Four footmen scurried toward the door, set a stool in place, and opened the compartment. The first person to alight was an elderly man, followed by a woman not much younger. Both wore coronets and grand garments. The groom’s parents, the king and queen of Malandria, he presumed.
A tall, dark-haired man emerged behind them. He had a long, hooked nose, narrowed eyes, and an expression that suggested something nearby smelled bad. The twisted frown relaxed only when his gaze fell on Princess Merry.
The trumpeters blew a resounding fanfare as the trio approached the dais.
The king and the two princesses stood and descended to greet the newcomers. Between the distance and the continual blaring of the trumpeters, Baxter couldn’t hear the words spoken between hosts and guests. He did see the way the newly arrived prince fawned over Princess Merry, kissing her hand and smiling at her with all the charm he could muster.
Baxter also saw, quite clearly, the smug, superior smile Merry threw at her sister as they turned to escort the newcomers into the main part of the castle.
The rest of the day and evening comprised one long, sometimes loud and boisterous party, with gifts exchanged between families, betrotheds, and small benefits granted to the castle staff and the newcomer’s servants in celebration of the nuptials.
Prince Rodo presented Princess Merry with a beautiful set of jeweled adornments, including a ruby-studded tiara, necklace, bracelet, and ring. She donned them immediately and took considerable joy in turning and posing in ways that ensured the gems caught the light and sparkled becomingly.
More than once, Princess Merry turned the nasty, smug look on her sister. She held up her wrist with the ruby bracelet, turning it to send a reflected ray of sunlight from the depths of the gems toward her sister’s face. Fanny grimaced and reached for her own wrist, tracing a finger along the gold chain of the bracelet he’d given her.
Baxter danced with Fanny a few times, and several of the more adventurous men did as well, though he could tell that she favored none of them. Sir James claimed more of her time than made either of them comfortable.
The real blow, however, came early the next day, when the king summoned both himself and Fanny to a private audience chamber.
Chapter 15
Baxter had no idea what to expect as he escorted Fanny to the king’s small audience chamber in response to the royal summons.
The king waited in the room, with Princess Merry and her new betrothed, Prince Rodo, seated on his left side, and Sir James at his right. Baxter and Fanny bowed to the king and waited while he stood.
He came to Fanny and led her to the foot of the dais. “My dear,” he said, “I have wonderful news for you.” He beamed at her in a way that made Baxter think better of his care and concern for his younger daughter.
“As you know,” he continued, “I’ve made it known that I would be seeking candidates for your hand at the time of Princess Merry’s wedding festivities. A number of young men of good family and fortune indicated their interest in you, but then, after that unfortunate incident a few days past, most withdrew their feelers or failed to pursue the effort.”
He drew in a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. “However, I do have an offer for your hand from a man well worthy of you.” The king turned to look at Sir James.
Baxter’s heart began to slam against his chest, and his breathing quickened.
Sir James stood up and approached Princess Fanny. “My dear,” he said. “I know you have had some difficulties in the past, but I remain confident you can learn to control your baser impulses. I also feel certain that with the right incentives and guidance, you will be an exemplary wife to someone in my position.”
Baxter had to restrain a strong urge to plant his fist in the man’s face. The tone was smarmy, confident, and destined to provoke the worst sort of response from the princess. He’d underestimated how much she’d learned from him, however. Fanny didn’t say anything, though her right hand closed hard over the bracelet.
For a moment Sir James appeared disconcerted by her lack of enthusiastic response. Then he said, “But of course, you’re overwhelmed by the offer. It’s not every day that a young lady, even if she is a princess, meets a man as her future husband.”
Fanny continued to stare at him for several long moments. “It is very good of you, Sir James,” she said, with a meekness that astonished Baxter. “I’m quite overcome. I never anticipated…Never guessed…”
She glanced wildly around the room, like a trapped animal searching for a way out of its cage. Briefly she met Baxter’s eyes. She looked panic-stricken. A deep breath seemed to steady her enough to say, “I’m very grateful to you, Sir James, and to you, papa, for arranging this. But at the moment, I’m overcome and undone. I know not what to say. Please allow me to withdraw and consider my good fortune in private for a time.”
“Of course, my dear,” her father said.
Princess Merry added, to her future husband, “It’s no surprise she’s so overwhelmed. Had you seen her just a few weeks ago, you’d not have recognized her, she was such a wild creature. She’s just barely tamed, and can certainly have had no expectation of making a decent marriage at all, much less to one of such excellent virtues as Sir James.”
It was a measure of Fanny’s consternation that she either didn’t hear or didn’t react to her sister’s jabs. She was already making her way out of the room, trying to do it in as rapid a way as gentility permitted.
Baxter glanced at the king. “Perhaps I should have a talk with her,” he suggested. “She does seem somewhat befuddled.”
The king nodded and dismissed him.
Baxter caught up with Fanny in the hall, just outside her quarters.
For a moment, she just stopped and stared at him, then her expression collapsed into despair. “I can’t,” she yelled at him. “I won’t. I can’t marry that man. They can’t make me.”
He pushed open the door to her quarters and led her inside. “Quiet. You don’t want everyone in the castle to hear you. Please! Calm down.”
She quieted, but only because the tears ran down her face and the words choked in her throat. “I can’t wed him. He’s…I can’t.”
“He’s of noble family, decently rich, and generally considered well-favored. Many women would kill to be in your position, to have such an offer from him.”
She sobbed. “I don’t want him. He has a shady reputation, and he makes me shiver with dread just to be close to him. I like not the way he looks at me and touches me.” She stared at him. “Please, My Lord Baxter, surely there is a way to prevent this.”
Baxter drew a deep breath. “I don’t know that I can,” he admitted. “But I’ll discuss it with your father.”
“If naught else avails, I’ll go back to being the wild, uncivilized shrew I was before you came. Even he will not want me then.”
Baxter watched her. “I doubt such a tactic would gain you anything save, perhaps, an even less palatable husband.”
“I fear you may have the right of it,” she admitted. Her eyes widened a moment later. “And you would have no claim on the reward my father had promised.”
“No,” he said. “The reward is important to me, but not so important as your future comfort and security. I could not accept any reward in good conscience, knowing it had been earned at the cost of your happiness.”
“Yet I will have to marry,” she mused. “One man or another of my father’s choosing. Perhaps Sir James is not so bad a choice at that.”
Chapter 16
The next morning, Baxter requested a private audience with the king. Fanny needed time to herself, so he sent her off to work in the garden while he bearded the royal lion in his den. He found the king alone, sipping tea from a cup and reading dispatches with the aid of a pair of magnifying lenses.
“My Lord Baxter,” the king greeted him. “Come in and be seated.”
Baxter followed orders while thanking the king for seeing him. Though politeness demanded the courtesy,
it also gave him time to gauge the king’s mood and decide how to frame his request.
“Your Majesty—”
Before he could say more, though, the king added, “I have to tell you that I’m quite pleased with your efforts with Princess Fanny. Despite that incident a few days ago, you’ve made quite a difference with her. Before your arrival, she certainly would not have made that pretty apology afterward. I must say, I’d despaired of her ever behaving well enough to attract any offers of marriage at all, despite my position and her dower.”
“Your Majesty—”
“No, you need not be so modest about your achievement,” the king said. “You’ve done very well with Fanny. I would not expect her to be completely reformed in so short a time, but she is well on the way, and quite acceptable.”
“Really, Your—”
“Sir James is a good match for her. Though he isn’t royalty, as is Princess Merry’s betrothed, yet he is of a noble family. He has lands and wealth enough to support her comfortably, and perhaps one day, she’ll bear a son who’ll be my heir. I shall not live forever, you know, and I will feel more comfortable in my mind if both my daughters are well settled.”
The king nodded again. “I have not forgotten the question of your reward. I presume that is what you came to discuss with me? I understand there is a business venture you have in mind, and you need gold to fund its inception. How much do you feel you need?”
Baxter drew a deep breath. “Your Majesty, I did come to discuss my reward, but I had something a bit different in mind.”
The king’s bushy eyebrows rose. “What might that be, my lord?”
“Your daughter. I would like to tender an offer for her myself. I, too, am of a noble family. Though I am not the lord to extensive lands and do not stand to inherit any, I believe I can still begin the operation of a business that will eventually support us quite comfortably, though not, perhaps, in the sort of state that Sir James could provide. It will be slower without the reward I’d hoped for from you, but I’m confident I can manage. I’m in love with her, and she loves me.”
He half expected the king to erupt in wrath, thundering at him for his presumption, or having him removed to a dungeon. Neither occurred. The king remained silent for a moment, studying him with shrewd, narrowed eyes.
“You are sure of my daughter’s feelings for you?” the king asked.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“But of course she would,” the king said. “With your fine figure and your concern and support for her. How could she not fancy herself in love with you? And you must have strong feelings for her to forego the purpose that brought you here in the first place.” He sighed, looked down at the pile of papers in front of him, then looked back up at Baxter. “I’ll need some time to think on this. Tomorrow, after the nuptials, I’ll make my decision.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty, for even considering my suit,” he said.
The king nodded and looked down at the papers again, dismissing him.
He didn’t see Fanny again until much later in the afternoon. When he sought her after the noon meal, he learned the king had summoned her and she was closeted with her father.
They met in the hall as she returned to her quarters to change for dinner. She stopped when she saw him and stared at him.
“My father said you made an offer for me.” Her face was taut and tightly controlled. “He said you asked for my hand as your reward rather than the gold you needed for your business.” She drew in an unsteady breath. “I…I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you love me,” he suggested.
“I do. You know I do.”
“Then why this frown?” he asked, tipping her face up with a finger under her chin. “Does your father intend to accept Sir James’s suit rather than mine?”
“He didn’t say which suit he favored. He asked my feelings on the matter.”
“And you told him you preferred to be wed to me. Belike he wasn’t too pleased about it.”
“I know not. He said nothing in favor of either, even when I told him my preference would be to wed you, but I was not certain it was the best answer.”
“How is that? You’ve admitted you love me. You loathe Sir James. What other answer can there be?”
“I accept Sir James’s offer, so that you may receive the reward my father promised you—the gold you need for yourself and your family.”
He pulled her into his arms and pressed her against his body. “You would do that for me? I knew you were a lady worth loving—worth two of your sister—but I had no idea you could rise to such levels of generosity.”
She sighed and leaned into him. “I did not say I told my father I would accept Sir James’s offer. In truth, he asked only which one I favored, not which I would choose to accept. He simply told me he had an offer from you in addition to the one from Sir James. He’ll make a decision tomorrow.” Her fingers dug into his waist as she held onto him. “I’m torn. A part of me—the better part, perhaps—knows I should want to be given to Sir James. But all my heart and soul and being clamor to be with you.”
“And mine yearn for you,” he said.
“But what will I do if he chooses Sir James for me?”
“We’ll worry about that if it happens,” he assured her.
* * * * *
The wedding celebration engulfed them the next day, leaving neither of them time to worry about their own situation. Baxter found himself occupied helping the men move tables outside onto the green for the feast, setting up torches, and preparing a dais for the musicians, and another one for the members of the royal families.
He met Fanny once or twice as each of them raced off in one direction or another to fetch something needed. On the second occasion, she was muttering to herself as she carried a length of wispy fabric and a few roses just cut from the garden.
They were alone in the corridor at that point, so he stopped her long enough for a kiss. “How are you, my love?” he asked when he could finally force himself to pull away. “Surviving this day?”
She sighed heavily. “I’d do better if Merry would ever decide what she wants to do with her headdress. She’s changed her mind at least six times now. Heaven preserve me. I’m on the edge of exploding at her again.”
He put a hand on the bracelet he’d given her, which she seemed to wear all the time. “Be calm. It will soon be over. In a few days she’ll depart to her new home and will be around to torment you no more.”
“Oh.” She sounded startled. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. It makes me a bit sad. Though she hasn’t been very nice to me, still she’s my sister.” She smiled up at him, a smile tinged with both sadness and wry humor. “Perhaps I’ll find it easier to cope with her for today. Thank you, my lord.”
Though all in the castle were busy, there were no insurmountable crises until after the ceremony had concluded and the festivities were well underway. The ceremony itself went off smoothly. The bride was lovely and poised; the groom looked proud, haughty and pleased with the prize he’d won. Each spoke the words of their vows firmly and clearly.
Afterward the crowds of guests feasted on mountains of food piled on groaning tables. Wine and ale flowed freely from a long line of kegs. For the first hour or so the musicians could barely be heard over the murmur of conversations. The quartet paused periodically to allow toasts to the bride and groom and their families.
Though the crowd comprised folks from every level of society, even those from the lower classes wore their finest clothes, and it appeared that new garments might well have been supplied to them for the occasion. Members of the nobility, attired in brilliant, gaudy garments, glittering with gold, silver and gems, thronged in sufficient numbers to make it a grand spectacle.
Princess Fanny stood near the dais where her father and the groom’s parents still sat. She sipped slowly from a cup of wine and talked with a pair of young men in elaborate finery. Princess Merry and her new husband were nearby, greeting a continuing st
ream of well-wishers.
Baxter made his way to Fanny’s side, stopping once or twice to exchange pleasantries or respond to inquiries, but he sped up when he saw Sir James edging in the same direction.
They arrived almost simultaneously.
Fanny appeared disconcerted and momentarily unsure who to greet first. The gaze she turned on him was a bit desperate and begged understanding when she twisted toward Sir James, greeted him, and gave him a smile that showed the strain involved in summoning it.
He didn’t blame her. She might have to live with the man for the rest of her life.
The other man gave him a haughty look. “Lord Baxter, you’re still around? I would have thought you’d have claimed your reward and been off to your commerce project by now.” The way he said “commerce” made it sound as though he might have substituted “murder” or “massacre”.
“Ah, but since I’ve been hired to be Princess Fanny’s guide, I wouldn’t think of leaving her until her future was securely settled.”
“Did the king not tell you?” Sir James asked. “Perhaps he didn’t feel it necessary to keep someone in your position informed, but I’ve done the princess the honor of requesting her hand in marriage. Her future is quite secure. I guard carefully what is mine, so you may rest assured it is settled.”
“Oh? That’s odd. When I spoke with the king yesterday, he gave no such indication. He mentioned you had made an offer, but at that time he hadn’t decided whether he would accept it. I believe there were other offers available.”
Sir James tossed an off-hand shrug. “None so acceptable as mine, I’m sure. It’s all just a formality. He’ll accept it.”
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