Astoria

s i x

"Tell me, cousin. What will you do first, when you are king?"

Isabella and Antony were riding down the street of the city of Hampshire, the nearest city to Mansfield Palace. The carriage was taking a slow, even pace, to make room for pedestrians ambling up and down the street and the boardwalk.

Antony sat in thought for a few moments before answering.

"I think I'll deal with the army first," he finally said, thoughtfully.

"Oh?" said Isabella, listening intently to her cousin.

"Yes," said Antony, more firmly. "They've been left around the borders, camped out at forts, since the last conquest of Uncle Rupert's. As I don't plan to spend my time conquering our poor neighbors, I think it's due time that the soldiers were allowed home to visit their families." He paused for a moment before continuing. "Not all at once, of course, for they will still be needed to police the cities and towns and to patrol the borders, but it's a rather large army Rupert has built up. Not all of them are needed. I was thinking they could take turns being on leaves. The first division one month...then the second the next...something along those lines. After the soldiers are taken care of...money that was all funneled into the army needs to go to the people and their towns and universities, I believe."

Isabella chuckled and shook her head.

"What?" said Antony, distractedly.  

"And you said you wouldn't be a good king."

Antony said nothing to this and instead said, "Remind me again why I am along on this shopping trip? I didn't think I had any importance in the process of your selecting a dress for the coronation ball."

The carriage stopped and they could see, from the window, Therese and Olivya disembarking from the carriage in front of theirs.

"Because you did not want to subject me to the torture of dress shopping with my mother alone," said Isabella, smirking. The daughter of Princess Therese was more of a tomboy than her mother would have liked, and did not delight in the long hours it took to order a dress and have her measurements taken. She did, however, usually tend to enjoy the aftereffect of the finished dress; the work involved in getting it finished, however, was a sore task. 

"Ah yes. Right," said Antony, drily.

He exited the carriage and then stood and dutifully offered his hand to his cousin, helping her disembark.

Only moments later, they were within the cool interior of the dress shop, with bolts of fabric in haphazard stacks around the small back room that was visible through an open door, fitting rooms to the rear and to the right, and the front showroom stuffed to capacity with mannequins wearing dresses or men's suits.

The seamstresses, whom Antony had always regarded as flighty, somewhat feather-brained girls who spent their spare time "oohing" and "ah-ing" over their customers no matter how the dress actually looked on them, entered the room and began talking with Aunt Therese who was gesturing to different dress styles and had immediately taken charge of the efforts to dress her daughter.

Antony frowned and leaned against the wall, observing the scene from the back of the group, his arms crossed. Isabella, once it became clear that her mother was not going to actually let her have much say in the dress, came to stand next to him, her crossed arms mirroring his own.

Finally, the head seamstress came and bustled off to the back room with Isabella and Therese, and half of the entourage of sewing girls. The other two seemed to just then notice Antony, and immediately set to work in their attempts to either sell something to him, or, if those efforts came to naught, to flirt with him.

They brought before him many different jackets, materials, and pictures of the men's latest styles and Antony, somewhat flustered by their attempts, finally told them to give Isabella his apology and strode from the store.

It was a sunny day, and rather warm, and yet Antony preferred to leave the carriage and merely walk among the people.

He stopped at one shop to look at the jewelry that was for sale, perusing the items available to see if there was anything he might buy as a present for Isabella, or his aunt, or even perhaps his grandmother. Not seeing anything that stood out, he turned to go out of the shop. He stopped, however, upon seeing a man who seemed to be about his age, standing in front of one of the cases of jewelry, glancing back and forth between the amount of money in his hand and a simple strand of pearls. The man was brown-haired and his clothes looked somewhat worn and appeared to have been repaired several times.

Antony came to stand next to the man and cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly.

"Are you...buying something for a... special someone?"

The man turned to look at him and smiled sheepishly, obviously not recognizing Antony.

"No...well...sort of. It's for my sister.  We...haven't had many nice things and I just got an advance on payment for my new job so I thought I'd buy her something special." He looked down dejectedly at the ells and rifas and ceros in his hand, then said somewhat bitterly. "It's all so expensive though. I guess this won't be the year. I'll have to save more for next year."

Antony looked from the money in the man's hand to the pearls.

"How much do you need?"

"I'm short five ells."

As Antony reached into his pocket, the man seemed to realize what his intentions were and immediately objected.

"You shouldn't; that's not fair. I don't even know you. You don't even know if you can trust me to pay you back!"

Antony smiled and held out five ells. "I don't need to know that, because you don't have to pay me back."

"No, really..."

Antony pushed it into the man's hand. "I really must insist. Make your sister happy on her birthday. If she's anything like my cousin, she'll be thrilled by a surprise gift."

The man looked at the money in his hands for a few moments and then closed his hand around it and looked up at Antony wonderingly. "Thank you! Thank you so much! She'll be so happy!"

Antony shrugged off the man's thanks. "It really isn't a problem." The man caught the attention of the jeweler and pointed to the pearls. Antony smiled and quietly left the store. 

As he made his way through the throngs that went up and down the main street of Hampshire, he found himself noticing more the people he was soon going to rule. The mother who kept her small daughter close while crossing the street. The little boy following a girl who seemed to be his big sister around from shop to shop. The man sweeping his small child up into his arms and then turning to kiss his wife on the cheek.

He smiled and his heart swelled for the Astorian people. He mentally determined that, although he was still somewhat unsure and somewhat reluctant about becoming the king, he would do his best for these people, the heart of Astoria.