Earning the Love of a Princess-Chapter 131: Trinkets

Dinner in the banquet hall that night was a rather awkward affair. As soon as William stepped into the vast space unaccompanied, both King Edward and Queen Celia stared at him in surprise from the high table.

William bowed at both and gave them a sheepish look by way of explanation. "The princess sends her apologies, Your Majesties. She twisted her ankle and Tession is caring for her injury. He has advised she needs to remain off her feet for at least two days."

King Edward’s face scrunched in irritation. "How the hell did that happen?"

William managed to smile, despite feeling King Kenneth’s gaze boring a hole into his cheek. "You’ve seen the high heels the court ladies wear in the name of fashion."

"Well, she had better be well enough to walk down the aisle in less than a fortnight." snorted King Edward as he took a large draught from his bejeweled goblet. "I won’t allow all the pomp and arrangements already made, go to waste."

"Don’t worry, uncle. Everything and everyone will be in place by then." William looked into the king’s dusty blue eyes, silently asking a question.

King Edward nodded.

William relaxed his shoulders slightly, then bowed to Kenneth, whose face was already red - from anger or wine, William didn’t know.

William eased down onto his chair and noticed that Meg and Katerine were already seated at the ladies’ table, quickly surmising that Lady Taunsen must have stayed back with Camilla in her rooms.

The servants kept sweeping by with platters of food and ensuring his goblet was filled, but William barely tasted what he ate. He tried to slip away from the banquet early, after what had been a long and unpleasant day.

However, no matter how hard he tried to go unnoticed, he couldn’t evade Kenneth’s eye. For someone who was drunk more often than he was sober, the man had incredibly keen powers of observation, William noted dourly.

The Moraigthian king’s broad build suddenly stood between William and the oak exit doors.

"You think you’ve bested me, boy?" the king growled low. "You can have her, then. Marry my niece if you want. She’s a harlot like her mother and will cause you nothing but trouble. In fact," Kenneth lowered his voice to a quiet rasp, "I suspect she’s not even a maiden anymore."

William kept his expression perfectly still.

"She seems a little too calm for a virgin. A little too wise. So if you want to marry a piece of spoiled, worthless meat, go right ahead."

William nodded and bowed.

"I won’t forget this, though. No one gets the better of me and you’d be wise to remember that in future. Do I make myself understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. Well understood. I will live with the consequences." William bowed again and brushed past Kenneth, towards the doors.

- - -

The next morning, he hurried to Camilla’s rooms early without bothering to eat beforehand. William found her still on her bed but dressed in a simple blue gown, her hair in a messy, beautiful twist. A breakfast tray sat on the chest at the end of the bed, virtually untouched. Instead, Camilla and her three ladies were all engrossed in looking at various pieces of jewellery.

"What is that, and where did it come from?" William frowned and pointed to an unfamiliar looking gilded box on the bed. If some unknown man was showering her with trinkets and gifts of jewellery, that man was about to find out what it felt like to have his limbs broken.

"It’s a jewel box that belonged to my mother." Camilla said as she examined a golden hairpin. "I can only imagine one of my uncle’s men found it when they ransacked Arlen Castle and handed it over to him."

William blinked repeatedly. "These are the jewels Kenneth offered you as part of your dowry? I didn’t believe him when he said he’d hand them over. Actually, I didn’t believe they existed at all."

Meg made a little sound of disgust. "It was vile of him to use your mother’s jewels to try to lure you into his bedchamber, my lady. Luckily, you don’t ever have to visit him again."

Camilla looked at William’s confused expression and tried to explain. "After all that happened yesterday, I had reconciled myself to my uncle keeping the jewels out of spite. But when Bonnie brought my breakfast tray in this morning, she found the trinket box in the corridor, outside my doors." She held up a string of pink pearls.

"Do you think your uncle has seen the error of his ways and is now remorseful?" Katerine asked.

Camilla gave her youngest lady a fond look. Katerine always looked for the good in every person, even where there was none to be found. "Oh, I doubt it. He probably only did it because King Edward would’ve heard him mention that he’d hand the jewels to me and he didn’t want to be caught out as a liar."

William shook his head and handed Camilla a piece of bread and cheese from the tray. "Alright. Eat now."

The other ladies exchanged looks and conspiratorial smiles. "We’ll leave the two of you alone to enjoy your breakfast then." Elizabeth said cheerfully as she hopped off the bed. "We’ll be right in your presence chamber, my lady."

William nodded, then gave Elizabeth a tight smile. "I also hear congratulations are in order, Lady Taunsen. You’re with child?"

Elizabeth nodded, blushing bright red.

"And you’re in good health despite your theatrics yesterday?"

Elizabeth nodded again, her face getting dangerously close to a shade of purple.

"Well, I hope Archibald received the news in slightly less dramatic fashion than I did." William huffed.

"My lord, I apologise for any distress I may have caused yesterday. I was merely-"

William raised a hand in defeat. "It’s alright, Lady Taunsen. What’s done is done, and all for a good cause. But as I told Camilla, you ladies are never to hatch a plan like that behind my back again. My nerves can’t take it."

All three ladies-in-waiting nodded quickly in agreement and scurried out the bedchamber door.

William looked back towards the bed and saw Camilla looking at him steadily. "Did you want something to eat or are you content simply chasing my ladies off?"

"They’re only as far as the next room. If I’d truly shown them my temper, they’d be on the other side of the castle by now." William replied archly.

Camilla smiled a little. "You do have a habit of yelling when you’re very angry, yes."

William knew she was thinking of the time he’d yelled when he’d tried and failed to seduce her in a storeroom a few months ago. He had no interest in revisiting his petulant outburst.

Instead, he poured two cups of ale and handed her one. "How is your ankle?"

"Better, actually. Tession was here not long before you arrived and he put some strange potion on it before securing the bandage in place again." Camilla pulled her skirt back slightly to reveal her small feet and dainty ankles, one swathed in bandages.

William wasn’t thrilled at knowing Tession had been in the room without him, though the rational part of his mind knew the old healer was no threat whatsoever.

He was even less thrilled when he realised seeing her ankles - her ankles of all things! - had started making his blood churn hot.

I need help, he thought in despair. Her ladies are literally in the next room and the door to the bedchamber is still wide open. He sipped at the ale and tried to clear his mind.

"You’re not eating." his voice was gruff when he gestured at the bread he’d handed Camilla, which she’d then promptly set aside. She obediently picked it up and took a bite.

"I had a word with your uncle over dinner last night." William said as he stacked bread and cheese for himself, then sat next to her with his back against the bedhead. "He officially gave his permission for us to marry. Or more precisely, he said I’m welcome to a harlot like you." William chuckled.

"Then he has finally accepted the situation?" Camilla looked both hopeful and sceptical.

"No, of course he hasn’t." William sighed. "He’s unhappy with the fact he lost. It doesn’t matter if he no longer wants the prize - no man likes to lose to another. Especially a king."

Camilla frowned. "So what are you saying, then?"

"I’m saying that you and I will marry," William swallowed his mouthful and dragged the breakfast tray onto the bed so he could reach for more food, "and there will be conflict between our two countries sometime in the near future."

Camilla looked dismayed. "What do you mean? Are you saying our marriage is going to start a war?"

"No. There would always have been war in future regardless. Your uncle’s not a man who favours peace. He’s been desperate to start attacking the borderlands again and will simply use our union as an excuse. If we weren’t getting married, he’d find another excuse."

Camilla closed her eyes and William saw anguish cross her lovely features. "Our alliance was supposed to prevent this very kind of conflict, wasn’t it?"

He smiled gently at her. "It would be wonderful if we lived in a world where that’s the case. But I’m afraid ours is a far more brutal world. So whenever moments of happiness come our way, let’s seize them, shall we? We can worry about the rest later."