that simple, and he walked after her, speaking as he followed her. "Now young lady, I'm not certain you understand the danger here! We're having a dangerous prisoner in the castle, and it's practically suicide walking around by now!"
"Oh please, like we should be in danger in here!"
"Karen! I order you to stop this instance!" the advisor grabbed her arm, maybe a little harder than intended, but he felt it was no time to be careful. He had to protect her from a potential assault from Varian, at any cost.
But Karen was already angry and did not want to be taken for granted. So instead of following him, she raised her skirts and gave him a solid kick in his lower leg. "Let go of me, you scarecrow!"
"OUWTCH" the skinny advisor cried out as he grabbed a hold on his leg and begun jumping uo and down. In the meantime, Karen walked away, and when Nigel discovered she was gone, he desperately begun limping after her. "Karen, wait!"
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Further down the hallway, the Queen and her company were walking while they heard Annabelle complaining about her father being forced to leave before he would have time to meet with Airanna.
"Yes, that was sad, I know, but..." Arianna stopped as she heard some voices.
They saw the Captain appear around the corner, as he turned back to make a salute to the other person behind the wall. "I will see to it, Sire. I am on my way!" He turned to walk in their direction, but as he looked up and spotted the company arriving, he widened his eyes and gave a stifled cry. "Oh... my Queen-and... royal company?!"
Fredric was about to enter, but he had barely gotten past the corner when he spotted them. He got so startled that he froze in shock. As he still had Ruddiger on his arm, he was glad the Captain was still there to hopefully hide him. But he could not show himself with Ruddiger now, or would become too much commotion with both Annabelle and Daniel.
But to his great luck, Arianna came to his rescue. Realizing her husband was near, she thought of the need to act quickly. The moment she spotted the Captain, she let go of Lars, and ran towards him.
"Captain! What a wonderful surprise. I am sooo glad to see you!" she approached and grabbed him by the arm before he could react. Before she dragged him with her, she whispered as loud as she could in Fredric's direction. "Fred, I need a wor..." Her eyes widened a moment when she spotted Ruddiger, but Fredric managed to turn away with the raccoon, hiding the critter from the eyesight of the company behind the corner as Arianna dragged the confused Captain along with her. When they went, she whispered quickly. "Play along, no matter what!"
Then she turned to the guests again, smiling brightly as she spoke out loud. "The Captain wanted to congratulate you in person about your engagement. Annabelle, I don't know if you recall the Captain, you know, he is Cassandra's father."
"Do I need to be reminded?" Annabelle replied rather dryly.
The Captain were rather disturbed, but as the Queen gave him an urging look, he went to play along, and made a deep bow towards the company. "Yes yes, I was thrilled to hear about the upcoming wedding. My warmest congratulations. I am, eh... quite certain my daughter would have been the first to look forward to this grand event!"
"Sure! Where are you keeping her? I was actually a little curious to see what she looks like full grown." Annabelle chuckled, then she turned to Jonas, who looked confused. "You see my dear, whenever I was here, Cassandra was the only other little girl around, so she was put to be my playmate. But she was the kind of girl who preferred horseback riding and sword fighting and, for goodness sake, she walked around in pants! I tell you, the only thing Cassandra and I ever will have in common, is that we both happen to be adopted."
As Annabelle was busy telling them about Cassandra, Arianna snuck away from the company, looking one last time at them before she too disappeared behind the corner. She felt bad for letting Annabelle humiliate his daughter like this, but she had to let him distract them while she spoke with Fredric.
She found him trying desperately trying to hide Ruddiger inside his waistcoat without making it look like nothing was there. The critter didn't look like he was too happy about it, and the sudden stress made him worried and caused him to croon in frustration.
"Please, Ruddiger. Don't be difficult now, you do understand that we can't let them see you now!"
"Fred, what is he doing here?" Arianna half whispered.
"Little Daniel found him in the hallway. Varian must have failed to notice he was falling behind, I can't say what happened. But my cousin left, luckily because of him. Just keep them occupied a little while till I find a better place to hide him."
"Fred, we have a bigger problem." Arianna whispered franticly. "Daniel is missing too. He's running around on his own right now, and we don't know where!"
Fredric gasped. "You mean... here in the halls?"
Arianna nodded.
The King held a hand over his eyes and shook his head. "For heaven's sake, we need a miracle now!"
From underneath the King's waistcoat, Ruddiger peeked out his snout, staring back and forth from the King to the Queen, wondering what was going on and if they were going any further with this.
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Violet approached the kitchen huffing and puffing, and flung he door open, almost bumping her daughter out of the way in the process. Millicent got frustrated over this and had to gather herself when she entered the kitchen. But inside, she got herself yet another shock.
"Has nothing been done? No potatoes peeled or vegetables cut? Nothing?"
"No worries, Milly dear." Violet said as she found a wooden trencher and a knife. "If we just get started, we will manage."
"Where is Karen?" Millicent demanded to know as she found a knife and begun peeling the potatoes. "Just wait till I find her. She is really going to hear it!"
"We had a little situation. Nothing more. She had to go an errand, but she will return soon."
"That is no excuse, today of all days..." Millicent kept complaining.
Violet chopped a couple of carrots when she suddenly became aware of a touch on her right leg. As she looked down, she found Karen's orange striped cat rubbing itself towards her dress. The animal was purring and looked up at her with huge, green eyes. Violet chuckled and bent down to give it a few strokes. "Oh no, not now. You may have some leftovers, but not until it's done and finished. Now off you go! I'll never get anything done it you're to disturb me." she gently patted it's end to make it walk away.
Slightly insulted, Caterpillar decided to do a second try at Millicent. He stroke himself towards her leg at first, but Millicent just ignored him. But the cat wasn't going to let itself be overlooked, and decided another turn. With just a sprang, it jumped into her lap; which turned out to be a bad idea as it made her give a loud startled cry.
"Get off me, you filthy bag of flees!" she yelled and pushed him off her lap, making him land rather clumsy on the floor with a meow. This time, deeply insulted, he decided to walk away.
Violet noticed this and looked at her daughter with sad eyes. She took a break from the vegetables and headed over to her. "Milly, dearest..." she said, gently putting a chubby hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Listen hun. As soon as this dinner is over with, I think we soon have to have a little chat, all three of us."
"What do you mean?" Millicent said, getting so frustrated that instead of peeling off a slice she cut the potato in half so it flew across the floor, causing her to give yet a cry of frustration.
"I think you know just what I mean." Violet said as Millicent rose and went to pick the half potato up. "It has been a while now, but we can't pretend forever that things are alright again, because they're not. And you know that things aren't going to get any better with Karen by ignoring the problem. If you ask me, we have been ignoring it for too long already."
"Well, it wasn't me who just 'blurted' out with it, was it?" Millicent said as he sat down again, placing the potato on the bench. But before she was able to go on with the peeling, her mother held her hand over the knife.
"Listen! Ever since she got to know, you've been so snappy at her, and even cruel at times. I understand that this is difficult for you, but it's not her fault, you know that. I think maybe you would feel better about it if you came clean with her."
"And I think..." she pushed away her hand. "... that if we don't get started on these blasted vegetables, we will never get dinner ready in time! And that so called discussion of your will have to wait till later as, in case you have forgotten, I have that dainty Princess Annabelle to handle. So let's get to work!"
Violet looked at her daughter a moment, then sighed as she went back to her task. "Alright, but don't you dare be too angry at her when she comes back."
"Fine! I'm not gonna say a word."
Violet begun cutting again, but her mind was elsewhere. "Maybe it's better that way..."
But all of a sudden, Millicent stopped peeling and looked up with wide eyes, dropping the potato on the floor. "You said she was running an errand?"
"Yes, Master Phineas is back, and he told her to inform the Majesties." Violet said.
"But what about that prisoner?" She turned to face her, with frightened eyes. "Have they caught him yet?"
Violet stopped cutting, and the room went silent before Millicent rose and spoke again. "You did tell her about the prisoner, right?"
"Oh dear..." Violet dropped the knife on the floor.
"That's what I thought!" Millicent shook her head and headed for the door. "I'll go and find her!"
"I'm going with you..." Violet begun, but her daughter cut her off by turning towards her and holding up a hand.
"No! You stay here and finish off the dinner. I will find her and lock her up in her room if I have to!"
"Alright, but... Don't be too hard on her now?"
"Fine, I won't." And by that, Millicent felt the kitchen. As she closed the door behind her, Violet sighed heavily as she picked up the knife.
"Oh dear... How could I be so foolish?" sighing again, she went back to the bench. "Maybe I should think of retiring."
