No Rest for the Prince's Virgin

by Morgan King

  ****

  Later there was drinking, much drinking, as everyone returned to the castle, where casks of wine and ale were rolled up from the cellar. Conversations swirled around her as Katrine stuck to the edges of the Great Hall. The more drink that was poured, the louder voices became.

  Here and there Katrine caught snippets of people wondering what the future might hold. None of it was reassuring. Everyone talked as if the prince would marry soon, as if it were predictable, just to bring stability.

  If only she could speak to Wilhelm, but he had not looked for her once the entire evening. She understood how busy he must be. Visiting nobles pushed against each other in plain sight to get close enough to talk to him.

  But they would all have to retire before morning. Wilhelm would be alone then. He would come to her. Even last night he had come to her. It had been the best night of her life. It would not be the last she would share with him. Except … Katrine could go home.

  Helen had told her how. She would not have to walk. The magic of this kingdom extended to Homing Horses, so all Katrine would need to do would be to locate one in the stables and let it take her there. Apparently anyone could have told her this if they’d chosen to.

  Homesickness and uncertainty were powerful incentives. If only Wilhelm would chase them away, brush them from her with a steadfast caress. Or was he uncertain, too?

  Chapter Nine

  “Where is she?” Wilhelm’s bellow echoed through the castle, but brought no response. “Someone find the Lady Katrine for me!” Servants dashed to leave his presence.

  Wilhelm had been growing increasingly worried since he had not seen Katrine at breakfast that morning. He should have gone to her the night before. He had hardly had a chance to speak to her since the last night he had slept in her bed: the best night of his life, quickly followed by the worst morning of his life.

  He had been awoken by a knock at the door. Katrine, cradled in his arms, had not even stirred at the sound. He had had to ease himself away from her and creep to the door, where he had been greeted by Thomas, his father’s most trusted manservant. The old man had spoken quickly, clearly harried.

  “My Prince. Thank God. I’ve found you. You must come quickly. It is your father. He woke an hour ago with a pain in his chest. He is so horribly pale. You must come quickly.”

  Wilhelm had left the room with only the briefest backward glance for the woman who had captured his heart. And now she was nowhere to be found.

  He had seen her with the ladies during the funeral procession. Despite his duties being elsewhere if she was within sight his eyes sought her out. Then later everyone had wanted to offer their condolences, some more sincerely than others. King Oswald, Serena’s father, had taken the opportunity to stress how many responsibilities would now fall to Wilhelm and how important it would be for him to marry. It was a time to consolidate partnerships, he had said. Wilhelm would have to be strong if he didn’t want to be perceived as weak.

  Did the man not know that the queen ruled still? Did they see a woman as too weak to retain power? Could they not see he had fallen in love? They must be blind. Or did not understand the heart-wrenching pull true love had.

  Wilhelm had no desire to topple his mother from power, but he would lead her armies if need be. His mother would need every bit of his support. Last night she had been inconsolable, and Wilhelm had fallen asleep in the chair in her room, initially afraid to leave her while her sleep seemed so fretful.

  “My Prince.” Thomas approached him, a stable boy trailing behind.

  A twist of apprehension spun deep in his gut. “Yes, what is it Thomas?

  “Milord, I fear the Lady Katrine may have left. James here said she came into the stables early this morning and asked for a homing horse. He saw no reason to stop her. He didn’t know, milord.”

  Wilhelm pinned the boy with look. “What exactly did she say?”

  The boy opened and closed his mouth three times before any words came out. “She came in, Sir, and asked if it was true that we had homing horses, that if she were to sit on one it would take her home. I confirmed it, and she asked to have one saddled for her. She looked a little wary, and I gave her a sugar lump to give to Trixie.”

  “She left?”

  “Yes, Sir, I helped her onto Trixie. And instructed her on what to whisper in Trixie’s ear.”

  “And Trixie, is she back yet?”

  “No, milord.”

  “Have our strongest homing horse saddled for me, James!”

  “Not Dungeon, your own horse, milord?”

  “No, if I had wanted Dungeon I would have asked for him.”

  The boy rushed off to do his bidding.

  “Thomas, my cloak!”

  Wilhelm fetched his sword himself, and as soon as Thomas dropped the cloak over his head Wilhelm fled to the stables. James had a large chestnut mare ready for him. “This is Treasure, my Lord.” Wilhelm took time to run his hand down the horse’s neck, letting the animal sniff his other hand with a snort of his nostrils. Then he quickly swung himself up into the saddle, gave a gentle but firm squeeze of his heels, and the horse proceeded through the wide stable doors. It stopped in the stable yard awaiting further instruction.

  As a passing thought, Wilhelm spoke to James. “Have Thomas tell my mother where I am gone. I will return with the princess as soon as I am able.”

  “The princess?”

  Wilhelm was not listening. He was bent forward, his arms around the horse’s neck so that he could whisper in its ear. “I wish to go home, I wish to go home, I wish to go home.” Nothing happened. He gave a sharp dig of his heels and repeated the words.

  “Goddamit, do you not understand? She is my home! There is nowhere else for me but where she is.”

  The horse made no move, not even shifting a hoof, when Wilhelm threw back his head and roared his anguish to the sky.

  “Dungeon! Saddle me Dungeon!” he shouted to the frozen James. “I will track her to the end of this world if I have to.” And Dungeon is by far the strongest, fastest horse in the stables. Together we can track any prey.

  Within minutes he and Dungeon could be seen thundering into the distance. Everyone who had heard the commotion came out of the castle to stop and stare.

  They were all in their beds later that night, when Wilhelm and Dungeon returned. Their pace was less than a quarter of what it had been when they set out. There was just one rider.

  ****

  Five months later

  Wilhelm was weary. Trying to help run a kingdom and keeping up the searches for Katrine was taking its toll. He slid off Dungeon, barely swinging his leg clear. He did not understand it. Just like that first day and night they had ridden hard and fast, but with nothing to show for it, no new leads.

  Today he had returned to the path he had first taken. The path that had initially had tracks to follow. Tracks that had not ended up leading to Katrine. He had since set off in every direction, but the first was the way he was still convinced Katrine had gone. It was the direction Trixie had returned from a mere two days after Katrine had left.

  In no direction that Wilhelm went, despite sometimes travelling for a full day and night, did he ever go beyond the boundaries of a geography he knew. Yet along the first route he reached a point where he knew that Katrine was beyond him. His heart felt empty of any connection to her. There was no longer a sense of them both having been in the same place even if it was at different times.

  On the morrow he would send out riders. He would ride out again himself. There would be no end to the searching, but he feared she was gone from his world forever as mysteriously as she had entered it.

  Strangely no one came out of the stable to greet him. “Thomas.”

  The lad came scurrying out. “Sorry, milord, we had another visitor arrive not long ago. He’s here to see you.”

  “Who is it, Thomas?”

  “I don’t rightly know, Sir, but he’s come on important business.” The boy was continuously
hopping from one foot to the other, but didn’t give Wilhelm any further details. He handed the boy the reins to Dungeon and strode into the castle.

  As soon as he walked through the massive oak door, his mother came hurrying into the great hall to greet him. She was harried, but a smile crossed her face for the first time in months. The tightness around her eyes was lifted. “What is it, Mother?”

  She drew one hand to cover her mouth. Confused, Wilhelm gathered she did not feel able to speak for some reason. Her other hand waved, drawing his attention to the card she held in it. It looked familiar.

  Nerves at his fingertips he took the card and read the words:

  Thank you for finding me. I’m the lost property of Prince Wilhelm. If you return me you shall be handsomely rewarded.

  Wilhelm went to read the words again, so that he could absorb their message fully, but as he did so the words raced ahead of his changing before he could catch up.

  Follow your heart, and me as your guide, of course, so that you may cross to the world of your one true love and bring her home.

  This time the words stayed put. Wilhelm must have read them a dozen times before his mind could move on. “Reward our guest, whoever he is. I must leave straight way.”

  Without another word he turned and headed straight back through the door, out towards the stables and a fresh horse.

  Chapter Ten

  The clatter of hoof-beats on stone cobbles drew Katrine’s attention. She wrung the cloth in her hands, placing it back in its dish on a nearby trolley before wiping her hands on her apron and moving over to the infirmary windows.

  Gripping the rough surface of the window ledge she pulled herself up onto the very points of her toes. She still couldn’t see. She was tempted to drag a chair over to climb up on.

  It was rare they got visitors who hadn’t arrived on foot. For the past few months any time she heard an unusual sound from outside her heart went from a walk to a jog.

  “Who is it, dearie?” Elaine, one of the more alert patients, piped up. “Don’t say the Bishop’s come to call, when my hair hasn’t been washed for days.”

  Katrine repressed a laugh, Elaine, bless her, was being perfectly serious in her concern. “I don’t think it’s the Bishop, Elaine. It sounded like just the one rider. The Bishop normally comes accompanied. He wouldn’t want brigands stealing his gold rings.”

  One lone rider.

  The longer Katrine didn’t look the longer she could believe that maybe, just maybe, this time he had come.

  She rested her flushed cheek against the cool of the stone wall and closed her eyes for a moment. Had her prayers been answered?

  A whisper of sound said yes. She strained her ears. Was that her name carried on the wind. Yes, the sound was getting louder.

  She opened her eyes as her name rang out through the courtyard. “Katrine!”

  Wilhelm! He had come. He had found her.

  She took a deep breath instinctively placing both of her palms against the swell of her stomach. As if sensing her touch, or her excitement bordering on fear, the baby gave a kick.

  It was too far to traverse the maze of rooms and spiral staircase to the courtyard below. It would take too long.

  Katrine grabbed a chair, pushed its back against the wall and holding tight stepped up. She took hold and twisted the iron latch on the leaded window swinging it wide open. Sticking her head out, she shouted down.

  “Wilhelm.”

  His head shot back. “Katrine.”

  His gaze flew straight to hers before swinging down and around, searching for an entrance to the part of the building she was in.

  “I’m coming down. Just give me a minute.”

  Carefully Katrine climbed back down, making her way down the aisle created by the patient’s beds.

  “It’s a visitor for you, dearie?” Elaine called out.

  Those of the patients well enough lifted their heads to look at her, curious expressions on the faces.

  “Yes,” Katrine said holding herself back from running. He’s come for me.

  She gripped the banister like a lifeline on the way down the narrow steps of the staircase.

  At the bottom she couldn’t see past the darkness inside and the light outside. Taking a tentative step forward she placed a foot onto the cobbles and promptly walked straight into the hard male chest waiting for her there. “Wilhelm.”

  Instead of the loving embrace she had pictured in her mind’s eye a thousand and twenty two times, she felt herself being shaken. The grip of his fingers on her shoulders was hard, the jolt of movement back and forth for those few seconds disorienting.

  “What the hell did you think you were doing leaving me like that?”

  The sound rattled in her ears, and Katrine wrapped her arms around her waist protectively. The action drew Wilhelm’s gaze. He immediately let go, nearly falling backwards in his haste.

  “Oh my God.” He stared transfixed. “I’m sorry.”

  Katrine couldn’t speak. Shock kept her silent.

  “A baby?”

  Well, obviously.

  “Mine?”

  That should be equally obvious.

  Katrine raised a hand and slapped him, hard.

  “Damn, I’m sorry, of course it’s mine.” He rubbed his cheek, which had instantly gone red. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

  He was still angry at her! If she could go back in time she would surely choose to stay. Was that even possible? Since her journey across worlds she felt there was nothing she knew for certain anymore. Crucially, she didn’t know if Prince Wilhelm still loved her. If he could forgive her? “When I left I didn’t know. How could I? We were together less than a week.” So little time that for a few days had felt like forever. “It was barely more time than a dream,” she said wistfully.

  “No dream,” he said reaching out a hand, but withdrawing it an inch away from making contact with her stomach. “It felt more real to me than all the comparatively inconsequential things in my life up ‘til that point.” A shadow passed over his face. “I went from the heaven of finding you, loving you, to the hell of losing my father and then not being able to find you. I think I’ve gone a little crazy without you. I’ve barely slept.”

  Katrine studied his face properly for the first time since seeing him again. She’d be too drawn by his overall presence and the intense stare of his eyes to do so before now. There were indeed dark circles and more lines at the corners. Now she looked she could see the whites of his eyes had fine lines of red. How could she have not noticed before the signs of wear and tear her absence had rendered?

  It was Katrine’s turn to apologise. There was so much she had to say sorry for. Her emotions had become so tangled together, and then pulled tight as she attempted to unravel them, that it had been impossible to think what to do for the best. Instead she’d just run away.

  She reached out a hand. He placed his in hers, and she drew them both to her stomach. “I’m sorry. I was so confused. I thought it best if I gave you time to think. I didn’t want you to have to choose between me and your people. Everything happened so fast. My family had to be worried. When I discovered the way home I took it.”

  She poured her heart, the desperation she had felt, into her words. “The homing horse helped me find the way when my card would not guide me back, but then when I found I was pregnant and the pain of missing you became too much I had neither the horse, which I let go to find its own way home, nor the card which I had sent back with it. I did not know how to get back to you. I had nothing to guide me. I do not believe our worlds are the same, and without the magic card I’m not sure it is possible to cross from the world one comes from to another. When I discovered I was with child I was desperate. I set off one day but got hopelessly lost. I have dreamed of you coming for me, taking me back.” Telling me you love me, that you still want to marry me. Katrine hesitated to share all her hopes lest he dash them.

  “What about you? How did you find me? I thought
you might come for me when the horse returned with the card, if like mine, your feelings remained unchanged.”

  “The card did not come back with the horse. I have been searching all these months to no avail. Did you run expecting me to chase you?” Wilhelm’s hands became more and more animated as he spoke.

  “Once I got back and had time to think myself, to realise what I had left behind, I desperately hoped you would come for me, but I didn’t run to make you follow.”

  “I think you are right about the card. It was recently returned to me. Someone found it and brought it to the castle, and when I set off to find you this time there was a point at which this world became visible as if overlapping with mine, and the card provided the directions. ”

  “What about Serena’s father! Did he not try to start a war, or convince you to marry her? You are not married already, are you?” Katrine clutched at Wilhelm as a moment of panic took her at the thought.

  “You thought I could marry someone else!”

  Katrine winced. When raised his voice was loud. “I’m sorry.”

  He tipped her chin. “I couldn’t marry anyone else but you. King Oswald was a fool to think he could threaten me. My men escorted him all the way home and stayed to guard the borders. I didn’t let it become an issue. Serena is a witch. I could never marry her.”

  Raising a hand to her mouth Katrine gave a startled gasp. “A witch!”

  “Well, not really a witch just a…” Wilhelm seemed lost for the right word. “She’s vindictive and unkind, the very opposite of what I have been looking for. The peas in your bed were not really put there by my family. We created a fictional challenge to help explain them. To let whoever might have put them know we had found them and any plan they had wouldn’t work. I’m convinced they were Serena’s doing.”