What the jester thought she could not fathom, but he smiled slowly and at last ended the moment by crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue so that she laughed and shook her head at him. “Clown!”
“The things you call me,” he replied, dashing his bell-covered hat from his head and sweeping a deep bow. “M’lady, the day lengthens. If I do not return you home soon, questions will be asked, and do you think this humble floor-scrubber will escape a kicking from his superiors for hindering a princess in her daily schedule?”
So Una took his arm when he offered it and allowed him to escort her up the hill, through the tiered garden, and back to Nurse’s well-prepared scolding. She sat quietly through the rest of the afternoon, allowing Nurse’s words to skim over her head, and tried not to think the thoughts that pried at her mind.
A pity he’s a jester.
But, no more of that! Get back to work and remember who you are.
Leonard had called her sweet. Did he mean it?
“Dragon’s teeth!” Una muttered and attacked her tapestry with more vim and vigor than she’d given it in a long while, stabbing her finger with her needle. She was well distracted from her thoughts as she tried to keep blood from staining her handiwork.
–––––––
The Duke of Shippening arrived five days later.
Not even Nurse, once she saw the man, thought Una should consider his proposal. For all her practicality, Nurse did not wish to see her beloved princess in the hands of a man more than twice her age and five times her size. But she did not express this opinion; when asked, she refused to express any opinion whatsoever. It is wise never to speak negatively of one so rich and powerful as the duke.
As for Una, she could hardly look at the man without trembling.
He joined the royal family at dinner that night, speaking in rumbling tones of Capaneus, of his vast estate, of his hundreds of serfs and acres upon acres of grounds, of hunting adventures, of tearing a wild boar apart with his bare hands – Felix’s jaw dropped nearly to his collarbone as he listened – and all the other sweet details of his domestic existence.
“Yes,” the duke rumbled, “life is fair and easy, I must admit, but if there’s one thing it lacks, that’s a woman’s ministering hand. What do you say, Fidel, old boy? Where would we be without our womenfolk, eh?”
King Fidel raised a glass and said nothing. When he’d received word that the duke wished to “pay his respects,” his own heart had sunk – not so much for fear of losing his daughter to this man, but because he’d known the duke since childhood, when they’d been obliged to play together as noblemen’s children should. He retained vivid memories of being sat upon by the large boy, memories which had not improved with time.
“So, what do you think of all this dragon talk?” the duke asked as the meal neared its end and all his stories of himself were told out. Though he spoke to the king, his gaze rested on Una. She wished she could evaporate.
“I try not to make too much of it,” King Fidel replied. “We’ve heard rumors of dragons before, but no dragon has ever come near Parumvir.”
“Ah, but this is different,” the duke said, stabbing a last slab of beef from the platter before a servant carried it off. “I’ve been hearing tell in Shippening that a dragon has plagued Southlands many years now. Now, Southlands is far from Parumvir, to be sure, but it ain’t so far from Shippening. Trade with Southlands has been nonexistent, and one never hears from the royal family or any ambassadors. They say the crown prince, Lionheart, was killed by the creature. The others may or may not be alive – who’s to know? But lately there’ve been changes. Word is, the Dragon has left Southlands. They say it’s coming north, hunting something.”
“Who says?” King Fidel demanded.
“Oh, recently a few stragglers from Southlands have made their way to Shippening, saying the Dragon is looking to procreate. It’s hunting out likely prospects maybe, eh?”
“You mean it wants to mate and lay an egg?” Felix asked, whose imagination pictured dragons as overlarge lizards with forked tongues like a snake’s.
The duke roared with laughter and pounded his fist on the table several times. Una lowered her head and bowed her shoulders. “Mate? Lay an egg?” the duke bellowed. “Boy, have you been reading faerie stories? Don’t you know where dragons come from?”
“Please,” King Fidel said, “I would rather you did not – ”
“I’m just educating the boy, Majesty!” the duke cried. “Why, in these times he’d better know what he’s up against. Life ain’t a pretty faerie story, you know. When that dragon comes calling – ”
“Stop,” Fidel said.