The Regal Rogue

17. Carlyle's Childhood

Even though I was before age, I was accepted warmly by the people.
It was fairly easy to take care of the kingdom since I had done it before when my sister was in rule.

Time was passing quickly, I had known, since Eleanor's death, because Carlyle was then four years old.

He grew up looking more like his father everyday, which was a little heart jerking. But he had his mother's ways.
Like most boys, he was mischievous, but he had a wicked sense to it.
Still I raised him well.
Eleanor may have given birth to him, but he was my son.

When I played with him in the court, he would often ask about his parents.
It was always heartbreaking for me to try and explain it again and again to him.

Still being as young as he was, he would shrug as if he didn't understand it and run off to play something else.

As he grew, I tried to keep him occupied with sword fighting and other weapon training as well as riding horses and identifying true mythical creatures.
But most times I would find him sneaking around the library and reading stacks of magical literature.

Carlyle would chatter on and on about what he had researched on it, making me uncomfortable, but I didn't want to raise suspicion if I responded negatively.
Still I would tell him how his grandfather had frowned upon it.
He would ask why and I would answer saying how magic would turn against itself and destroy.

But his fascination only grew.

He eventually began stealing spices from the kitchen and boiling them out in the forest line so as not to be caught, but when I found him, he would look at me sheepishly and giggle in a strange dark way.

When he was ten years old, I noticed he was shut up in his room most of his time.
I also noticed half the grimoires from the secret chamber were missing.

Every time I went in his room he would be writing strange fantasy stories. Still it was all so suspicious.
But I thought nothing of it because he was still the sweetest boy, just had a few mysterious points about him.

It seemed as he got older I saw less and less of him. In his pre teen year I hardly ever saw him.

Then all of a sudden, when he turned fourteen, he had every girl in the village swooning over him. He became very public.

Even though he was around I still rarely saw him for he would take girls walking through the forests to the stream and secure their feelings individually.
This did cause quite a many disturbances in the village when the girls would fight each other about it.
It was brutal.

Carlyle kept up the act until he was a young man. Then he did it discreetly.

This made me nervous that he would make a certain mistake he couldn't afford for the kingdom.

Eleanor was clear in him because everyone thought Carlyle was Desmond's. But if the future king had disappeared with a girl and something happened it would be obvious and he would have the worst reputation for a blood born Grimshaw king.

Finally, I had to beg an audience with him to discuss his future.