Lunar Flare Book 2: Midnight Eclipse

Chapter 11

Beowulf was in good spirits after spending a pleasant evening with Emil. The noble was starting to become a good friend of Beowulf's, especially after he began letting down his walls and mean facade to show that he actually did care about other people. This had particularly been demonstrated that night when Emil had taken Thedrick a blanket when he was in the dungeons, and he ended up cuddling the vampire to warm him and feeding him as well, which the jester had told Beowulf about once he had completed his punishment.

Of course, Beowulf had been appalled at himself for letting Thedrick's secret slip so casually to someone when he was inebriated. Luckily and surprisingly, it seemed like Emil was completely unfazed about the revelation, and he hadn't felt the need to reveal it to anyone else. Not that the noble had any other friends to gossip with. Still, Beowulf needed to keep his guard up, and make sure he didn't betray the jester's true nature to anyone else.

One of those people was Effie, who spent the most time with the princess apart from Beowulf. It was a wonder how Beowulf had managed not to arouse the nursemaid's suspicions to date, though he had been very careful, especially when it came to secretly feeding the princess his blood. Maerwynn didn't appear to be as reliant on it as Thedrick was, being more human than him seemed to allow her to consume some amounts of normal food as well, which she did at every dinner she attended with the king. Everyone just thought that she was a small eater.

But at night, once Effie had left them for the evening and Beowulf put the princess to bed, and he lay down beside her to sleep as she preferred as it made her feel safe to cuddle up to him, he would offer her his arm to allow her to feed. This just meant he had to be sure to wear long sleeves whenever he didn't have his gauntlets on to hide the bite marks. Sometimes Thedrick would sneak into the room to join them, then the large guard would have two small vampires feeding off him at once. And the nursemaid remained none the wiser to it.

Beowulf and Thedrick had trained the princess well not to talk about drinking blood or show her fangs to anyone else but Balthasar and Cassian. Hopefully, Thedrick had briefed his friends on not discussing the topic of his and Maerwynn's vampirism around Effie, who as one of the princess's primary carers would be expected to attend the formal tea gathering. Beowulf prayed to the goddesses that it would all go smoothly.

The majority of the morning was dedicated firstly to Maerwynn choosing matching outfits for herself and her favourite doll. The doll was modelled after the sun goddess Arcadia, with bright blue eyes and short curly golden hair through which protruded a pair of golden ram horns. Though Maerwynn herself was more a child of the moon goddess, with her pale white hair and bright red eyes, plus dark creatures such as vampires were considered to fall under Calliope's domain.

After that, the rest of the time before noon was occupied with setting up the tea table in the glass atrium tearoom that sat in the late queen's roof garden. The room was filled with a variety of potted and hanging plants around the edges, and it had views of the surrounding garden in all directions. It was even equipped with a crystal chandelier hanging over the tea table, which Beowulf could easily reach to light the candles without even needing to lower it.

Beowulf had not seen Thedrick around at all that morning, and he could only assume that the jester had spent the night with his friends, ready to bring them to the castle come noon. Maerwynn was very excited about it, as she saw the event as being akin to the way the king would meet with guests, which made her feel quite grown up. The princess could barely keep herself still, and she kept talking to Beowulf animatedly about fulfilling her royal duties.

Once noon rolled around, the table was covered in plates and cups and cutlery, with steaming pots of tea, pitchers of milk, and many sweets and desserts sitting under glass cloches. Maerwynn sat with her doll in her lap, squirming in her seat with excitement. Her eyes were locked onto the entrance into the atrium, and as soon as she saw her father appear in the doorway with a small group of his friends following him, she had to stifle a squeal, which probably only Beowulf heard.