Chapter 60: Fred and Arianna

I'm spoiling you guys. Here's another chapter in short time. Night is closing in at the Castle, but it's not just like that to go to bed.
So… Im taking a few liberties here and adding some details with one of my OC's, you'll see for yourself what it is ˆˆ Im a bit exited at what you think, let me know.

Later that evening, Frederic and Arianna prepared for bed. Arianna sat by her mirror and let Friedborg finish off her hair. Arianna herself was in deep thoughts, and while Friedborg gently ran the brush through her hair she allowed today's events and impressions to settle down and gather her head. Her thoughts went from the morning with her visit from the Physician, to her unsuccessfull introduction to Daniel, and then the whole event at the dinner. Images of all events were passing through her mind and confused her. There were so much that she was surprised that even the thoughts of Varian had entered. She drew her breath and let out a heavy, shivering sigh.

From her reflection in the mirror she saw Frederic stand by the window, wearing his morning robe and stared out on the view. Looking at him made her think of Rapunzel. Images of her appeared in her mind.

How are you, my girl? Where are you now? Even where are you heading? It's odd… almost like you never really… returned…

She found herself forced to push her current thoughts away. "Thank you, Friedborg." she said once she was finished with her braid and rose up, smiling at her lady-in-waiting. "I'll see you in the morning. Remember to find a finer gown for dinner. Nothing too fancy, but pleasing."

Friedbord smiled her characteristic wide smile before she gave a quick kneel and turned to leave.

Frederic turned around and arched an eyebrow as he started walking to the bed. He waited till Friedborg had left the room before he spoke. "You… really think we should change for dinner tomorrow like Annabelle wanted?"

Arianna untied her morning robe and hung it on the decorative hook beside her bed and gave a heavy sigh as she sat down, allowing herself to fall back on the pollows. "I am no military strategue like either you or the Captain, but I can tell when we have too many fights going on at our door. It's better to choose your battles and take those who are most important and avvoid the lesser ones when required." She gave him a smirk when he looked a bit concerned. "You don't have to do it, but I'm going to. I actually have a bouple of gowns I haven't used much, might as well give them some air." She chuckled. "Hopefully thye won't be too out of fashion for Annabelle's taste."

Frederic chuckled as he followed her example and untided his robe. "It's actually rather ridicuous that at the epic battle we had with Varian a couple of weeks ago, our odds were better; and at least there were only one oponent. Now we have them from all sides, and I can't even send the guards on them."

"Oh don't mention it!" Arianna scoffed, tired of being reminded of the episode earlier, and forced the conversation elsewhere. "Honestly Fred… What do you think of our guests so far?"

"Uuuh…" Frederic he lifted the blankets and clrawled half underneath. "Honestly, I don't even know where to begin…" he leaned back on the pillows himself, thinking hard. "Annabelle is one thing; goodness, I can't recall she was so… has she always had such a sharp tonge? I'm surprised even her father puts up with that!"

"She's always been… a bit snobbish, but I don't remember her like this." Arianna replied. "She was always a bit of a show off, but she used to be a bit more pleasant, I think."

"Although, compared to Daniel… that boy seems as… I mean, such rage! And…" he chuckled. "I mean we put shackles on Varian for a reason, but for goodness sake! For a moment Lars looked like he was gonna do the same thing." He was quiet a moment. "Poor lad… he must have been terrefied."

"Varian?" Arianna asked.

"I was talking about Daniel now, and the way Lars handled him." Frederic frowned concerned. "And when it comes to him… Lars is… I kind of thought he was a rather saint compared to his harsh brothers, and that was sort of the only reason I agreed to let my cousin marry him, but… " Frederic became rather emotional.

"I remember how I was yelled at by my father once when I was very young. I never had the courage to oppose him like Daniel does. I don't know where he gets it from."

"Hm…" Arianna pulled up her legs and rested har arms on her knees. "My mother held my ear hashly when I disobayed once, and I didn't dare to cross her ever since." She replied thoghtful. "For some reason though, she never did it with Willow…"

"If I am to be honest with you… I'm almost a little jealous." Fred chuckled. "I almost wish I'd had that courage when I was young."

Feeling the conversation trailing off, Arianna and crawled under the blankets and turned towards him. "However, this is a problem!" "How are we even going to prepare Daniel as potential future leader if not even his father manage to talk to him? He won't listen to anyone of us, it's going to be a disaster!"

"I don't know, dear. In the worst case, we have to consider Valponce's son, but to be honest I have my doubts..."

Arianna puzzled. "I… I actually keep forgetting he even has a son." She said, a bit embarrased. "We never hear anything of him. It's like he doesn't exist."

Frederic chuckled. "So do I. I just remembered right now. I'm not sure I've even met the boy? From what I know, he's abroad at some school or… training or…" he sighed. "I should ask Nigel, I bet he knows. Perhaps it's time to keep on track with some things. At the moment I don't even recall his name."

Arianna sighed. "But… he's not even close to the family other than through his father, and even then Daniel is still preferable because of his royal linage."

"I don't know what to do." Fred sighed. "It's not like we can consider Annabelle either."

"Ooooh… golly, how did we even come to this ?" Arianna moaned and collapsed on the pillowes again, closing her eyes as if it would help shut out the problems.

"I'm just joking, my dear. I'd sooner pick one of the guards, or even one of the maids. Hevan knows Violet would have become a good matriarch." Fred chuckled, then he sat up again, eyes wide open. "That's right, there was something I wanted to ask you about."

"Hm?" Arianna asked, still with her eyes closed.

"I know it's a long time ago, but do you rememeber these things better than me. You recall that the Captain was going to marry one of the maids once in the past?"

"Hm?" Arianna opened her eyes and raised her head on a hand with her elbow on the pillow. "Yes I most certenly do! It was… Elfried if I'm not wrong?"

"Correct. And… well do you know if she still… holds a grudge about that?"

"I can't imagine otherwise!" she said, arching an eyebrow. "It was quite the comotion after all. She was rather upset about the whole thing, and honestly I don't blame her for calling the whole thing off. It was impossible that it could continue after that."

"What exactly was the reason the wedding was called off again?"

"Let's see…she was wrongly accused for something she didn't do… I don't remember excactly what, I think it was a theaft or something missing, and of course she had to be arrested… by the Captain himself." Arianna looked down at the madrass.

"Poor Elfried… She had been dreaming about him for so long." She looked up again. "I made sure to give her quite a promotion after that to make up for it, but there was no way that engadement could have continued after such a humiliation. I'm glad we manged to convince her to stay though, she is a hard worker after all."

"Uhm, tell me if I'm wrong, but… did the Captain's daughter Cassandra have anything to do with it?"

"Well, I don't remember if she was directly involved. No wait, she was!" Arianna shifted her position and leaned up on both her arms. "If my memory doesn't fail me she was the one who reported the so called theft, and pointed out Elfried. In a way it was no surprise. After all, she didn't at all like the thought of her father getting married. She was quite against it, even though when the Captain took her in, Elfried was the one who took upon to help him care for her. She treated he like a daughter long before the engagement, but it was never really mutual."

"Is that so…" Frederic pondered.

Arianna wrinkled her eyebrows at him. "Why is this important, Fred?"

Frederic drew his breath and turned towards her. " Well, now you should hear…"

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It was dark before the royalties and their guests had finished dinner, and after they had gone, Laura and Jane had gathered up dishes and scraps and brought it to the kitchen to clean it up. They had finished preparing water for the dishes and had begun washing when Laura finally broke the silence.

"Jeez, that was an odd dinner! I thought the Griffin of Pittsford were grumpy, but those people surely beaththat guy."

"Yeah…" Jane replied. "Millicent sure wasn't joking about about the Princess. She really has a temper."

"Not as much her uncle." Laura chuckled, and then laughed. "Oh boy, when the kid ran off and crashed into her dress…" she laughed out loud. "I think he fell back five feet if not more! SPLOOOOIGN!" she demonstrated Daniel's epic crash with her dish brush crashing into the plate she was cleaning before she laughed.

"Hush…" Jane said, but had trouble keeping her own laugh.

"And if that was her evening gown, I can't even imagine what she'd wear for an actual ball."

"Or the upcoming wedding." Jane shook her head. "How will that even go? Such a contrast with her and that polite, handsome guy… Gosh, he has dreamy eyes…" Jane were lost a moment.

"Pete has a crush on her by the way." Laura quickly changed the subject.

"No way! On Princess Annabelle?" Jane woke up and replied surprised. "Where did you get that from?"

"I saw it when she arrieved fashionably late to breakfast." She sneakered. "He was being so embarrasing. And she treated him like he was a toad."

"Poor Pete." Jane replied sympathertic once she was done giggling. "He's always falling for the wrong girls."

They heard the door went open and saw Diane enter. "Ah good, you're here. Drop those and come with me. Elfried wants to talk to us immidiately!"

"Huh? B'out that?" Laura asked curious.

"Emergency meeting. Just come!" Diane said and dissapeared.

The two maids looked at eachother, then Laura shrugged. "Well, these needs to be soaked for a while to get the grease off anyway, so… whay not?"

"Emergency meeting?" Jane asked. "What do you think it is?"

"I bet it's something like picking straws about who's gonna attend to Princess Annabelle in the morning."

"Oh, I'd prefer dishes…" Jane moaned as she put down the last plate in the water before following her friend out the door.

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Arianna looked at him and blinked in disbelief. "Frederic, what… are you certain this was a good idea?"

"What do you mean?" Frederic asked.

"What do you even hope to achieve with this?"

"I just want to be clear of Varian's suroundings and doings before he evnetually gains back his memory. I thought perhaps there was something we could use to get him back on track."

"But involving Karen and the other maids like this… I thought we were going to keep this a low profile as possible!"

"But Karen is already involved, Arianna, there's' nothing we can do about that. She was the one who found him in the kitchen, remember? And luckly, it seems it's thanks to her that Varian is harmless now."

"He's far from Harmless, Fred! It's only a matter of time before he gets his memory back, and you know it." Arianna felt how she got cross.

"But that's exactly why I'm doing this!" he tried to explain. "I want to be prepared when it eventually happens."

"And Elfreid, why involve her? She had nothing to do with it!"

"Like I said, she had also seen him that day, and I needed to confirm Karen's story, and most of it turned out to be right."

"And what in the hevans name does her engagement with the Captain of the Guards have to do with her seeing Varian that day?"

"I was just wondering if perhaps her grudge against Cassandra or maybe even the Captain had anything to do with her explanation. She talked about how Cassandra had, what was it… broken the rules of protocol when she used Varian to help her with her duties during the science expo."

"Rules of protocol?" Arianna arched an eyebrow. "How?"

"Appearently by hiering Varian as extra hands without cunsulting with anyone superior, but taken matters into her own hands. At some point she had even left him alone to do her job, and that's what Elfried found so disturbing."

Arianna sighed. "Look, it's not wrong that there has been trouble with Cassandra skipping her work in the past. Everyone knows she sneaks away from and skip her duties.* But… she's not even here now, so there's nothing to be done."

"I know that, but…" suddenly Frederic had trouble finding words. "I just thought it would… be of help reguarding… helping Varian."

"Really…" Arianna scoffed. "And what does Nigel say to all of this?"

"Well, he was actually the one who meant that Elfried was overexaggerating the ordeal and putting too much into it."

Arianna sighed. "Honestly Fred… " she shook her head. "I think you're the one who's putting too much into this! It's completley irrelevant and has nothing to do with our current situation. And I think we should end this conversation and go to sleep!" And by that she turned around and gave him her back.

Frederic was a bit tossed of by her harsh reaction, but didn't push it any firther, realizing that he had upset her. "Wery well, dear. Good night then."

He got no reply, except from a heavy, exuhausting sigh. Feeling like had crossed a line, he laid his head down on the pillow and silently let out a sigh of his own.

*In case anyone wondering about correction, I picked this up from the book 'Rapunzel and the Lost Lagoon'. And before anyone goes wack, in this book Cassandra constantly skips her Castle work. The events of the book is not oficcially made canon to the series, especially since it crashes with season 3, but so does my story, so there! But it sure has some good story material. I reccomand reading it if only for brilliant fic ideas.