A Terrible fate

Part 16

It was the ones he had just ordered a few years ago, his new stationery. I had a scarp of each of the samples for it hidden away in my room.

I was too young to need my stationery, but I loved all the pretty new ones that came in for my parents and uncles.

Any family of nobility, socially royalty, had their stationary. Something that any other family of high standards would recognize. Paper, pens, inks, stamps, and waxes. It all was specialized, made different for each person according to their standards.

My father fathered creams and grays, scents of different woods and ferns were the usual ones he picked for his stationery. He used navy blue ink instead of the traditional black, and his seals were of an eye within a halo in golden wax.

It was a letter from my father. One that he had sent to the man who was taking me in.

"She's requested to not have any letters given to her right now." Lionel had finally noticed that the steward had gone around him to me. He plucked the letter off of the tray, looking it over before glancing back at me.

"It's nearly noon. We should get you set up to eat something and then to rest."

"It's from his majesty to her, you can't just take it!" The steward was arguing with him, stepping between Lionel and me.

"I am in charge of her safety and health. These letters have only distressed her and made her condition worse."

"This is a letter from her father. You have no right to keep it from her!"

Lionel was silent, staring hard at the steward before looking at me briefly.

"Please excuse me for a moment Princess. The steward and I have some matters to discuss."

Lionel may have dragged the two of them out of the room, but he didn't go far, still too worried about my condition to leave me entirely. The two of them were just outside of the door, arguing in hushed voices while the maids encircled me again.

I could just barely hear what Lionel was whispering yelling at the steward from outside of the door.

"Do you have any idea what you could have done?! She has just barely started to eat and sleep soundly again and you almost ruined that!"

"You have no right to keep these things for her!"

"No right? No right!? I am her caretaker, her health and safety are my only concerns! Showing her this letter would have done nothing but hurt her!"

"It's a message from His Majesty, our king! Not yours! And she deserves to read it!"

"She deserves to read it, yes I agree. However, the contents of it will only distress her."

"How would you know that!?"

"Because I was there when Prince Cyrus Reddit!"

The maids' tittering became louder then, perhaps reacting to Lionel's raised voice. Trying To cover the sounds of the argument happening just moments away.

When things quieted down some Lionel had entered the room, without the steward and the letters.

"It's about time for lunch princess, why don't we get you set up by the window again?"

Soon I was bundled up on the window seat again, staring out the opened glass at the snowy gardens below. Lionel was gingerly stepping around all the boxes and strewn about things as he carried the tray over to me.

"He sent far too many things. How do they expect us to bring this all back?"

His worried muttering brought my attention back to him as he placed the food down. This time it was a thick and steaming soup made of rice with thick slices of bread heavy with butter and a side of thinly cut braised beef.

"I do apologize about the steward today. I allowed myself to be distracted and I assure you it will not happen again." He was tucking the furs around me tighter before adjusting the window a bit to lessen the breeze coming through it, "You should enjoy today's lunch. I've never heard of a rice soup before, but the chef assured me it was a favorite of yours during the colder months."

The soup was good, but it wasn't my favorite. It was my brother's favorite, I loved the book-thick slices of bread it came with.

Lionel smiled brightly as I ate, he was always happy whenever I did anything, especially if I did it on my own. I have been doing more of it recently, sitting up in my bed on my own, eating on my own, reading books on my own.

He seemed to smile brighter every time he saw it. He reminded me of my father in that way, happy as long as his family was and overjoyed whenever we did something for ourselves no matter how small a thing it was.

"The frost should only last another few months. Once it thaws a bit we'll be on our way to the Reobeth Kingdom, sometime in the early spring. The journey will take a while though, so we won't make landfall at its shores until mid-spring or at the latest early summer." Lionel was muttering to himself again, looking over the books and ledgers in his lap. There was a lot to plan for, travel between our two kingdoms could take months if not done properly. Even with the trip being two or three months out he was busy preparing for it.