Not that she needed much prodding to leap into Joren’s arms.
He led her through the palace from her guest chamber to a solarium overlooking the ivory courtyard on an upper level. Rapunzel nestled on a window seat lined with plush, oversized cushions, a sheet of gridded parchment spread over the board balanced on her lap.
Both twins napped on a quilt nearby, the little boy on his tummy and rump turned up in the air.
“Rapunzel, do you have a moment?”
“I always have a moment for my brother.” The queen set aside her needlework design and turned her gaze on Caecilia, smile widening enough to dimple her cheeks. “Coral, I’m so pleased to see you up and about. Please, come in. I was about to call for tea.”
“Tea might want to wait,” Joren said.
“Oh? That serious, is it?”
“Coral has made it known to me that she believes Margaux, and perhaps other servants, are being abused by Matron Nathalie.”
Rapunzel’s eyes widened and her gaze shifted from her brother to Caecilia, then back again. “Abuse in this palace? That’s a serious accusation. Nathalie has been an asset in coordinating the staff and putting it all to order again after everything that happened.”
“I know, but I also know Coral isn’t one to make up a story. So I thought perhaps you could speak to Margaux. I feel like she’d open up to you, certainly more than me.”
“Absolutely.” She turned to Caecilia again. “Did you see this or did Margaux say something, Coral?”
Caecilia pointed to her lips, then raised both hands to her mouth and trembled to pantomime shock and terror to the best of her ability.
“She was afraid and said something,” Joren guessed, making Caecilia sag in relief.
“Well, in that case, I believe it’s only prudent of me to check on her after the whole ordeal. If you don’t mind watching the twins, I’ll do that now.”
“Watch sleeping kids? Sounds easy enough.” Joren leaned back in his chair and grinned.
“Until they wake up with wet nappies and hungry bellies,” Rapunzel replied. “Coral, would you like to accompany me to see Margaux? We’ll make a treat of it and have her join us for tea.”
Poor Joren. Caecilia silently snickered at his crestfallen face while she and Rapunzel headed for the door. Once in the hall, Rapunzel gazed upon her with a reassuring smile.
“Don’t worry; the children will sleep for at least another two hours. I imagine he’ll take advantage and follow their example. He tries not to show it but I know he’s still recovering from his injuries. Speaking of which, how are your hands today? Any pain?”
If only she could speak. Losing the use of her hands only added to the difficulty of expressing her thoughts. She lifted them and shrugged her shoulders but accompanied the gesture with a half-smile.
“When we’re finished here, I could take a look if you like,” Rapunzel offered. “If they require more attention, I’ll send for Adelaide.”
Only a true monster could hold a grudge against a woman as benevolent and nurturing as Eisland’s ruler. For years, Caecilia had resented the beautiful princess James Hook pined after, blaming her for his disinterest. Even when he moved on, sleeping his way across the Viridian Sea before finally finding love with that blasted fae, she’d still chosen to blame the princess. It had been easy then, laying her woes at the feet of a woman hundreds of leagues away, a ghost she’d never meet.
The reality of Rapunzel’s character introduced Caecilia to a woman she couldn’t hate—a powerful woman she instead wanted to admire.
Caecilia bowed her head in gratitude. Ever smiling, Rapunzel reached over to give her arm a gentle squeeze.
“Good, it’s settled. Now then, Margaux is an attendant, so she should be in the steward’s hall, unless she’s out on an errand. Of course, I gave directions that she be given the remainder of the week to rest.” Rapunzel’s lips pursed. “We’ll check the hall, then her room.”
Luck seemed to be with them. Caecillia spotted Margaux the moment they entered the servant’s hall. She sat with two other women at a long table, folding linens and polishing crystal. Others worked on various tasks. At the center of it all, Matron Nathalie oversaw their work while nibbling on candied nuts.
A boy on the cusp of manhood noticed them first and fumbled the tray he carried. Rapunzel caught the goblet that tumbled off with a quick flurry of ice magic and settled it back where it belonged.
“Th-thank you, Your Majesty,” he said, casting a frightened look toward the matron, but her back was still turned to them.
“You’re quite welcome, Phillip. There was nothing to worry about.”
He flushed all the way up to his ears. “Shall I announce you?”
“No need, I’ll announce myself. You take those cups where they’re needed.”
Rapunzel waited for Phillip to move away before stepping further into the room, Caecilia a step behind her. The matron still hadn’t noticed them, too distracted by sweets while everyone else worked.
“Good afternoon. I’ve come to borrow Margaux,” Rapunzel announced in a pleasant voice.
Matron Nathalie spun around so fast she knocked her snack bowl to the floor. Pralines and pecans scattered across the pristine tiles, crumbling bits of sugar and cinnamon dust in their wake. Not a single soul moved, each of them resembling petrified deer one second away from bounding into the bush. The matron blinked several times before gathering her wits and putting on a smile.
“Your Majesty, what an unexpected visit. Had I known you were coming—”
“The privilege of my station is that I don’t have to clear my schedule with others,” Rapunzel cut in with a cheerful grace Caecilia envied. “If you could please excuse Margaux for a time, I’d like to see her.”
“Of course, Your Majesty, but in her condition—”
“I don’t need her for work. In fact, I’d like you to prepare us tea in my solar and have Phillip bring it. That’s all.”
Matron Nathalie bowed her head in acquiescence and snapped her fingers toward Margaux. “You heard the queen. Hustle now, girl.”
Margaux followed them from the room in silence, practically quaking, so Caecilia dropped back to walk beside her. As did Rapunzel. She opened with small talk, commenting on the weather and then asking how Margaux liked her tea, and whether she’d visited the gardens. By the time they reached the solar and sat at a small table, Margaux had relaxed and no longer resembled a frightened hare.
“Now then, it’s only we girls, with no one to overhear us. How are you, Margaux? Really, I mean. The whole attack must have frightened you terribly.”
“It did, Your Majesty. I’d never had a problem walking through that alley before.”
“It pains me greatly to have such crime in our city, and I assure you that I am doing all in my power to ensure something like that never happens again.” Rapunzel reached over and laid her hand over the servant’s. “The same goes for any crimes here in the palace.”
Margaux immediately dropped her gaze to her lap. “Your castle is a fine place, Your Majesty.”
“I’d like to think so, but I have a few worries that all is not as peaceful as it should be.”
“I’m not sure what help I can be.”
Caecilia scooted her chair closer to Margaux and touched her shoulder. When the young woman looked up, she used the same whipping gesture she’d shown Joren. Margaux’s face went pale as fresh wax.
“Please, it’s not my place to say anything.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Margaux. If someone on my staff is hurting you, hurting others, then I’d like to know,” Rapunzel said in a soft voice. “I would never condone a beating.”
Margaux licked her lips. “It’s the matron, Your Majesty. She’s fond of the switch.”
“Is that why you didn’t give that thief what he wanted?”
A single tear rolled down Margaux’s face. “It would have been my fault if he took it. She commissioned silver tasting spoons, you see, and she
was angry that there was blood and dirt on the package.”
“What?” Rapunzel startled back in her seat. “Margaux, did she punish you after you returned to the castle?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Her answer was so soft, Caecilia barely made it out, and then the rush of her pulse filled her head.
Rapunzel’s face flushed, and her pale white fingers clenched around the chair’s armrests. “Tell me what happened.”
“She blamed me, said I encouraged the thieves and should have been smarter. She tossed the entire package in the fireplace, spoons and all, and said they would come out of my pay.” Fat tears rolled down her cheeks. “I use that money to help my mother and sister, Your Majesty. I didn’t even care about the rod, but…but my family.”
Rapunzel left her chair in an instant and moved to Margaux’s side, pulling her into an embrace. The young woman wept openly, reduced to shuddering sobs that shook her whole body and rattled in her throat.
“You’re safe now,” the queen murmured. She stroked Margaux’s hair, shifting it to the side over one shoulder, and glanced to Caecilia then to Margaux’s back. Caecilia left her seat and moved over, then carefully grasped the lacy fabric on the younger woman’s back. A slight tug downward revealed a reddened mark and bruising.
Nathalie deserved a beating of her own and Caecilia wanted nothing more than to be the one who delivered swift, hard justice.
Three polite knocks thumped on the door. Trying to regain her composure, Margaux sniffled and pulled away from Rapunzel’s embrace, swiping at her cheeks with her sleeves. Caecilia slipped her arm around Margaux instead while the queen answered the door.
“Ah, Phillip, exactly the person I was hoping for. Please, come in. Let me help you with that.”
“I have it, Your Majesty.” The boy pushed a cart inside but Rapunzel ignored him and pushed it to the table herself. When he tried to lift the teapot, she touched his hand and gestured to the fourth seat. His shot a worried glance at Margaux and swallowed.
“Thank you, Your Majesty, but the matron asked me to come straight back, else—” He swallowed again and rubbed his hands against his trousers.
“Else she’ll give you the switch?” Rapunzel prompted.
“She knows now,” Margaux whispered. “It’s all right, Phillip.”
“Please don’t sack us, Your Majesty. I like my job. The earnings are good here. I don’t want to cause any trouble.”
“You aren’t, Philip. I know tea isn’t much to offer for what you’ve suffered, but I’d still be pleased if you join us.”
Caecilia looked at Rapunzel with new respect. Nothing about her manner and kind words came across as false. If anything, she hoped she could be there when the queen confronted the matron.
Rapunzel served everyone herself, nudging iced pastries and flower-shaped chocolates onto their plates. Eventually, Phillip relaxed enough to stuff a small cake into his mouth. Caecilia wondered when he’d last eaten, afraid that the matron’s punishments went beyond switches and spankings.
“You can have as many as you like,” Rapunzel assured him when he hesitated while reaching for another.
Over the next hour, she coaxed both into sharing their stories. Together, they painted a vivid picture of the matron’s excesses and tyrannical ruling of the staff. How she used funds to line her own pockets under the guise of enhancing her work—no one needed personal tasting spoons made from fine silver—and severely punished the most minor infractions. Phillip had received five lashes for dropping a wooden bowl, of all things.
“Don’t worry,” Rapunzel promised, “you won’t ever have to worry about the matron again.”
* * *
Rapunzel was up to something. The moment word reached Joren that she’d summoned all domestic staff to the dining room, he wondered what sneaky plan she’d come up with regarding the matron, or if she’d discovered a different truth to the matter. Either way, he wished he had been there when she and Caecilia spoke with Margaux.
Not that he would have traded the time with the twins. Despite his sister’s claims, they both awakened not long after her departure, ready to play and excited to have their favorite uncle at their beck and call.
He’d changed diapers, fed snacks, and during it all, silently wondered when he’d be the one to make an aunt of his sister. It would be nice to have children of his own one day, though he wondered at the fairness of leaving behind a family three to six months of the year.
Putting those ill thoughts behind him, he approached the grand dining hall—the largest room in the palace, designed for hosting enormous dinners for the three hundred or so members of Eisland’s peerage and high society. His sister stood just within the double doors with an ebullient smile on her face.
Joren looked at the line of staff standing along the wall in the dining room. They all looked as uncertain and confused as he felt. “What are you up to, sister?”
“You’ll see,” she whispered. He recognized the impish smile and gleam in her eyes. His sister had a plan. She stepped away to her seat at the head of the table, pulled out the chair, and gestured for Margaux. Across the table, Muir did the same for Phillip.
“Please, everyone have a seat. Tonight, this dinner is for you,” Rapunzel welcomed everyone, though she put a hand out on Nathalie’s wrist the moment she reached for a chair. “Ah, you hold a moment, please, Matron Nathalie.”
Joren hid a grin and remained near the doorway. Movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention and a moment later Coral stepped beside him. She looked up, mirroring Rapunzel’s smile.
“Was some of this your idea?”
Dimples appeared in her cheeks and her eyes crinkled with mirth. She jutted her chin in Rapunzel’s direction, redirecting his attention. His sister waited while everyone took their seats, the matron beside her looking confused.
“Thank you all for joining me, I know you must be wondering what this is about,” Rapunzel began. “First, allow me to offer apologies. It’s recently come to my understanding that none of you get to enjoy a meal until after Muir and myself have done so. Since our busy schedules often mean late suppers, this is completely unacceptable. To that end, tonight you will be served first. By Matron Nathalie.”
Joren bit back a laugh. The matron jerked around so hard she reminded him of a startled squirrel. Or maybe it was more like a flopping fish, the way her mouth opened and shut, eyes bulging in her pink face.
“Your Majesty, perhaps I misheard?”
“You misheard nothing. Consider it practice for your new position at the Sanctuary of Largesse. I took the liberty of informing them to expect your arrival and commitment to a five-year term of charity.”
The matron’s face mottled red and purple. “I am not a servant.”
“You’re a bully who will no longer terrorize this household.”
Quivering with indignation, Nathalie drew herself taller, placing a hand to her chest. “You can’t be serious, Queen Rapunzel. I brought order to this castle during a time when no other would. Do you recall how you struggled to find good help? There wasn’t a scullery maid in all of western Eisland willing to work in this cursed household after your mother enslaved us all. I brought dignity and respect back to the palace.”
Joren closed his eyes, wincing. The deck had been stacked against Nathalie from the start, but everyone, down to the lowest servant who cleaned the shit from the stables, knew to never refer to Gothel as their mother.
His sister stiffened, skin frosting over cooler than the icy atmosphere that settled in the room. A few of the servants nervously rubbed their arms. They weren’t imagining it. His sister had inherited the gift of their snow queen ancestor and it tended to manifest with her anger.
“No,” Rapunzel said in a quiet voice, the asperity in her tone more caustic than lye. “You brought fear to it. The sort of fear I thought long gone once Gothel left these walls. For one so eager to invoke her name, you seem to have truly forgotten the darkness that fell over Ice
dale Castle while she reigned over this kingdom. I am appalled, Nathalie, but what my husband and I have chosen for you is far kinder a fate than the evils to which you’ve subjected the rest of our staff. At least where you’re going, there will be no whips or switches. Only difficult work, toil, and atonement.”
“Am I not to receive a fair trial—?”
“I rule none is needed. The testimony of five dozen domestic staff and no less than one dozen guardsmen all implicating you in their abuse and persecution is evidence enough and shall suffice.”
“Your Majesty—”
“You will serve this meal or enjoy the next ten years in irons at Coldshank Prison.”
Nathalie quieted. One by one, she searched their faces, from Joren to Captain Olivier and then Muir, as if beseeching the king to intercede. No one spoke up for her. When her gaze returned to the queen, big eyes watering behind half-moon spectacles, Joren almost pitied her. “Please, Your Majesty. I’ve got grandchildren.”
“Whose lives will be much improved when their grandmother returns with a new outlook regarding the bodily autonomy of others. Serve the meal, or I’ll fly you there myself while dangling you from my talons,” Muir said, when Rapunzel didn’t deign to repeat herself.
Meek as a newborn kitten, Nathalie approached the table and began her work.
Chapter 12
At the end of a long and difficult week, Joren decided he didn’t spend nearly enough time bonding with his brother-in-law. Rapunzel couldn’t have wed a better husband without molding a man from clay and breathing life into him herself. Gods knew she deserved it after spending years as Gothel’s captive.
Leaving the palace behind, they sailed a half-hour from the shoreline on Joren’s personal boat, taking nets, fishing lines, and no small amount of mulled wine in a charmed cask, enchanted to remain steaming hot while the men stood at the rail with their sleeves rolled to their elbows. Muir didn’t appear to notice the cold, and Joren was long used to it.
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