Appease - Princess and the Pea Retold

Part 6

SIX

Reidar sent his advisers away for the day, rubbing his temples. Wearing a crown was a heavier burden than he'd thought, even on the days when the gold circlet didn't sit on his head. Keeping the people of the borderlands safe while repelling invaders and dealing with a dozen attempts to steal his crown...and that was just this week.

He was sorely tempted to find some way to let the would-be usurpers wear the crown for a day, so that they might take on the cares that came with it. On the morrow, they could return to their normal lives with no desire to ever wear that treacherous circlet again.

But he couldn't, in conscience, do it. One man with too much power could wreak a lot of havoc in a day.

Or even one woman.

Reidar sighed. "Mother? I sent everyone away so that I might have some peace. Why are you still here?"

She stepped out of the shadows. The Queen Mother should not lurk so, but no one would have been brave enough to say such a thing to Regina. Not even her son.

"I have a matter of great importance to speak to you about. Alone," she said.

Reidar spread his hands wide in invitation. "Very well, Mother. Speak."

She glanced around. "Not here. There is something I must show you first." She beckoned imperiously, and stalked out of his solar.

Sighing, Reidar followed.

She led him to her own apartment. "Now, line up! Let him see you!" she ordered as she went in.

Reidar wanted to turn around and not follow her any more, but as the king, he could hardly admit to being afraid of what he might find in his mother's chambers. So he sighed again and stepped inside.

"Which one do you like best?" Mother demanded.

She'd lined up a bunch of children. Highborn, by the look of them, and all girls, though it was hard to tell at this age. They had no curves to them for they were all too young to be women yet.

"What for?" Reidar asked tiredly. "I don't need a cupbearer. If you want another lady-in-waiting, it would be better for you to make your own choice. I have no idea what to look for in a female companion."

That was a lie, but he managed to utter it with a straight face. He looked for the ship carrying Sativa every morning and every night, but there had been no sign of it yet. Still, he would ascend the tower again tonight, in the hope that he would see it.

"You like them pretty and young, yes? Well, pick which one you want!" Mother said impatiently. "You need an heir!"

The girls giggled at this, and some of them blushed. Maybe some of them were women, though just barely.

"I'm not marrying some girl scarcely out of the nursery so I can get her with child! Mother, I have a bride, who is on her way here now. Send these girls back to their mothers, where they belong. I will sire no bastards on the daughters of my sworn bannermen. There is no honour in such things. Better to hand the kingdom over to one of the usurpers across the border than fail in my duty as king. I promised to protect my people, not seduce their children!" Reidar glared at the girls, who quailed under his gaze. He softened his expression – it wasn't their fault they were here. They were good, obedient daughters who would one day make fine wives for other men of the court. "Girls, go home," he said.

He waited until they were gone before he rounded on his mother. This time, his voice was cold. "Mother, I am betrothed to Princess Sativa, and until I hear word from her father that she is dead, I shall keep my promise. But even were word to arrive at this very moment that she truly is in the belly of this dragon of which you speak, I still would not take a child to be my queen. We may have been children at our betrothal, but more than a dozen years have passed since then. I have no doubt she is a woman grown, and everything I could expect for my queen. She will not break her promise, and I will not dishonour her or myself in breaking mine." He stared at the doorway the girls had run through in their haste to escape. "Would you have my people think me a paedophile?"

She swelled indignantly. "I would have them think you are a king, seeing to his succession."

Reidar sighed. "As a queen yourself, I need not remind you that these things take time. Nine months, at least, and sometimes longer. How long was it after your marriage that you gave birth to me?" He met her angry gaze for a moment before he turned on his heel and left.

He didn't need to hear her answer. It had been seven years. Seven years of trying, and giving birth to his sisters and all the other children who had not survived long enough to leave their cradle, before he had come along.

If his people had to wait seven years for his heir, then so be it. They had a young, strong king. They would have Rudolf, a man with enough royal blood to stand in the heir's place until then. Now, if their neighbours would just stop attacking them for no good reason, Reidar might be able to get his people a little peace. For he knew he should have no peace from his mother until he was wed. And maybe not even then.