by Sandra Elsa
Everybody around the table raised their glasses and drank deeply. Bella wanted nothing more than to crawl under the table out of sight, but Tessa prompted her to stand up and acknowledge the toast with grace and humility. “Thank you Your Majesty.” she gave him her best curtsey. Well, at least she didn't fall over and totally humiliate herself.
Her unease showed and with the same quick but gentle smile Captain Torel had, he said, “I see my Granddaughter has got her work cut out for her. We don’t bite, and when it’s all family, we’re not formal. If you’re to fit in at your destination you will have to learn to relax around nobles and royalty. You can hardly expect to belong, if you can’t act like you were raised among them. Not a criticism my dear, simple advice. Torel has told me your history, but I’m sure Tessa,” and he granted that individual an indulgent smile, “is up to the task.”
The Queen stood beside her husband, and they turned to leave, followed by everyone else. Tessa dragged Bella down the hallway, back to her room. "How fantastic was that? I wondered why they showed up for lunch. They rarely take meals with the family. At least not since father…disappeared," she said with a catch in her throat.
Bella came to the sudden realization that this girl, was the daughter of Prince Lorun. Yes…she would see to it that Bella was properly trained. She had a lot riding on this as well.
After another half hour of instruction on how to speak to servants, Tessa said, "That's quite enough for today. Torel told me I had to turn you loose for other duties."
Tessa walked back to the cottage with her. Three Guards outside the barracks, snapped to attention as Tessa and Bella walked by. They remained that way until the two women were out of sight.
Bella warned Conall that she had company and when they went in, he was nowhere to be seen. Bella changed swiftly into one of the solid black uniforms. She had to get down to the stable. Tessa asked what her plans were for the rest of the day.
"Right now I'm going down for equitation lessons, then weapons practice, then this evening, drill and ceremony," Bella told her.
"Do you mind if I come along to the stables? Uncle Torel told me you have the best looking horse he's seen in a long time. I'd like to see him. I promise I won't get in the way."
Bella was uncertain about the protocol of a Royal, traipsing around the compound with a King‘s Guard, but she said, "Certainly you may come along, if it's permitted by your family."
"Would you mind terribly if I used one of your uniforms? That way nobody will notice me, and they'll stop jumping to their feet as I walk by. That gets old fast, for all parties involved, I'm sure."
"Go ahead, you’re only a little bigger than I, and the work uniforms aren’t fitted."
They both took their hair down and Bella returned hers to the single straight braid down her back, that she had worn since she found herself in the Guard. Tessa followed suit.
"This is certainly more practical for anything except catching a man's eye, than the style we were just wearing," Tessa admitted.
Bella rushed down to the stables and Tessa struggled to keep up. Sergeant Stefan met them at the barn door. "It's about time you showed up,” he said to her. “Your horse is climbing the walls he needs to get out.” He looked at Tessa and asked, “Who's this? We haven't assigned her a horse have we? She can ride the palomino today, he needs exercise. Until I get orders to assign her a permanent mount she’ll have to catch ride whoever needs it." He looked at Tessa and asked, “How well do you ride?"
"I've had some lessons," she said.
"Good enough. The palomino's easy. He'll be a good one for me to gauge where you’re at. I'm Stefan." He offered his hand.
"Tess," she returned, shaking his hand in much too dainty a fashion.
They walked down the stable aisle and Bella stopped in front of Angel’s stall. "This is Angel," she introduced him. When she turned to the horse and added, "Angel, this is Tess." Tess looked at her with no little curiosity.
Tessa examined Angel from the aisle way.
She was dismayed when he examined her right back. “He seems rather intelligent, besides being gorgeous. Uncle Torel was right; he is the best looking horse around. And the King's stables are filled with good-looking horses. I've never seen another like him. He is so beautiful and well balanced. Is he as mean as these signs claim, or do you just not want anybody near him.”
"Believe it or not, when I got him less than a year ago he was considered a runt. He's done a bit of growing since and isn't done. And the signs are not decoration. It is very important that you don't go anywhere near him if I'm not around. Ask a couple of the guys who've had duty down here. They see how he is with me and think the signs are a sham. More than one is sporting a bruise."
To emphasize the point, Angel laid his ears flat back on his head and snaked his nose towards Tessa. Bella reached out and pushed his nose away and told him, “She’s the King’s granddaughter. Don’t you dare.” Then she turned to Tessa who was staring at her with that look common to those, unused to seeing her with Angel. “Let's saddle up before Stefan decides we need to do extra work.” She showed Tessa where the saddles and bridles were, and the unclaimed palomino. After Tessa reassured her that she could get the gelding ready, Bella went and bridled Angel.
As usual, she did not put a saddle on, but as she led him out the door, Stefan hollered down the aisle way, “Saddle him today.”
Oh great. I only hope I can remember how to put that thing on, she thought to herself.
She immediately got a reply from Conall and a reassuring nudge from Angel, “We'll help.”
She went into the tack room and picked out the saddle she'd been assigned from the masses hanging on the wall. She had touched it before; the Guard required all tack to be cleaned every time it was used and once a week if it wasn’t. So she had cleaned it a couple of times. The leather was soft and pliable, not at all like the saddles in Mistress Henna’s stables had been.
Those had often cracked and needed repair, Guard equipment needed to be ready for the stress that being ridden into battle would put on it. A broken billet or stirrup leather could mean the difference between surviving and dying on the battlefield. She inspected the saddle before she removed it from the hook, everything was as she’d left it the last time she’d cleaned it. With a lot of coaching from Conall she managed to place the saddle in the proper place on Angel’s back. Then she grabbed the girth, buckled it on the far side, then returned to the near side and snugged it up until the saddle was firmly held in place.
When she led him back down the aisle, Tessa was already waiting. Several other people were in the arena warming up their horses. Conall coached her through mounting and somehow she managed to get into the saddle. Bareback was much easier—at least with Angel’s willing cooperation. She had even learned to vault to his back as Captain Torel had that first day, but that didn’t look like a practical way to mount with the bulk of the saddle in the way.
“It can be done, but you might want to try without an audience the first several times,” Conall told her.
She was uncomfortable in the saddle and it showed. Stefan called for them all to trot. When she saw Tessa she realized the princess was very graceful on a horse. Stefan offered Tessa as much praise as he offered Bella criticism.
Her knees and calves rubbed and pinched on the unaccustomed bulk between herself and Angel. By the end of the instruction she was humiliated and in pain. Once she dismounted she healed the bruises on her legs but she could do little for the stiffness. Angel snuffled her hair in sympathy but there was little he could do either. She put him away and groomed him, and when Tessa reappeared, she hobbled back to her cottage.
“Torel said you were a great rider, what happened today?” Tessa asked when they were well out of earshot of the other Guardsmen.
“I’ve never ridden with a saddle before. Guess having a great horse isn’t all there is to it. I felt so uncomfortable with so much between him and me. He was uncomfortable as well, whi
ch certainly didn’t help anything. I guess I have a lot to learn. I suppose I ought to learn to ride on a normal horse as well, just in case Angel isn’t near me for some reason. I’m not a talented rider,” she confessed. “He just makes me look good. Looks like one more thing to squeeze into my day. You, on the other hand looked great, ‘I’ve had a few lessons’, yeah right. A few lessons a week since you were five years old maybe.”
With a smile, Tessa admitted, “Four years old. I can help you with that too, if you like. This was fun for me today. I know you already get up early but we could use Grandpa’s horses, that way nobody over here needs to know anything about it.”
“That’d be great.”
Tessa changed back into her dress, redid her hair and returned to the palace. When she was gone, Conall once again crawled out from under the bed. “I suppose she’s going to be your best friend now?”
“I don’t know about ‘best’, but yes, a friend,” Bella told him.
“I don’t suppose you could meet her at the palace from now on. Do you have any idea how little I like the underside of this bed.”
“Why don’t you just introduce yourself to her?” Bella asked
“She isn’t Guard, so she’s not under orders to not talk about me. What’s to keep her from gossiping when she sits around with her ladies? She’s very young. She may not intend any harm but she lacks discipline.”
Bella didn‘t agree with him but she had not lived under a curse for two hundred years, it was not worth arguing about. “Very well, I leave it to your judgment, though she’s not much younger than I.”
“It’s not just my judgment. You’ll notice Captain Torel has not even told his father of my existence. I can only bow to the Captain’s wisdom, and there is more to a person’s age than the years one has been alive. You have been forced to mature because of the life you have led. She is a pampered child.”
Bella thought back to the luncheon with the king, and said, “Sometimes I forget that you're always in my head. Do you always see and hear everything I do?”
“Only when I’m interested. Which is to say nearly all the time. Except when it wouldn’t be decent for me to be there. Like in the showers, with all the other women.” His tone made her wonder if he did in fact leave her mind at times like that.
“And if I lock you out?”
“You can shield against me, but I wish you wouldn’t. If you ask, I'll leave. If you force me out often enough I'll work around your shields. I have lived two hundred years with the ability to read minds. I have learned my way around normal protections.” He hemmed and hawed as though uncertain what to tell her. “You, can be in my head any time you wish. Of course the most excitement in my day is swordsmanship training, unless you‘re already with me.”
“That’s interesting, I didn’t realize I could join you in your head.” She concentrated on joining his mind and found herself pulled down, looking at herself from a position near the door. It was very much like astral projection except she was confined within his body. She could sense his mind very clearly, down to the sensation of being cursed to wear a wolf’s form. She retreated to herself and looked at him. “That could be useful since we’re to work together on this mission. Is there a limit to how close we must be physically?” she asked.
He chewed on a spot on his haunches. When the itch was gone he looked back at her. His mind was filled with uncertainty. “There was at first. You would get half a mile away and be gone. That’s why I kept coming to Dylan’s farm while you were there—even then I didn’t want to lose you.” Teeth returned to his rump, gnawing at the itch. “I didn’t want you leaving without me. The longer we’re together the stronger it’s become. After that little trick Johann pulled with the sealed room. I’m not sure if there is a limit anymore.”
Bella changed into a dress uniform, while Conall turned his head away. “I’m off to drill and ceremony, I wish you could do this for me, instead of just with me, I’ll never get the hang of marching in a group. Everybody else makes it look so effortless.”
“It will come, Bellana,” he assured her. “Just relax and let it happen. Maybe I can help, but you’ll have to give me some control over your body.”
Bella was stunned. “You can do that?”
“Only if you let me. No I can’t, nor would I if I could, just steal your body and go for a walk. You will still be in control but maybe I can nudge you in the right directions.”
With a grin she said, “We’ll see how badly it goes today. I may call on you.” She opened the door and hurried out, still talking to him.
The door closed while Conall thought to her, “As you learn these things, I find them comfortingly familiar. Some things have changed through the centuries. I know that, even without memory. As though some things are so ingrained, the body remembers even if the form is different and the mind forgets.”
“We can ask Bethany what changes have occurred in D and C over the centuries. She would enjoy the challenge of researching it.” Bella threw out the acronym for Drill and Ceremony; proud she was starting to figure them out.
Bella rushed to the parade grounds while this conversation was being carried on. When she arrived, she realized she had forgotten her sword, almost everybody else was already in formation. “Conall I need my sword,” she sent to him “Can you get in the chest to get it out?”
“What would you do without me?” he asked with humor.
“I’d be totally lost. Of course if you hadn’t distracted me, I’d have remembered it.”
A few soldiers were still straggling up to the parade field as she started back toward the cottage to meet him. After the door incident, she arranged the latch so that he could get in and out of the cottage on his own, but she was not sure he would be able to get in the chest or carry the sword if he did get to it. She hadn’t gotten half way back when he met her with the sword in its leather sheath carefully balanced in his jaws.
“Thanks,” she thought at him gratefully, grabbing the sword and buckling it on. “Does this ever get any easier?”
“Give it time Bella, you’ll get there. Most of these soldiers spend three months in basic training before they’re expected to be able to do the things an experienced unit does. The only one expecting you to be perfect is you Bella.” He trailed along after her as she rushed to formation. “They all know that you have come here without training. For you to be selected as such they respect the effort you put into learning. These people are special. They will not ridicule you. If you ask them for help they would be only too glad to give it.”
“Any special candidates in mind for instructor?” she asked with a sigh.
“You might ask First Sergeant Corwin. After all these are his practices you’re messing up.”
She managed to get back in position just as the last stragglers joined them. Her lapse had not gone unnoticed, there were several grins directed her way. Just as the last person fell into formation, First Sergeant Corwin brought them to attention.
Today she did as Conall had asked; she stayed relaxed and concentrated on staying out of his way. She could feel his light touch guiding her body through the proper motions. She was still in control enough that she managed to humiliate herself a couple of times but overall with his assistance she managed to turn in a much more credible performance than ever before.
When it was over, she was about to leave for her cottage for yet another change of clothing, back into the solid black uniform for weapons training when she noticed that Conall had remained outside to watch from behind a tree.
“Aren’t you going to ask him?” Conall questioned.
“Now?” she responded, “I must get to weapons training.”
“No time like the present, put it off ‘til tomorrow and you’ll never do it.”
“Captain Torel will be waiting for me.” She was making excuses and Conall knew it.
“He, better than anybody else will understand if you’re a bit late. He knows the schedule you’re on. At least si
nce the advent of Tessa it seems you’re to be left off the duty roster. Turn around Bella.”
She did. And found herself staring straight into First Sergeant Corwin’s chest.
“Did you forget something today, Corporal?” he asked.
“Yes, First Sergeant.” She wanted desperately to stare at the ground, but she had discovered that if a higher ranking individual was already upset with her, attempting to avoid the problem by refusing to meet them head on seemed to infuriate them. She squared her shoulders and returned his steady gaze.
“Would you go to the battlefield without your sword, Corporal?”
Force of will kept her eyes locked on his. “No, First Sergeant.”
“Do you think that fur ball will always be able to pull your fat out of the fire?”
She thought to herself, Most likely yes, but she gave him the answer she knew he was looking for, “No, First Sergeant.”
“Don’t let it happen again.”
“Yes, First Sergeant.”
“He’s done and leaving. Ask now.”
“First Sergeant?”
“Yes, Corporal.”
“The fur ball seems to think I should ask you for personal instruction since I never went through basic training.”
“Good plan, Fur Ball.” He aimed a glance at Conall, “See me tonight, Corporal, after mess, and bring the Fur Ball with you.”
“You better get ready for weapons, Bella. Captain Torel has something on his mind. I can sense his anticipation from here. I think you better be ready for anything.”
“You coming?” she asked.
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
Chapter 38