Forty-Six

 

"Your Majesties, we've found him," Captain Schuttmann announced. He lowered his voice so only the king and queen could hear. "And he had a child with him."

Molina half rose from her throne, before Lubos' hand on her shoulder gently pushed her back into her seat. She shot a glance at the packed court – would she ever get used to having an audience for everything she did? – and made a show of adjusting the cushions beneath her before planting her bottom firmly on them.

Most of the court knew nothing of Tessarina, or her pregnancy, and if anyone did, they'd probably heard the same story that circulated among the castle servants: she'd lost the baby. So if the queen wept, the servants knew the reason for her grief, or at least they thought they did.

Two guards marched a man between them, dropping him to his knees before the dais. Another guard came forward with a peasant woman, carrying a squirming bundle in her arms. The child's wet nurse, Molina guessed. Could it be Tessarina? She hardly dared hope, and yet...

"You won't find him." The kneeling man's voice was harsh as he gazed unflinchingly at Lubos, though he knew better than to rise with two guards standing over him.

Molina's breath hissed out of her. She did not know this man. They hadn't caught him after all, and the child could not be her daughter. The witch still had her.

"Find who?" Lubos asked.

"Sir Abraham von Rumpelstiltskin, the man who put down your father like the mad dog he was." The man glared. "Your Majesty," he spat, as though the title was an insult. Perhaps it was to him.

"Where is he?" Molina asked.

The man's pale eyes turned to her in surprise.

When he did not answer, Lubos said, "Your queen asked you a question, and you will answer it. Where is von Rumpelstiltskin?"

"I do not know. Out of your reach, far beyond your borders."

Lubos nodded. "Then who are you? His squire? His servant?"

The man spat on the floor. "I am Sir Chase of...of nowhere now. I left my lord's service to escort my sister to her new home, where I thought she would be safe. Alas, Maja is dead, and my former brother in law decided to commit regicide, and catch some of the old king's madness, it would seem."

"And what of the child?" Lubos asked.

"The boy is Maja's child by Abraham, her husband. Before the madness took him, he swore to give his life for the boy, for he would let no harm come to him. The last thing he asked me to do was to ensure the boy was cared for, to take him to the princess." He jerked his head toward Molina. "That would be you, I guess. If he ever regains his senses, I am certain he will come for the boy, if only to check that I kept my word."

Lubos met the man's eyes, and it seemed to Molina that he gave the tiniest of nods. He raised his voice. "The child will be placed in the royal nursery, and raised as a ward of the crown. If he shows promise he will be allowed to become a page, then a squire, and perhaps even a knight, like his father. I will keep his lands in trust for when he comes of age to be one of my loyal barons." For as a hostage in this household, he would have no choice. "Does the child have a name?"

"Maja called him Isaak," Sir Chase said. "I believe she would thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty, if she could."

"If you swear fealty, I may allow you to take him as your squire when he is of an age to do so," Lubos said.

His tone was careful, calculating, with no emotion in it at all. The tone of a monarch, Molina realised with a shiver.

Sir Chase smiled faintly. "I thank you for the offer, Your Majesty, but we both know that is not a good idea. If Abraham were to return for the boy...ah, tell him I am far away, serving some foreign lord or court. It shall be the truth." He pulled a pair of gloves out of his pocket and threw them down on the steps. "He wanted the boy to have these. The queen will know when the time is right, I think."

Molina recoiled. She knew those gloves well, for von Rumpelstiltskin had worn them, only taking them off when he wanted to touch something to turn it to gold. Yet she nodded curtly, and gestured for a servant to pick them up and bring them to her. She didn't want to touch them. "Bring the child to the nursery. I shall...inspect him there." She beckoned to the guard with the wet nurse, as she rose from the dais and made her way out of the throne room.

Lubos found her in the nursery later that evening, watching the boy sleep. They were alone, for she'd sent the wet nurse down to the kitchen for dinner.

"Did I make the right decision?" Lubos asked. "Or did I mess up?"

Molina smiled. In court, he was every bit the king his father had trained him to be, but in private he was the same man she'd met by the millponds. "I don't know. I don't want to ever see him again, and if we have his son, I imagine we will. Yet the boy has no one, and if he grows up, he will inherit what I understand are prosperous lands. It makes sense to raise him under your roof, so that he will see you as more of a father than the man who deserted him. And there is the matter of the princess Sir Chase spoke of. Von Rumpelstiltskin could not have meant me, for he knew I could not break his curse. Perhaps he believed Tessarina could. If his father never returns and the boy becomes a knight, you can send him out to find her."

Lubos hung his head. "I sent guards back to the witch's cottage, but they found nothing and no one. Not even the garden I saw. As if somehow...magically...it all vanished. The walls were broken ruins, yet I remember climbing them. If I had known the witch would take our daughter and disappear, I would have..."

"You would have done exactly what you have done. You have not lied to me yet, and you will not do so today. You pledged her to save my life and hers, just as I did. We are both equally culpable in this, and will suffer for it, as we deserve. Perhaps, one day, there will be other children."

Lubos blinked. "Other children? You mean...but the midwife said..."

"To wait until I am ready," Molina finished for him. "It has been some weeks since she was born. I believe tonight I might be ready to take you into my bed, so that you can fondle these before they return to their normal size." She cupped her breasts through her dress.

"Will the boy be all right alone here?" Lubos asked, casting a longing look at Molina.

She shrugged. "I have never cared for a child before, so I have no idea. The wet nurse will return soon, and he's asleep now. If his lungs are as strong as Tessarina's, he will soon wail loud enough to let someone know if he wants something."

"Then let us go to bed, and see if I can give you an heir by morning," Lubos said eagerly, taking her arm.

"Or tomorrow night, or the night after," Molina said.

"Or any night after, for I swear I will make you happy again, Molina, happy ever after."

And she smiled, because she knew he spoke the truth.