Another fairy story! Fit the ninth

As she stood trembling, whether from cold or fear or anger she knew not, a small side door opened in the antechamber and the King, extending his arm, beckoned to her. As she crossed the room, she could see his smile. “Come, daughter,” he called. “It has been too long since thou graced these halls and my heart rejoices to see thee now, well and hale!” As the Princess walked through the door, her father swept her up in his arms and kissed her on the cheek. “Come, sit with me child." He waved his hand across a small table to one side. "Wine? An oaten cake? Some fruit? What is it that thy father can do for thee?”

The Princess sat in a plush, crimson, high backed chair opposite her father, the small table to the side. “Well met, father,” she said. “The Chamberlain did not mention the reason for this meeting with you?”

“Does there have to be a reason for a daughter to want to see her father or a father to see his daughter?" he asked. "Regrettably, our time today will be brief, I have Council session in one half hour and this is all I can spare but speak to me child, is that not why we are here?” He smiled.

“It is not for me to talk to you but, rather, for you to talk to me; that is why I am here,” the Princess said. “Why have you paid so little respect to my mother’s memory? Why do you dishonour her so? What is this news of a child? Why do I hear this from some flunky of a herald handing out silver pennies from ‘a King in his joy’? Why do I not hear this from my father’s own lips? She is barely cold and it is as though she never existed in your eyes. How could you?” The last words were screamed at the King as though the Princess thought that she could bowl him from his chair merely by the force of her voice.

The King looked at the Princess and there was sadness in his face.

“Daughter,” he said softly. “A King must have a Queen. How else is he to rule wisely and with compassion if he does not have the benefit of the other half? The half he must, perforce, be missing? Male and female. Both are needed if one is to rule wisely.”

“I do not care what you think you need to rule wisely! Could you not have waited? Could you not at least have paid a little more respect? She was your Queen! The mother of your five grown children! Ah, but of course, the King now has his new joy! I say it again; how could you?” She hawked and spat it onto the highly polished wooden floor. “That is how much respect I deem you pay my mother!”

The King rose from his chair. “That was ill chosen, child, “ he said, his voice now firmer, more authoritative. There was a steely look to his eyes, and a set to his jaw, as he approached the Princess’ chair, towering over her seated frame. “Listen to me! Just for once, willst thou listen to me?” The Princess glared at the broad chest in front of her. “No!” she shouted, punching his chest with her small fists. The King grabbed her wrists with one hand and raised the forefinger of the other. Waving it in front of her nose he said: “No, this time you will listen, you wilful child! I am not your grandmother and I am not your mother; I am the King and your father; I will not tolerate this insolence!”

He paused, breathing hard, and then continued: “I did not choose to be King. I was chosen by our people to lead them. Do you think any elf would choose to be a King? To have the responsibility to provide for our people? To protect them? To feed them? Support those who cannot support themselves? Lead them? Would you? Do you, can you, will you, even begin to understand the weight that this burden places on your father's shoulders? The pain? Day in, day out, for an eternity! To do what must be done, and to do it aright, a King needs a Queen!”

“Then don’t do it. Give it up,” the Princess said softly.

“Child!” the King shouted. “Have you lost what few wits you were born with! You have spent too long in the company of peasants! Kingship cannot be given up! By common consent, the most capable individual is chosen to lead. Would you have us be led by a lesser elf? One less respected by his peers? Would you have me deny my duty? Deny the decision of our people? Who would you have with their arms in the barrel of shit that is government? Up to their shoulders! Find me another, more worthy! I, child, do not have the luxury to idle my days sewing lilies onto children’s dresses. I have responsibilities! I have my people to protect!” The King released her hands and returned to his chair, red-faced, and sat down with a sigh.

“Listen to me, child. I did not tell you this news for this very reason. I did not take the decision I have taken lightly nor without thought. I knew that this might cause you pain but your siblings have taken this turn of events with equanimity, why can you too not do this simple thing? Is it so terribly hard to be pleased that your father has once again found a little happiness, a little contentment and will have all too invaluable help as he tries to lead his people. These are difficult times, child; do you have no compassion?”

The Princess closed her eyes and said, almost in a whisper, “It would appear that you have none for my mother.”

“Enough!” the King roared as he once more rose to his feet. “I loved your mother, more than you, a self-centred, arrogant child will ever know; but she is gone! You were there, these twelve months past, when we laid her to rest in the glade with her forebears. The world turns and we must turn with it. I grow tired of your foolishness. Enough! I expect my daughters to grow up, to join the real world of elves and not some fanciful concoction dreamt by a child who would not know responsibility if it leapt out and bit her!”

The King, bristling with anger, paced back and forth in front of the Princess who sat, her head bowed, staring at the floor. Finally he said: “Aye, responsibility. You have none, child, and I will not be lectured on my love or absence of it, nor my respect or lack of it, by a child who has baulked her whole life at any responsibility whatsoever. Where is your spouse? Your children? Your home? Your duty? You have none! You doss with a pauper, a seamstress, and fritter your life away! When you learn the lessons that life will teach us; when you learn that with life comes duty; when you learn what all must learn, that choices must be made and they are never easy; when you make your way in the world in a manner befitting a Princess; when you finally shoulder the burdens of the living in a way befitting your station, then you can lecture me, child! Not before!”

The King stood in front of her, his hands folded behind his back, his head held high, and he waited.

Finally, after a long pause, during which the silence became almost tangible, the Princess rose and said quietly: “I have shouldered the greatest burden of the living, undying elf. Death! Twice over! Of those most loved! Do not preach to me of the way in which I should live my life. If you have the right to choose how you live your life and to judge me for mine, then I have that same right. I will live as I choose and none may pass judgement! For the way you have acted, father, for the way you have treated my mother’s memory, no forgiveness from me is possible. Although I wish it were not so, we are, I think, forever estranged.”

The Princess curtsied and made her way across the room. As she placed her hand on the doorlock ring, she turned and said in a low, trembling voice, “Farewell, father. To a world made anew.” Her father remained passive, silent. Turning back, she opened the door and walked briskly out into the antechamber and to the hallway beyond. She stopped at the entrance and took a deep breath. “Come Bull, Toad, my trusty protectors," she said. "We needs make ready to depart. I will see you at the stables at the end of the fourth watch.” Leaving them to follow her, she started to make her way back to her room.

“Oh well, no ale and wenching for us tonight, Toad,” Bull whispered, lest the Princess should hear.

To be continued........