Dragon - Dragon Companion - Dragon - Dragon Companion Part 31
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Dragon - Dragon Companion Part 31

"It's not easy to get your royal way, despite all the so-called privileges and powers," sighed the king. "Getting a bunch of local cooks to serve tomatoes is like trying to get blood from a turnip! I do believe I'd have to hang a few of them before they'd agree to serve a tomato, let alone cook with one!"

"Sorry if I speak out of turn," cried an indignant Clem, "but I think you should hang a few of them, for the good of the kingdom! Tomatoes are good for one, beside being tasty and cheerful to the eye as well!"

"I never thought of them as being cheerful," exclaimed Beatrix, beaming at Clem. "What a marvelous thought!

They're cheerful!"

The king began to plan a garden for Tom, even though, as he said, they had no idea where it might be, as Tom had no land of his own. Clem and the queen added their ideas and soon they were, heads together, laughing and talking, interrupting each other to add some new flower or fruit, forgetting the stuffy formalities and protocols of a royal audience.

"Ahem!" said a new voice.

They looked up in surprise to find the Lord Chamberlain in the doorway, looking extremely upset to see the young woodsman perched on the side of the royal bed extolling his mother's recipe for rhubarb-and-strawberry pie.

"Majesty! May I remind you that you are to lunch with the Dowager Duchess of Corently," Walden intoned without expression. Tom happened to be looking at the queen when the chamberlain spoke and was shocked to see all the animation and color drain suddenly from her face. She sank back weakly into her pillow.

The king saw it, too, and he spoke sharply to his pompous servant.

"Tell the Duchess of Corently that I am indisposed and will ask her to lunch another fame," Eduard ordered sharply.

"My dear!" cried the queen in a small voice. "You mustn't!"

"Nonsense! The Dowager Duchess is a crashing bore. I'd much rather sit here with you and talk about flowers and summertime and weddings and things like that," the 238.

Don Callander DRAGON COMPANION.

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king insisted. "Go tell her, Walden. And have lunch for four sent up."

The Chamberlain paled, aghast at the way the royal audience was progressing. Not at all according to his ancient ideas of protocol.

Said Eduard, "Anything special you'd like for lunch, my dear? Gentlemen?"

The queen shook her head weakly and closed her sad green eyes.

"Whatever's available," Clem said offhandedly.

"Well, I'd like a tomato, nice and ripe, sliced thick, with salt and lots of pepper, some soft cheese, and a sprig or two of basil," said Tom, inspired by a thought of the queen's happy memories. "Dress it all with olive oil and vinegar, please."

The Lord Chamberlain's chins all fell to his chest. He took on a stomachachy look, a little green about the jowls. It wasn't lost on the queen, who sat up, smiling again.

"Tomatoes!" Walden gasped. "Buta good sir a tomatoes are rank poison!"

"Nevertheless," Eduard insisted, an edge of flint to his voice, "my guest has asked for tomatoes and it would be a blot on the royal honor if he were to be refused."

"But, sire. Your Majesty a" For the first time Walden seemed at a loss for dignity and words. "Tomatoes! I'm not at all sure we have any."

"Then get some," growled the king. "And report to me if my cooks can't find any nearby. Send away to Waterfields for them. I may send away to Knollwater for their cooks, too, tell them. Now, bring lunch!"

The queen was sitting straight up in her bed, gazing at her husband with a pleased and surprised expression. When the Chamberlain had withdrawn to see about tomatoes and lunch, she gleefully clapped her hands.

"My love," she said to the king, tenderly, "I have just had the most pleasant moment since coming to Sweetwater Tower. The way you spoke to that awful butler about tomatoes and made him jumpa !"

"Chamberlain, not butler, my dear," prompted the king with a broad smile.

"Oh, Chamberlain, then! You made him buckle down anda and listen to you instead of always telling you what to do and say and think! I loved it!"

She gave him an impulsive hug and her eyes crinkled with suppressed laughter. The king bent down to kiss her on both cheeks, chuckling himself with pleasure to see her so lively once again.

"So I did! Well! I must do it more often. Do you think he can find any tomatoes?"

"He may have trouble, but keep after him about them," said Tom. "I think a large part of Walden's problem is he doesn't have enough to do. He has all those underlings who do everything for him."

"You may be right," said Eduard thoughtfully. "It might also be said of us, my dear. We decide things, we order things done, but we don't do very much."

"I'm sure of it, husband! Now, what could we do to change, I wonder."

"I am beginning to get some ideas," said Eduard, winking at Tom and Clem.

OVER a really fine luncha-no tomatoes; Walden almost wept when he had to report ita-talk turned to Murdan the Historian. The king took a moment to read the letter Tom had brought. When he put it down he turned to the Librarian to ask him about the kidnapping.

"I don't know if I should speak about it before Freddie Brevory's trial," demurred Tom. "You'll need to make an unbiased judgment based on the evidence, won't you?"

"That's truly remarkable!" cried the king. "Most men would give half of all they possess to influence me before I hear a case in Session."

"I don't think that's the way to obtain or dispense justice, however," Tom responded. "I don't know what Murdan has told you a"

"Very little other than the bare facts," admitted Eduard. "A great deal of anger and insult, as you'd expect. Murdan agrees with your ideals about justice."

"So do you, Eduard," chimed in Beatrix. She'd called maids and ladies-in-waiting to slip a sea blue dressing gown over her rather dowdy nightdress and joined them at a table set in a round turret comer in the sunniest part of her parlor.

Afternoon sunlight poured in. A plump-breasted, older lady-in-waiting, a female Walden, drew the drapes, cutting 240.

Don Callander DRAGON COMPANION.

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off the sun and the view of the gardens. King Eduard stopped the woman with an abrupt gesture.

"Leave them open," he exclaimed sharply to the startled woman. "Her Majesty prefers sunshine to darkness, I believe."

"But the Lord Chamberlain saida," the large lady-in-waiting squeaked, almost jumping out of her shoes in fright.

"Chamberlains don't banish disobedient ladies to their country seats," snapped the king. "Do as I say!"

"Yes, leave the curtains open. Lady Agnes!" said the Queen in a kinder tone. "I haven't seen sunlight for weeks and weeks."

"But Ma'am! The baby!" shrieked several of her ladies.

"A bit of sun never hurt a baby," said Tom. "Just the opposite, I'm sure. A child raised in darkness would be blighted, don't you think, sire?"

"No doubt about it!" cried the king happily. The queen waved her attendants out, causing many unhappy backward glances.

"More sunlight the bettera-well, at least within reason,"

said the king. "I remember when Alix Amandaa well, Mandaa eluded her nurses and played all afternoon in the sand with a gatekeeper's son. Red as a beet she was! It was all I could do to keep from howling with laughter."

"You should have howled, sire," said Clem. "It's good for children to see their fathers and mothers howl with laughter a or anger. Provides a standard, you see. Teaches *em what's right and what's wrong."

"I didn't know you knew so much about raising youngsters," Tom teased his friend.

"I was one o'seven," Clem claimed. "That qualifies me to have an opinion, at least."

"You know, I do believe you're right," said Beatrix. "My father yelled at me when I deserved it. I listened well, because it was so unusual for him to raise his voice."

"Which leads me to ask something I have been wondering, if you'll forgive my curiosity," Tom said to the queen.

"I promise not to take offense. Librarian." "Why are you abed on such a wonderfully sunny, warm afternoon of midsummer?"

Beatrix glanced quickly at her husband and Eduard nod-ded his head, ever so slightly.

"Well, to be frank. Librarian, you know I bear the royal heir within?"

"I'm aware of that, yes," said Tom, trying not to laugh at her quaint phrasing.

"My doctors tell me I must lie very quietly abed most of the remaining days, so as not to harm myself or the child, you see. So much depends on us!"

"Such a pity," sighed Tom, shaking his head.

The royal couple looked shocked.

"To put such a terrible burden on one not even born yet!" Tom hastened to explain. "I feel sorry for the child as well as its mother. Forgive me, but it's so."

The king nodded sadly. "I remember when I first realized that I would have to bear the burden of a crown. Many men would kill and kill again to hold a tiny cor-ner of my burden. If they only knew what it was like to have to bear it, willy-nilly, never to lay it down for a minute!"

"Why do you do it, sire?" asked Clem.

"Well, it was my father's burden before me. I was prepared to carry it from birth. Carolnans, not just the nobles and magnates, but all the people, need a good king. Have you ever read Carolnan history, young Clem?"

"No, sire. Oh, I've picked up bits and pieces here and there."

"There have been wretched periods when Carolna had bad kings, even wicked kings. Those were bad enough, but the worst times came when we had no king at all! No law! No justice! No safety in town or countryside! Every sort of crime and evil perpetrated on innocents who could do nothing about it, had no one to whom to appeal for redress or rescue! If I can prevent some of that suffering, I'll be king, no matter how painful. Wouldn't you?"

Tom nodded. "Under those conditions, yes, I'd submit myself to being king. Buta-" *

"Young man, I've read my daughter's letters. Manda writes to me as honestly and fearlessly as no one else does. She says she'll have you as husband, no matter what happens."

Tom said nothing, but nodded his head.

242.

Don Callander DRAGON COMPANION 243 "Life is filled with *ifs,' " Eduard continued solemnly. "If the child dies or is stillborna ?"

"Oh, Eduard!" cried his wife, pressing her hands to her mouth in horror.

"I'm as sorry as I can be, my dear, but it's true. If the: child dies, and no other child is bom to us? If the child is a girl? In all these cases, Manda willa-unwillingly, I know, but she willa-wear the crown and sit upon the Trusslo throne after I am gone. She'll be Alix Amanda Two, Queen of Carolna. If you, Thomas, are her husband, you will share her power and prestigea-and her burdens, as well. Manda would not want it otherwise!"

"We've spoken at length about this, sire," Tom assured the king. "If Manda is called upon, I will be at her side and do what is required. But I won't allow anyonea-or anything I can preventa-to hurt her under the guise of blind custom or senseless regulation. Sometimes you have to break the rules."

"Good for you!" cried Beatrix. "Like eating tomatoes?" "Exactly! I may sound rather crass and green with youth, but I feel I know better than anyone what makes Manda happy. An unhappy king or queen makes an unhappy kingdom."

"I think I hear an echo of criticism of myself in those words," said the king, taken aback.

"No! Well, perhaps. I'm a stranger in your land, sire. I'm not a doctor. Yet everything I've seen and read and heard about babiesa-quite a bit, now that I think of ita- makes me believe that Her Majesty's is not a happy, healthy pregnancy. I must believe it affects her healtha-and that of her unborn, within!"

"I'm as happy as I expected to be," Beatrix protested. "Eduard has worked very hard to make me so!"

"Not hard enough! You are far too pale, too weak! You're too passive, both of you. Mothers to be, where I grew up, were encouraged to walk in the sun, to keep their muscles in tone and strong. Eat well and sleep well! To be clean and happy and pleased to carry their burden. Are mothers here so different? Or is it the advice of your doctors that is different? Or are the motives of your doctors entirely unselfish?"

His last words descended like a wet, icy blanket over the luncheon party. The queen reached out and clutched the king's hand, and even Clem looked at his companion with consternation.

"Y-y-you," stuttered the king, "you're suggesting that the queen's physicians area ?"

"No, of course not! I've no idea of such a thing. Probably the doctor, like the Lord Chamberlain, is so terrified about what would happen to him, if anything harmed the queen or her baby, he's overly cautious to the point where even I can see it's foolish!"

"Buta," the king hesitated. "What can I do? I am not a doctor, either."

"Filter the doctor's advice through your own common sense. You've fathered a childa-my Manda, bless her! She was bom healthy and grew up as perfectly as any father could ever wish! Remember your own youth. Who's to say you can't guard your wife's health as sensibly as any doctor, unless something totally out of the ordinary happens?"

"There is much in that," admitted the king. The queen nodded, vigorously.

"Listen, Lord King! Here's another thing. I've seen very well how Peter of Gantrell operates. He's entirely selfish. Convinced of his own rightness and worthiness to rule, no matter who gets hurt. My God! He kidnapped a young moth-er with three innocent children and dragged them halfway across the continent on horseback in an attempt to blackmail Murdan!"

Tom rose and paced across the floor.

"Gantrell would suborn your trusted servants, your Chamberlain, your physician if he could. He doesn't want this poor babe to be bom. He fears it will be a male and thus incontestably your heir."

"He has the nerve and the selfishness to do it," agreed Beatrix.

"Peter wants Manda to take the throne. He knows a lot of notables will object to a queen alone or a queen married to a stranger, someone from outside their tight circle. Librarian," said Eduard. "He gained legal guardianship because I was grief stricken when Manda's mother died. What would sound more reasonable to many if he were to be regent when she takes the throne?"

"Thanks only to Manda's good sense and courage, his plan of guardianship failed," put in the woodsman.

244.

Don Callander "He'll turn his wrath on me next," Tom plowed forward, "as Manda's consort. He'll seek to poison her subjects against me a as he has so far managed to poison many hearts with slanders against your queen!"

This cruel truth brought deep anguish to the king and his queen. They sat holding hands and stared at each other for a long while. Neither Tom nor Clem moved nor spoke.