“Do not interfere!” the King shouted to his soldiers in the room. “I’ve been needing something fun like this for a long time.”
Leopold struck first, but Alexander parried the blow and danced around the King. Too fast for my eyes to see, the Prince struck and nicked the King’s arm. Leopold didn’t even look at the cut and chuckled a bit.
“You are very quick, Prince.”
Alexander stood defensively, sword outstretched from his body, and didn’t reply. The King struck again, but Alexander spun the sword off of his, making the King stumble. He steadied himself quickly, then struck again. Alexander stepped to the side and sliced his blade through the King’s other arm. The cut was deeper this time.
It was amazing. The Prince made the King look like a novice. The crowd watched in anticipated silence as strike after strike hit. Alexander cut up the King on very limb. It was like he wasn’t delivering a fatal blow on purpose, having had many opportunities to do so.
The King was getting angry. Blood dripped at his wobbling feet as he tried to steady his sword hand. The two faced each other, waiting for the other to make another move.
“You’re pathetic!” the King spat. “You will never amount to anything! You’re just an awkward, little boy who can’t get anywhere without his mother!”
Alexander clenched his fists. “I’m not the one covered in blood from fighting this so-called little boy!”
The King shifted his gaze up to the ceiling and started to laugh maniacally.
“You don’t know anything!” the King exclaimed. “Your mother lied to you your whole life!”
“What are you talking about?” Alexander spat back.
“You never wondered as to how your father died so young and healthy? She killed him! She only ever wanted the power.”
There was an outburst of chatter among the people in the room, and all eyes were on Prince Alexander. He didn’t move. I definitely had thought the Queen to be scary and intense, but killing her own husband?
“And she was going to sabotage your marriage to Princess Amelia no matter what. She was just lucky that the Princess turned out to be an impostor!”
Alexander’s hands fell to his side, and the tip of his sword clinked against the stone floor.
“Your mother was dirt!”
“Shut up,” Alexander whispered.
The King cupped a bloodied hand around his ear. “I couldn’t quite hear. Was that a mouse? Must have been, because I don’t see a man in front of me.”
“Shut up!” Alexander shouted.
He leaped towards the King, too fast for him to react, and grabbed him into a chokehold. Many of the Mardasian soldiers moved to help their King.
“Stay back!” Alexander ordered. “Or I will slice his throat!” He yanked Leopold’s hair back with his free hand, exposing the white skin under the King’s beard.
King Leopold began to whimper. I found myself smiling at the fear in his eyes.
“Please,” Leopold croaked. “I yield!”
“Relinquish your kingdom to me,” Alexander said, pressing the cold blade a little harder onto the King’s neck. “And leave immediately, leaving Milly, me, and everyone else alone forever!”
“Anything!” the King cried. He trembled like helpless prey. “I’ll do anything!”
The Prince tossed the King aside in disgust, and turned his back to him, facing the crowd.
The Polartians cheered and bowed to their Prince in respect. The Mardasians were more reluctant, but they bowed, as well. The soldiers behind me released me from their grip, and I ran to Alexander, but was stopped in my tracks. There she was again… the witch. She was giggling behind the same banister and pointed at the King.
“Look out!” I shouted to Alexander.
King Leopold had picked up his blade and attempted a final blow towards his enemy. Alexander tried to dodge it, but was too slow as the sword nicked his shoulder. But his next move was quicker. Without any hesitation, Alexander grabbed the King by the back of the head and thrust his sword into Leopold’s gut.
The King coughed up some dribbles of blood as he fell to his knees.
“No,” he whispered. His eyes caught mine as his body began to convulse. “No…”
Leopold’s body slumped to the floor, and just like that, I was free.
Bavmorda slipped away from the noisy crowd after King Leopold’s lifeless body hit the floor. No one noticed her walk away as she stayed to the shadows, including that fake Princess. Bavmorda watched as the girl and the Prince held each other in a tearful, relieved embrace.
Ah, love, she thought.
Bavmorda flipped the tattered hood of her cloak over her balding head and made her way out of the castle. She had finished the job she needed to do. The Queen had needed to pay her price for the magic Bavmorda had given her a couple weeks ago, and King Leopold seeking her out to help kill the Queen was just icing on the cake. The poisoned pea in the wine was hilarious and rather ironic, some of her best work. And the King ended up paying his price a lot sooner than Bavmorda thought he would, so that was nice.
The witch sighed. Where to next? She had heard of a peasant girl in a distant land desperately wanting to go to a ball for some reason. Or maybe she should monitor how many poisoned apples were flying about in that one kingdom? The possibilities were endless, but at the moment, she was glad of her successes with helping Mildred Wallander find a happily ever after.
Chapter 33
I sighed in relief when I found Alexander sitting on the grass of King Leopold’s grounds, picking at the blades and clenching them in his fists. It had been a couple hours since the duel, and things were a little chaotic and panicked in the castle at the moment. The people outside had yet to be told of King Leopold’s demise, but that could wait. After having found Janice, I had noticed Alexander’s disappearance and thought it important to find him.
“Alexander?” I said.
Not caring about the expensive silk of my dress, I moved to sit by him on the moist ground. I placed my hand on his arm.
“My mother was many things,” he croaked, “but I never thought she could…” He tried to hide the tears that began to spill from his eyes.
Tears of my own formed as I felt his pain. I wrapped my arms around him.
“He was so young,” he continued. “And there was evidence of foul play, but we never solved the mystery.” He lifted his face to mine, his tears intensifying the green in his eyes. “So it makes sense.” He slid himself away from my grip and sat up straighter. “A part of me almost suspected it, but I never wanted to believe it.”
He turned his face up to the sky and chuckled slightly.
“It almost feels nice,” he said.
That confused me. “What feels nice?”
“That she’s gone.” He glanced at me to see my reaction, but I just nodded. “I loved my mother, but she never allowed me to be who I needed to be.”
“You feel free.”
“Exactly.” He smiled at me. “However, I can’t think about that right now. There are too many things to be done.”
He stood up from his position and rolled his shoulders back. I gazed up at him, admiring the strength and courage in his face, a stark difference from the sad boy seconds ago. Now he was a man adopting the demeanor of a king.
“First thing’s first.” He turned to me, the sun glinting off his blond hair, making it hard for me to see his face. “Milly, may I have your ring?”
My heart dropped. Was this it? I guess he couldn’t marry a commoner after all. It wouldn’t make sense. I stood up, trying to keep my lip from trembling, and slid the gold band off my left hand.
He grabbed it from me and stared at it for a moment, then dropped down on one knee. I jumped back for a second, confused.
“What are you doing?”
“Mildred Wallander, if you mess up another proposal, I will never talk to you again.”
I found myself beaming, and then laughter spilled out of me. I found myself unable to stop.
Alexander started laughing, too.
“Milly,” he said between laughs, “stop it! I can’t breathe.”
I finally was able to reel myself back in, wiping tears away from my eyes. He outstretched one hand to me, still kneeling, and I took it in my own.
“Milly, from the first moment I watched you climb that tree, I fell in love with you. Not Princess Amelia, you. You are beautiful, funny, kind, and brave. I cannot imagine my life without you.” He held the engagement ring closer to me. “Will you marry me? For real this time?”
I squealed and threw myself into his arms, making him lose his balance. We fell into the grass, laughing and kissing.
He grabbed my face in his hands. “You still haven’t said ‘yes.’”
“Yes!” I cried.
Alexander’s face fell, and he gasped. “Wait! I dropped the ring! It’s in the grass somewhere.”
So, on our hands and knees, we searched for the ring, laughing enough for an entire lifetime. Even though it took us maybe a half an hour to find it, those were some of the best minutes of my life.
Chapter 34
Alexander and I sat at one of the many tables in the dining room of the inn. The many guests around us were staring and whispering things like, “That’s King Alexander and his wife Queen Mildred,” And, “What a handsome couple!” Or, “What on earth are they doing eating breakfast at a place like this?” But no one approached us. We were making it very clear that we weren’t there to socialize.
“Are you sure she’s here?”
“I’m not sure she would still be here, but this is where I saw her,” I whispered back to him.
And then it happened. Princess Amelia bustled out of the kitchen with trays of food piled on her arms. Her cheeks were red from the exertion, and her pretty hair was frizzed up about an inch away from her head.
“That’s her!” I said excitedly.
We watched as Amelia delivered the food in her arms, smiling kindly at the people as she did so. She really did seem happy. She made eye contact with me and gasped, but she didn’t move to get away. I waved her down, and she hesitantly approached our table.
“Your Majesties,” she said, curtsying. Her curtsies were much more graceful than those of the common folk, for obvious reasons.
Alexander dismissed the gesture. “There is no need for that.”
“We need to talk,” I said.
People watched curiously as Alexander and I led Amelia to a private room we had rented for just this purpose. After shutting the door behind us, Alexander and I did our own bowing.
“Princess Amelia,” we said simultaneously.
She paled. “Are you here to turn me in?”
I rose from my curtsy and smiled. “Do you still have my horse?”
Amelia studied for a moment, obviously confused, but then her eyes lit up.
“Of course! That’s why I recognized you!” She rushed over and threw her arms around me in a hug.
“Thank you,” she said. She released me from her grip and began to wipe the tears from her eyes. “You have no idea what gift you gave me.” She started laughing. “How on earth did you end up married to the Prince I was engaged to?”
Alexander and I shared knowing glances.
“It’s a very long story.” I chuckled. “You might want to sit down.”
Amelia raised an eyebrow at me and sat on one of the wooden chairs against the wall.
“Well, I’m definitely curious,” she said, gesturing for us to begin.
And so we did. Her eyes grew wider and wider as she learned of her father’s plans to turn me into a fake Princess Amelia and marry me to the Prince. Her mouth hung open as we told her of Queen Andromeda’s death and King Leopold’s own demise by Alexander’s hands.
We waited nervously for her to say something, anything. Then she finally did:
“I knew my father had died, but I thought… I didn’t know all of that happened.” She looked to Alexander. “And now you rule over both Mardasia and Polart?”
He nodded. “For now…”
“Are you okay?” I asked Amelia, reaching over to put my hand on hers.
“I don’t know what to feel,” she whispered. “My father obviously was not a good man, but…” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not my life anymore.”
“Well…” I said.
Amelia perked up and urged us to tell her what we weren’t saying.
“I don’t want to rule Mardasia,” Alexander said. “I earned the kingdom through malice and anger, and that is not right, no matter how terrible King Leopold was.”
I chimed in. “You are still the King’s heir.” I squeezed Amelia’s hands in mine. “We are hoping you can assume the throne and rebuild Mardasia into something great again.”
Amelia stood up quickly, releasing her hands from mine. “But I have a life here! I have a home, and my husband and I… we’re expecting a new baby!”
“You’re married?” I said.
“You’re pregnant?” Alexander exclaimed.
I thought back to the rumors of the Princess running away with a servant boy
Amelia began pacing the floor. “What would the people think?”
“They would be grateful for a kind monarch they know they could stand behind,” I assured her.
We waited in silence as Amelia continued to pace. I was surprised she wasn’t wearing a hole into the carpet.
“Can I think about it?”
Alexander was about to protest, but I shook my head at him.
“Take all the time you need,” I said.
It had been days since our visit to the Princess Amelia, and we were starting to lose any hope. Alexander and I were pouring over maps of both Polart and Mardasia in our library, making various plans to efficiently rule over both kingdoms. At the moment, we had an appointed Lord residing in Capthar to keep the chaos at bay as we tried to determine what our next step should be.
A knock sounded on the door, and one of our manservants entered the room.
“Your Majesties,” he said, bowing his head. “Princess Amelia of Mardasia is here to address you.”
Alexander and I gave each other a look, and then watched as Amelia stepped into the library, a very handsome young man at her side. We exchanged curtsies and bows to one another before any of us spoke.
“King Alexander, Queen Mildred, this is my husband Robert.” Amelia pointed to the man beside her.
“Robert,” Alexander said. “It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise, Your Majesty.” He seemed very confident and regal for a servant boy.
“I have made my decision.”
Alexander and I leaned forward, awaiting her next words.
“I will rule as Queen of Mardasia with Robert at my side. It is my duty, and my people need me.”
Amelia and her husband stood in front of the masses of people in the throne room of Capthar as a priest dressed in long robes anointed them as Mardasia’s new rulers. The people had accepted the true return of their Princess with open arms, and she had already done so much work repairing the kingdom. She had been making regular visits to every city and town in Mardasia to help ease the minds of her subjects and assure them that she was there to help. She even took notes on what the people wanted to see from her— lower taxes, the rebuilding of aging roads… I had never seen someone work as kindly and efficiently as Amelia did.
It had been a few weeks since Amelia had agreed to take her place as Queen, so her expectant belly was a little more obvious as she knelt when the priest instructed her to. I smiled. She looked absolutely beautiful.
Janice sat beside me, tears spilling from her eyes as she listened to the priest’s inspiring words.
“Announcing Queen Amelia and King Robert of Mardasia!” an announcer bellowed.
The crowd rose from their seats and roared. Amelia and Robert rose from their knees and smiled at the cheers.
“What are you thinking?” Alexander whispered in my ear as he interlocked
his fingers with mine.
“That I would have never guessed it.”
“Guessed what?”
I smiled up at him and gave him a tender kiss. “That I would be so lucky.”
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Peas and Princesses Page 14