The Horse, The Friend, and The Bad Boy

Chapter Ten: Ten years after

I watched with tranquility our two children play in the garden, chasing each other in laughter and smiles. I held my belly, where the child inside kicked her feet within my womb. Asher was beside me, his hand grasping mine in the gentle fashion of his inner self. I looked to him with warmth, his face had grown so rugged since our love as youths, his grin and humor present eternally in my life. Since the birth of our first daughter Juniper, our country has been as tranquil as my home here with Asher in Brokonia. I was wife to the King of Brokonia, Anton the Seventeenth, the prince who had won back his country.

We sat in our rocking chairs on the porch, observing Juniper and Anton play so joyfully together. Juniper is six years old and our eldest child, Anton is four, and I carry another that will be due in four months. Asher said I could name her, since he had christened the previous children. He held my hand, caressing my knuckles with his fingers as he watched the kids.

'Mackenzie' I thought 'that is the name of a princess.'

He was a good father, an honest husband who attended to my needs. His face handsome and personality genteel compared to the poor and abusive attitude that possessed his adolescence. He had aged gracefully in both physique and temperament, from a reckless violent vagabond prince to a fair and kind king. He provided me and our offspring a beautiful future and life, through the sacrifice of his left hand and many of his close companions in arms. I only know of the battles by the tales that torment the memory of those who survived the great war. When Asher and I reunited, his tongue stayed tied on the terror he had encountered. The lost of his left hand casted him into depression, his soul restored by the birth of his son. As Anton chased Juniper in giggles, I reflected on the war.

The conflict begun when Asher, then called Prince Aiden, broke the proposal with his cousin Lady Maria of Morloe in the pursuit to marry the Countess Elizabeth of Gluino, whose father had been the margrave of Gluino for King Anton the Sixteenth before his passing, leaving his daughter and heir Elizabeth to inherit and rule his estates. Aiden, the middle prince had fallen in love with Elizabeth, giving her the affectionate nickname of 'Babygirl'. In the line of succession Aiden was third, behind his elder brother Anton and infant nephew Anton Junior.

King Anton the Sixteenth's brother-in-law Glen the First Duke of Fraor, was offended at his nephew Prince Aiden's rejection of the established betrothal between him and his cousin Maria of Morloe, calling the new engagement to Countess Elizabeth an insult to his house. Duke Glen demanded of his in-law Anton, King of Brokonia, to renounce the marriage and reinstate the previous nuptial concerning his daughter and Prince Aiden. However, by the time King Anton's men led by Sir Thomas of Guelf, arrived at Prince Aiden's manor, they discovered the couple had eloped, taking with them only a handful of servants and serjeants.

Sir Thomas and his retinue tracked the Prince and Countess to an orchard where the knight learned their union had been consummated, and Elizabeth was most likely with child. Sir Thomas under orders from the King demanded Prince Aiden return and fulfill his promised marriage to Lady Maria, his cousin. Aiden refused, stating that his marriage to Elizabeth had been ordained, and the husband's rights preformed. Elizabeth's champion, Sir Carel of Costopeo took offense to Sir Thomas of Guelf's request, seeing how the marriage of Maria and Aiden would annul the Prince's to the Countess, considering the couple had already shared the marital bed would dishonor Elizabeth greatly. Consequently, a duel between Sir Thomas and Sir Carel undertook in the orchard, where Sir Thomas' victory caused controversy. The Knight of Guelf during the initial charge which customarily opens all duels, purposely aimed for Sir Carel's destrier, killing his horse against the conduct of chivalry and sending the champion to the grass of the orchard. It is here Sir Thomas trampled Sir Carel, before dismounting and killing him.