The Regal Rogue

19. Cruel Fate

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By the time Roselyn and Endwyne were able to return home, Endwyne was very much noticeable.

It was shameful for her to be seen by the villagers when they left.

I stormed into Carlyle's room and lectured him again about responsibility.
His only excuse was that he was being responsible by showing Endwyne the castle........and a few other things.

Carlyle soon forgot about Endwyne, but I was informed over the year about the unborn child.

Sadly, when it was seven months it was miscarried.

Endwyne suffered from depression after that and the next year to the day, she was found in Callyway Valley with a self inflicted head injury.

When I broke the news to Carlyle, he genuinely didn't recognize who I was talking about.

Thinking about Roselyn made me think of Serenity, who had returned to England and surprisingly found long lost family there.
I missed her. We had been through the most together, but I never saw her again.

Carlyle continued his recklessness. He was twenty two now and I was growing more anxious everyday.
I just couldn't allow him to rule with his wild nature.

I couldn't express strongly enough how important the kingdom really was to him.

"When I'm gone.......how will Grimshaw stand? You are clearly not mature enough for it when the time comes." I told him.

"Clearly." He suspiciously agreed. "But I have assistance." He reassured.

"And is this assistance reliable?" I asked, expecting a nonsense answer.

"Quite. Literature is most reliable. Don't you agree?" He started speaking too proper, adding to the suspicion.

"Depending on the topic, I suppose." I answered.

"I have history, you see. And I can learn a great many things from the legends of the old." He went on, poetically.

"These legends wouldn't happen to be about the supernatural, would they?" I asked, guessing the plan behind his sly words.
He kept silent, leaning on his heel, sticking his tongue in his cheek, and trying to think of something else, but came up with nothing.

We didn't talk about it after that.

Soon, he found something else to occupy his time.
He brought a mysterious girl into the castle once. She was decent and gorgeous, but looked a bit worn.

Carlyle had called her just a 'companion' to read with in the library.
I put a stop to her visits for I knew better.
Still, Carlyle would sneak her through the window.

He would talk on and on about her. How much they were alike and had the same passion for 'history'.

Then, it all fell apart.
The only girl he had ever had interest in, was found in a brothel.
Granted she was a baroness prostitute, but Carlyle was infuriated to see her in another man's company.

He had the man beheaded. Even though I was against it, Carlyle did justify it by saying the girl was to be his betrothed and it was considered treason to take a royal's spouse.

But after Carlyle murdered a man for her, she refused him.

I was relieved and torn by this.
But Carlyle never got over her. She ran away with another lover in a night and he was never able to find her in the village again.

He, himself reinstated a strong law against even the study of dark arts because it reminded him too much of that girl.
He never said anything, but he always had that intense face where you could tell that was all he thought about.

One thing led to another, and with the obsession of witchcraft out of the way, he turned to liquor for comfort.