Heart of a Kingdom

by Lisa Bain

  “What? Oh Fynn, I’m not sure this is a good idea. I don’t question your judgement on the team you’ve put together, but your dad...I don’t think he’s going to be happy to see me.” Libby was practically squirming.

  Fynnigan looked confused. “But, Libby, you’ve been friends since I was a boy.”

  “It’s complicated.” Libby stopped and reached out to put her hand on his shoulder. “No worries, Fynn. You’ve done amazing work here, and I’m so proud of you. I’ve got some other meetings to attend but will formally welcome your dad to the Kingdom this afternoon. Would you like to be there?”

  “Of course! I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he realizes King McGregor is none other than you!”

  “Great,” Libby said. “I can’t wait.” She turned on her heels and headed towards the palace, Catherine right behind her.

  “What was that all about?”

  “Nothing, I’m just tired.”

  “Bullshit. But if you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine too.”

  Libby struggled to focus on the remainder of her meetings. She felt the apprehension in the pit of her stomach. She knew in her head that this had to happen. As King it was her duty to greet all new Normal residents to the Kingdom. However, the fear was strong enough that it triggered her fight or flight response, and in this case it was flight. Catherine took one look at her and announced, “I’m coming with you.”

  “No, that’s unnecessary.”

  “Oh, I think it is. I’ve known you long enough to recognize when you get squirrely, and there is no backing out of this, Libby. If you were anyone else, I might let it slide. But you’re you. You’re the freaking King, for Goddess’ sake. You can be mad at me all you want, but I know you’ll thank me later. You’re too much of a professional for this. Besides, you know you want to see him.”

  “No, I don’t! And I’m fairly certain he doesn’t want to see me. I can’t believe Fynn talked Sean into recruiting Bastiaan to the engineering team.”

  “Libby, he is a qualified engineer. The fact that he’s Fynnigan’s dad shouldn’t be that big of a deal. You’re overreacting. Normals move into the Kingdom all the time. They get used to it. Even ones as... engineer-y as Bastiaan Van der Linden. It was important to Fynnigan, and you give that boy anything he wants. It’s not like you and his dad aren’t friends. You’ve known each other for years.”

  Libby cringed and felt her cheeks get warm.

  “Wait just a minute.” A cat-like grin spreading across Catherine’s face. “Just how well do you know each other, exactly?”

  Now Libby’s face was as red as her hair. “Um, well. Oh, this is embarrassing. Remember the mystery woman Fynn was talking about? The disappearing act? Yeah, that was me. We, uh, sort of reconnected when I ran into him in a Belfast pub last year. No one knows, not even Fynn, that Bas and I were an item before Dale came into the picture.”

  “Holy fuck! Fynn’s dad is Redman? Wait! What? Oh my Goddess, Redman is The Viking?” Catherine started laughing so hard she snorted. She’d heard the stories about Libby’s great romance with the mysterious Viking before she’d met Dale. “Well, Libby McGregor, hot damn. Now I really can’t wait to meet him. Does he still look like a Viking fifteen years later? There is no way you’re going without me now. Fix your makeup and comb your hair, we’re going.”

  “I’ve died and gone to hell,” Libby moaned. “If you breathe a word of this to anyone, I will fire you.”

  Catherine was still snorting but managed to catch her breath long enough to spit out, “You wish. My husband is your chief engineer, and my boys are already apprenticing. Although, a vacation sounds lovely. Maybe we’ll take a page from your book and travel the world a bit. But don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me. I am your Senior Lady-in-Waiting, after all. Protecting your secrets is part of my job. Scarlett is going to die when she realizes she missed this.” Catherine picked up her laughing again.

  “Oh, just shut it. Let’s get this over with.”

  Fynnigan and Bastiaan were outside the stables, as part of his introductory tour when Libby and Catherine walked around the corner, coming up behind them. Fynnigan grinned at Libby, turned to his dad, and said, “Dad, I can’t wait for you to meet King McGregor. Libby for short.”

  Bastiaan Van der Linden turned around and looked at Libby, stunned. He ran his hands through his red curls, his blue eyes going from confusion to understanding as he realized the responsibilities she’d left him for were ruling the Kingdom of the Talking Trees. His disbelief was countered by the crown she was wearing on her head.

  He shook his head, and finally managed, “Elisabeth? You’re King McGregor? This is the responsibility you left me for? You’re not really an art buyer?”

  They’d known each other so long, that he was one of the few people who still called her that. When she was younger, she thought Elisabeth made her sound more mature. It was after they’d broken it off, when Fynn was a boy, that she’d embraced the nickname Libby. He stood there, processing the fact that the woman who’d been in and out of his life for the last year was the King of the Kingdom his son had moved to. He flashed back fifteen years to the day of the wolf attack, the first time she’d left him, and the many times she’d left him behind to travel over the last year, including when she broke it off a few months ago to return home to her responsibilities.

  She smiled awkwardly and shrugged her shoulders, as she felt her face flush. “Yeah. Um, welcome, Bas. Hi. I’m Queen, well King now, Aisling Elisabeth McGregor, ruler of the Kingdom of the Talking Trees. Although most people just call me Libby. I wasn’t Queen when we first met, that came later, along with the nickname. And King is new. I’m not really an art buyer, just a collector who buys for herself. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before. I had no idea Fynn had recruited you, but I’m glad he did. I’ll understand if you don’t want to stay. If this is too weird. But I hope you do. And I formally welcome you to the Kingdom of the Talking Trees.” By now her face was as red as her hair, but she extended a hand, per protocol. She knew she was talking too fast and screwing it up. She wished the ground would swallow her whole.

  Bas took her hand, out of habit, but still stood thinking. Fynn was confused and looking back and forth at the two of them. What the hell was going on? What was his dad saying about Libby leaving him?

  Then, still holding her hand, Bas finally spit out, “You lied to me! You lied to me about everything.”

  “No, Bas, not about everything. Just the magic and kingdom stuff. Everything else was real. Is real. This is the real me.”

  “And you always ran away! Why didn’t you just tell me the truth? You never even gave me a chance to decide. You never gave me the chance to know the real you. I’ve been looking for you for months! You just disappeared.” All of the anger and frustration at her leaving boiled to the surface.

  “I did. I know I didn’t handle it well. Good-byes aren’t something I’m good at.”

  “No shit,” he snapped. “Don’t think I’m not still mad at you. I’m a little bit in shock or I’d be furious. And I’m going to be mad at you for a while. But”–he paused–“I’ve missed you. Is it allowed to hug the King?”

  Libby grinned. “Not just allowed. Encouraged.”

  He pulled her in close and kissed her, wrapping his brawny arms around her and burying his face in her hair.

  “Damn. I’ve missed you, Elisabeth.”

  She untangled herself enough to grab his face in her hands and look into his blue eyes. “I’ve missed you too, Bas.” She grinned, before standing on her tiptoes and planting a kiss on his lips.

  “I guess I need to get to know the real you and decide what I think about all this. Start over from the beginning. When I’m done being angry at you. This is all so fucked up.”

  “The real me is basically the me you already know, with a little extra. But, yeah, a start over would be great. Allow me to reintroduce myself. Bastiaan Van der Linden, I’m Aisling Elisabeth McGregor, Ruler of the K
ingdom of the Talking Trees. My late father was King before me. I’m a widow; my late husband, King Dalen McGregor was killed in battle two years ago. I have no children of my own, so my eldest niece and nephew are my heirs to the throne. You’ll meet them later. I recruited Fynn to the knighthood six years ago, when he became of legal age. Oh, and you should probably know that magic is real and I kind of have magical abilities and can talk to ghosts. Other than that, I’m the same person you knew. I’m sure you have a thousand questions. Feel free to ask me any of them as you think of them. Nothing is off limits.”

  Everyone but Fynn had discreetly disappeared from the awkwardness of the reunion, eager to dissect what they’d just witnessed.

  Fynnigan was still sputtering in shock at seeing his dad and Libby together. “What the hell? Wait. You’re the disappearing act? The mystery girlfriend? Dad, you and Libby? Libby, you and my dad? How long has this been going on? Since before you were Queen? What? Back when I was a boy? I think I need a drink. Oh my God! That’s why you left after the wolf attack? I’d always wondered why you never came back to visit. Who else knew about this? Wait, that’s why there were always lilacs at your house when I’d come to visit, because of Libby?” Fynnigan’s brain was on overload, and the questions burst forth on rapid fire.

  Libby looked at Fynnigan and laughed as she gave him a little smile. “Fynn, I told you it was complicated. No one knew it was your dad. C’mon. The three of us have some catching up to do.” She looked up at Bas, who was still in shock trying to process this life altering revelation. “I’m pretty sure I have a bottle of that Jenever you like in the palace bar. We could all probably use a drink. Fynn, will you please show your dad to the bar? I’ll meet you there shortly.”

  Fynnigan was still shaking his head in disbelief as he escorted Bas up to the palace, peppering his dad with questions.

  She rolled her eyes when she saw Dale sitting on the horse arena fence, laughing, his arms outstretched as if to say, “Ta Da!”

  “Really? Is this your idea of a joke? You’ve told me for the better part of a year that he wasn’t the one and I had to let him go. More than once even, since I couldn’t seem to ever stay away for long.”

  Dale hopped off the fence and sauntered towards her. “Ash, I told you to wait for the man who could love the real you. It wasn’t right before. Now it’s definitely a maybe. Now that you know who you are, he has the chance to learn too, and prove himself worthy. That’s something.”

  “I’d punch you in the face right now if you could feel it.”

  “I know you would. That almost makes this funnier. I love you. The real you. I always have. Don’t forget to give others, including this guy, the chance to know the real you. You deserve it, and so does he.” Dale blew her a kiss and turned around and walked away from the palace.

  Libby shook her head in disbelief, then started laughing.

  “Yes. Definitely a maybe,” she whispered as she turned and headed towards the palace.

  And that’s how the engineer and the King officially met. The rest is a story for another day.

  Citations

  p. 3 Endless Stream of Tears, written and performed by Dolly Parton

  p. 6 The Mourning Bride, written by William Congreve

  p. 9 Tales of a Wayside Inn, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  p. 17 It’s The End of the World As We Know It, written by John Michael Stipe, Michael E. Mills, Peter Lawrence Buc, and William Thomas Berry. Performed by REM

  p. 63 Into the Mystic, written and performed by Van Morrison

  p. 66 I will Follow You Into the Dark, written by Benjamin Gibbard, performed by Death Cab For Cutie

  p. 111 Dancing Queen, written by Benny Goran Bror Andersson, Bjoern K. Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson. Performed by ABBA

  p. 120 It’s a Mother Fucker, written by Mark O. Everett, performed by Eels

  p. 139 untitled poem written by Jon Storm

  p. 189-190 No Stopping You, written by Brett Eldridge and Tom Douglas. Performed by Brett Eldridge

  p. 195 Tender, written by Alex James, Dave Rowntree, and Graham Coxon. Performed by Blur

  p. 199 Broken, written by Christian Medice, Mitchell Collins and Samantha DeRosa. Performed by lovelytheband

  p. 203 When Ye Go Away, written by Charles O. Lennon and Michael Scott. Performed by The Waterboys

  p. 211 In Memoriam, written by Alfred Tennyson

  p. 214 Mama I’m Coming Home, written by John Osbourne and Zakk Wylde, performed by Ozzy Osbourne

  Endnotes

  [1] Craic is the Irish word for fun or having a good time.

  [2] A tsuba is the hand-guard between the blade and the hilt of the katana.

  [3] Wikipedia

  [4] Hanami is the traditional Japanese cherry blossom viewing picnic held in the spring.