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The Slipper And The Lily
Chapter 11-Infromed Consent
The Prince steps up his search to no avail and has an idea. Both Glen and John benefit.
It was a specific kind of slow torture he thought.
And as someone who had once had to sit through his cousin Montague's childhood ramblings in the form of a play, that was saying something.
John when he had mentioned this had shot him a long look that spoke volumes of how he viewed his behaviour but John throughout the years had learnt the hard way that speaking sometimes did not lead to results.
Carefully they skirted over the issue. That each day it was becoming more and more difficult to see a scenario where he was reunited with his lost love. They had soured the Kingdom, made all the eligible nobility try on the slipper, he had not seen results and when he had suggested that maybe they just fuck it to hell and back and let every woman in the kingdom try the damn thing on the Lord Chamberlain had gripped his staff so hard in shock Edward was quite sure he was going to have a heart attack right there and then. Which would have been funny all things considering (especially because he knew there was a bet within the palace that the Lord Chamberlain did not have a heart). But the old man had assured him there was no chance a serving girl had been his chosen lady.
Lili had snorted so violently from the windowsill when she had heard that, that Edward had thought she'd fallen off.
"It's not that hard to get into this place you know" she said when John and Edward had both looked at her. "And it's not that hard to get out of this place either"
John opened his mouth perhaps to ask just how his little knew that it was easy to sneak in and out of the castle and then he closed it again. Edward surmised that John felt the same way he did when Lili came out with stuff like this. They didn't want to know.
Spring was finally upon them when he gave up. He had the shoe erected in a glass cage and he watched it from the window as the people gathered to gawp at the one thing that he had left of the only woman he knew he could love. John had given him a glass of wine and then he had dismissed him to spend time with Caroline or his sister or whoever and whatever took up John's attention. He had watched for a moment and then had been unashamed to admit that he had kicked off his boots and crawled underneath the covers and cried himself to sleep. Some might say it was undignified for a Prince to behave that way but for Edward who had clung to the idea of marrying for love in the same way a child clung to a teddy bear he had found it distinctly unfair that he was to have it and then have it snatched away from him.
The next morning he woke up and went for a long walk. When he came back his eyes were red and John knew it. He didn't say anything but gently put the word out that Edward was feeling under the weather and then crawled under the covers with him as they had done when they were boys and they had clung to each other when it had been John in need of comfort.
Best friends to the last.
Two days after that the sun finally broke. John pointed out that it was an early and easy day for a ride. He found that as he pushed the horse faster and faster he was able to feel the sun on his face and the wind in his hair and he was able to feel something other than the crushing pain of love.
When they came back the castle had been bustling with early morning activity.
"Love sucks" he said as a principle and John chuckled as he dropped off his horse. The stable yard was empty apart from.
"Ugh"
Edward peered round.
"So that's him?"
"Yep"
He could kind of see what Lili saw in him, he was very charming with glass jaw and cut cheekbones, a mop of blonde brown hair and big green eyes. He was speaking to the horse as if it was a human being gentle and then…
"We shouldn't be looking at him you know?"
"I just don't see what she sees in him" he said finally. Edward shrugged. Personally he didn't see it either but he also knew that he was not one to judge when it came to love. He took John's horse and took him back out of the stables and paused.
"Where's your sister?"
"With Caroline and the Dowager Queen visiting the orphanage to distribute arms to the poor and then the girls get a few hours to do some shopping. They do this every two weeks remember? I always worry with Lili out in the world we might run a risk of an international incident"
Edward paused and nodded. It did seem like something that John had moaned about before.
"You?"
The kid looked up.
"Sire?" his eyes slid back to John and he had the expression suddenly of a man who knew he had been caught out.
"Yes. Follow me"
"What are you doing?"
"Love…it hurts you know" he said as the boy came over looking very much as if he knew he was going to the gallows.
"I do know thank you" John said and it was with more bitterness in his tone than Edward had ever heard and suddenly.
Oh.
Oh. Shit.
He had forgotten.
At once a wave of shame hit him. He had spent three months mourning what he had experienced once. John's position was quite hopeless. Edward never had the strict position of the world that they lived in blocking his love as John did. And he did not have to see the love of his life being courted by men her father would approve off even though her heart longed for him and vice versa.
He looked at the stable boy and knew it was the same for him and he knew that here in this moment he was going to do something to stop it. Just because he was denied love did not mean that his brother and sister (and yes, that was what they were to him and they would always be that for him) had to be denied love either.
If he could give his subjects what they wanted…if he could give his family what he wanted then…then maybe he could sleep a little bit easier at night just because his love was lost to him didn't mean that John and Lili's was to be either.
"Oh I'm sorry. Forgive me John"
"Si—"
"I am what I am you know" John said quietly. "So's he" he said pointing at Glen. "We live and die by this Sir. You have a freedom we do not"
Edward didn't think that true for a second.
"Position and positioning" Glen muttered under his breath with an eye roll that was totally insolent. John chuckled darkly and there was insolence in that too.
"What?"
"Glen do you sing?" John asked as if he wasn't there.
"You know Lili asked me that too…I mean your sister Lilianna…and…"
"Oh stop boy you've been caught" Edward said with an eye roll. "And do you?"
"Not well Sir. Never really got an opinion on it I mean…the…the horses don't really tell you, you see"
John nodded.
He turned on his heel and led Edward away and Edward jerked his head for Glen to follow which he did looking very bemused.
And then he started to sing.
If my father were a chancellor,
How easy it would be:
The lovely Lady Caroline
Would be a proper wife, you see.
But my father was a servant,
And my mother same as he,
So the lady of my choosing
Is a world away from me.
That's how it is and how it was
And how it always shall be.
Position and positioning
Are socially conditioning.
How you're born, how you're bred
Predetermine who you wed,
Which means there's nothing changeable,
Nothing's rearrangable;
Position and positioning are everything in life.
Farmer's daughters marry cowherds -
That's acceptable and right.
But absurd and quite unheard of
Is a milkmaid and a knight.
Said cowherd and milkmaid chimed in here. Edward was beginning to think that this singing thing was an illness spread across his entire kingdom not just confined to the walls of the Palace.
I quite agree.
He quite agrees.
She quite agrees.
That's how it always shall be.
John moved on and the two of them followed him back to the palace where more people began to sing.
Seriously it was an affliction.
Position and positioning
Are socially conditioning.
People high, people low
Keep the state of status quo,
Which means there's nothing changeable,
Nothing's rearrangable;
Position and positioning are everything in life.
When a lad first joins the army,
This is what he learns for starters:
Never court your colonel's daughter,
Or he'll have your guts for garters!
That's how it is and how it was
And how it always shall be.
For position and positioning
Are socially conditioning.
How you dress and hold your head
Predetermine who you wed,
Which means there's nothing changeable,
Nothing's rearrangable;
Position and positioning are everything in life.
All the servants in a castle,
They reflect the world outside -
They have rank and they have station
And adhere to them with pride.
All the staff that work below stairs
May have dreams to work above,
But they're locked in their positions by Tradition's iron glove.
"That's how it is?" he asked.
"And how it was" Glen chimed in.
"And how it always will be" John ended.
Huh.
Glen sighed.
His signing was not that bad to be fair.
We know our place and happily we bow and scrape and bend our knee,
But woe betide the woe begone
Who try to join our echelon,
For privelege is not, you see,
Confined to just the royalty.
Behind these doors, I might suggest, I'm similarly blessed.
And now back to the Palace for the full chorus he realised dimly. That an a choreographed dance move. No wonder their food was never on time.
Yes, position and positioning
Are socially conditioning.
Though you work your life away,
Where you start is where you stay,
Which means there's nothing changeable,
Nothing's rearrangable;
Position and positioning are stuck with you for life!
Position and positioning
Are socially conditioning.
Though you work your life away,
Where you work is where you stay,
Which means there's nothing changeable,
Nothing's rearrangable;
Position and positioning are everything in life!
Everything in life! Everything in life!
Life, life, life, life, life, life, life, life!
That's how it is
And how it was
And how it always shall be!
John finished and looked at him and Edward knew what to do.
"Bollocks to it" he said and he took off his sword.
"Kneel"
"What?"
"Kneel John" he said and John knelt looking very confused.
"I am the Prince, you are the closest thing I have to a brother and I love you as such" he said channelling his inner father. "And I am knighting you so you can get your girl. Arise Sir John and go and court your Lady Caroline"
And with two taps on the shoulder it was done.
Honestly if he'd had known it was that easy to upset the social order he'd have done it years ago.
John stared at him with a staggered expression.
"I don't…Sir I don't…"
"Now I need a Master at Arms" he said enjoying himself. He took of his sword and threw it at Glen who managed to catch it before it clattered to the floor.
"Glen congratulations you've been promoted"
Glen looked gobsmacked. Major Domo looked furious.
"Sir?"
"Now" Edward said thoroughly pleased with what he thought was a good morning's work. "We will…John why are you still here? Shouldn't you have some good news to spread?"
John looked between the two of them and then nearly fell into a chair.
Glen didn't look much better.
Oh dear.
"Now Glen" he said with a wicked grin. "We are going to talk about my dear affection for John's sister…and what will happen if…now that you can court her…you should upset her…"
Sometimes his father was right.
Absolute power was very, very becoming.
And there you go, I hope you enjoy and we are now over halfway!
Next Chapter-The Prince meets his Princess at last. With a little help from John and Lili