Bull rose from his seat and walked off in the direction of
the bar, and the innkeeper, while Toad swept up both his own chair and Bull’s
in his hands and, bidding the Princess to carry what remained of their drinks, went
out into the balmy night air. Casting
around for a suitable place to sit, Toad espied a small feed station, for
horses or mules, which was partially covered by a plank set over it to keep the
rain out. Thinking that it would make a makeshift but excellent trestle, Toad laid
the chairs at the side of it and bade the Princess to sit.
“If Bull wants to go and check on the horses, let him go
himself; I have no such worries about our good master farrier!” Toad said as he
sat down. “Besides, it would be an insult to the poor man to wake him yet again
from his slumber for such a paltry reason as mistrust, wouldn’t you agree,
Princess?”
“Most certainly, Toad!” she exclaimed, smiling. “A grave
insult, to be sure!” She chuckled but just at that moment, as she began to
relax into her chair, a chill gust of wind made her shudder, as though someone had
walked across her mother’s grave, and she felt the gooseflesh slowly creep all over
her body.
“You are cold, m’Lady?” asked Toad. “Come, let me offer you
my jerkin, I have little need of it.” Toad took off his leather jerkin and laid
it across the Princess’ shoulders, fastening it around her throat with the two
small, fine leather straps that made the only closure.
“I thank you, Toad, for your kindness,” the Princess said. “Perhaps
you would gather me closer to you; I feel somewhat more chilled than this night
air should warrant; perhaps I am sickening for something or evil, perchance, is
afoot.” The soldier laid his arm across
her shoulder, as gently as he might, and gathered the Princess as close as he thought
decorum would allow. As she laid her head onto his shoulder, the door to the
inn swung wide yet again. However, instead of Bull’s re-appearance with ale and
wine, the two females, who had earlier relied so heavily upon each others’
support, came into view, no less in need of support. As they stumbled away from
the door, the taller of the two looked in Toad’s direction.
“Well, what have we ‘ere,” she bellowed. “Two young lovers,
a-billing an’ a-cooing; ah, ain’t it sweet.” Toad immediately took his arm from
around the Princess’ shoulder and quickly grabbed hold of his flagon of ale.
“You’d think she could do better than some old battle-scarred
soldier to go-a-romping with, wouldn’t you; she ain’t what I would call, well,
beautiful, especially in those clothes, but I doubt that even she could be so
desperate!” She gulped at the bottle of wine that she was clutching tightly to her
breast. “ My, my, what a sight! He surely couldn’t have come out from between
his mother’s legs like that, all twisted like; the midwife would surely still be in shock! Perhaps she
still is!” The woman cackled maliciously. As the
laughter took hold, she lurched forward and her companion barely caught her in
time before she nearly pitched headfirst into the well-pounded dirt which made
up the floor of the courtyard. Regaining her balance, the taller of the two
continued with her diatribe.
“Perhaps she is blind, my sweet, my good friend, my
partner-in-crime and can no more see the face of her beau than I can see the
inside of the King’s citadel. Yes, that must be it! Blind, and stupid too, if I
am any judge. To walk beside such as he,
even if besotted by wine, would be more than I could bear. Heavens, it would
fair shame me, have no doubt!”
The Princess bristled with anger at such an affront to her
integrity but more so, if truth be known, for Toad; he who risked life and limb
every day in the protection of their people, and herself, and merely on the
command of a Captain and his own sense of duty; what it was to do right. She
felt genuinely sickened by what she was hearing.
“Pay it no heed, Princess,” Toad whispered. “It is merely
the bravado of those all too far into their cups to notice what it is that they
say. It is of no import; do not trouble yourself with this. It is all but wind,
no more.” However, the taller of the two women, despite her companion’s
attempts to calm her down, would not be quietened.
“Hah! Do you think he has to pay for the privilege, I wonder?
Not for all the cinnamon tea in the world would I step out with such a one.
Fair makes my eyes bleed just to consider it! Still, once a doxie, forever a
doxie; just close your eyes now, dearie, it will all be over in a trice and then
you’ll be that silver penny the richer!”
As the door opened once more and Bull stepped into the
gloom, his arms laden with a tray of ale and wine, the Princess launched
herself away from her chair and positively vaulted over the feed stall. The
chair clattered behind her as it turned cartwheels across the courtyard. With
her fist held high, she bore down on the two women as though she was a banshee sent
from the Dark One himself; there was murder in her eyes.
Toad sprang from his chair, upsetting the flagon of ale
which fell, emptying its contents and soaking the parched earth of the
courtyard, and went in pursuit as fast as his long legs could carry him. Bull
let the tray that he was holding tumble to the ground as he too made to head
off the Princess in her rage. Mere inches away from the hapless pair of women,
Toad managed to grasp the Princess’ wrist and spun her around just as Bull made
fast her other arm.
“Let me go!” the Princess screamed. “She will pay for what
she has said; and pay dear! I am a Princess and he is a noble and courageous
soldier. By his skill, and the skill of him and his companions only, are you
protected from the Incursors; I will have just recompense for this affront!”
As Bull and Toad struggled to hold the Princess in check,
the two women cowered in the doorway, retreating there in the face of the Princess’
onslaught. As inebriated as they were, still they possessed enough wit to be
frightened and both tried to make profuse apology to the Princess, claiming
ignorance or jest as a way of mitigating the insults whilst fumbling in vain
with the latch to the door in a fruitless attempt at escape to the sanctuary of their fellows..
Bull, still with both hands clasped around the Princess’
wrist spoke calmly, a voice like gilded draperies gently fluttering in the
breeze; a voice which the Princess had never heard before and so unlike the
Bull that she thought that she had come to know. It was strangely soothing.
“Get along inside, you two, or better still, be off to your
beds. She is indeed a Princess and a better blade than you will find in all the
kingdom of the Elves. As angered as she is, it would not be wise to anger her
still further by your pathetic whining, lest she take my good friend’s sword
and skewer you where you stand.” He paused briefly. “Come, Princess! Toad will
fetch us more ale, for I fear that what I have brought has come to naught, and
we will sit again and drink and speak of ‘cabbages and kings’. These sad wretches do not
deserve the anger of the fairest of the fair, whatever their fault.”
As Toad released the Princess’ wrist and likewise released the latch to the door,
the two women passed back inside of the inn, Toad followed, and closed the door behind him; off
for some more of the ale that Bull had so wantonly poured into the earth of the
courtyard. The Princess snickered as Bull let go of her wrist, which bore the
marks of how tightly he had held her and the strength of her struggle to
release herself.
“A better blade than in all the kingdom of the elves,” she
said with a smile. “I wish it were so, Bull. You tell a fine lie, a pretty
story, so you do; oh, and how I wish it were true!”
“Come, Princess,” replied Bull. “I know not what occasioned
this outburst but warranted I fear it was. I have never seen you so incensed
unless it were after your audience with the King and yet, that was tempered by
sadness, by regret. Here was only blind rage, I think. It would be imprudent to
ask why you should thus take matters so far into your own hands. Is that not what
Toad and I were sent on this journey for; to prevent any peril befalling our
good Princess? Perhaps we have been remiss, Toad and I; perhaps the greater peril
lies within, not without.” He smiled. “Still, nicely done, m’Lady, whatever the
reason; I was almost frightened myself!”
Bull led her to the feed stall, their makeshift trestle, and
righting the chairs bade her to sit. As she sat down, she peered up into his
eyes and then away to the door and back up into his eyes. As she looked to the
door once more, she could see Toad appear; he was carrying a tray laden with
ale and wine and oaten cakes topped with cream. As he started out on the short walk across the
courtyard, towards where she and Bull were sitting, she hung her head and averted her
eyes, as though in shame, although she felt none, merely a sense of pride at
what she had done.
“I understand, Princess,” Bull whispered. “Yes, I think that
I may understand. Come, let us wait on our drink, and lo, what do I espy? Cakes
and cream, Princess! And a pot of strawberry preserve! O, good man, Toad, good
man. A fine dessert, a drink and then we shall be off to bed as soon as we may.
It has been a long day, and a long night, and we have still a way to go
tomorrow.”
Fin
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