by Daris Howard
The other room was a slightly smaller bedroom but had two beds in it for Elizabeth and Marina. They weren't nearly as large as hers, but, by testing one, she knew they would be comfortable.
She returned to the sitting room and looked around. There was a large fireplace on one wall, flanked by windows on each side. She went to one and looked out. The beautiful rolling hills for which Bernodia was famous spread out before her. She could see a sparkling lake nestled between some wooded hills, and a rolling meadow not far from the castle. The beauty of it took her breath away. She was determined to ride there as soon as she could.
As she turned back into the room, the picture above the mantle caught her eye. She went over to it and stared intently. It was a painting of her own mother, painted when she was much younger. She felt the homesickness that she had thought she had put out of her heart wash over her. She breathed deeply to swallow the tears that were pressing their way to her eyes. She was so caught up in the moment that she didn't hear the footsteps behind her.
"Do you like it?"
She turned to see Alexander standing behind her, smiling as usual. "Mother had it hung there. She loves your mother very much, and it is one of her prized possessions."
Louise didn't answer directly, but turned back to the picture and away from him to blink back the tears.
"It's all right, I guess," she answered tersely.
"The servants will have all of your things here momentarily. Dinner won't be ready for a couple of hours. Would you like me to have something light sent up for you?"
This is the one thing she hated most about Alexander, and had since they were young. Nothing she did seemed to ruffle him. He always remained calm and gentlemanly, even when she treated him harshly.
For as long as she could remember, her mother and Lady Margaret had met to visit and vacation every summer at Walsken Manor. It was halfway between their homes and was where her mother grew up. Her mother had always insisted Louise come along, and Lady Margaret always brought Alexander.
But when she turned thirteen, she had rebelled. She hadn't seen Alexander for four years now, and she decided he hadn't changed a bit. He was still the same self-confident, arrogant boy she used to try to fluster. But he had never showed any outward sign of being troubled, even though she had played every conceivable mean trick on him that her young mind could contrive.
She was still determined he wouldn't get the best of her with his calm manner. "No, I don't need any food. I can do quite well without help from the likes of you."
He bowed slightly and, again, he had that almost-grin that she hated so much - the one that seemed to smirk at her. "Yes, Your Highness. Perhaps you are beyond help."
He turned and slipped from the room while she was still contemplating what he had said, and deciding what she could throw at him. Again she felt he had gotten the upper hand, and her ego was still smarting from the fall by the carriage. She would get the best of him yet. She didn't know how, but she would.
By the time dinner was called, she was famished. She was sure that Elizabeth and Marina must be, as well, but she considered that they had slipped out of the room a couple of times, and were gone for some length of time. She was sure that Alexander had provided some food for them. But she was not about to lower herself to allow him do something for her.
She was seated directly across from Alexander at the table. As she tried to elegantly wolf down the dinner placed before her, she could think of nothing else but eating. But, as she started to get her fill, she realized that all eyes were upon her. Duke Reginald and Lady Margaret looked concerned since she ate so much so quickly. Alexander sported an amused smile. She was sure he enjoyed her hunger since she had refused his offer earlier.
It was then, as she saw the distinctive cup he used, the one with his name emblazoned on it, that she thought of a way she could wipe that smirk off of his face. If she could just get something nasty in it, she would see him lose his composure. But what? She would have to plan it carefully. The thought of him choking and gasping at the dinner table was so delicious to her that she suddenly felt happy for the first time in a long time.
She was no longer hungry, she was slightly rested from her long trip, and she had a dark, happy plan. She chatted happily with Duke Reginald and Lady Margaret.
"I want to thank you for putting that picture of Mother in my room."
Lady Margaret smiled. "Alexander thought you might like it since you are so far from home."
She scowled at Alexander. He had said his mother had it hung there, and Louise had also presumed it had been Lady Margaret's idea. Alexander's expression didn't change, even as she glowered at him. Now she really couldn't wait to teach him a lesson.
"And how was your trip here, Your Highness?" Duke Reginald asked.
"Quite uneventful - long, tiring, dusty."
"Lots of beautiful country, though," Lady Margaret added.
"Yes, but I'm glad it's over."
She wanted the conversation to be over, too. She wanted to get back to her room to start planning her course of action, but she couldn't leave until her hosts signaled the end of dinner.
The meal truly had been wonderful: roast mutton cooked over a spit to take away the grease; thick, grainy bread with dark gravy poured over it;, and hot rolls full of melting butter. And when she thought she couldn't eat another bite, there was a custard for dessert that just melted in her mouth. The food was much different than at home - much fresher and more delicious.
Finally, Duke Reginald signaled the servants to take it all away, and she knew she could politely excuse herself.
"If you will excuse me, I think I would like to get some rest."
Duke Reginald nodded. "By all means. And we want you to know we are very pleased that you can spend the summer with us."
She tried to force a smile, but it would hardly come, especially when she saw that smirky grin on Alexander's face. Someday she was going to slap it off. But she just curtsied slightly, and started to her room.
"Oh, by the way, Your Highness," Duke Reginald said, stopping her. "We thought you might like to see some of the countryside tomorrow. Alexander said he would be glad to take you."
She looked over at Alexander, his expression still unchanged. She thought, "I bet he would." But she just said, "That is very nice."
She headed up to her room. Now she was angrier than ever. Spend the day with that egotistical, smiling statue? She couldn't think of anything more torturous than that.
Chapter 4
Teaching Alexander A Lesson
The bitterroot juice in Alexander's milk at breakfast the next morning didn't turn out nearly as well as Louise had planned.
She arrived at the dining hall early and worked her way to where Alexander sat. She poured the juice into his milk. It was the worst, nonpoisonous substance she could think of. She had taken bitterroot juice when she was sick. It was supposed to cast off all illnesses. She felt that the only reason it could possibly work was that no illness could co-exist with such a rotten-tasting medicine.
She was trying to conceal the small flask and get back to her seat when Alexander walked in. He eyed her suspiciously, but said nothing. When they finally sat down to eat, she kept an eye on him, but tried not to draw attention to herself. Finally, he took a drink of milk. His eyes widened slightly, and then he swallowed a couple of times. He glanced over at her, and she stifled a laugh. Then he continued eating, acting as if nothing had happened.
He didn't choke, he didn't gag, he didn't even ask for a new glass of milk. He was calm and unruffled. By the time she walked from the dining hall, she was fit to be tied. She would see him get ruffled before she left if she had to hang him to do it.
For the next month, her antics escalated. She forced Elizabeth and Marina to help her. They were reluctant and tried to beg out of it, but that only made her angrier. At times she was sure that they warned him ahead of the event, tripping up her plans, but she couldn't prove it. Furthermore, she had to have an
escort on her rides around the countryside. She could either remain indoors or tolerate his company.
After nearly a month, she was running out of sinister ideas to antagonize him. Up to that point she had avoided visiting any of the towns in Bernodia, thinking they weren't worth her time, especially if it had to be time spent with Alexander. But when he invited her to ride to a mountain village, she happened on a plan to embarrass him, so she agreed to go.
It would be a long day's journey there and back. Alexander had a nice picnic for them packed in his saddle bags. Her saddle bags contained some dried meats, cheese, and breads for her to snack on during their return trip.
Her plan required a bribed servant, a chicken fed with fermented grain to produce a drunken stupor, and a few moments without Alexander watching her. She asked him to slip back in and get her some extra water. She demanded that Marina and Elizabeth watch for him and stall him on his way back to the horses. While he was gone she quickly retrieved the bird from the servant, yanked out their wonderful picnic, and stuffed in the drunken chicken. She threw the beautiful ice-wrapped roast beef, the cake, and the soft rolls into a horse stall.
When Alexander returned, she stood there, innocently smiling. He looked suspiciously at her, so she realized it wasn't smart of her to be smiling, since she never smiled at him. She tried to transform back to her usual scowl, but it was painfully hard with the secret locked in her heart.
Soon they were off. The day was hot, but the trail through the shady forest was quite pleasant. The path snaked steeply upward at times, and the horses strained under their loads. Alexander's horse, Lady, was a beautiful, silver mare. He liked to talk about her. He had trained her himself from the time she was a young filly. She seemed as fond of him as he was of her, and she would nuzzle him for the treats he always carried for her.
Her own horse, Rusty, was a gentle, but strong, roan gelding. Alexander said he had chosen that horse for her because of his steady gate and calm spirit.
They plodded silently along. The first few times Alexander had taken her riding, he had attempted to make conversation, but her constant, venomous remarks had soon discouraged him. She had informed him that she wished he was totally out of her life. For a moment the smile was gone from his face, and his eyes betrayed a hurt that made her wish she had never said it. But he still just acted the gentleman, and she kept hating him even more. Strangely, though, the silence nagged at her, and she wished he would talk to her again.
As the sun mounted in the sky, the secret she carried started burning in her. She didn't want anything to ruin the surprise. She was so afraid the chicken would come out of its drunken stupor and squawk, ruining everything. She wanted it to be the perfect moment, when he reached in his saddlebag for the food.
Finally, she could stand it no longer. "Alexander, is it lunch time yet? I'm hungry."
Alexander smiled as usual. "There is a nice glen by a lake about a half mile further up. We can stop there so our horses can have water."
That was Alexander - always thinking of his horse. They eventually arrived in a beautiful meadow with a small stream running through it, a stream that emptied into a crystal clear lake. She was always amazed at how well Alexander seemed to know every inch of the land they traveled.
He unsaddled the horses, hobbled them, and set them to graze in the meadow. Finally, the moment came that she had been waiting for. He reached in his pack and took hold of the drunken chicken. He pulled it out and, for the briefest moment, Louise thought she saw a look of astonishment before he regained his composure. It was so slight, that if anything, it just angered her more.
It didn't take a genius to know what had happened. The bird smelled like it had drunk an entire wine cellar. Alexander held it up, "So much for lunch. I will need to talk to the cook. It looks like she marinated the chicken, but forgot to cook it. It's still raw."
Louise found herself almost laughing, but she didn't want him to have the pleasure of hearing her laugh at one of his jokes. She then realized something else that wasn't funny - they didn't have any lunch at all. In playing a trick on Alexander, she had unwittingly played one on herself. This made her mad at him again, though she knew it was her own fault.
Alexander didn't say anything about it, but, instead, reached in his other saddle bag and pulled out his own dry food that was originally meant for their trip back. He brought it over to her.
"I'm afraid that, due to the cook's oversight, you'll have to eat this for lunch."
She was about to tell him she could do without his food, but her stomach was yelling at her. She received it with a scowl and went off to eat on her own. Alexander wandered down by the horses and petted Lady as she nuzzled him.
When Louise finished eating, she was still hungry, but she felt much better. She, too, walked down by the horses. Things hadn't turned out the way she planned, and her mood was sour. "How much farther do we have to go?"
Alexander pointed up between two mountain peaks. "It's up there. Beyond the mountains is Esconodia."
"Esconodians are nothing but trouble," Louise said, repeating something her father had said many times.
Alexander turned to look at her. "I wouldn't say that."
Louise was disturbed by this. "Everyone knows that the Esconodians are our enemies."
"They are only our enemies because of the mistrust that has built up between us over the years," Alexander replied.
"And who made you the expert on them?" she asked.
Alexander had a strong look - one she had never seen before. "I have met many good Esconodians who have come across to trade with us. If we would spend half as much time trying to understand each other as we do defending our borders and fighting, the Esconodians would be our friends, and not our enemies."
Louise was immediately angered by this. Her father, as king, commanded the armies. "And who made you the expert on war and peace, you who have never even volunteered for the military?"
That was about as mean a thing as could be said to a man Alexander's age. All men who were not of royal birth were required to serve at least four years in the army. Those of royal birth were expected to volunteer. Those who didn't were considered cowardly.
Alexander didn't seem ruffled at all. "I am more than willing to defend my country, if it should come to that. But it's the foolishness of the way the military is run that bothers me."
She was so furious now that she wanted to slap him, but if he was going to act the part of a traitor, let him do it, and she would have all the more against him. She held her composure as she spoke. "In what way?"
Alexander looked thoughtfully into space as he reached up and scratched Lady's ears. "Because I am born of royalty, I would go into the military as an officer. And who would I command? Let me tell you who I would command. I would command men who are far more experienced and know what they are doing. And thus the military runs. It is the inexperienced commanding the experienced just because of how they were born. What a way to defend the freedoms of our country. I don't want to be the one to command men to their deaths due to the fact I am lacking in judgement."
Louise's anger turned to shock - shock that Alexander's attack on age-old customs made so much sense.
"And furthermore," he continued, "since a person's rank is dependent on his birth, I would be the lowest of most officers, and just above the common soldier, in a place to be commanded and abused by those above me, and despised by those below me. If I have learned one thing in life, it is that the essence of a man is his heart and is the true measure of what he is. It shows in the way he lives his life, not in how he is born. It is not the nobility of his birth, but how nobly he lives his life that makes a man small or great."
Alexander looked at Louise and, seeing the look on her face, he must have felt he had already said too much. "Perhaps," he said, "we should continue on."
Louise just nodded. He saddled the horses, and they were on their way. Alexander's words echoed in her ears long after they left the small lake. It at
e at her mind and heart because she knew he was right.
The rest of the ride was quite uneventful, except Alexander was not quite sure what to do with the chicken. It started squawking in his saddlebag, so he gave it to an old lady once they reached the village. Everyone there seemed to like Alexander and knew him well. At first that made her hate him even more.
Everyone seemed pleased to meet her, and pleased to know that the future queen would feel their little village was important enough to visit. She felt a tinge of guilt knowing she would not have come if it hadn't been for Alexander and the trick she wanted to play on him.
They could only stay about an hour due to the long trip home. And just as they were getting ready to leave, something else happened that left Louise in a quandary. As they were readying their horses, the children of the town gathered around. One small, blonde girl, dressed in tired, patched clothes, came up and tugged at Alexander's coat. He smiled down at her questioningly, and she pointed at his saddle bag. Louise looked at it, and, for the first time, realized it was still bulging.
Alexander smiled at the little girl, but said nothing. He reached up and pulled a large leather pouch from the saddle bag. He reached inside and pulled out a small yellowish-brown stick. He knelt down and crossed his arms on his chest, then pointed to Louise. The small girl glanced over at Louise and nodded. She walked shyly over to her, motioning with her dusty finger for Louise to lean down. Louise obliged, and the small girl threw her arms around Louise's neck, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Hurrying back to Alexander, she threw her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek as well. He held out the item to her, and she took it and scampered off.
Each child waited impatiently for their turn, and each, in turn, received one of the yellow-brown sticks. When they were done, Louise could see an unfamiliar expression on Alexander's face. His smile was still there, but there was a softness to him. She felt a string from her heart tugging the tears from her eyes, and she had to blink them back.