After being ignored for years by the small town she grew up in, Adelaide decides it's time to start fresh somewhere else as someone else. Fed up with the limitations that being a girl bring, she decides to take up the guise of a man in hopes of incr...
Adelaide woke in a drunken state with blurry eyes and a pounding headache. Her neck was stiff, but that was to be expected with the strange position she was lying in. She had some drool dripping out of the corner of her mouth that she quickly wiped away as she set up. Glancing at her side, Adelaide discovered Henry staring at her with an amusing expression. It was seemingly becoming a frequent pattern to find him gazing at with mocking and laughing eyes. It was still as annoying as it had been on the boat.
Adelaide straightened up and rolled her neck around trying to loosen the tight muscles. The swaying of the carriage was more comfortable than the ship, but she didn't like the motion. It made her nauseous regardless, but she was too starved to throw anything up. Adelaide didn't feel fully rested, either, which didn't help with the oncoming sickness. Even though she knew it wasn't probable with the shift of town scenery to open landscape, Adelaide still felt she'd only managed to sleep a couple of minutes before waking up again.
"Where are we?" Adelaide questioned, looking out the window. The sun was visible now, and the fog had dispersed entirely. Greenfields stretched out to the horizon with a variety of trees popping up. When Adelaide received no answer, she resumed sitting in silence. With small looks, Adelaide glanced around the carriage. In total, there were just four of them present: Henry, her, the man who had been waiting for them with the carriage, and then another man she didn't recognize who had long, glossy hair and large eyes.
Adelaide did several takes before she realized that the supposed stranger was the same man from the ship who she had thought was a teacher of some sort. In the light and the quiet of the carriage, Adelaide realized he was a lot younger than she had initially thought. Without scattered moonlight, his hair wasn't white at all but just light brown. His beard was shorter than she had thought, as well, with it barely dipping below his jawline. She wasn't sure what had happened to his spectacles, but by the severe squinting of his eyes, she guessed that they'd broken in the earlier scuffle and he was now left partially blind.
The tension in the carriage was heavy, and Adelaide resisted asking further questions. Both Henry and the squinty-eyed man were rigid and watchful which made Adelaide concerned. She had previously been under the impression the stranger with his lovely carriage and benevolent smile was a friend. The oppressive atmosphere was a clear indicator that wasn't the case. Adelaide wanted to sigh in annoyance: one dangerous situation to the next.
The silence was unbearable, and Adelaide was thankful when buildings begin to rise in the distance. She was hopeful that was their destination. She felt her jaw steadily reach for the ground as they got closer. As it would turn out, the looming figure was a castle. Its high, stone walls were dirty, faded, brown, and reflected off a glistening moat which created a dramatic and intense scene to view. Adelaide was a little overwhelmed by the site and found herself wanting to stay outside the castle where the comfortable village houses resided.
With wide eyes, Adelaide stared in amazement as they crossed the bridge to a narrow, tunnel passage with guards wearing silver, chest plated armor standing watch. After passing through a quick security check, Adelaide and the others found themselves encompassed in a large courtyard comprised mostly of dirt and very few trees. The castle walls on the interior were smooth, clean, and blinding white; nothing like how the exterior had been. Accents of red decorated the windows and some of the doors while the peaked roofs were a bright blue with bricked chimneys separated every few yards from one another.
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From her observations, Adelaide concluded the entire castle was structured similarly to a ring. All the towers and buildings lined the perimeter while leaving the center of the area completely clear. It gave the illusion of being much larger from the outside. It was still a grandiose estate, though, and Adelaide found herself itching to paint the scene. She snapped her jaw shut, instead, when the carriage came to a stop. The man who wasn't a part of their group got out first, followed by the other man and then Henry. Adelaide tentatively followed behind.
Not sure where to stare, Adelaide chose to look at the ground. She stayed close behind Henry, but he wasn't much comfort. He was just as nervous as she was but was doing a better job at standing tall. His men moved jointly behind, but they looked naked and uncomfortable without their armor or weapons. They'd been forced to give them up at the entrance. Insurmountable questions raced through Adelaide's brain, but she didn't dare to voice any of them. Fear and confusion rapidly replaced dread as they walked. Adelaide was so worried and stressed, that she couldn't recall which direction they were headed. She remembered ascending several steps and passing through a set of doors, but everything else was a blur. She watched her steps transition from stone floors to carpet and then back before she hesitantly lifted her head.
Unsurprisingly, the interior of the castle screamed wealthy. Portraits of influential figures lined the walls, and Adelaide admired each stroke of paint and the intrinsic carvings of each frame. Some of the pictures were crafted with vibrant colors; others were lukewarm and calm. Regardless, they livened up the space of every area taking attention away from either the dull, stone walls of one room or the uniformly painted walls of another. Adelaide's attentive gaze was drawn to the smallest carvings of the fireplaces to the elaborate statues that littered the estate.
Adelaide's steps slowed as they entered a room that appeared to be solely for gatherings of a large number of people. There was little to no furniture in the area, so all the attention went to the draping curtains over the windows and rows of portraits that nearly blocked out every corner of the walls. It wasn't a room with a high ceiling but Adelaide still felt incredibly small.
With a quick movement, Adelaide's attention was drawn to the center of the room where a man was waiting for them. Guards lined the perimeter of the room, but the atmosphere was still relatively calm which helped relieve Adelaide's tension a little. The man was richly dressed in fine fabrics of blue that had a repeated pattern of a crest over white cloth around the collar, down the center, and along the seams of the sleeves. He wore a thinly crafted crown over wavy hair. As they moved closer, Adelaide suspected he was in his late thirties. Glancing at the individual from the ship who had been wearing glasses, she also figured the two of them were relatively close in age.
The handsomely dressed man greeted them with a welcoming smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you both. I am sure you already know my name, for why else would you be here, but for formalities sake, I am Francis the second, Duke of Brittany."
The man who had once had on glasses glanced down at Henry with a reassuring nod. Adelaide partially ignored the exchange as she tried to figure out what happened to the guards that had traveled with them along with the man who had taken them here in the carriage. It had only now dawned on her that it was just the three of them present in front of the Duke. She mentally scolded herself. Now was not the time to be spacing out and not paying attention.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Duke Francis," the older man said with a bow. Henry mimicked him. After a second, Adelaide made her best impression of a bow, but she was pretty sure she was being ignored and that her presence was barely noticed. "We must thank you for both your assistance back at the port city and for your willingness to have an audience with us. I am Jasper Tudor, and this is my nephew, Henry."
"It's a pleasure," Henry said with a nod of his head. Duke Francis nodded his head before looking toward Adelaide with a questioning smile. Henry followed his gaze. "This is my companion, Arthur."
"Just Arthur?" The Duke inquired. Adelaide glanced between Henry and Francis several times, taking in the conversation and the situation.
"Arthur Dedrick," Adelaide eventually stammered as she tried to remember her surname. "Your Highness," she added as an afterthought even though she wasn't entirely sure if that was the correct way to address him. The Duke's just merely nodded and continued smiling as his attention shifted back to the Tudors.
"Well, Jasper Tudor, Henry Tudor, and Arthur Dedrick," Duke Francis spoke looking at each of them as he said their respected names. "What brought you three to Le Conquet and in need of my assistance?"
Adelaide glanced at Henry. She'd been asking the same question over and over in her head since their ship first docked.
