Ranger's Apprentice: The Tantalizing Tales

The Heir

In which the Royal Family has a private meeting because both Maddie and Cassandra have something to say (although one might be a bit less shocking than the other). (Also, I have officially embraced the chaos of the timeline and am shamelessly making it worse. Don't come for me.) Technically, a direct follow-up to At your service. 

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Maddie had been nervous several times in her life before. When she had thought that Will would tell Gilan of her nightly adventure. When she hadn't known if Will's plan on the beach would work. When she had been about to receive her bronze oakleaf. When she had asked her mom not to reinstate her as Princess of Araluen yet. But none of those times amounted up to how nervous she was now. Every fibre of her being wanted to turn around and run away, and every muscle in her body ached as Maddie restrained herself from doing so. She had, after all, promised Ingrid, and Maddie was not planning on starting their relationship with a lie.

Deeply, Maddie breathed in, and out, opened her eyes, and knocked on the heavy wooden door in front of her.

'Come in!'

Pushing the handle down, Maddie did as her mother told her.

Her parents usually worked in their separate offices, but every now and then sought each other out when decisions needed a second opinion. Apparently, they had been discussing such a decision when Maddie had knocked, because both Horace and Cassandra looked at her as Maddie entered her mom's office. Good. Maddie had barely built enough courage to have this conversation once - she wasn't sure she could do it twice.

'Hi honey,' Cassandra greeted her. 'Is everything alright?'

It didn't happen often that Maddie sought her out in her office. In fact, it had never happened before, not since Cassandra herself had stopped bringing her to her office to keep an eye on her when she was younger.

'Yeah, no, everything is fine,' her daughter reassured her. 'I just... Can we talk?'

Horace put down the quill he had been holding and looked back and forth between Cassandra and Maddie.

'Do you want me to go?' he asked. There were little secrets between the three of them, but Horace was well aware that some conversations needed to happen between a daughter and her mother only. But much to his pleasure - and, honestly, a little bit of worry too - Maddie shook her head.

'Actually, no, it concerns you both, I think.'

Now, Cassandra put down her quill as well. She eyed Horace from the corner of her eye and knew that the look on her husband's face was mirrored on her own. This didn't seem like the types of conversations that they usually had, where Maddie would excitedly ramble on about her adventures, or ask about their day. It didn't even match the discussions that they'd had before she had started her apprenticeship with Will, the ones put forth by disobedience, boredom, and stubbornness. And intuitively, Cassandra knew that this was also not about Maddie's future, as a Ranger, Princess, or otherwise.

So she pushed the documents in front of her to the side, to indicate to Maddie that she had her full attention, and gestured to the chair on the other side of the desk.

'Fire away,' Cassandra said.

Maddie sat down on the chair, albeit a little hesitant. There was no way out now, she knew. But she could prolong the inevitable a little longer. Digging her fingernails deeper into the palm of her hand, she finally said: 'I guess I just wanted to know... what would be the protocol, in case I... in case I took an interest in someone?'

If she hadn't had her parents' attention already, that question might have done the trick. Her father's eyebrows shot up and her mother leaned back into her chair. They looked at each other, as if to silently decide who would answer their daughter's question, before looking back at Maddie.