Betrothed

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Morning After

Audrianna awoke the next morning. As she slowly sat up, her head began to ache mercilessly. At first, her head hurt so bad, she could barely focus her eyes. She didn't remember how she got back to Balen and Olivia's farmhouse, nor how she got into bed.

She held out her arms to discover that she was wearing the nightgown Olivia had given her the previous night. But she was certain neither she, nor Olivia, had put the nightgown on her. For one thing, the nightgown was on her backwards. For another, she was still wearing her full-length undergarments. Most likely either Balen or Henry, or perhaps a collaboration of efforts, dressed the princess for bed, but were unwilling to venture past the first layer of clothing.

As she rolled out of bed, she suddenly felt lightheaded and nauseous. Before she could think about what she should do, she felt a surge of vomit race up from her stomach and out of her throat. Almost instinctively she fell to her knees and pulled the empty chamber pot underneath her. Three times she heaved and puked.

The sound of Audrianna spewing caught the attention of Henry who was in the kitchen doing morning chores Olivia had assigned him. Both Balen and Olivia were outside pulling vegetables from the garden. Henry ran to the bedroom to see the princess on the floor grasping ahold of the chamber pot.

"I'm sick," the poor little girl declared. "And I have a horrible pain in my head!"

"Of course you do," Henry scolded. "Little girls that get drunk are going to have a bad headache come morning."

"I was drunk?" Audrianna asked, pushing the chamber pot back under the bed. "How did I get drunk? I didn't drink any of the bad drinks. I only had Sassafras."

"Well," Henry confided, "do you remember, I asked the server to give you a drink suitable for little girls?"

"That's right," Audrianna affirmed, grabbing ahold of the bed post and pulling herself to her feet.

"As it turns out," Henry explained, "the server has an understanding worked out with several of the towns people. If they are forced to tote one of their children in with them, the server gives the child a sassafras drink with a shot of rum.

"A shot of rum?" Audrianna asked, holding her head with both hands, and slowly sitting herself back on the bed. "Why would they do that?"

"Well," Henry continued, "the child gets sleepy, and the parent plops them in a bed in the first room upstairs to sleep off the rum. The parent is then free to drink, dance, and celebrate, without being encumbered by their children."

"That it a dirty trick," Audrianna said, frowning and holding her stomach.

"I'm surprised you've gotten this sick from one drink, though," Henry remarked. "Granted, it was a tall drink."

"I had two tall drinks of sassafras and rum," the princess declared.

"Two?"

"I paid for a second drink. I didn't know it was hobnailed."

"Well..." Henry replied, putting his hands on his hips, mimicking a responsible parent, "You definitely will be sick the rest of the morning. That is the result of being drunk the night before."

"Drunk people are sick the next morning?" Audrianna asked.

"Every time."

"Why would you get drunk if you have to suffer being sick the next morning? That's stupid."

"It is indeed," Henry assured her, placing his hand on her shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze.

By this time, Balen and Olivia entered the house, bearing a basket full of various vegetables.