King Lucan of Marshweather to Crown Prince Hugo:
My dear boy,
Of course, stay as long as you want. I’m glad you’re all right, but I expected nothing less from Davin; he has always been aggravatingly noble. I wish Hastings and Brett hadn’t dragged me away when the mercenaries went, then I might have been taken hostage with you in Bentlefay and having a jolly time instead of moping around the castle by myself.
We have had to bundle Bleake away to the country for a nice long rest. They say he will be all right, but he has certainly been working too hard and the defeat at Bentlefay really took it out of him. Your letter seemed to be the last straw. He had been going about muttering with his face squinched up and his eyes popping out ever since I got back, but when he read your letter he just started whinnying like a horse and we thought he was having some kind of an attack. It turned out he was just laughing (have you ever heard Bleake laugh before? I hadn’t) but that was just as bad since he couldn’t seem to stop. Mother Teasbane threw a pitcher of cold water on him and followed it with a tisane, but he never said a sensible word again – still hasn’t for all I know.
Have a good time in Bentlefay. I will come over to sign the treaties when they get them worked out and we can go home together. Marta Figglesworth has sent you a letter; I think she is worried about you. She splashed scent on it so you can smell it down the hall, and it brings on my hay fever like nobody’s business. I’ve enclosed it in order to get it out of here. You had better write to her; if she sends another one I will have to take to my bed.
Your affectionate father,
L.M.R.
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Lady Marta Figglesworth to Hugo, Crown Prince of Marshweather:
HUGO DARLING,
Do, DO write and tell me you kept safe through that nasty battle! I was ever so frightened when the mercenaries came running through; the stories they told about the battle were ever so terrifying! I have been ever so worried ever since Hal came in and told me that we lost. Please tell me that you are not hurt, and PLEASE tell me that everything will be all right with Princess Dulcie. I lay awake for hours wondering what I would do if you had to marry her, it was ever so beastly to think of.
Hal is on his feet again and has been given a crutch to walk with. He is ever so clumsy, but he says that he will be all right again by Midwinter. I hope ever so much that you will be home by then, darling.
Yours ever so,
Marta
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Hugo, Crown Prince of Marshweather to Lady Marta Figglesworth:
Darling Marta,
Don’t believe a single thing those mercenaries say, darling – they didn’t see more than a few seconds of the battle before they turned tail and ran. I am quite all right, and there is nothing for you to be worried about with Princess Dulcie.
I got into the castle all right – behind a hogshead of wine being carted into the cellar, and then up the back stairs the way I told you – but before I’d set more than a foot in the Princess Dulcie’s room I came nose to nose with the largest woman I had seen in my life. She was wearing leather armor but was still very obviously female, if you know what I mean, and at first I thought she was the princess herself, though everyone has always called the princess quite dainty, so if I’d had time to think about it I would have known I was wrong. The woman in armor turned out to be her bodyguard, a Mistress Falconer, and she made a bigger fool out of me than I’ve been since I can remember, which is actually saying a great deal when you come to think of it.
I’d had my dagger drawn to go into the room, but she made short work of that, and it went spinning under a chair before I knew what was happening. And once I was disarmed, of course, I didn’t have any advantage at all, since Mistress Falconer outweighs me by at least a stone and is strong and fast in the bargain. I tried to give a good show, but I was face-down on the floor with Mistress Falconer sitting on the small of my back so quickly it was embarrassing, and I wouldn’t tell anyone but you, so you won’t tell anyone, will you? Not even Fimbles. I would never hear the end of it.
It was when I was lying on the floor that I got my first glance at Princess Dulcie – she had been by the window, but once I was down, she came over to see what had happened. She is just as beautiful as they say, and exactly like a golden statue to look at, but she was quite sarcastic and asked me who I was and what had made me think that I could successfully win her favor by breaking into her room. I introduced myself as politely as I could with my face pressed in the floor, and all of a sudden I was glad of Mistress Falconer’s protection, because the princess turned into some kind of hellion and started screaming at me and kicking at the parts of me that weren’t covered by Mistress Falconer.
It turned out that she was just enraged at the Marshweather connection, and although it seemed a bit of an overreaction at the time, once I had been living here a few days and got to talking to some people, I started to see her point. Nicholas Rafe – the spy I told you about, you know – is a very trusted retainer to the royal family here, and when Bleake did that disgusting thing with his hand it just made the princess hate the very name of Marshweather.
That’s all been worked out now. Rafe escaped, it turns out, and got back here just before the surprise attack, which explains a bit about how prepared they were to meet it. I’ve apologized to him and to the king, and told them about Bleake going mad, and they were quite nice about it, especially when I offered Rafe a blood-price for his hand. With Bleake out of the way I can do more sensible things with the treasury, and I’m sure Father won’t mind. We won’t have to pay the mercenaries the second half of their wages after their performance the other day, which will be a big savings.
I am officially a hostage, so I’m not sure when I will be allowed to go home, but you mustn’t go about imagining me locked in a dungeon somewhere and making yourself upset. I have quite comfortable quarters in the Tower, and I dine with the royal family every day. The princess is quite nice to me now, especially once I told her I was secretly betrothed. It seems that she has had all kinds of tiresome attention from young men, to the point that she can only converse normally with young men who are completely uninterested in her. I assured her that I wasn’t interested in her at all, which made her laugh, but it was quite true – once she started screaming and kicking me that night in her room, I was thanking my stars that I had a kingdom already and didn’t have to marry her for one. She is quite intelligent, too, and I’ve always thought it would be uncomfortable to marry a girl who is that much more intelligent than I am.
The king and queen are jolly nice to me and very interesting, too. You know Father doesn’t do much in the way of running Marshweather; he has mostly left it to Bleake since Mother died when I was a baby. So when I saw King Davin and Queen Christina running things here, I realized how ignorant I was, and even if Bleake hadn’t gone mad we wouldn’t want him running Marshweather anymore under the circumstances, so you see I have a great deal to learn, and I will try to study as hard as I can so as to be a good King someday.
I hope I will be home by Midwinter, but if it turns out I have to stay, maybe I can ask them to invite you? It’s rather a journey, but since we are not at war anymore you could probably come down normally through the border, which isn’t too difficult. I miss you very much. Please don’t worry about me anymore, but just take care of yourself, and I will see you very soon.
Your loving,
Hugo
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